Set the WABAC Machine

Crank back the clock to 12/29,
The last Tatting Tea Tuesday of 2009.

A lacing day full of chat,
Yes, there was lots of that.
And of tea and of threads intertwined.

IsDihara & Sw4nkyL4c3r on Tatting Tea Tuesday
Let's turn back time briefly to a lovely afternoon spent in the company of a new tatting friend I will call Sw4nkyL4c3r. She does not have an online identity and gave me permission to make one up for her. Brave lass!

DH (Big Daddy) had the whole week off. He and the Sprout went out for the afternoon, leaving us girls to our gossip, tea and lace appreciation.

Sw4nkyL4c3r and I each picked a fine china cup and saucer from my china cabinet and settled in for a good lace-in while Lady Grey steeped in my favorite teapot.

She met Ciarrán and suggested I write up his arrival adventure for my lace guild's newsletter. (Now why didn't I think of that?) Not only will his tale be published in the guild newsletter, but also submitted to a local newspaper. And so Ciarrán's fame grows!

Handmade Card from Carol Lawecki
Teapot Tuesday Tatting
A quick update on this ongoing project:
Celtic Strawberries have been completed and are ready to send to MotherMark. I have received Carol Lawecki's lovely tatting as well and will be mailing out MotherMark's envelope later this week.

Carol Lawecki's Tatted Samples
Aren't Carol's samples stunning, not to mention her handmade card with the tatted teapot and butterfly?

Cross your fingers that we will see her tatting show up on MotherMark's hand-made cards sometime in 2010. But the very first teapot photo she ever received ended up as Teapot Tuesday card #76! So we'll just have to wait until  inspiration strikes.  It will be worth the wait.

I am working on a Shamrock to send her for a future St. Patrick's Day card.  I will keep you all posted as Teapot Tuesday details become available. Do drop by her blog, it is always an entertaining read!

NOTE: What's a WABAC machine, you ask? Find out.

Dr. Mom's Mail Call

Today the post arrived with three (Count 'em, three!) packages for me!

Julie Beagle, our post-surgery pooch came home Tuesday night — so Dr. Mom has been administering meds, helping the hopped-up hound navigate stairs while she wears her e-collar, and policing the "no licking" law over her sutures.

Julie Beagle is doing very well and I expect a speedy recovery, but Dr. Mom sure did appreciate getting so many goodies in the mail.

Quit stalling, you say? Show me the goods, you say?

*drumroll*  Okay.

First wave of tatting goodies
In spite of the fact that you can count three items in this photo, it only documents two of the packages of note.

Package one contained two tatting books signed by Georgia Seitz from her Ribbonwinners series:

   1. Book 2: Tatting: It's Not Just Doilies Anymore!
         "Celebrate the Spring Holidays"

   2. Book Six: Tatting Talk
         "A Self-Imporvement Guide for Tatters"
            (Revised Color Edition 2006)

Now, I cannot tell a lie. This is the third copy of book six that I have purchased over the years. The first was printed in black and white. So when a color edition came out I bought it again. It is by far the most well-used tatting book in my tatting library. Initially a technique book, but frequently used for reference.

Why the third copy? A few weeks ago I thought I had lost my color edition of Book Six. I was panic-stricken. I was frantic. I felt like I had lost a loved one. (No, I am not exaggerating about this.) A dashed off a note, practically begging Georgia to sell me another copy. And could she please autograph it?

Well, if you've ever dealt with Georgia, you know how lovely a person she is to interact with. I've never met her in person, but boy-oh-boy, would I like to. (If I ever do, my knees would probably buckle and I'd drop to the floor muttering something unitelligible at the sight of her.) Of course she posted off both copies and wrote totally warm, charming notes in each one. And of course I found my second copy several hours after I sent her my frantic note. So now I have three.

If I ever set foot in her state of residence, I will call her and ask if I can make a detour to meet her. And upon arrival pass out on her front porch!  LOL!

Tatted Pumpkin Earrings
Package two contained Elizabeth's exquisite 100th sale giveaway prize! The tatted pumpkin earrings!! They are more gorgeous in person than the photo in her Etsy shop conveys. My photos don't do them justice at all.
They are drop dead gorgeous!

For those of you who have been salivating to really see how these beauties look, I couldn't leave you with the schlocky shot above. Here is a super-uber-close-up from my scanner. You can see the extraordinary brilliance of the Swarovski crystal beads, the polished detail of the leaves and the shimmer of the pearls inside the perfect, perfect tatting.  Thank you, Elizabeth!

As if all this wasn't enough, the July/August 1996 edition of Piecework magazine that I scoured the Internet for (and found on eBay) arrived too! This issue includes Armenian needle lace, a sample of Rickrack and Tatting from Nufashond Rick Rack Braid No. 37 (originally published in 1917 by The Narrow Fabric Co.), an article on coronation cord, and the much-coveted Icelandic knitted lace shawl article with pattern.

