Springtime Greenery

For this drizzly Tatting Tea Tuesday, I offer up a few cheerful photos taken last week during a morning stroll around my neighborhood block. Walk with me...

Purple Tulips

First up are deep purple tulips in my front yard. These were planted seven years ago, before The Sprout was born. (The Sprout's blog name will soon be changing to Sapling since, at the ripe old age of 6 years, he says "Sprout is for babies.") 

Lovely tulips from neighbor's garden

While I love my rich purple tulips, they don't hold a candle to the neighbor's cheerful, rainbow-colored blooms.  Aren't they stunning?

Lilacs (top) balanced by crisp, white azalea

The neighbor on the corner has captivating lilacs. The spring air is softly scented with their perfume. The whole front yard is gorgeous and it just burst into bloom this way. *le sigh*

White dogwood

Across the street from the lovely lilacs are several townhomes with dogwood trees.

Pink dogwood

Dogwoods are unrivaled in beauty among the early Spring flowering trees.  Even more so than cherry blossoms in some circles.

Double-ruffled cherry blossoms in the morning light.

Along the public street the HOA plants these double cherry trees.  Gently shaking the branches grants you a delicate petal shower and pretty pink sidewalks.

Double-ruffled cherry tree

  In contrast to the double-ruffled cherry blossoms are these sweet petals from a weeping cherry.

Weeping Cherry

Well, that is all for now.  I hope you have enjoyed strolling around the block with me. I have surely enjoyed showing you the beauty of it. Now back to tatting.

Tatting Tea Tuesday - Petal Progress

Two sample lily petals,
Beads added to petal - lower left

For a long time I have wanted to create a 3D Stargazer lily. (Or several lilies for a stem, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.) So I decided to use the pattern for a single petal as the April tatting social at my LYS. I started tatting petals and taught others to tat them too.Win - win!

Three petals complete

Six petals are needed for a 3D lily. I have made three so far. Hurray! Half-way to first flower.
Edit:  This free PDF pattern is available from Linda Davies' site: Tattyhead

Stargazer Lilies in my front yard (July, 2008)

See the gorgeous dark flecks in the petals? I tried adding cranberry-colored seed beads to mimic them. (See top image) My size 15 Miyuki beads are a bit too small, but the color is perfect!

Stargazer Lilies in my front yard (July, 2008)

Stargazer (as are most) lilies are uplifting and majestic -- a perfect choice for Tatting Tea Tuesday. Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Spirits Lifting, Thanks to YOU

Thank you, THANK YOU, tatting friends! I awoke to find a great wealth of supportive comments waiting for me (as well as a lovely Google Talk message from a tatter) and my spirit is rejuvenated by your kindnesses.  Wishing I could reach out to hug you all!

Thank you, Tatting Friends

Thank you, tatting friends, for being such an ever-present source of tatting friendship and feel-good energy.  I needed it today.

Lately every time I walk into my LYS I walk out feeling utterly demoralized.  I do not like this feeling, so I have spent less and less time in the shop.

Today I came home after being treated very poorly as a customer as well as rather brusquely as an independent contractor.

Now I consider myself to be approachable, friendly, accommodating and, yes, overly sensitive. I also am guilty of analyzing a situation to death. That is why I have tried hard to ignore these feelings of demoralization each time they have occurred in the past.

But there comes a point when one cannot brush bad feelings under the rug any longer.

Why don't I cut ties with this shop? I honestly do not know, except that I was responsible for getting tatting materials stocked in and for getting tatting lessons started in the shop.

When I leave my greatest fear is that the shop owner will become the tatting "expert." Or worse, force the needle tatting teacher into a dual roll.  Most of all, I do not want the shop owner telling people that I am a bad teacher or that I "didn't meet her standards" when patrons ask why I am not teaching there anymore.

Hey, for all I know, she does think I am a bad teacher.  Quite frankly, I do not care if she thinks this, because I know how many people I have successfully taught and will continue to teach. If a person comes to me who wants to learn to tat, I will teach them.

But I also cannot tolerate these demoralizing feelings. (Every time this happens I repeat, over and over, "no one can make you feel bad unless you let them.")

Do I need therapy? Is it a simple matter of leaving the shop behind? Or is there another solution somewhere in between?

I am sorry to post about my pain, tatting friends. Misery is such a strange bedfellow in Tat Land.

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." ~ Shakespeare, The Tempest (2:2)

Tatting Tea Tuesday: Farfalla 2

Farfalla  Butterfly 2

Another butterfly flew off the shuttles!

Farfalla (a.k.a. Alfie) Butterfly 2
For this one I experimented with using blended threads for the antennae and SCMR body, throwing off the round one wings in a solid color. It took three shuttles for round one, but it wasn't difficult to tat the three-shuttle part, since it was only two double stitches at a go.

Once again, for those who are interested, the thread list:

• Lizbeth®20 #642 Lilac Medium  for round 1 wings
• A blend of lavender/black/yellow threads for antennae and body
• Tat-ilicious HDT by Jess in Night Thunder for round 2 

You can find the free pattern on the Italian tatting web site:  CHIACCHIERINO  The butterfly diagram can be found on this page: Gioielli di chiacchierino

Still need to snip one thread after this beauty's steam press, but isn't he a clever gent?

