Motif #10 & Bring on the Summer Fun

Adding this darling, little square to my 25 Motif Challenge will bring my total up to 10. I had wanted my 9-sided motif to be the next addition, but que sera sera.

Tatted Motif #2 from
Free-Tatting Patterns.com
Tatted in two colors, size 20 Lizbeth #104 (Summer Fun) and #642 (Lilac Medium), this motif measures an even 2 by 2 inches (5.1 by 5.1 centimeters).

This cute quatrefoil motif is a continuation of my ongoing exploration of color. It is a bit of a departure, since I normally don't use variegated threads in pastel or ice cream colors.

That said, it turned out pretty well. Three of these joined in a row would make a lovely bookmark. Also, this motif is begging for bling.

The variegated colors worked up pretty evenly, and the entire center could be tatted in the solid color by using the shoelace trick before tatting chains 8 and 10.

This motif could be tatted using a medium turquoise, a medium pink or even white. Lots of color possibilities, and I haven't even tried switching the threads. Solid color chains and variegated rings . . . might have to try that. Just to see.  ツ

Tatting Tea Tuesday
As for today's tea, I am enjoying a tall, cool glass of iced green apple tea. Made with a combo of decaf green and Morrocan Pomegranate Red teabags and brewed in the sun, following the Green Apple Tea recipe.

More tatting is in store later today when I meet up with the local stitchin' group.

In addition to working on Treble Clefs this past week, I started the Mary Konior pattern for a 3D Rose.

The Chesapeake Lacers Guild is making 300 rose boutonnières to give to members at the I.O.L.I convention in 2011. The roses will be created using tatting AND bobbin lace. Both methods are stunning.

I should be working on my county fair doily, but until I am sure the tatting fugue has passed, I won't be touching that project. And I could be working on the 9-sided motif. And I am itching to load up another one of Tatskool's Transitions HDT thread samples to add to the Heart bookmark. AND visions of butterflies for the Houston Holocaust Museum are flittering naggingly over my head. Goodness! So many UFOs.

It is a good thing that the Tuesday night stitching group lets me sit in. More tatting time! (Hope I didn't just jinx myself.)

Wishing you all more me-time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Tatting Tea Tuesday Recap for June 8, 2010

Just got back from my third visit to the Tuesday night stitchin' group's meetup. It was a full house, with 20 ladies assembled, and the convos were light and cheery. Just what I needed! (That and a Tazo® tea drink.)

I took three projects along with me: the Spring bookmark, treble clefs, and a tantalizing sample of size 80 Lizbeth thread in Caribbean.

That's right, size 80 Lizbeth. My latest Handy Hands order included a thread card wound from an approval sample.

Barbara Foster sent me a small sample to try after I confessed skepticism over shorter color spacing. She gave me permission to blog about my impressions.

Sample of Lizbeth size 80, Caribbean

While I haven't done all the test tatting I want to do, my first impression is that this thread is smooth, strong and beautiful. It is less shiny than Majestic and more shiny than Manuela or Flora.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but this thread makes me want to tat more with size 80.

Handy Hands won't receive their first batch of size 80 Lizbeth until the end of July. But this new line exceeds Barbara Foster's expectations and if this sample is representative of all 111 colors, mine too.

At last some tatting!

The tatting blogs will no doubt be getting quieter as spring warms into summer. Schools are letting out, pools are opening up, casual dress Fridays are becoming de riguer and thoughts are turning to R and R.

No matter how you spend it, I hope you find ways to work in a little time for tatting.

For the past few weeks my tatting has been really crappy, which has probably been a side-effect of the unexpected stressers [dog attack, A/C going out in the car and finding out it will cost more than the blue book value of the car to fix it, unexplained broken window on main floor of the house, rotten family arguments, yada yada yada].

Geogie Seitz passed along some wise advice her grandmother (I think) gave her. Basically it was "let patience work out the details." And of course her grandmother was right.

Today was the first day that my tatting wasn't a complete ka-fuffle and I managed to finish the spider for the crazy quilt block project. Albeit, it's an arachnid with one side wider than the other on the body.

But hey, it still looks pretty good. And it was the first time I have ever tatted around a button.

The finger tatting brought back fond memories of tatting from my younger days, including a wonderful dinner with an old friend in Harrisburg, PA, many years ago.

My twin sister and her husband, and I and my (then) boyfriend traveled to meet our high-school pal and his wife for a dinner party.

During the pre-dinner conversation I learned that my old pal had been trying to learn tatting. So we rounded up some kitchen twine and I showed him finger tatting.  He picked it up immediately and said that those few moments with twine clarified hours upon hours of frustrated confusion.

I should call him up to ask if he still does any tatting these days!

These are a few familiar snippets I am sending off to Georgia Seitz:

Lene Bjorn pattern from Danish Tatting Guild

(Dansk Orkisforening) newsletter Orkis Bladet

Lady Shuttlemaker's "Hope" Butterfly

Rose Doodle by Mary Konior

Single Shuttle Split Ring Dragonfly


Tatting Tea Tuesday
Last week I missed the local stitcher's group night. I was tending to a wounded pet. Tonight, as Julie Beagle is faring much better, I will go and try to get some tatting done. The tea will most likely be a bottled Snapple instead of a home-brewed cuppa, but the craft-bonding will be uplifting.

I still haven't finished the Spring bookmark made from Tatskools lovely Just Daffodils HDT, but it is coming along slowly. I plan to take it with me as well as some thread to tat treble clefs and this new motif I saw on the 25 Motif Challenge page:  Carolyn's Motif #11.  Love the bracketed shape!

Not sure what I will work on, but it is always nice to have choices, eh?

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

ArtBin® Giveaway Winners!

