Teapots, T.I.A.S. and another UFO

Why do I blog surf when my to-do list is as long as my arm? It's a mystery. Am I alone in this?

But if not for procrastination, I would not have discovered that it is National Hot Tea month. (Did you know?) This tea news comes as a revelation. Plus, I found these pretty teapots at Julena's Place.

Tat It And See
Did you go to gander at teapot grandeur? Thanks for coming back! Now I can share my T.I.A.S. Days 3 and 4.

T.I.A.S. Day 3
This is my first tat-a-long and I'm having an absolute blast! Still don't have a clue what the end result could be, but getting there sure is fun.

Time to confess: I wound 5 yards on each of the first two shuttles and had way too much variegated thread left over, so I tatted up a second set of Days 1 and 2. Can you believe I still have a lot of leftover thread?

T.I.A.S. Day 4
Day 4 was an intriguing tat. It really set my imagination going. Looking at it turned this way, it resembles a guitar or maybe a mandolin.

Image Source: Mandolin
October Blog Giveaway
The second quilted ball ornament still isn't quite finished.

Ciarrán reprimands me daily for not showing you my progress. See how smug he looks?

This ornament is actually the second go at Tatskool's giveaway prize. The Sprout decided to dunk the first one in a tall glass of iced tea that I had sitting out.

Here's how it happened.

The phone rang. Sprout was across the room playing with trains. I put the ornament down to answer the phone and not two minutes later I hear, "Mommy, I didit!" Cringing, I went to see what he had gotten into...

He was standing on the dining room table, looking at me with a beaming face only a triumphant child can muster.

"It floats, Mama! It FLOATS!" he said. And sure enough, the first fabric-covered ball was floating like a bobber in my glass. It was slightly soggy.

So I started over from scratch. This time keeping the project under lock and key. I've got to tat an edging to decorate the quilt binding trim, add blue ribbons, a bit of bling and a hanging cord. Then I am done.

Don't the fabric colors and tatting play off each other beautifully? Lovely, lovely Bracken Crunch! And the edging trim will add texture and dimension that will set the whole thing off perfectly.

Tatskool, you have the patience of Job.

Motif #7, Tea Cupboard & More

This post will continue to grow throughout the day, as I have so much to post and so little time to blog.

Let's kick things off with a peek into my tea cupboard.

My Tea Stash
What's in Your Larder?
On January 3rd, the Tarnished Tatter shared a peek into her tea cupboard as she geared up for the first Tatting Tea Tuesday of 2010. Thanks for sharing, Heather!

I swear I did not tidy up the cupboard beforehand. Quite frankly, the top two shelves are too tall for me reach without a step stool.

Next is a completed UFO^* from October 2009. (See Something Witchy is Brewing for details.)

It will be Motif #7 of my 25 Motif Challenge.

The pattern comes from page 53 of Georgia Seitz's pattern book, "Tatting on the Edge...and Beyond." It was first published in "Tatting Knots and Notes," a newsletter edited by Doretha Albee. The pattern is called "Doretha's Teardrop Edging."

The motif is tatted in Witches Brew HDT, size 20, from that tatting paragon Lady Shuttlemaker. Couldn't decide if I liked it better on white or black. You be the judge.

^* UFO - Un-Finished Object. A term used on knitting (and possibly crochet?) blogs.

Still to come, another October UFO, T.I.A.S. Day 3 and more...