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.

Secret Revealed! Plus, a Giveaway!

Halloween has come and gone and I realized that I had promised to share a secret I have been keeping.

Several months ago, Mothermark hatched a plan to add tatting to her Teapot Tuesday cards and approached me about creating the tatted bits for her cards. I am so flattered and even more excited! Let me tell you, it is NOT easy for me to keep a secret either!

The reason for unveiling this collaboration by Halloween was that I had sent her a photo of my Halloween teapot. I call it my Witchiepoo Shoe teapot.

I was expecting to show you my teapot and the card she created from it. Mothermark went on a card-making hiatus for about a month and when she returned she has been deluged with hundreds of birthday cards!

On October 27, she posted her first post-hiatus Teapot Tuesday card and it looks like the inspiration came from a haunted house teapot instead. Boo! Or maybe it is a teapot-shaped candle, that moon looks a bit waxy!  (Har har!)

One WARNING before you go over to her blog to see. I got a big, red malware warning when I clicked on her site. After reading over the diagnostic details, I chose to proceed anyway and everything worked out okay for me. But you may not want to take that risk.

Here is the link to her October 27th Teapot Tuesday post: Blacken White's Gettin' Color Tonight

Here is another photo of it, just because I like this teapot so much. (Though I wish I had turned on my Ott Lite to bring out the true beauty of the colors.)

What is that peeking out from behind the spout? Flowering teas? You caught me. I'm stone cold busted. I know some people think they are creepy, but I love watching them bloom while I wait for the tea to steep.

Pressing on! At some point I am sure that Mothermark will create a card using my teapot, and when she does I will be jumping with glee! Golly, I hope she wasn't waiting for me to send her tatting to go along with it. It never occurred to me to do that. D'oh!

Tell you what? Let's make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Ha, ha! In other words, turn my oversight into a GIVEAWAY.

Here are the rules:
1.  Tat a small snippet of edging or doodle or a mini-motif, something that would fit on a 3x5 card and post a photo of it on your blog. If you don't have a blog, send me a photo in an email attachment.

2.Then come back and leave a comment on this post, letting me know where to go to see your beautiful tatted creation.

3.  Entries must be completed and your comment posted by Friday, November 13th.

Everyone who participates will receive two sachets of flowering tea from me! Plus the winner will have his or her tatting sent to Mothermark to be used on a future Teapot Tuesday card!

End of Summer Blues?

Image reprinted with permission
Copyright © 2009 Carol Gillott
We all hate to see the lazy days of summer come to an end, don't we? I'm no exception. As August heat gives way to cooler breezes and geese trek across the skies, it is getting harder to ignore the unavoidable truth - Autumn is around the corner.

But before Fall's dazzling foliage, pumpkins and hayrides take over the landscape, I want to bask in the illusion of Indian summer.

Tatting Tea Tuesday pays tribute to everyone who, like me, is in denial about the end of summer. All hail its glorious last days!

Basic Strawberry Heart © 2003 Birgit Phelps
(Celtic-style Top to come later)
As I settle in with a cup of strawberry herbal tea, I pull out some Coats & Clarks "boilfast" size 70 tatting cotton in a perfectly ripe, juicy red.

Another of my flea market finds, it came in a 12-inch metal tin that was filled with partial spools of vintage tatting thread. Apparently they had been stashed away for a rainy day, then sold at auction.

What better way to honor summer's last hurrah than with a symbol of its bounty? My freezer is filled with juicy strawberries fresh-picked in May so we can
enjoy mouthfuls of sunshine all winter long.

I'm making two of these strawberry hearts for a special Teapot Tuesday project I have been keeping mum about for awhile now. More on that later.

This bitty berry project would be done except that the only green cotton I have is either size 80 in a pale, mint green or size 20 Manuela in a dark, Hunter green.

So I await the arrival of a size 80 Christmas green from Handy Hands. It should arrive by parcel post later in the week.

Once the Celtic-style tops are done I will post again and share the surprise that Mothermark over at This is My Story has in store. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to share it with you!

But my part in this project has had to simmer on a back burner while I focus on the lessons for the Design-Tat class. Mothermark waits patiently, but I figured I had better send her something before summer was well and gone.

You, however, won't have to wait longer than Halloween (October 30th) for news of our awesome little collaborative tea project.

In the meantime, revel in the glorious pseudo-summer days that remain and prepare for Autumn's splendor.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Teapot Tuesday: Kitties in the Kitchen

Love @Mothermark's fun new post for Teapot Tuesday: Kitties in the Kitchen http://ping.fm/9yq73

Happy Anniversary to Teapot Tuesday!

Love @Mothermark's charming one-year anniversary Teapot Tuesday post: http://ping.fm/JqwZD

Happy International Sushi Day

Hilarious new Teapot Tuesday post from @Mothermark: http://ping.fm/49w3R