Hey - it's December 6th! Do you know where your Christmas tatting is?


Anyone who knows me can tell you I drag some sort of project, usually tatting, everywhere I go. I simply cannot have idle hands while sitting. I've been known to tat in classes, in meetings at work, and on Sunday mornings in church. The key is to try to watch what's going on more than what's happening with the tatting. Of course, sometimes this can result in unpredictable results. Also, it restricts one to more simple fare as to be able to concentrate on the external rather than the tatting. This is a snowflake that came off my shuttles in church a couple of weeks ago.

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And I also promised to post my version of Ruth Perry's Celtic Snowflake which can be seen here.
Ruth, you are such a treasure for sharing your lovely designs with us. Mine looks a bit wonky here. I was scanning with Nedsel helping (he's the little imp on the left of my banner). It seems he thinks he has to "help" the scanner/printer by poking his head inside, standing on top, walking across the buttons, you get the idea.

Look who came to my house! It's the PussyTat Dolls and their little friend, BriTatney Spears (she's the one in blue)! I do send my robust apologies to Jane Eborall who started the whole TatBead wave, further perpetuated by Martha Ess. Janey, oh Janey has the original Tatbead family posted here. Martha Ess expanded the family a bit, along with Pam Myers, Jessica Kuligowski, and Elaine Law, which Jane graciously posted here. Do try some of these! They're addictive.



















Here's a doodle from a couple of weeks ago. I thought it looked like a tree. Any other opinions? I'm messing with this doodle a bit more.

Ah - as I was looking through Tatday pics, I ran across this one from 2005. What a wonderful evening that was! This is for you, Susie-Q!

Back from Tatdays! I have lots of little projects to show. I'm sticking them all in one picture, however. ;-) Lazy Erin! I had such a grand time this year. The Palmetto gals were ever the most gracious hostesses. In spite of the threat of Hannah, things proceeded in grand Palmetto fashion. As it turned out, we only had misty rain on Friday night (with rain more in earnest while we slept) and Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon all was sunshine and smiles.

The angel in the upper right corner is Jane Eborall's pattern taught by Riet Surtel-Smeulders. The pink, blue and white angels with the dangly beads are Sharren Morgan's Abbeville Angel. The smaller half-necklace and earrings in the middle are by Nina Libin, as is the larger half necklace (the Blossom necklace from her Lace of Beads publication). I'm certain you all recognize Anne Bruvold's dragons! The dark dragon is a gift from Celticdreamweaver Sherry Townsend and the pink one was made by my dear friend Barbie. She decided to throw in some beads. Both of those threads are hand-dyed by Sherry Pence (Ladyshuttlemaker at Etsy). The colorways are Royalty and Fuchsia - both size 80 threads. I have to say I'm in love with the threads. Who wouldn't be?

The snowflake was an 'on-the-fly' project and needs blocking badly. In fact, all these items need blocking. The pattern is the first one in Lene Bjorn's _24 Snowflakes in Tatting_ book. I'm going to make another with spaces carefully measured now that I know how large the rings of rings turn out. I hope that made sense. Also, I'm going to add beads.

The sorry little bookmark is another attempt at Lobelia. I did three colors this time. I have to say I love lacing with Gutterman silk. Pretty colors and feels pretty to work with, too. I made this on my Bimboburg(tm) pillow by Mark Myers. I'm thinking next time I'll use some blue work cloths rather than pink and red. It got to be a little too much pink to look at all at once. Also, my next project will be some sort of yardage on the Sherry pillow I recovered. I'm thinking a Buckspoint edging. . . something very elementary, of course.

Sherry came to visit before Tatdays and we had a couple of days to play before we went over together. On the way down to Winnsboro, Raymond let us stop at the Giant Hobby Lobby of Spartanburg. It was large, but I was a wee bit disappointed in the bead selection. We have much more here in Knoxville. I was surprised. We did manage to find things to buy, however. Imagine that!

Fresh off the pillow! Lobelia bookmark from _The Bobbin Lace Manual_ by Geraldine Stott. There are definitely some tension issues, but hey, I'm learning. ;-)

Mark, I'm gonna have to fire up Bimboburg soon!

Okay-I haven't been here in a while so I have to post some things that have been going on behind the scenes. We went to visit Pam and Jerry in SC, and what a deeeeeelightful time we had! Much foolishness went on. Here's a pic to sum up some of the events.

Yes, that's our Sue. She's wearing Pammy's hyacinths that one of Pam's darling grandchildren made for Easter. Oh, Sue, what will we do with you? heehee!








I put this one here for Gina. I found a use for my lace heart! Just wait until Halloween!
















Sherry...this is for you. It awaits. I was about to wet my pants.














I almost forgot. Here is one of my paintings from figure painting class several weeks ago.



Uplighting. A new challenge. I'm afraid she looks a little stiff. Those shadow colors are kind of funky as I was painting in the dark. I kept telling myself, "It's all about value."

Heh.

