Tatting Tea Tuesday - Motif 9 Cross Your Heart

Motif 9 - Cross Your Heart
It is done! This could be the prettiest heart I have ever tatted. It demonstrates the versatility of edgings and bookmarks.

This dainty heart is adapted from Hearts Afire Cross © 2011 by Crazy Mom and Hearts © 2001 by Dee Powell. It is tatted in Lizbeth® 20 Victorian Red #670 and measures 4 inches by 4 inches (10.2 cm by 10.2 cm).

The Hearts Afire pattern is on the 2011 Palmetto Tat Days pattern CD. Mrs. Powell's "Hearts" bookmark is in "Tatted Bookmarks - Needle & Shuttle" (edited by Barbara Foster of Handy Hands, Inc.) on page 8. It is simply called "Hearts."

Cindy from A Happy Bluebird tatted "Hearts" in February, 2010. Her pretty Valentine Bookmark proved perfect for satisfying my crafty muse. 

Anyone interested in seeing more of Mrs. Powell's work is encouraged to visit Georgia Seitz' "In Memory Of" page, which will be available in the near future.

Tea Shop Mystery - Scones & Bones

Laura Childs' latest Tea Shop Mystery held my interest until chapter 22. The frenetic pace of the next two chapters rehashed previous material. By chapter 24 I had lost interest and flipped to the end to see "whodunnit." Surprise! I was wrong about the killer!

Scones & Bones gets a teacup review rating of 3.5 cups. Atmosphere and quirky characters move the story along well enough until the final 1/3; then peevish reader disdain set in. Where were the clues? It seemed as if the plot was circling the drain.

Don't get me wrong, beautiful descriptions of Charleston, interesting pirate lore and the Indigo Tea Shop's tasty treats were engaging. But are "light, cozy mysteries" intended to be short on plot?

Since this was my first "light cozy" I'm giving myself a second chance with Tea Shop Mysteries. Knowing that the intrigue is not easily predictable may keep me turning pages in the Jasmine Moon Murder. Let's hope a clue or two are buried, like pirate treasure, amid the gravestones of Jasmine Cemetery.

Edging Closer to Motif 9

The other day I read a comment sewmuchfun4 made in 2010 about "feeling less than tranquil" with tatting. It brought a knowing smile to my lips. Haven't we all felt like this at one time or another?

Sometimes putting your tools down and taking your mind off the setback will allow your creative muse to recharge. That is precisely what happened when I was playing around with Crazy Mom's Hearts Afire Cross.

I knew I wanted to expand the cross into a heart. Designing my own heart edging was a decidedly "less than tranquil" experience. And research into heart edgings available online left me stumped.

But the pattern book "Tatted Bookmarks - Needle & Shuttle" (edited by Barbara Foster of Handy Hands, Inc.) stoked my muse. On page 8 was an edging by Dee Powell^‡, simply called "Hearts."

Cindy from A Happy Bluebird tatted "Hearts" in February, 2010. Her pretty Valentine Bookmark proved perfect for satisfying my crafty muse.

See how pretty this edging looks adapted into a heart? It takes a curve so beautifully.

^‡Delores "Dee" Powell, 75, of Kansas, died in 2008 of cancer. Barbara Foster (Handy Hands, Inc.) has given permission to Georgia Seitz to post one of Dee' s patterns from the book "Tatted Bookmarks - Needle & Shuttle" online.  Georgia will create an "In Memory Of" page for Dee.

Almost Motif 9 - Cross Your Heart
This heart-in-progress is adapted from Hearts Afire Cross © 2011 by Crazy Mom and Hearts © 2001 by Dee Powell. It is tatted in Lizbeth^® 20 Victorian Red #670 and will measure 4 inches by 4 inches (10.2 cm by 10.2 cm) when complete.

What a tatting journey this experiment has led me on so far! Crazy Mom's cross fueled the fire for a heart. Taking a "less than tranquil" design path led to an existing source for a lovely edging. From there the creative spark ignited again to combine two lovely designs into a dainty new heart.

Or it will be once I finish...

Beyoncé Sighting!

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Sw4nkyL4c3r and I were driving down a familiar stretch of road, on the way to our lace guild's monthly meeting. There it was — a Giant Metal Chicken!

Funny thing was, it was standing in front of a rather nondescript, white house.

I wanted to rush up to the front door, ring the doorbell and ask the owners if they read The Blogess, but decided against it.

What if they had never heard of her? What if the owners had displayed the Giant Metal Chicken simply because they liked it? What if they mistook my contact for a chicken-induced come on?

File this under Truth is Stranger Than Fiction.