Christmas

Merry Christmas and Welcome to our home!

We will have a white christmas with 6-8 inches of snow. It is our German custom to have a winter wonderland under the tree. Tazzie loves to sit and watch the dazzle of the lights and what can I get to play with!!

Chili Peppers and Stockings

Here are my gifts I have been giving to my tatting friends. The stockings are filled with little things with their initials on them. These are nice, quick patterns from http://www.thisntat.com/motifs/a.html . Red Chilies are New Mexico's number one crop. The pattern was drawn out and made from felt with Lizbeth jellybean edging. For the needle holder I added another felt inside with a needle and a holder for the needle threader.

Christmas Balls

Here are a two Christmas balls I tatted for my Grandchildren. I glued the motif in place then added the beads. Any snowflake pattern will work. My pattern came from Patti Duff's book "Minitats". The thread is from Lily size 5 and has a metallic thread in it. Just sparkles under lights.

Snowmen

This is a cute snowman pattern and easy from Carol Winandy's book "Tatting". It consist of 2 small rounds of rings and chains. The first round will be the head and the second round you tat another round of rings and chains attaching them to the first round for the tummy. Instead of joining later I joined to 2 picots while tatting the ring. Another snowman pattern can be found in "The Complete Book of Tatting" by Rebecca Jones. Both books can be purchased from Handy Hands.

Hand Towels

My daughters request for Christmas are these hand towels. These are purchased hand towels at Walmart by Better Homes and Garden. I added an edging then 3 buttonholes. The top is brought over and marked where the buttons go. These were really "fun" buttons I found in OK Walmart. The Amarillo, TX Walmarts closed down the Sewing Department. With small children using hand towels they were always on the floor and these towels will not be on the floor.

Red Hat Mrs Claus

Meet Mrs Santa Clause who was just a plain old lady from Avon with only a red dress. She is now a Red Hat Lady! I tatted the earrings and Christmas Tree and added braids and buttons on her dress. The hat is sprayed painted red with edging and a purple boa for a feather!

Tatting

The nativity pattern is from Becky Dempsey. The pattern can be found at

http://www.freewebs.com/blossomsandblessingsdesigns . It is mainly Split Rings with a few Josephine Knots but it is pretty easy. A very good design for practicing Split Rings. I added a star and gold braid over the top of the cradle.

tatting

Christmas is coming and Oh MY!!!!! This is a quick and easy icicle to tat up. The pattern is from The Workbasket, June/July, 1990 by Charlene G. Finiello. The instructions written in the magazine were hard to follow so I wrote them out line by line. That made it much easier to read the instructions. The thread I used was Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread size 5. It has silver metallic threads which does not show up but on a tree with lights it dazzles. One could use size 20 or 40 Lizbeth thread and add a silver thread with it to make a smaller icicle.

Tatted Jacket

Went to Ok for a visit with my mom and gave her the jacket for Christmas. She loves embroidered jackets. It was a store bought denim shirt with the cuffs and bottom hem cut off. The extra material was used for a pocket at the bottom. I scalloped the bottom edge to give it character. The edging is a split ring pattern from Jane Eborall using size 20 Lizbeth Thread. Most of the tatting threads were size 20 Lizbeth. The back is raw edged applique with free motion leaves and grass. The bumblebees method is block tatting by Martha Ess. Very quick and easy to make. Hanging Cluny ( dragon fly) takes flight by Zena Herbert is a pretty pattern but I left the Cluny head out. I need to take some time out and learn how to do the Cluny! The small butterfly and owl are patterns by Roger aka Freedman. The worms are my own design using split rings. These are all easy patterns. The front pocket has a butterfly by Jane Eborall and the heart by Heather Johnston.

Heather Johnston from the Tarnished Tatter, http://thetarnishedtatter.blogspot.com , has requested to send tatted hearts for her friend, Tracy. Tracy is a young lady of 33 going through stage 4 breast cancer and will be having a double mastectomy. I belong to The Vintage Quilting Society and taught these lady how to tat in March. We all agreed to tat a heart, designed by Heather and posted on her blog, for Tracy. It is a way for all of us to say "we care"! The top 3 hearts will be for sale on Heather's Etsy. This is one of our community world wide projects. Our community project for New Mexico is sending hand embroidered, postcards to the Men and Women in the military.

Crazy Quilt Christmas Stocking

Crazy Quilt Christmas Stocking was made for my niece, Debra. It is worked up with a combination of Crazy Quilt stitches, Hand dyed silk ribbon embroidery, bead work and tatting. This is the front side of the stocking

Debra's Crazy Quilt Stocking

Debra's back side of Crazy Quilt Christmas Stocking.