The lace guild ladies are going to go wild to see this magazine. Anita, the other tatting lady in the guild, and I have been trading emails on the topic of tatting and coronation cord lately, and the lace shawl pattern is also of interest to a few of my newfound guildies. It is a great issue!

Tatting Tea Tuesday With Wanda

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GIVEAWAY ALERT! Lady ShuttleMaker's first random Mondo Monday Giveaway post is up. Don't miss it, it is a good one. And good luck!
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This Tatting Tea Tuesday post was written in advance so I could meet with Wanda of Wanda's Knotty Thoughts and her family at a local mall to give her her giveaway prize. Color me excited!

This is the first time I will have ever met with a tatting blogger and I'm really looking forward to it. Those of you who have attended Finger Lakes, Palmetto, Hector or other tat days may liken it to your first time putting faces and voices to Internet names. Except that I only have one face and voice to match up. Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peek of the Halloween blog giveaway prize I made for Wanda.

It is a quilted ball ornament made using fat quarters in candy corn colors. The tatting follows a pumpkin theme. Here is a close-up of the pumpkin vine edging.

I really like how the ornament showcases the tatting. And now that I know how it is done the next one won't take me as long. LOL! Gosh, I hope Wanda likes it too. (Crossing my fingers that she will...)

Please pardon my unpressed table cloth. I threw it on the table thinking,'it won't matter if I don't iron it, The Sprout is going to spill something on it in half a nanosecond anyway.' So, of course, it has remained stain-free for two days. LOL!

Now that I have confessed I feel better.

A Steeler Minute
How 'bout that Steeler game last night on ESPN? I'm not a huge sports fan, but I love me some riveting Steeler football. And last night my boys in black and gold got their game on! Poor Broncos. They played valiantly, but ultimately couldn't part the Steel Curtain.

Last but not least, I invite you to visit my twin sister's new Etsy shop, New Hands Soaps and Lotions. Her vendor name is IbtihaajGoya. She sells luxurious hand-made spa products made in small batches with scrumptious scents such as Honeysuckle Lemon and Lavender Litsea. Plus she makes the spa cloths herself! If you're a Steeler fan, check out her charming black and gold gift pack called Soap of Champions. Go Steelers!

In Praise of the Color Orange

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

~Vincent Van Gogh

This Tatting Tea Tuesday is dedicated to all things orange: pumpkins, Orange Pekoe (or any other orange-scented or flavored tea), safety cones, tiger lilies, orange juice, Carnelian stones, kumquats and my brand new teapot!

This week I have been busy tatting doodles and pumpkins and working on adding a second round to the Sweetheart motif that Birgit Phelps designed in 2003.

I also have been working on finishing the two giveaway prizes from last week. But I don't want to reveal those just yet. Let's just say one of the prizes may arrive with an orange doodle or two.

So far, this one is my favorite.

Tatted Pumpkin by Sherry Matthews © 2004Made using vintage STAR tatting cotton, size 70.Green stem improvised from Mary Maynard's Pumpkin Pattern

My Mondo Monday Giveaway prize arrived in the mail this past week! The mailer was packed full of Halloween-y goodness! With gorgeous thread like this I could tat a whole patch of pumpkins. Really sincere ones. Worthy of The Great Pumpkin!

"Autumn Orange," size 20, by Lady ShuttleMakerand black seed beads for Halloween-y fun!

Isn't it superb? Honestly, my cup overflows with an embarrassment of tatting largesse.

But that's not all! I can't wait to share some of the goodies I got on loan yesterday from a new needle tatting friend named Bonnie.

Bonnie and I met at LacySusan's shop so she could partake of the trove of tatting riches (books and supplies) Lacy Susan has for sale (along with a vast array of bobbin lacing supplies).

Bonnie showed amazing restraint. Me? Not so much. (Unrepentant thread junkies disavow all knowledge of such words in their vocabularies.)

Look! A sneak peek of Tatskool's scrumptious new colorway called Bracken Crunch in a size 60, six-cord cotton. It is a member of the mouth-watering ChocoLime family of colors. Just winding it on the shuttles triggered a wicked Heath^® toffee bar craving.

Along with the 2 purple Sew-mate shuttles pictured above, I purchased 2 Aero-style shuttles (They are the bulk shuttles, labeled "made in Germany." They do not say "Aero" on them anywhere.)

. . . a size 22 (0.5 mm) crochet hook for joining, a bobbin lace pricker, a pack of needles for the pricker, and two bobbin lace books.

The two bobbin lace books are both authored by Rosemary Shepherd:

1. Introduction to Bobbin Lacemaking

2. An Early Lace Workbook: Bobbin Lace Techniques before the Baroque

Quite a haul, if I do say so myself!

But I digress. Bonnie loaned me her copy of Contemporary Tatting: New Designs from an Old Art by Judith Connors. This is a lovely book that includes a pattern for a tatted "take anywhere" cup of tea. It is a darling teacup design that includes split rings. Can't wait to tat one up!

