Sequined Bling

I was thinking about turning the very beady bracelet I did the other day into a bookmark, but I have too much respect for books to subject them to the spine killing treatment of beads. So the problem is how to get the bling without the hard fat lumps that beads present. Then I had an idea. How about using sequins? All of the shine with none of the fat.

Here it is, in all it's unblocked glory. The threads are size 20 Lizbeth Turquoise Lt #662 and Summer Fun #104 with pink sequins. The reflection from the sequins really inhibits acquiring a good scan and although I tried numerous background colours nothing really worked well. Can you spot the one upside down sequin?

Here's the little miscreant. I was trying so hard not to do that, and only noticed it as I was about to finish the bookmark.

I misjudged thread length - twice. I reloaded the shuttle the first time and measured out what I thought I'd need to finish and ran out again 2 measly rings from the end. Two. rings. However, as a designer these things happen frequently, so adding in more thread is no big deal. See the instructions on the sidebar for how I do it. The ends are hidden while I add the thread. So it's just a matter of cutting off the ends when I'm done and you can't even see where I added the thread.

I don't usually use something as thick as size 20 for bookmarks, but as this one is probably going to be used in paperback novels it's all right. Not only that, the thickness of the thread will help to cushion the pages from the edges of the sequins better than size 80 would. Over time the sequins may cut through the threads, but it's a bookmark, not an heirloom.

Most of the time I block my work, even though I tat tightly enough, and pull it into shape enough as I work that it doesn't really need it. I don't go the -pin every picot in place- route, but I do generally pin out the major points before I hit it with a shot of super heated water from the steam iron. I wouldn't want to put the iron on this one, though. I expect that the sequins are made out of plastic and would, A- melt and lose their shine and shape, and B- stick to my iron and make one horrible mess.

Tatting 101 - Filling a shuttle

I get asked so many beginners questions so often, that in defense of my time, I've decided to do a Tatting 101 with the basics and I thought I'd start with the one that is the simplest, but the one that I still get asked: How do I get the thread on the shuttle?

First, there are different types of shuttles. The most basic shuttle is a flat shuttle. Here is a template for one that you can cut out of an old business card.

The shuttles pictured here are the 3 basic shuttle types. The little one on the left is one my hubby made for me out of walnut wood. Some flat shuttles can unwind if you drop them. This one doesn't. The middle shuttle is a post style shuttle, this one is a David Reed Smith shuttle. The one on the right is an Aero bobbin style shuttle.

No matter what kind of shuttle I use, the method of putting the thread on is the same. I use a simple, practical slip knot. Start by wrapping the thread around your hand like this. Then poke a loop of the thread coming from the ball through the wrap like this.

Then hold the thread end in one hand and the loop in the other hand and pull apart.

You end up with a loop and the knot can slide up and down. Which is where it gets it's name slip knot from.

With practice you can arrange the knot close to the thread end, but for now you can just cut off the end leaving just enough to hold onto.

On a flat shuttle, take the loop and position it around the shuttle going into the hole on one side, around the back and out through the hole on the other side. Then holding the thread end in one hand and the ball end in the other hand pull and the knot will slip making the loop smaller and smaller until it's snug against the shuttle.

Then wrap the ball end of the thread around the shuttle in the hole on one side and out the hole on the other until you have the shuttle as full as you want. Some flat shuttles have fanciful shapes and only one hole at one end. These shuttles are often just curved at the other end so the the thread is wound through the hole and around the flat end.

On a post style shuttle the top and bottom sections are called blades that are joined with a post in the middle. They clamshell together at the tips which often look like the pieces are attached, but they aren't. This closeup shows you that the thread actually slides through between the blades.

For this type of shuttle take the loop and slide one end through the blades at the front. Then take the loop around and slide it through the blades at the back so that the loop is around the post as shown here. Pull on the short and and ball end of the thread until the loop is pulled tight against the post.

Then wrap the thread between the blades at the front and the back around the post until you have as much thread on as you want. If the loop isn't quite tight enough you can hold onto the short end until you get it started. You will hear a soft click as the thread passes between the blades. Repeatedly using thick thread can cause the tips of the blades to open up a little as the thick thread is continually passed through them. That will make the shuttle useless for finer threads. Don't overfill (filling it top to bottom of the post and outside the edges of the blades) a post shuttle, especially the more expensive ones. Overfilling the shuttle can cause the blades to separate too much and become "sprung". A sprung shuttle is useless.

