Starting Over

Hey Folks,

I think I might try and start this thing up again. I have been going through a lot of stuff, health-wise, and moving here to Alaska, amongst many other things that I won't blog about. I actually grew up in Anchorage and we moved to Oregon right after I graduated. It had been twenty-five years since I had been here. And while things have certainly changed, it is still one of the most beautiful places on the earth.

Lately I have been knitting and crocheting a lot. I even joined a Knitting Guild. There are four amazing yarn shops I can travel to in a reasonable amount of time and am lucky that one of the is right here in town. I will try to post links for them later if your interested.

Off to get my liver MRI. If anyone out there wouldn't mind saying a little prayer for me I would be truly thankful for that. I won't have the results for a few days.

I hope everyone is enjoying some great crafty stuff, what ever it is. Tell me what you are working on if you have time and have a wonderful day!

Take Time To Knit

Look what I received in today's mail! My drawing prize from BeckySC!! This was her April giveaway and I was the lucky winner! Jeanette Douglas was here for a workshop in March but I was unable to attend. Now I have this lovely project to stitch and it is even more special to me because it came from Becky. She is a very kind and generous person and I am glad to count her as a friend =) Thanks so much Becky!

KEMP

"KEMP" stands for Knitting Every Month for other People. I belong to a yahoo group called, "debs_dishcloth_demons". Every month you enter what you made for others into the data base and they have a drawing once a month. I won in March and this is what I received! It's an awesome package of goodies and really made my day =)

Have a wonderful day!

New Books & A Gift

Just look at these beautiful tatted pieces that Jon sent to me! She won my last give-away and sent these as a thank you for what I sent to her. They are truly beautiful and expertly tatted - front side/back side! She has inspired me to try this myself and I will show you pics of my attempts in a future post.

I couldn't wait any longer and had to order Jon's books and some rings to play with! I love the size of the books, very portable. They are well written and have great diagrams. I am really looking forward to tatting with rings too!

Obviously I have been spoiling my self a bit lately. I also ordered this book from Ginny Weathers. It looks like a lot of fun and I think these would make nice gifts too!


I also managed to find a copy of "A Pattern Book of Tatting" and it arrived this past weekend. Can you even imagine how excited I was to find two tatted pieces inside? Needless to say, I was very surprised and thrilled at this wonderful find!

I still have more to post but will do that later. It's lunch time and hubby is on his way home now!
Have a wonderful day =)

Long Time - No Post

This is a wonderful gift I received from my friend Kim. She gave it to me last night at the guild meeting. I absolutely love it and wish you all could see it in person!

Here are two bookmarks that I tatted recently. The one on the left is Delphinium from Karey Solomon's book "Tatting By The Book". I love this book and will eventually tat all of the patterns! The one on the right is Gina Butler's pattern before the diagram was corrected. I still think it is a very pretty bookmark and this one went into the mail today to a dear friend.

Here are my class projects from Shuttlebird's Tat Days workshop. Across the bottom is the class "Getting to here from there" taught by Jessica Spaulding. We learned four different methods of chaining - spiral or Josephine chain, Lock stitch chain, S-chain, and the Z-chain. Then we chose a finding and started out own project. I made the bookmark you see with the bead on one end.

On the left is the "Pop/Water Bottle Skirt", taught by Cheryl Birch. This was a bit of a challenge for me. I made my first split chain and split ring with mock picot, and adding beads to a long picot in this project. I must say, I am quite pleased with myself =)

On the right is "Gwen's Angel", taught by Sherry Pence. I learned how to use folded rings and folded split rings on this project. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be and I will definitely tat more of these closer to Christmas. The pattern is available on her blog if you would like to give it a try.

I also took classes from Bina Madden (project not finished yet) and Mary McCarthy (Reading Tatting Patterns). It was a wonderful experience and I started looking forward to next years workshop as soon as this one ended!

I have more to post about but will do so later this evening. I must go cook some dinner for my dear husband, who has absolutely no idea how much I actually spent at the workshop, thank goodness ;) His eyes would pop right out of his head, lol!

Have a great day!

Wacky Wednesday

I just had to title this post "Wacky Wednesday" because it is very rare that I post two times in one day. I decided it would be easier for me than doing one long post.

The photo above shows my most recent tatting. I tatted this name tag and am quite pleased with how it turned out. Of course, Jane E.'s technique page made all the difference in the world. What great instructions for "Adding a bead to the center of a split ring"! I know I will use this again and again. Thanks Jane =)

You can also see that I started my lanyard with the same thread - Lizbeth Island Breeze in size 20. This was what I started on International Tatting Day. At least now I have enough done that you can see how all the colors look. I really like this thread!

Here is the cross I tatted for my dear mil, Sue. It's the same pattern I used for the green and yellow ones I tatted recently. I just love this pattern! For this cross I used Flora HH in this lovely purple color. I think that brings me up to ten on my 25 motif challenge now. Woohoo!

Now I really need to get back to working on the table favors for Shuttlebirds NEXT WEEKEND!!! I am only a little bit excited, can you tell?

Have a great day!

An Exchange & A Gift

I recently participated in a pin pillow exchange hosted by Becky SC and because I wait until the last possible minute to do any finishing, Carolyn finally received it the other day. I stitched the mini pillow from Bits of Blue by Plum Pudding Needleart for using Lambswool 32 count linen and DMC 115. I really love this combination and plan to stitch the whole set from this chart for myself eventually.

Last week I also had a very lovely surprise in my mail box. This adorable pillow from Sara S. Aren't I so lucky =) I sure think so! She sent this to me because I simply picked up a magazine for her that she was unable to find locally and sent it to her. Someday I am going to have one tree decorated with all these wonderful goodies that I have received as gifts and in exchanges. Thank you so much Sara =)

Have a great day!