Earring pics as promised.

These are one of the pair of earrings I bought at the Loominosity Show last Saturday. They are made by Marilee Rockley aka Yarnplayer . Her etsy shop is here. The thread is her own hand dyed 'Snowflake' and some very pretty blue beads with a cute pearl bead in the center.

I also got these lovely bear earrings made by one of the ladies from Loose Bead Society. They are pink quartz with crystals. I love quartz and think it it prettier than more expensive gem stones. Also this my attempt at Jane Eborall's flurry snowflake found at her pattern page here.  I made it in Yarnplayer's 'Sugar Maple' size 10 with size 8 glass beads. This was fun to do and I learned a new way to do SCMR.
Well fall is in full swing and as the leaves fall it is the feeling Winter is not far away. I love Winter except for the sub zero temperatures. Snow is lovely and all the Christmas lights are nice. But it makes me realize it is also a hectic time to get all things done. So many snowflakes to make so little time! So with that said time to go back to work!
Please remember some of our dear tatting friends in your prayers like Sherry Pence(LadyShuttleMaker) that all goes well with her delivery and Tatting Chic who has a job lose coming up. I know there are others, and I know they appreciate our prayers in their behalf. TaTa for now.

Ah Ha! Got it to work!

Marilee and me in front of one of the booths of lovely jewelry for sale. Marilee was wearing jewelry she tatted that had real gold in it. Simply gorgeous. She gave me one of her "Treasure" pendant piece and I bought a couple of earrings- one was hers and another was a cute pair of pink quartz bears. I post those another time.

Meeting Marilee...I Can't Believe It Has Been SOOO Long!

This is to let you know:
1. I did not die in spite of what you may have heard.
2. I have done some tatting.
3. And I meet one of the nicest ladies of tatting!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go to the Loominosity show in New Berlin, Wis. Marilee Rockley aka Yarnplayer was there. I can't tell you how excited I was to finally get to meet Marilee. At first she must of thought I was a stalker until she remembered my name. I don't think I was that over zealous, but lets face it it was the high light of my day! She is as beautiful and gracious in person as she is on her blog. Yarnplayer (click on Yarnplayer to go to her blog).  There are some wonderful  pictures of some of the beautiful things at the exhibition and a great picture of Marilee and a bad picture of me! lol. ( stupid computer is NOT letting me down load picture I took to my blog. They improved it.Hahaha) So I will try later to see if I can get it to work.

A tatting we will, a tatting we will go high ho...

Celtic Knot Earrings done in 'Celery' hdt by Yarnplyer Celtic Knot done in 'Aqua Bay' also by hdt by Yarnplayer.

The three 'trial and errors'. Two not finished yet.

Where does the time go! May has slipped away and June is here! Yeah last day of school tomorrow! Of course next year does not sound promising. But hey, I at least still have a job!

On another note, Becki has packed, moved and is job hunting. That seems to be the theme everywhere though. It is scary when you realize the economic distress US is feeling is being felt everywhere. Thank goodness for tatting! No matter what the language you speak you can understand tatting across the globe. And though things are 'tight' everywhere there is a sense of well being when you can create something of beauty with thread. It warms the heart,cheers the soul and makes on feel like YES! LOOK WHAT I DID!

I have been following several people far more talented and creative than I and always enjoy their blogs and views on life. Everyone that tats seems to able to find the silver lining in the darkest cloud. Even when health has prevented them from enjoying life, they take to the shuttle and create such things of beauty. I can think of several tatters that have had their own private battles and who are always sunny. And though I haven't had as many challenge as some of my fellow tatters, I enjoy the sense of well being I can get from knotting some thread.I think for me it is therapy and sometimes some form of torcher.

The 3rd picture is proving to be the latter. How hard can it be to follow a pattern? Especially when it is written out and diagrammed?! Obviously for me hard. The pattern is 'Folded Bookmark' by Jon Yusoff at http://tatsaway-patterns.blogspot.com/ . The sample are as follows: 'Garden Afternoon' size 50, 'Brilliant Sunset' size 20, and 'Aqua Bay' size 10.( working with size 10 thread felt like working with rope after working with size 20 for so long.) All three threads are Yarnplayer's HDT (http://yarnplayer.etsy.com/ ) All three bookmarks have a mistake in them. This was not on purpose, they just happened. Too few stitches on a chain and short a picot or two. I thought by the third time through I would not make mistakes- I was wrong. Oh well what are you going to do. Who ever get these will never know I can't follow directions. lol.

I also made some earrings( 1st and 2nd pictures) for a friend at work using 'Aqua Bay' size 20 and 'Celery' size 20(also HDT from Yarnplayer) for earrings and size 10 for pendant. The pattern for the Celtic knot is found in Rozella Linden's "Celtic Tatting Knots and Patterns" found at Handy Hands(http://www.handyhandstatting.com/ ). The blue earrings were shuttle tatted, the green set was needle tatted. It is straight forward ds stitches with following the diagram on how to do the Celtic knot Ruth Perry style. It goes quickly (once you get the knotting technique) and is fun to do. Add a nice bead and you have a masterpiece!