Bobbin shuttles have a removable bobbin. Except shuttles like the antique detach a spool shuttles which twist apart to expose the bobbin. All of the modern shuttles have bobbins which come right out.

Take the loop and position it around the bobbin. Pull on both ends of the thread to tighten the loop.

If you have an Aero shuttle, the bobbin will fit on the end of the shuttle making a handle for easy winding. Cheap Aero look alike shuttles that have a similar shape have an end that is too fat to sit inside the bobbin.

Wind the thread around the bobbin and insert the bobbin back into the shuttle.

If you use a shuttle with a hook, pay attention to the direction the hook is facing. I like to wind my shuttle so that the thread comes out at the back on the same side as the hook. I found when I first began to tat that sometimes the hook got caught in my work and sometimes it didn't. Then I discovered that if the hook was turned away from the work it didn't catch but if it was turned the opposite direction it did. Something as simple as which direction you load the shuttle can effect the way you tat. Different people tat different ways so watch how you are holding your shuttle and you will find which direction works best for you.

Nothing much going on

There's not much going on here, mostly because we've been up to our arm pits in doing the taxes. What has been done is a bracelet, with lots and lots of beads. I used Lizbeth size 20 Purple DK and Purple Splendor with mauve beads on the rings and lilac beads on the chains. The beads on the joins are gold beads. I'm please with the way it turned out and I thought that the same design would work as a bookmark without the beads until I realized that without the bling it was just facing rows of plain ol' ring and chain. Unimaginative and boring.

I must think of something else. I want to be tatting and the usual well of inspiration is decidedly dry at the moment. I know what will happen though, the second I launch into the next design class I'll have ideas come thick and fast, just when I have no time to tat.

Comments please

I frequently get asked things that initially make me want to jump up and scream NO WAY! Frankly my first reaction to some things is tell people to go - - - - - -. Well, you can insert your own favourite expletive. But I have this other inner voice that always makes me step back and try to see things from the other person's point of view. Sometimes when I've seen both sides as well as anyone can, I don't always see a clear road to follow.

I spend a lot of time thinking things through. I'm never happy just doing, I want to know why. Over the years I have read people's comments about not being able to design and I started thinking about the first efforts I made in designing. I thought about what I did, why I did it, what problems I had, what was helpful, and what was not. Lots of thinking. As time went on I ruminated over this information and began to direct the thought process into how to impart my learning experience to other people. I considered how to break it down into something that could be worked at by someone with only basic tatting skills.

Then I took all of what I had been thinking and wrote it down creating diagram and pictures to go along with it. Then I though of using software for the purpose and did the same thing taking step by step screen shots and added this information to it. Then I took it a step farther to show how the drawing software could be used to create.

It took weeks of planning, writing, creating images and editing to create a course that I only charge a modest $20 for.

Now that I've shown how it can be done, what do you think my reaction would be when someone asks if they could take my lessons and translate them so that they could teach them?

Comments? I'd like to know what you think.

Rant about tatting....

...for no particular reason. Fox mentioned the other day that she wasn't doing the Catherine Wheel join correctly and it got me to thinking. I am mostly self taught and until I went to a tatting workshop, I had never seen another tatter, or another tatter's work. I learned tatting, like I learned to knit crochet and embroider. I was shown the first steps and then just ran with it. If a pattern said to do something I didn't know, I did whatever worked for me. So I don't get bent out of shape by people talking about doing what is "right" or "proper". In short, I don't worry about tatting police. I see so few tatters, it isn't likely to matter and when I do they mostly are impressed by what I have done.

I am personally not impressed by bazaar junk done by a half blind granny using rope like thread and beads designed for use by a 5 year old. My apologies to elderly, visually challenged femmes assisting in raising funds for worthy causes, it's just a personal preference. I like to think that when something leaves my hands it can stand up to the close scrutiny of the average person. Good enough, is not good enough for me, I expect excellence from myself.