Heather's Exchange

Heather Johnston from Hastings, PA was my Needle Tatting Exchange partner. Heather hand dyes her yarn and it is for sale at Heather's Designs. The pumpkin is size 10 hand dyed orange. I have made the same pumpkin in sizes 20 and 80 and it is interesting what size they are when finished. The beautiful earrings are her own design tatted in size 30. The hand dyed thread is called Harvest Time. I really like these because they are dainty. The hand dyed thread is size 20, Bali. She gave me instructions on how to work with it. So this will be a first experiment! Thank you Heather, I love it all and what a nice tatter you are.

Lizbeth Variegated Threads

Beginning at the top left the first red edging is done in Red Burst #142 and the second edging is Desert Bloom #110. The edgings are sewed on to a collar of a jacket. The third edging is jelly Bean #119 and it will go on a t-shirt.

The next color is Springtime #115. This is a very delicate color, one of my favorites.

In the middle are the new variegated threads
that just came on the market. Christmas Green Mix #152 has more white than I like but still a nice color. Angel Love #151 also has more white. The design is a generic pattern
ring and chain. The first one is all white with jingle bells on the outside. The second one has gold beads. Both have red beads in the center. One can compare how the looks with the plain verses variegated. The last picture is Caribbean #122. It is a very bold color. When working with small motifs as the butterfly not all the color will be use. You will have to play around with the starting points to get the variegated look you want. Some patterns are better suited for variegation thread and other patterns are not. I like the threads without the white.

Halloween is fast approaching! My cards are finished and in the mail. The bat and ghost are tatted with Lizbeth 20 and the patterns are Mark Myers. The pumpkin is tatted in Majestic 80 and the pattern is by Sherry Matthews. There are lots of pumpkin patterns, it is finding the time to tat them! The post card started out with tulle on muslin and free motion down. I use stiff drapery underlining and iron on stitch witchery on both sides. The front and back are then ironed on. Trim up the edges and sew the border. My Halloween partner is Heather from the Needle tatting group.

Tatted pumpkins and Ghost

Pumpkins by Sherry Matthew works up quick with Lizbeth #20 Bright Orange. She uses the first ds of the JK for the stem. I asked the Here to Be Tatters Group if it made a difference which half you use working with the Josephine Knot. Most of the tatters use the second half because it is faster. The first pumpkin I did the first half of the ds and the second pumpkin I worked the second half. I found that the second half had more twist to it. Polly Womack replied that there is a difference and suggested making a sample of each with different size threads.

The "Scary Ghost" is a pattern by Mark Myers. Another easy pattern, however, you must follow closely and not be distracted! We had 2 sheep wander in the front yard while working on this. It is not an easy pattern to set down and pick back up. The diagram really helped. The thread is Lizbeth #20 white, of course!

Many thanks to Sherry Matthew and Mark Myers for designing these free patterns.

Silk Ribbon Post Card

A Crazy Patch, Silk Ribbon Post Card with a tatted butterfly is ready to send to a special person for their Birthday. The Silk Ribbon is hand dyed.

Mr Kitty Cat 2

Mr Kitty Cat 2 is not cross eyed like Mr Kitty Cat 1! The dog chewed his ear so he has a longer Picot!!! Thank you Jane Eborall for the pattern and excellent instructions on adding beads to the center of a ring. The head and tail are split rings. I like doing split rings now that I have learned how to do them. This was blocked out using my method below. I received a blue ribbon at the Fair for Mr Kitty Cat 2.

Tatting

Clover Leaf Doily designed by Linda S. Davies is an easy pattern to follow. You can find the pattern on her web page; http://www.howiedee.com There was a very good discussion on blocking tatting at Here to Be Yahoo tatting group. I blocked each round with water and pinned it out. On the last round I used Mary Ellen's Best Press, a clear starch alternative. I like the product. It didn't make it stiff but nice to handle.

Here is another easy pattern by Nancy at Be-stitched; http:/www.be-stitched.com

It is an easy pattern using only one shuttle with beads. Some of the beads are added to the shuttle and slide on when tatting. The other beads are added by a long picot. When tatting the next round add the bead with a hook. I also added a jump ring and threaded the tied threads back through the big bead.

Brazilian Embroidery

Brazilian Embroidery sewing kit was made with Altoids tin. The material for the embroidery was tea dyed. I received a blue ribbon. The Heart Flower Brazilian Embroidery was a kit and I received a red ribbon.

Fair Entries 2009

My County Fair entries for August 2009. I received 22 blues, 5 reds and 1 white Ribbon. Very pleased with the results but not enough entries for the sweepstakes!

Snowflake Blizzard

Tatting Goddess Tatting Group had a "Snowflake" Blizzard. My exchanged partner was Wendy Durell from the UK. I have a gorgeous tatted snowflake and a picture of Canterbury Cathedral. I would love to visit England and the Cathedral. One of my ancestors owned a silk mill during the early 1700's.