Two more flakes...and thats all!

 Again, a long time between posts...but there is a bit of a story behind that.  These two flakes I gave to my sister in mid December.  I took a photo of them before we hung them with the others I have gifted to her, even loaded the pic here to post later...

 

 

These are a continuation of Diane's snowflakes, I think doodle #5 and the snow crystal.  There were other's, but I know not where they are, nor if I have any pictures...

 

So I will just tell a bit of the story...

 

 

I tatted these at a point where life was deceptively quiet, the kind of quiet before a storm...that peaceful lull when you know something is coming and even a little about what it holds...

 

and then...life got really busy.

 

We moved...

nearly 1500 miles to Vashon Island, Washington

from our previous home in Pueblo, Colorado.

 

We bought a business,

and a home.

 

Packing the whole entirety of our lives took 10 days,

we are still unpacking...

 

We have our own 12.2 acres of wooded paradise to explore,

The girls have new schools and new friends to make.

 

We have much to learn and more to do than we are capable of each day...

but we do what we can and get up the next day and do more.

 

Life is full and blessed and amazing...

 

...and I hope to fill my quiet moments again with the click click sound of my shuttles and the graceful movements of the hand and the peace and grace that tatting brings to my life.

 

Green and Gold Cross by Grandma...

Meant to post this earlier today...this is another cross Grandma Stella tatted.  The thread is likely size 30, in a pretty mint green and gold.  This is one that was given to my husband some time ago...and I spied it in his Bible today and thought to share it with all of you...

She did many many variations on this cross, slightly different centers, stitch counts, etc.  Like the one here that I posted about previously.  It was definitely something she tatted over and over again...and her tatted crosses are the thing I value most and the reason I stepped back into the "ring" and finally really learned to tat nearly 3 years ago.

Snow is still falling...

This is also by Sharon Briggs...her 2009 Merry Christmas Snowflake.  I had started this one last year...and it was tucked in the clear cover I keep over the pattern, shuttles and all.  Had to finish this pretty thing...

A very pretty little tat, I enjoyed this design.  This was finished on the 3rd of December.

Grandma's simple bookmark...

I knew I had this tucked away somewhere...

Sometime back, after Grandma passed away in 2000, I was given this by my sister with the thought that this was simple enough that I might be able to tat it...

But, I had a small baby and little time and my single shuttle lay idle for the most part...for a good 10 more years.  It is pretty to see...and examine.  You can see that Grandma did simply cut and tie.  I am still not convinced that this is not quite an adequate way of going about things.  I frequently feel that if it was good enough for Grandma...well...

At any rate, this is not a difficult little bookmark to replicate...though I do like this one of her's that I copied and attempted writing out a pattern for (way back in my second month of really tatting) a bit better.

I am afraid that I have been tempted away from the snowflakes for an evening to play with this little pattern...

More snow...

This one was next to fall, on the 2nd of December...

Just because it looked a delight when I picked up the pattern from the stack and I went no further.

This is Nancy Tracy's Layered Tatted Snowflake...

Isn't it a pretty thing.  I had fun tatting this little beauty.

It's been snowing...

It started snowing on the 1st day of December with this flake...but I haven't had a chance to photograph any of the flakes that have fallen from my shuttles until this afternoon.

This is Sharon's simple flake from her Snowflakes-For-Christmas post, it just seemed a nice little bit to play with to get the storm going...

I have a couple more flakes photographed and loaded to blogger, but I think they will wait until tomorrow...if I spread them out a bit, perhaps I will gain a chance to photograph a few more.  For now, it is late, and my shuttles are calling to me...though my pillow is sure to begin it's serenade soon as well.

Another tatted vintage find...

Here is a beautiful find that I meant to share with all of you a couple of weeks ago, I even had the photos taken and loaded on blogger...just needed to type a few words and post...life is like that though, full of unexpected interruptions...

This beautiful dresser scarf is one that I found at a little second hand shop on Vashon Island that is a favorite haunt of ours while on the island...

It is a lovely linen piece with ecru thread inserts.  It is the same on both ends.  I am afraid I wasn't able to find a place to lay out the entire piece to photograph it nicely.  It is a very usable piece and I plan for it to be on my sofa table when I find time to rearrange again...

I love the insets and the edging is lovely, I don't believe I have seen that particular edging pattern before and I really love it...

The price wasn't bad either...rather a steal at that price, I felt!  But I love tatting...and though I think the art is growing and more people are aware of it and understand more about it at present, there are many who do not see the time and love that goes into it yet.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the photos of this pretty piece!

White as snow...

This beautiful doily was also tatted by my Grandmother...is it not gorgeous!?!  I love how the six sided snowflakes fit together to create this beautiful piece.  It's really spectacular...and as white as snow, even after all these years...

