Happy Halloween!

I like Halloween but we are not celebrating this year. I like to see all the kids in their costumes and I love pumpkins.
I couldn't find any pumpkins this year so I had to improvise.
We have a persimmon tree in our yard here in Korea so I drew a face on one of them. Whaddya think?

Can you see the gorgeous spinning wheel he is sitting on???? That is a birthday present from Lace-Lovin'Librarian. Diane, I am just overwhelmed by your generosity.
Look what else she sent:

This is the most amazing treasure box ever! I so LOVE it...that words cannot really express. Just see how awesome it is! Boy do I feel spoiled!
And that is not all....look what is inside:Some Lizbeth thread in one of my favorite colors, beads, thread winder and a totally awesome handwoven bookmark!
THANK YOU DIANE!!!!!!

Also I wanted to share some flowers that hubby bought me....he doesn't buy flowers very often but when he does...he goes all out! I love them!

I wish everyday was my birthday! LOL

Summer Tatting Exchange

Well in spite of my rotten luck with secret exchanges in the past (9 out of 10 exchanges I have been forgotten and left to feel very sorry for myself) I decided to join the "Here be Tatters" summer exchange. I know that exchanges are about the giving and not the receiving, but it is nice to be acknowledged in the very least.
Anyhow I am very excited to send my partner her package. I just finished it up and I decided to share one very small part of what is included.

I won't say anything about it and since it is just one of many items it won't spoil the surprise. Hmmmmm....I wonder who my partner could be????
It seems like everyone has joined this exchange and it is going to be so fun at the end of the month to see what everyone has given and gotten.


I still have not found out what these flowers are yet. Everyone has been really helpful...but there has not been a definitive answer yet. I am on the fence about them being Hibiscus ...because they don't have that large phallic stem in the middle.
We had a monsoon yesterday which knocked most of the blooms off. But hubby was nice enough to take this picture so that you smarties out there can get a better size reference.

I had enough energy today to do a little exercise...which is a BIG deal. I think I am on the mend.

Breaking Barriers

I am making a few crochet hats for gifts this year and while shopping for my favorite "Sugar and Cream Cotton yarn" by Lily, I did something crazy and picked out this chartreuse color...totally out of my comfort zone. I know it's a crazy hat but I just love it. It is so HAPPY!
I sewed on some little tatted flowers and voila!

While crocheting (which I really don't know how to do properly) I finished this sweater for my dog. I am quite proud of myself because it actually fits her comfortably and it doesn't look too bad either. She is a big dog weighing in at 70 pounds. She is a german shorthair, and we are huge fans of the snow, so she needs a little something extra for warmth.
She looks a little disgusted in this photo. That's because I made her try the sweater on like 14 times for adjustments and this picture was taken late last night while whe was trying to rest. She is such a sweetheart!

New Multi Flower Edging

There are similar edging patterns "out there" to this one in look but not in design.
I have been working on this pattern for quite awhile with disasterous results but just when I felt like giving up, I finally figured it out and it is so simple. In fact it is very similar to the 5 shuttle grape edging I designed a few months ago.
With this pattern you can have and many shuttles as there are colors of flowers. I chose to do the "baby" colors with this size 20 flora thread.

Or you can keep it a simple two shuttle pattern and maybe use a varigated color for the flowers such as the size 80 majestic blue thread I used here.

Ooooh, a thought just occured to me, Marilee's hand dyed thread would look lovely in this pattern.

Project Progressing

This is the start of the "special project". It's a barrette. I tatted a white base and then I added some 3D roses. I think I will add two more little motifs to this barrette today.

These are the colors in a new dress that I bought for my little vacation to go and visit my hubby. It is sad that my husband is deployed so much that in order to see him I have to go where he is. Anyway. the dress is mostly black with a little white and pink mixed in. So I decided to make something tatted to wear with it and I decided on a barrette. I am going to be wearing this outfit to a "cirque de soliel" perfomance and I am very excited about it.
Also, this will be my last post for about a week. But when I get back I am sure I will have lot's to share. And of course I am taking my tatting with me!