I am tempted to call him Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All, after the Doctor Who episode called "Closing Time!"  At the end of that episode the baby decides he prefers the name Alfie.



So Alfie it is. Norma Jean and Alfie look good together, n'est-ce pas?

Norma Jean and Alfie together

Only after examining the two butterflies side by side did I notice that one of Norma Jean's lower wings is missing a repeat of 5 DS and a picot. So sorry Norma Jean!  You're still sexy to me.

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

Motif #20 & Signs of Spring

Yesterday's lace guild meeting was held at Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane, Va. The winery was bustling with activity: birthdays, anniversaries, social gatherings inside the tasting room and on the lawn...it was a wonderful place to be.

Guildies Joy, Barbara and Anita sipping wine and
noshing picnic-style before making lace.

Guildies Anita and Sherry, who was celebrating her birthday!

We enjoyed a plentiful picnic-style feast and some superb Bowhaus White wine along with our lace making.

The morning started out brisk and bright, but warmed to springtime perfection.

Motif #20 Farfalla (a.k.a. Norma Jean) Butterfly
While waiting for the tasting room to open, I finished the Farfalla butterfly. Doesn't she look darling in the spring sunshine?  (And this is straight off the shuttles, before her "beauty treatment" -- steam blocking to set the stitches and thread-end trimming.)

Even though her name is Farfalla, I think I shall call her Norma Jean, because of her delicate grace and striking beauty. A Marilyn Monroe waiting to be discovered, wouldn't you say?

Farfalla Butterfly

You can find the free pattern on the Italian tatting web site:  CHIACCHIERINO  The butterfly diagram can be found on this page: Gioielli di chiacchierino

For those who are interested, the thread list:

• Lizbeth^®20 #613 Golden Yellow Medium
• A blend of lavender/black/yellow threads for antennae
• Lizbeth^®20 #139 Fruit Fizz for round 2 chains
• Lizbeth^®20 #624 Raspberry Pink Medium for round 2 rings.

Norma Jean is so pretty I will tat her again in some pretty hand-dyed thread.  Now, to choose....

But wait!  I cannot forget to show you some of the lace we worked on at the winery.

Barbara's Salamander

Sherry's Torchon ground

Anita's tatted doily

Great stuff!  I am sorry to say I didn't get a photo of Joy's lace or my own penguin project, but these photos give you an idea of what fun we had on our winery outing. 

Bed Beginnings & Leprechaun Trap

Precious little tatting to report this week. Late-winter/early-spring viruses and allergies kept the whole family down in varying degrees.  As for me, allergy-onset + a 24-hour vomiting spell = several days lost productivity. 

Sprout went to a girl's birthday party last weekend which had a kitten adoption theme, so he came home with a blue beanie-kitten, a crafty ball of yarn, a plastic mouse toy and Swedish Fish candy as take-away goodies.

Sprout & Wilbur

"Wilbur (adopted kitty's name) needs a tatted bed to sleep in, Mama, " Sprout informed me.

So I decided to follow Fox's lead (see her links from March1: Jivin' with Jan and March 7: Delightful Doilies Dominate) and begin with part one of Doily VI from Tatted Treasures by Jan Stawasz,

Lace-lovin' Librarian Diane gets credit too, as her lacework (February 24: Doily VI, Round 1 and March 18: Round V...done!) inspired Fox.  Bravo ladies for enabling me so successfully.  LOL!

My blind stab at Part I of Doily VI
Lizbeth^® 20 # 111 Cotton Candy

For some strange reason I thought that the central motif from Jan Stawasz' Doily VI was published sans stitch counts. (Indeed, the motif in my copy of his first book omits them.)

After a few days I got wise and double checked both Stawasz books to discover that book two does include stitch counts. Mine are not at all close to his!

Sprout insists Wilbur's bed be lined, padded, decorated with tatting (the kid thinks big, doesn't he?) and have a door. I'm hoping this version of the motif will work as an inner round.

How to Catch a Leprechaun

Yesterday was a snow day so I had Sprout home with me. We colored a pot o' gold, shamrocks and told each other tales of leprechaun mischief. Before long he decided it was time to build a leprechaun trap!


We agreed to stage these trap photos using Ciarrán before actually setting the trap. (Yes, that is a light saber toy in the background.)

Note the yellow "o" made to look like a gold coin and the big arrow pointing toward the entrance.  He asked me how to spell gold and thought I had said "e" instead of "g," but promptly corrected his error. He is still perfecting his spacing (runs out of room for all of his letters) but I love it all!

At periodic intervals Sprout would "hear a sound" and rush to examine his trap. Surely he would find a captured pixie!  Here he is peering in to see what he had caught...

He had placed a pirate doubloon inside the box as well as a hand-drawn shamrock as bait.  Sadly, no leprechauns fell prey to his ingenious trap. But all in all, it was great snow day fun!