That said, over the years I have heard numerous things about the "right" way to tat and I have to admit that I mostly ignore it. Things like front side back side tatting. I personally don't think that it looks better, it just looks a little different. I don't do it and I make no apology. I do a lot of 3D tatting. When you look at a tulip, which is the front? The inside, or the outside? I like knowing that when I pull a doily out of the wash and slap it down on the table, which ever way it lands is right side up. In designing this necklace I wanted a sort of netting effect where the motifs join the necklace band so I used just chains over that section. Which meant when I got to the end of the row I just finished it with a split chain and turned around to do the next row. The recipient will never know or care that I didn't do front/back tatting.

I like balance. When I do a join, a join is a join, not a stitch. It seems to me, that in a design where a ring has a lot of joins, that counting the join as the first half of the stitch means that I'm losing a half stitch for every join which will make the ring smaller than a ring of the same stitch count that doesn't have joins. I don't count the join as a stitch, I've been doing it that way for over 30 years and so far it's worked.

Tiny invisible joining picots. Baloney! Imagine a mat full of lacy motifs all connected together. Envision delicate picots evenly spaced around the edges of each motif so that the lace is suspended in a diaphanous spiderweb of picots. Now picture the same thing where each motif is jammed up against the next one because of tiny joining picots. In my opinion it's UGLY. I don't do it.

Years ago when I was tatting the flowers for my wedding I needed to tat a lot of carnations in a short amount of time. I was literally -tatting in my sleep. The pattern had a very short split chain at the end of each row. Due to tatting late at night I often skipped the split chain, just finishing the row and then doing a slip stitch back to the last picot. In the ruffles of the carnations it wasn't visible and I was waaay too tired to be picky. I wouldn't have done it in a place where it would show and I wouldn't have done it if I'd had more time and hadn't been tired. Can you see them?

There are a lot of little things the tatting police probably wouldn't like about my tatting. That's OK. I don't tat for them, I tat for me. I tat because I enjoy tatting and I enjoy the fruits of my labour.

Just because the general consensus is that you ought to do things a certain way, doesn't mean that there might not be another equally effective way to do things. You can't always assume that because you do things differently, that you are doing it incorrectly. Who says you have to do things one way and one way only? You might be the person who finds a whole new BETTER way of doing things.

In case anyone is interested, here's a closeup of the assembled motifs and the little inset that I used to finish it off. I would have taken better pictures but it was late and it's already been packaged up and mailed off.

Fringe Element Tatters Tat and Chat - are you coming?

One of the Fringe Element Tatters has arranged a Tat and Chat at the Eatonville Library in Etobicoke on April 17th. That's Toronto for anyone not in the GTA. I'm just north of Toronto, in Brampton and I don't usally travel too far from home. Firstly because I don't drive, and secondly because our car is 23 years old and I'm reluctant to be further than towing distance from home and thirdly, because hubby, who is my chauffeur, isn't always well enough to drive, or well enough to leave on his own. Meniere's can make him suddenly and without warning, too dizzy to stand, can make him see double, go deaf, and lots of other not nice things. But, if he's well enough, Etobicoke is close enough to make the attempt and it's only for a few hours, not a whole day or a whole weekend. So I think this is something we can attempt.

It's nice to meet local tatters, but it's even nicer to finally meet tatters that I "know" from the internet. Anyone else in the Toronto area planning on going? I've already called Fox and we've agreed to tentatively give it a try but it would be nice to see some other folks too. If we have a bunch there are lots of things we could try.

The picture in my head is nothing like the tatting in my hand.

I had this idea to take a 3D flower, just use part of it and add a bead in the centre. The purpose of this exercise is to create a necklace instead of a bookmark or hanky for my sister whose birthday is coming up. I have FIVE sisters, but this one shares my birthday and while none of the family bothers much with sending birthday cards and the like, this one sister does. And we share the same birthday so it's really hard for me to forget hers.  No, we aren't twins. Mom just happened to hit the same day 15 years apart. If you think that is novel, one brother was born on New Year's day and one brother was born on Christmas day. I think Mom was trying for Easter with Sis and I. For anyone who's keeping count, we used to have 11of us around the table. Mom, Dad, 3 boys, 6 girls.

Anyway I had this idea, but when I use just part of the design, I lose the central part that used to hold it all together. I started off with the large bead in the centre of a ring, which was wonderful, except that I needed to throw rings off the ring which was more problematic. So I switched to a SCMR with a large half inch bead in the centre, which worked but was very awkward to add the bead and close the ring. Once that part was done the big bead got in the way while tatting and to further complicate matters I did the rings including the SCMR in a solid colour with a variegated thread around the outside.