Tatting treasures from trash

If you didn't know, Sharon started a new challenge which I glady joined. I just love challenges of any kind. The link is on the right side of this page.
Anyway, because of the recent dog attack that has left my right hand damaged, I haven't been able to get a whole lot done the last few days. But I did pick up the tatting and stubbornly plodded on. I tatted these original butterflies and made up a flower pattern on the fly. What would normally have taken a couple of hours has taken me two full days. The tatting is terrible, because my tensioning is out the window and I had to stop every few stitches because of the pain. But anyway, I am thankful that I am tatting at all and hoping it will all heal up soon.
I can envision a lot more to come for this purse. This is just a start.

Oh and I found out after the fact that the attacking dog was a mastiff! I wasn't exagerating when I said it was big.

Goof'n around with three shuttle tatting.

Here is a little motif I came up with while I was away from home this past weekend.
It is tatted with size 80 thread and I used three shuttles. With all my new designs lately I have been trying to tat continuously with not cuts or interruptions. Georgia if you are reading this, you would be proud.
I'm not 100% pleased with it but I do think it is a starting point for something much more interesting. I am going to keep playing around with it.

More tatted Rose earrings

I had so much fun with this pattern that I couldn't just stop at one pair. I played around with color combinations with the newly purchased thread from the convention. I have a list of people I want to give them to! Whoo hoo, this was fun.
I left off the last 5 large rings of the pattern because I like the smaller size roses better. I'm not much of a jewelry person but I think these are discreet enough that I might make a pair for myself to wear. My first tatted jewelry....oh boy, I sense that it is going to be all downhill from here. :)

Tatted Rose earrings...my first 3D tatting..

Thanks to Georgia Seitz for this great Mother's Day gift idea. And special thanks to Jeanne Lugert for designing and sharing this pattern.
These are a lot of fun to make and I hope all the Mother's in my life will apreciate them. I plan to do a couple more as time permits. These are tatted with size 80 varigated thread.

Marvelous tatted flowers

This was a little gift that everyone at the shuttlebirds convention received. A tiny pot of exquisite tatted flowers. I can only imagine how much work went into these. It is awesome. Now I need to learn to make these myself! What a fun little gift of tatting!

What I learned.... and a slide show Tour

I was nervous to finally meet other tatters because I just knew I would learn I was doing everything wrong for the last umpty ump years. My biggest surprise was that I knew more than I thought I did what I didn't know was all the terminology. I thought I needed to learn the Reverse Stitch, encapsulation and wrapping. To my surprise I already knew how to do this and they are all one in the same. I've been calling it split work. Another surprise was watching everyone's hands while they tatted, I saw a few different styles including my own...I didn't see anyone who tats like I do. I tried some of the other styles but I think I'll stick to my own. I did learn some very valuable concepts that I am already implementing in my own designs such as mock picots, the direct method of tatting and split chains and my favorite...clunies!
In one of my classes a couple of the other girls and I proposed the idea of a "TatPedia". It would be a place on the Internet where tatting concepts would be clearly laid out and all the different names we use for that concept would follow. It is something I wish I would have had access to all this time, it would have cleared up a lot of frustration and confusion I have had in the past. I don't feel that I am qualified to do the "tatpedia" given my lack of knowledge on the subject but if you feel you could do something like this please let me know so that I can add the link to this blog.
To my great surprise and delight my "Reflection of a Butterfly" took third prize. It was a real honor considering the excellence of all the other work.
I had a wonderful time with my grandmother. Everyone was so nice to the both of us. I am hoping she might want to come again next year. I finally met, in person, my Internet tatting friend Jen. It feels like we've known each other forever, but now I can finally put a face to her name.
On to the slide show: I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, I was so distracted by all the commotion, but I think this is a nice little glimpse of the wonderment that was the Shuttlebirds Tatting Convention. I have credited the pieces that I knew who the owners were, and some of the other work was collaborative. If you see something that belongs to you and I didn't credit you, firstly I apologize and secondly let me know and I will correct it!

Please enjoy the show.