Hoping that I will have more to share with you soon, however, I am traveling with my daughters and parents for the next several weeks.  We are out on Vashon Island in Washington state again.  Internet access is not readily available where we are at on the Island, so it may be sporadic or phone posts....it is quiet there though, so I often get a lot of time for my own tatting...

Yellow Doily...

Here is another lovely creation of my Grandmother's...I have been traveling the past two days and will be again, but I am "home" in Montana at the moment and Mom had this doily and another tucked away in a drawer here.  They are too lovely not to share...

Not a large doily, only four rounds...but a beautiful little thing in this gorgeous yellow!  This is my Dad's favorite color...so my guess is that this was a gift to him.

Tatting for baby...

This is something my Grandmother made for my big girl when she was to be born...

It's just gorgeous, I wish now that I had used it and had pictures of her wearing it...but I saved it as it seemed too precious.  I should have pressed it before taking photos...but I wanted to share and lacked the time, better wrinkly than not at all.  The edging is lovely...I think I need to try to replicate it...

Revised prize...

When I went to pick up my county fair entries, I found that I had won the grand champion ribbon for the entire thread division...really, really excited about that!  Of course, the prize money will go to buy a few tatting books I have been coveting!

What fun it is to win a prize and a big rosette!!!!

Bits and Pieces...

Here are the bits and pieces from the J.P. Coats box that I had promised to show a couple of days ago!  It has been a busy couple of days...our county fair commenced on Monday and between working with my Older Daughter to finish her fair projects and volunteering with the open class judging Monday and monitoring the exhibits all day yesterday, I have just been too tired to finish this post!

Here is the first motif...again, I really have no idea where these came from or who the tatter was, but this is a lovely little motif...

Here is the second bit...it still is attached to the ball and a bobbin, perhaps I should/could finish the round at least...it is lovely and delicate...

Lastly, there is a shuttle and a bit of braid...really a lovely little piece of lace, though this one needs cleaned where as the others are pristine...

Always a joy to see and touch such tatted work...I find it both inspiring and a great joy to hold tatting like this.  I also learn a great deal from looking at and being able to touch and examine the work of other tatters, past and present...

Hope you have enjoyed...

Next post...County Fair!  My entries or Daughter's first?  Time will tell...

Grandmother's Flutters to Share...

I was sifting through a box of special things and ran across a treasure that I thought I would share...

My Sister sent this card to me in 2000, after Grandma passed away.  The card has made me smile more than once through the years...and what is inside, well...

The card asks "How Are You Today?"

Each time I find this card and look inside, my day is brightened...

How could it not be?

I am not sure where the pattern comes from, though I think I have seen it somewhere...perhaps an old Workbasket?  I would love to know, as I would like to have that as well.  I know I could count the stitches and have a go, but I would like to tat it from the pattern as Grandma may have done. 

Hmmm...I should dampen the pink variegated one and tidy it's antennae and wings and things a bit.

Snowfall in summer...

My beloved sister was visiting this past week and these beautiful little flakes went home with her.  They were intended for this past Christmas...but I wanted to finish the "set".  Someday, I will get to it and she will have the remaining designs too.  There is one on the shuttle, somewhere, with the instructions I had printed...someplace about...I really do need to get back to my challenge of finishing things!

  These are the 1st 4 of Diane's doodad snowflakes that she designed this past winter...there are 7 designs there, 8 total if you include the snow crystal she also designed.

There you have it, a bit of a snowfall in June!

Crosses in school colors...

Well, it has certainly been a week!  I last posted on Sunday, and it seems like forever ago...so many things going on with the end of the school year!  I spent about 10 hours volunteering at older daughter's school this week, in their school garden and then helping them make ice cream and tie dye some shirts later in the week.  We have been to school orchestra concerts, talent shows, end of year picnics, field days, and I'm not sure what else...it's all kind of a blur at this point.  The last end-of-year family picnic was today though, and these crosses went home with three wonderful teachers...

This first one, I showed when it was almost completed...

This is Mary Konior's "Small Cross" in size 70 vintage thread, the navy is Star, the gold variegated is labeled "Fil Pour Crochet CtB France" and "Cartier Bresson", I have not seen that before, but it is very nice thread and looks superb in this pattern with the navy thread.

This second cross is "Christina" from Tatted Bookmarks ~ cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn.  The thread is Lizbeth size 20 Navy Blue and Golden Yellow Med.    It's a beautiful pattern, as are each of the ones I have tatted from this book.  The photo could be better, but I was trying to get a quick picture after I finished it this morning and before it left my hands...

Here are the three crosses together, the one on the left I showed a week or so ago in this post.

Hopefully, life will slow down a bit now.  Today is my Birthday, I had wanted to get a giveaway together for today...but it will have to wait another day or two until I have caught my breath again.

Antique Edgings and a Doily...