I seem to be stuck in bookmarker mode time to start something BIG. I would like to enter Lake County Fair with a piece of tatting. It is in July, maybe if I start now I can get it done in time since work starts up again June 8th.( Summer school for my little guys) I will have a 3 hour break Monday through Thursday so I can walk for 45 minutes and tat for and hour and a half. We will see how far I get on both plans.(Congrats to Tatting Chic on her diet and her sucess. I know how hard it is to loose weight. I've lost and found the same 100 + pounds for years! Good luck in keeping it off!) I plan to stick to the plan and will keep the tatting world informed. Also working on a pattern. We will see who it all works out! Well time to put this 'novel' to bed. I hope all are well and keeping those shuttles flying! TaTa for now.

Long time has past! Happy Mother's Day!

(Click on pic for a closer look)

It has been a LONG time since last post. That is not out of neglect just life getting in the way. I took the challenge for Internation Tat Day of designing a fish and sorry to say it is still being 'tweeked ' and not ready to share. Jane Eborall has been kind enough to help me with it and as soon as I get the bugs out of it (and Jane says it works) you will see it. Meanwhile you will just have to settle with my attempts at Jane's Butterfly bookmark found at http://www.e.n.e.btinternet.co.uk/ .

The first picture is really the second one I made in 'Tutti Fruity' Lizbeth thread size 20. The second is also a new color which escapes me now, but it is Lizbeth and size 20 and my first attempt. The tail for the second is lock stitch(or a poor attempt at it) and the tail for the first is something that I'm not sure what stitch it turned out to be. The fun of tatting! you can learn and create things all the time!

My little tatting group is going well and it is fun to work with someone who wants to learn. I don't consider myself an expert tatter but I know enough to get someone started on the right path. My three ladies are working on rings, chains, joining and following a pattern. One of my friends is actually working on dimple rings and doing a very good job. Lindsey was taught when she was 6 originally by her GGrand Mother but hadn't touched it for many years. She is really the more advanced and is having a great time. My other two ladies are knitters and crocheters so getting them to get the flip was a challenge. But they are determained!

It is Mother's day and I am enjoying lovely flowers my children sent to me. I am also getting over a very nasty reaction to a bee string I had several days ago. I ended up in the ER on IV for it. And now have to carry an EPI Pen with me along with Benadryl. I have been stung many time from bees(we raise them) this was the first time I ever had that kind of reaction. My GrandMother was allergic to bees so there is a predisposition there. My daughter swells from stings so she should be careful that later in life it could happen to her.

Becki has come and gone and will be home sometime in June to get her car. She resigned from her job as they didn't renew her contract so she is going through the nerve racking process of job hunting. She is hoping to go to Anchorage. Only because there are more job possiblities and it is the largest city in Alaska with a real town and everything! It still sits near the water, but you can get from one place to another by car! Not just by Ferry. Weather is like Northern Illinois so they have snow(still in April) and it gets colder than were she is now, but unlike Illinois there isn't the humidiy and 100+ degree temps in the summer. Actually weather here is more severe than most of Alaska. And I live in Illinois why?lol.

I would like to say that life has been good ,and in many ways it has. But because of how the State is treating schools and not paying them there has been many challenges for schools to make it all work. This effects my job next year in that since I am an 'At Will' employee they can cut our pay(again) and there is really nothing we can do about it. It means that because how pension funds are set up I will be looking for a different kind of job in 4 years so as not to have a dramatic drop in my pension payout. Trouble is I like what I do and being marketable at 60 is really hard. To old to start over, too young to retire. What are you going to do. Well I hope everyone has a great week and enjoy Spring! Just think how it makes you want to get out and tat! Happy tatting to all! :)

The Post Man Cometh.

And he brought me 'presents'! This long awaited book came today. It is Sherry Pence's( aka LadyShuttleMaker) new butterfly book. It is full of fun butterflies and can't wait to tat a few!

Last fall I joined 'Ring Of Tatters' and got my renewal form some time ago. With the form was a form to order these next two books. I opened this first book and there are names of people I had several books from, who contributed to it. There is a wealth of knowledge, techniques and comments from such poeple as Mary Konoir and Pam Palmer. I will treasure these two books for along time. It is nice to read the history of ROT and see all the lovely lace that has been made.

On another note, there are 24 days left till the Becki cometh! (I'm NOT excited-much!) Happy Tatting to all and to all go night! :)

An 'Enchanter' Valentine's Day!

A happy Valentine's Day to all. Here is Jon Yusoff's latest pattern 'Enchanter' done in size 20 Lizbeth thread in 'Western Sunset' # 102. Jon's lovely pattern is at her web site http://tatsaway.blogspot.com/ . I saw the pattern and didn't know how big it would tat in 20 thread. ( It is about 1 -1/2" by 1 -3/4" perfect earring size) And when I finished one I said I have to make another.
The pattern tats up beautifully and quickly. I think I would like to make some more and add beads. This design lends itself easily to beads. A few seed beads in the picots and a little dagger bead at the tip maybe.
The hardest part is tying a bow! My fingers don't work like that any more. lol.
They are in time to wear for church on Valentine's Day. Nice addition to my earring collection.
The count down has begun for Becki sighting- 26 days and she will be here! :)