A new 'leaf' on life!

Look what came in the mail! Yes a 'new' book for me! "Celtic Tatted Leaves and Flowers" By Rozella Linden aka Ruth Perry! She can be reached at email address: rjpoms@yahoo.com or follow her at http://tatting.wordpress.com .
I am really excited to get to work on this book. Not that I profess any talent in Celtic tatting, but if you don't try you can't make it work! I also got some MORE thread from Marilee. Te he like I need more. Well just a quick note I can hardly put my shuttles down now, so off I go to tat!

Ladyshuttle Maker is having a giveaway.

Lady Shuttle Maker is having a giveaway! Check her out at http://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/. Lady Shuttle Maker A.K.A. Sherry Pence is one of the many gifted artists in tat land and anything she has to share is truly beautiful! I have one of her ceramic shuttles and love it. Thank you for sharing with the rest of us, Sherry!

New thread, Book and tatting!

Here it is ( it can a little bit ago) Jon's new book! And on the same day I got another surprise- Thread from Yarnplayer( Marilee)! This is just a picture of the three colors I got,but I got several different sizes! My fav is 'Sugar Maple', but there is 'Summer Trail' and 'Lola'. SOOOO

I started tatting little things( the butterflies are actually Lizabeth thread) and the really small triple ring is in 'Sugar Maple'. But that's not all-

I had to try one of Jon's patterns from her book 'Tatting With Rings'. As you can tell from 1st pic ,Jon sent some rings to practice with. No I haven't hid my ends yet(just lazy on my part), and I WON'T point out the mistakes. This is done in size 20 of Marilee's 'Sugar Maple' and the large ring. It is about 2 1/2 inches across and went fairly quickly.( Pattern is 'Melur')

I like how it turned out. I'm thinking of single shuttle split rings and make a 'tail' so I can make it a bookmark. Or maybe turn it into a tree ornament. Well it is a thought,but there are MORE fun patterns to try and I DO have so many new color to choose from! And you know what they say 'practise makes perfect!' Or as I like to say keep trying until you get it right! Ta Ta for now and happy tatting!

Washclothes are taking over the world!

(Marilee's 'Sugar Maple' and tatted leaf pattern by Rodgers I believe)

This isn't tatted , but I have done a few tatted counterpart's! I just like the pic.Lol.

Meanwhile on the dishcloth trail......

Ok maybe I exaggerated a bit, but I sure have made ALOT of them recently. I should be as ambious about my shuttle as I have my crochet hook.

Here it is finishing up the second week of school and I am still sane! Ok maybe not really-let me explain. My schedule is hectic because I drive specials and this year is no exception. I start driving at 7:15 a.m. till 9:00a.m. Have a break until 10:50a.m. and finish up round two at 12:15 p.m. Get back on the road at 1:20p.m. and finish for the day at 3:10 p.m. Somewhere in there I get lunch take a few nature breaks and need to exercise. So if I have 5 minutes or so I work on something. Soon dish clothes will give way to tatting snowflakes and other winter and fall things(check out Yarnplayer at Esty- she has 'sugar maple' again! a MUST HAVE for tatting all those Fall things, like leaves and doilies etc.) Pic has been posted before, but the leave is Marilee's lovely 'sugar maple'. Ok the point is check her out and support the addiction of HDT so that people like Marilee keep creating lovely thread. And no I do not get a kick back from anyone. I just like HDT and all the lovely threads out there by some very talented ladies!

Well it has been along day already and tomorrow is coming. I wish everyone a safe and happy Labor's Day weekend! TaTa for now. :)

Have shuttle-Will travel

Last night I had the opportunity to teach someone to tat! Ok I have taught others, but this was the first time I actually had someone who picked it up like a fish to water. She got the ds stitch, how to transfer the flip, picots, rings, joins and chains- all in about 2 hours. I left her with a copy of "Learn To Tat" by Jeanette Baker(pic to the right), a couple of shuttles and some thread. Now normally I wouldn't get excited, but she is under 30, not related to me and she is already a talented artist in her own right. It was fun and can't wait to get together again to see how she does! Who knows maybe we can start our own tatting club here in Northern Illinois!:)

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

A family portrait taken for Bill's b-day party.(Bill is the little guy on the left). This will be the last photo of all of us as Bec has headed back to Alaska.(l-r Top-me, Jim 1st row-James, Becki and Bill).
Her father and I drove her to the airport and on the way home both of us were a little teary eyed. Even though she has lived in Alaska for over a year it was like sending her off all over again. It doesn't get easier. In the manual that didn't come with children when they where born the how you are suppose to cope with' their leaving the nest' chapter was missing. But that is the beautiful thing about families no matter were in life they are they are still your family and preparing them to have families of their own is one of our jobs.
Now I can take some time and pick up the aftermath and maybe get some tatting done.:).
P.S. To Tatting Chic- your blog goes into error when I try to open it. Just thought you would like to know.

Peaches, pickles and cherries!

Bec and I canned about 45 quarts of peaches, 14 quarts of pie cherries and Bec did 60 pints of dills. (I did only 14 pints of bread and butter). This was in prep of her getting stuff ready to go back to Alaska. (She leaves tomorrow). Where has the summer gone?

We did the Lake County Fair, the Milwaukee Zoo and lots of clothes shopping the last couple of weeks. All in all we had a FULL summer! I even made 4 dish clothes for her to take back with her. Pic is one of the four dish cloths Bec will be giving to her friend in Anchorage. Sad to say I didn't finish any tatting(Have lots of ufos going around.lol-unfinished objects that is). Maybe when Bec leaves I can get them done.

All in all I will miss Bec and it will be a long spell before we see her again. So when I am having home canned peaches this winter I can smile and think how much fun we had this summer! Well TaTa for now.