A little bit of antiquing a while back found these...fairly basic edgings, for the most part, but I always get excited when I see some tatting.  The pink variegated edging is my favorite of the lot I think...

...and then I found this...

 

I thought this really a quite nice example of vintage tatting...really lovely!

In this next photo, a better "up close" look at the pattern...

It's all rings, nary a chain anywhere.

Most intriguing really,

and very, very lovely...

Here is the reverse, so that you can see how the linen centre is finished...simply folded over and crocheted round...but it seems to have held quite well...

All in all, a fun day...the doily was the only piece I brought home in the end.  I am just intrigued by some of the design elements in it and wanted to have it for future reference...and to share with all of you!

First Stitches and Things...

I KNEW I still had this somewhere...even though I didn't pick it up again, this was something I treasured.  This is my first bit of tatting from probably close to 23 years ago, when I was about 15 and Grandma Stella tried to teach me to tat...

This is the shuttle and practice thread she sent me home with all those years ago...

Very messy, it looks to me like I only "got" half the stitch...I had trouble with this when I picked it up again 3 years ago as well, I actually dreamed of Grandma's hands tatting one night and then showing me the second half of the stitch and telling me it should look like a little boy's pair of pants the second night before I "got" it...  It was like she came back to show me...so I still claim that Grandma taught me to tat...because she did.

I have been thinking of her so much the past few days, since finding this.

Marathon Tat...

So...you all know I have been working on some crosses in my older daughter's school colors for end-of-the-year teacher gifts.  Well, little Rosie Posie has been asking which ones were for her teachers and I've been "I don't know"ing it away, unsuccessfully.  Not that I didn't want to, I just wasn't sure I could get it all done.  She was very insistent last night that her teachers should receive crosses too, and I agreed.  So looked through what I had on hand and found 5 of these Mark-My-Word crosses by Mary Konior.  Those seemed about right.  I thought that would be plenty...

Well, this morning when I dropped her off at school, I asked how many teachers.  There are 8, and I needed 3 more crosses...so I hurried home and got busy.  It was only 3.5 hours before the end-of-the-year party...I managed 2 more with having to make cards and eat lunch too...and found another bookmark (not a cross) to make the 8, it was the best I could do.  It felt like a marathon...but was worth it.  The crosses/bookmark's were all well received.  The program has been a treasure, my little one has learned so much!

Here are the two crosses I tatted this morning...

Size 20 Lizbeth in Sea Scape and Jelly Bean.

Here is the little bit about tatting I included in the cards...

just to explain the bookmarks a little bit...(mostly pulled, hurriedly, from Wikipedia)

I like people to understand something of what they have received when I do give my tatting.

Back to finishing existing projects now (I hope)...

Small Cross Waiting...

Not a lot of tatting happening these past two days, just a ring here and a chain there...but, I have nearly completed this 'small cross" design by Mary Konior. 

There is a missed join that had happened back whenever I initially started this, perhaps that is why I laid it down...but I elected to keep going when I noticed and simply made that the top arm, in order that it should look more intentional.  

Now, I just need to tie and sew in the ends and add a tail...oh and block it a bit.  Waiting for morning when I am less tired and less likely to skewer myself with the needle!

I'm afraid I've spend more time on this of late...

My pretty Rosie Posie received a new book from Grandma and was eager to try it out!  We have had fun playing with our craft supplies and creating princess accessories...sometimes these things are, indeed, necessary you know!

Whiled Away with Workbasket...

I probably should tat first and read blogs later...but, after a busy day that did not involve time to sit, I did the later first and Lace Lovin' Librarian's post today led me to another way of whiling away my tatting time...

She is currently looking for all of the issues of the Workbasket magazine that have tatted cross patterns in them.  I find this of particular interest because I am fairly certain that these are the majority of the cross patterns that my Grandmother had access to and therefore tatted.

I knew I had two patterns, and was able to pull those copies from my stack...one was one (that sounds silly) that Diane didn't yet have...

I KNOW Grandma tatted this one, as I have seen this cross tatted by her...

(aren't the old illustrations lovely!)

It is from this issue...

which I recently acquired at our local thrift store (I paid 1/2 the "sticker price" on one of their sale days).

A happy acquisition for me and I was pleased to be able to share it too...

This is my "stash" of Workbaskets from various sources, some from Grandma (she gave me her duplicates years ago, but Daddy hasn't found her collection at the farm ~ don't know what happened to them), some from an antique store, a few from a friend from Church, and a few from the thrift store...

Now, as to whiling away my tatting time...I can only say that Workbaskets are like potato chips...you can not devour look at just one!

The small pile in front are my duplicate copies...I need to figure out what to do with these, there are certainly some interesting patterns in there.  

I am thinking about a giveaway to include some of these workbaskets and a few other "goodies" for my Birthday next week, 

What do you think?

I have never done a giveaway before, but I have been the recipient of some lovely things...perhaps it's time!