Hummingbird

It must be critter day here at the ranch! This morning I almost stepped on a Black Chin Hummingbird. I thought it was a mouse! It was cold here (45) and he probably was trying to get warm by borrowing into the warm gravel. I picked him up and put it onto the ledge of the birdhouse. Went out to check on him and he fell into the flowers. So I put him into the geranium pot. After 2 hours he was gone. We feed about a dozen hummers and have 3 feeders which have to be filled every 2 days. Yesterday, my DH left the kitchen door opened and a baby Whip Tail Lizard came on in! Found him this morning and shooed it in a box and took him out to the garden. He must be hungry and thirsty. Still working on apples, froze 20 pts and today I made 2 qts of apple cider. That is one of the things I miss from New York.

County Fair 2010

Here are my tatted entries for the County Fair. Also entered flowers, jams and other crafts. Received 9 blues, 7 reds and 2 whites. Happy with the results and the reds and whites makes you try harder next time. But how do you tell a flower you must be beautiful and be on your best behavior!!! This lady went out to the Juniper Tree and just snapped off a branch and got a blue! Never cleaned up the raw edge of the branch....

In another post I wrote about the doily losing its pattern because of the variegated threads. However, using the white then the red to outline it shows off the tatting pattern. There is still one more round to go and it will be in white.

Each motif of the white were individually tatted and joined to the variegated only. When joining the last round with the red thread you had to be careful not to twist the white motif. If it did get twisted you will have the red showing through the picot that you joined with.

garden

The Finches and Orioles are having a good lunch on my peach and apple trees. I have picked the top half and have a pie tin flashing and making noise but it does not bother the birds one bit! I just saw one fly off so I will have to pick the bottom peaches and freeze them when they become ripe. These are the nicest Gala apples we have in a long time and they are crisp and juicy. Just like the birds like also! The Delicious will not be ready till Sept. The last picture are the tomatoes, corn, asparagus and the apple trees. We have already frozen 14 qt of corn and this is the last planting. We have been eating fresh tomatoes and only canned 3 pts. They seem to be slow ripening this year.

Tatting Book

Handy Hands had a 15% off and I took advantage of it. Some of the new beautiful Lizbeth threads I purchased and Mark Myers "Tatted Gathering of Angels". Lots of nice angels to tat with good instructions. Through another company, I purchased the Embroidery Book by Country Bumpkin Publications for half price. This has excellent instructions with lots of illustrations.

Red and white Doily

This is a doily from Nancy Tracy's site, www.be-stitched.com, "Mom's Pink Doily". It is tatted with size 20 Lizbeth #151-Angels Love.The pattern is beginning to get lost in the infusion of colors. As you can see on the last round I tatted 2 white medallions and 2 variegated medallions. The variegated were cut out and I continued all the way around with only the white. It looks much better. While in New York in June I finished all 16 white medallions. It is repeating the same pattern and after the second one, you could do it in your sleep! So while you are visiting you can tat. I am waiting for my order from Handy Hands and start the next round in solid Christmas Red-#671.

Pop a Bobbin Tatting Shuttle

My daughter sent me a Pop-A-Bobbin Tatting Shuttle for Mother's Day gift. I did a little tatting with it and I love it. Works great. It is solid wood and does not give like the plastic ones. However, it is thicker and if you have very small hands it might present a problem.

It took me some time to get use to the thickness of it and I like the hook. Very precise. I am very happy and pleased with my gift!

Denim jacket

I purchased a plain denim jacket and sewed on the yolk when the embroidery was completed. The foundation was a loose muslin to sew crazy patches on. The center is Brazilian embroidery. The pattern is by Cate Grundy and can be found here...

www.brazilian-dimensional-embroidery.org/free_designs.htm
There are lots of tatting, beads, and crazy stitches. The whole yolk was placed onto the back and front. Smoothed out and pined well, then top stitched all the way around. At the shoulders I stitched across the seam and stitched most of the seams of the Brazilian Embroidery with invisible thread. That holds it to the jacket so there is no rippling or sagging. Tatting was attached to the collar and cuffs.