At last! I finished it! It looks like crap, but I don't care because my pillow is free!

Look Sherry - lots and lots and lots of booboos, but I don't care! I can do something else now! I think I'll make a snake! Or a bookmark! Anything but this curvy, swervy heart!

Yay!

Okay - I haven't written much lately. I've been really busy. We are in the midst of reorganization at work (big one from the top down) - my boss of 20 years retired and all manner of chaos has followed.

Mattie's little dog, Mopsy, became terminally ill. I had to have her put down. It was tooooooo sad. Poor little dog. Poor little Mattie.

Mattie had to have another doggie, so we found her a puppy. Her name is Selly, short for Celestine. You can tell I didn't name her. My kind of pet name is more like "Listerine" rather than "Celestine". Oh, well. She's a cute little dachshund and I feel certain she'll keep Mattie off the streets for a little while. Here's her pic:



She's already trying to play fetch and hasn't pooped in the house in four days! Woohoo! She's a wonder-dog!

I've also been painting lately. Here's one of the results. Can you tell I had been feeling color deprived?



This is 18x22. Where on earth will I keep it?

Heehee! Sherry, here we are. So near and yet soooooooooooooooooooooo far.....

Here's the big year end post that will hopefully catch me up a wee bit with folks. I've been doing more things and computering less - I found that I was in a spot where I either had time to play on the computer or make things, so I actually did some things instead. Did that make sense?

This past spring I did the Tom Lynch thing. I also did some painting over the summer. Here is a posting of the three 15"x15" roses I did. One was a gift for my sister's friend (and in-law), Sue.





One ended up with my other sister, Amy,

















and the third needs further work or cropping.




Amy and I made egg ornaments for the nieces and nephews before Christmas. This was our first foray into egg art. I am using the term "art" loosely here. We had a delightful time making these. We did them at my mom's house and made what is quite possibly the largest mess ever made in her kitchen. Egg flew everywhere. Glitter flew everywhere. We laughed hysterically, too.

Here are the not quite complete fruits of our labor.












Keep in mind there are only twelve of the 36 we did pictured here. We got glitter-happy, to say the least.




Hope, this next picture is for you. Little Nedsel in all his glory.

Egads! I have bats in my belfry!

Ruth Perry has done it again. This is her "Tootie the Frootie Bat" which can be found at Ruth's Blog. She also shared it with the online tatting class. Such fun!

Oh, Sherry. . . .

Bliss.

Mark made the neatest bag for Sherry. He used traditional bobbinlace technique, but a very nontraditional fiber. Sherry looks so proud.






But Mark looks funnier with it.







And here Sherry shows off her tattoo of Keleigh the Keltic dragon that graced the cover of the IOLI newsletter a while back. Or would that be a tat-too?

Now I'm confused!

So here I am again. I have tons and gobs of pics from Palmetto Tat Days that I haven't posted at all. I am sooooooo bad. Sherry came down to visit a couple of days beforehand. We had such a gooooooood time! Sherry, you have to come back!



Here we are in our festive hats. Sherry's is actually tatted. Mine is pretend. Or at least that's what it looks like next to hers - heehee!

Mark was such a sweetie - he brought me the most incredibly beautiful cookie pillow! Now I can start my manufacture of Bimboburg Lace! I was so joyously elated I did a little dance for Mark and Sherry (Raymond recorded for posterity in photo-form).




And what did I give Mark in return?






Closer look for the myopic. . .

Here's a little painting I did for my sister's birthday. It was much fun to do!

Hi, Sherry. Here it is.

I've been working on Jade Starmore's Beadwork sweater for a little while. I'm using Harrisville Design Shetland wool in Purple Haze. It's a lovely color. I did swatch to gauge using size 2 needles. Here's the back thus far. Sorry for the crappy photo, but this is the best I could do inside at night.

I took a pic of Raymond, too. He's been "pumping metal". Can you tell? Hopie, this is for you:

And I have a picture of me modeling the sweater thus far. Dig that schoolteacher arm thing I have going on - it counterbalances the post-afternoon-walk-in-90-percent-humidity frizz thing I have going on. My, I'm frightening.

Okay. I've been away way too long. I just spent half an hour trying to log into this blog - yikes.

Here's a pic of my nephew and Mattie. Gee, wonder where he gets that hair?

Woohoo! Two posts in one day after two months of nothing. Well, I'm just trying to catch up on all the excitement and lovliness that was my holiday.

My secret santa as you see below was very generous with chocolate, bath salts, soothing accoutrements and a beautiful doily she picked up in Aruba! Santa's been to Aruba. Hmm. There's a big hint. Oh, and Santa is from Canada.

From my dear pal from across the pond I received the sweetest unexpected gift - these dainty ear bobs! And they're pink! Those bells may look small, but they've got a loud jingle! I love the clever way she tatted on a headpin that holds the entire business together. Makes the earring much sturdier. Since they're pink I can also wear them for other events like Arbor Day! Thanks so very much, Sue!