Today is the big day! And a little surprise is in store for one lucky giveaway entrant...

Congratulations to all the winners!

The random number generator chose:

#6 – Val
#27 – Tatterme

And Surprise! Because I neglected to double check that all entries had been published to the blog before running the random number generator, one more name was drawn.  *drumroll*

#23 – JB

Ladies, I have sent individual emails to each of you. If you have not already received an email from me, please send me a note at the email address listed above (in the About Me section) with your mailing address so I can send your prizes out promptly.

Thanks again to everyone who entered!

RIP Wilma Walker

I just read on Facebook (posted by Lily Qualls Morales and Bina Madden) the sad, sad news of the death of a dear lady. Wilma Walker, 81, passed away peacefully at 12:25 a.m. today.

Lily commented that Wilma fought valiantly and I couldn't imagine her any other way. She had a valiant and indominable spirit. Such a lovely person whose laughter, joys, sorrows and perspective on life were an inspiration to us all. She tats with the angels now.

Sadly, I don't have a photo of Wilma to share, but Ruth Perry (aka Rozella Linden) posted a video of her telling us all how she learned tatting. You can view it here: YouTube - Wilma3

On Ruth's blog post from January 14, 2007, she writes about a Riego Narrow Edging from the Royal Tatting Book and notes "Thanks to Wilma Walker." If you would like to see this edging pattern, it is available in the Tatting Pattern Calendar. Once there, search for "Riego Narrow Edging" and scroll down to the second post, dated January 15, 2007.

UPDATE: Ruth just sent me a link to the pattern:
Riego Narrow Edging Thank you, Ruth!

Today I shall set aside my other bits of tatting and start the Riego Narrow Edging while I remember Wilma. Sadly, I never got the chance to meet her in person. But from 2003 - 2007 so many tatters mentioned her in their writings that I began to feel as if I had met her.

If anyone has a sample of her tatting (perhaps received in an exchange) or a fond memory to share, please post it. Reading it will help celebrate her life. Rest in peace, Wilma. We will miss you.

Dog Attack Progress Report

Thank you for all your support and well-wishes regarding last week's unfortunate event. It means so much to know you all are out there offering your thoughts and prayers.

Julie, my beagle-hound mix, is on the mend. She exhibits many signs of recovery, including boisterous barking to protest her confinement. She turns up her nose at dry dog food and holds out for table scraps. She has devised two ways (so far) to remove her "comfy cone" safety collar. And she begs to go out for walks.

In short, our smart, stubborn beagle is milking the situation to every canine advantage.

Who could blame her?

I have been debating whether or not to show you a photo of Julie's injuries. It looks a bit gruesome for a "minor laceration." That said, I'm guessing that now you want to see for yourself, eh?

The poor thing! The indignity of having your backside shaved is bad enough. But the drainage tube just looks so drippy and nasty. Plus, the bite is close to her dirty areas. Not good.

The neighbors who own Sophie the Saint Bernard, (or "the BIG dog who bites," as The Sprout tells it) have given us a check for $663 to cover the initial surgery. They say they will cover any follow-up expenses. We are holding onto receipts so we only have to hit them up for one more payment.

A further sign that Julie is feeling better — yesterday she yanked out her drainage tube three hours before the scheduled appointment to extract it. That prompted an early trip to the animal hospital when it started seeping bloody fluid. (Ouch!) And today she nosed the boxes and blanket-barricades off the couch so she could jump up and get comfortable. Beagles are nothing if not resourceful.  *sigh*

All is well, except for a bit of swelling which we are treating with cold and warm compresses.  In a week her sutures will be removed and she will be free to climb stairs again.

Tatting Derailed by Dog Attack

Tatting Tea Tuesday was derailed today by a dog attack. The neighbor's Saint Bernard  (who normally is not seen outside of the backyard fence) was out jogging with one of the college-aged daughters, who was home on break, I presume.

The Sprout, two hounds and I were just finishing up our mid-morning walk -- outside our home and just walking up the driveway -- when the Saint Bernard began lunging hard on her leash and pulled her master over to our sidewalk.

It happened so fast I didn't have time to panic. I just barked out "Get back!" to The Sprout as I protected my two medium-sized, mixed breed beagles from snarling, snapping jaws. One dog came through with only minor scratches. The other needed surgery to the tune of $800.

Guardian angels were clearly watching over The Sprout. He was out of the way and very brave through the whole ordeal.

Today I had no car, so I had to ask another neighbor to drive me and the injured dog to the vet. Luckily (again -- thank you angels!) the neighbor's husband was home (had the day off) and offered to watch over The Sprout for me. The Sprout chilled out in front of cartoons and played with the neighbor girl, pretty much nonplussed.

We pick up our dog Julie after suppertime and start her at-home recovery care. We're thankful her injuries weren't more severe.

The County Animal Warden arrived in short order to the neighbor's home -- we didn't call them. The Vet did, since the dog's vaccinations were over a year out of date. The dog is currently under quarantine for rabies, and perhaps other diseases. I won't know for sure if the attacker will be spared or euthanized (euthanitised, for UK residents), unless I get a call from the Vet or the Warden or the neighbor.

But thankfully, the neighbor did offer to pay for our dog Julie's vet bill. (Let's see if he follows through once the Warden gets done with him.)

Cross your fingers that the St. Bernard owners act responsibly and make good on their offer -- i.e. reimburse us for the damages. I would hate to have to sue.

It was a big scare, but thankfully we have good relationships with our neighbors and could call on them in a time of need. The good Samaritan neighbors are getting a fresh-baked, strawberry-rhubarb pie from me as a thank you.

Tatting will resume soon. In the meantime, thank you, dear readers, for letting me unload my troubled heart while I await the release of my pet from the animal hospital. Big hugs to you!