She also printed out a copy of a 3D cup and saucer 2003 pattern by Roger a.k.a. Freedman that had been posted on a needle tatting group site at msn.com. It includes a tatted spoon pattern! It looks as though msn.com has closed its groups site. So having a printed copy of this pattern is like hitting the TTT jackpot!

Since I can't show you this doozy of a tatted teacup find, here is another teacup and saucer pattern originally published in an old Workbasket magazine. Suzann Welker rewrote it so there are no cuts and ties. It involves split rings and split chains, but only short ones.

And just so you don't think ill of unrepentent thread junkies in general (or me in particular) I was not completely greedy. I promised to share my copy of Let's Tat by Angeline H. Crichlow and The Tatted Artistry of Teiko Fujito (Lacis Publications) with Bonnie when I see her on Sunday, October 25.

More later, tatting friends! The hour is late and my eyelids droop. Want to know more about the tome pictured above? Ask and I will answer. (in my next post) Now it is off to bed with me.

As Fox so eloquently puts it . . . "Anon"

And The Winner Is...

It's time to announce a winner for the Fractured Quotes: "Knot-TEA" Parody & GIVEAWAY!

I entered all participants into my Excel spreadsheet. Everyone was assigned a different number and those who were eligible for two entries were assigned two numbers. I then used a random number generator to choose the winning number. Here is the result:


Lucky number 7 and the winner of a Halloween-themed quilted ball ornament is Tattrldy! Congrats, Wanda!

And now for a fun surprise! Since I have enough quilting fabric to make two ornaments, I decided to make two prizes. Which confirms what many of you have long suspected. I AM a glutton for punishment. LOL!

So the second winning number is 2 (how serendipitous is that?) — and the second quilted ball ornament goes to Tatskool! Congratulations, Tatskool!

Ladies, please email me your mailing addresses (isdihara@verizon.net) so I can send your prizes out in about a week. (I need some extra time since I am still tatting the center motifs for these.)

Thank you to everyone who played along with my twisted giveaway. The entries were very creative and inspired! Can you believe I've had a certain 70s tune stuck in my head all week? LOL!

And now, every time I pick up a shuttle I say the following affirmation:

'Gentle shuttle! Let the thread yield to thee.'

Special thanks to LadyShuttleMaker a.k.a. MadMadPotter for providing the best giveaway model a blogger could follow for a first-time giveaway!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Tatting Tea Tuesday creative thread capade.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Fractured Quotes:"Knot-TEA Fun" GIVEAWAY

Pumpkin Vine Edging by Heidi Sunday

Maybe it's the Autumn chill in the air. Or all the giveaway energy buzzing around Tat Land lately.

Maybe it's just a wild hair.

Whatever it is, today I feel a bit knot-TEA.

So I'm having a Knot-Tea Parody contest and GIVEAWAY!

Here are the rules:

1. Open your favorite web browser and search for tea quotes. (You could also enjoy a leisurely browse through the library or your personal stash of tea books if you prefer. I'm not picky.)

Lewis Carroll took a children's rhyme and bent it to his silly whim:

“Twinkle, twinkle little bat. How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky” ~ Lewis Carroll

2. Alter it so that it reflects tea and tatting. The word tatting (or one of its common variants) must appear in the altered quote. Something like this:

“Twinkle, twinkle little tat. Worked into a table mat. Lacy knots line up so fine, Making tea-time small talk shine.” ~ IsDihara (based upon a quote by Lewis Carroll)

3. Change author's name to your screen name & post your fractured quote in the comments below. (You may list the source quote and author as a clickable link.)

4. The cut-off date for submitting your entry is midnight on Monday, October 12, 2009, Eastern Standard Time. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 13th.

5. That's it!

Yes, you have to work a tiny bit harder than just writing a comment. Follow Mary ("practically perfect in every way") Poppins' advice:

Lyrics Mary Poppins - A Spoonful Of Sugar lyrics

Want another chance to win?

If you post about this giveaway on your blog you qualify for a second entry.

Be sure to add a (2) to your comment below, just like in TattingChic's Mondo Monday Giveaway. Kindly include a clickable link or with the name of your blog so I may verify your entry. Once verified, you will be added to my giveaway spreadsheet a second time.

Winner will be chosen via random number generator.

Winner will receive a quilted ball ornament decorated with tatting. Here is a link to a page with several colorful examples of quilted ball ornaments (none with tatting on them).

Here are the fat quarters I picked out for the ball ornament. The Pumpkin Vine Edging will be used to trim the ball. Only three fabrics will be used for the ornament, but I left the color field open wide. The only color I forgot was Frankenstein monster green. Hee, hee!

So have all the fun you want. (Especially you punsters!) Good luck.

Thanks for being knot-tea with me and fracturing a quote along the way!

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea. Mwah-hah-hah-hah!

Win a Pumpkin Cubcake!

Teddy Bear Artist Extraordinaire Kelly over at Yesterday's Glitter is having an October Blog Giveaway and just look at the adorable little cubcake she's offering to the lucky winner.

Who wouldn't want to give this cuddly munchkin a big, welcome home hug? I do. Good luck!