I have maintained some of the 3D effect even though changing the stitch count on the centre section flattened it out some. I opted for a larger flower shape in the middle and was going to end up with an upward facing point along the top edge or  with the side flowers pulled in toward the middle, which is what I finally decided on. I was envisioning a narrow tatted band with the flowers hanging off the middle of it with something nice and decorative bringing it all together.

What I have is 3 flower shapes that sit on top of one another if I stretch it out straight, or the side rings on the ends of a U shaped curve. I was thinking of hanging the flowers from a row of split rings, but I didn't like how chunky that looked. I switched to a plain chain, but that didn't look like anything. So I've decided I need to tat across the top of the U shape, add a bit that hangs down in the U and maybe a short chain into some graduated split rings. Or something. I need to get this done and mailed in the next day or so. It might be faster to tat a hanky edging. Or not.

This is SO NOT what I was picturing.

Pardon the crappy picture, may camera battery is dying.

Easter Cross

I'm in  designing limbo. I have lots of thing that need doing that I'm just not taking the time to do right now. Plus I have lots of things I want to design that aren't working the way I want them to. One of the designs that I am determined to get done is a 3D pattern that just isn't working out to my satisfaction. My criteria is that it has to be readily recognizable. It has to hold it's shape without support. It needs to have the minimum amount of tatting to acheive all of these things. What is irritating me about it, is that each permutation of the design takes about 10 hours of tatting, just to get to the point where I know that the design isn't going to work. That means that it isn't a quick tat and after 5 tries, I'm no further ahead, and it's getting frustrating.

On the other hand, I needed a new cross pattern and this one whipped out as fast as I could tat it. This one is done in size 50 or 60 thread, but this one didn't get labelled so I don't know which it is. I did 4 pattern repeats on the short arms and 6 on the long one. I ended up with an empty space in the middle and added a 4 ring motif, but if I was doing it again I'd just throw them off the chains in the middle.

Since it will soon be Easter and time for tatted crosses, I thought you might like the pattern so here it is. I'm running out of hours so I haven't even proofread it yet so there might be something wonky, just so you know.

Nothing to see

I went to the doctor's with my sweetie this morning. That was after I ran out and shovelled the drive so that he wouldn't try it. We had already stored the shovels and were talking about seeding the lawn yesterday, where did this stuff come from?

Anyway, the reason for both the doctor visit and my concern about him shovelling are some torn bicep tendons with a 4 cm separation. Last summer he swung his arms to catch his balance and felt something pop. His arm was bruised and felt tender for a few days but it seemed to heal up and he didn't think much more about it. Then some time later he noticed a soft lump below where his muscle should be and after a while we thought he ought to get it checked out. The doctor thought it might just be some fatty tissue, but sent him for some tests. We got the results yesterday letting us know it was a torn tendon and we were in this morning to see about a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon.

I forgot to bring my tatting. I tried pulling a hair to tat with, but as my hair was braided it wouldn't pull without breaking. Fortunately before I went bald we were in to see the doctor. Now it's just a matter of wait and see. Apparently the specialists are getting so specialized they only deal with certain types of surgeries.

Tatting, sort of

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth and I have been tatting, just not tatting things I can show. I've been test tatting the motifs from the Design-Tat class.

I've also been doing a lot of creative work for a new book. Sadly, most of it is a jumble of cut off thread and hours upon hours of tatting just to find out what doesn't work. As soon as I have them done right I'll do them again in the right colours.

Of course hours spent in the garage waiting while they work on the car makes for lots of tatting time.For the first time ever, the car didn't pass the e-test. It's a 23 year old car that hubby has kept in immaculate condition. I kid you not, he shampoos the engine. The top of the engine block is the same shiny aluminum it was when it rolled off the assembly line, so we were really surprised when it didn't pass the test. So it went into the shop for a diagnostic. We knew when one of the fuel injectors failed in the fall that another one of them was not at full capacity, so we assumed that was the problem, but the test suggested a vacuum leak. Hubby asked the mechanic if it might be the catalytic converter but he said no, definitely not. So we (we, meaning hubby, I just stand around and act as a third hand) changed the faulty fuel injector, tightened all the hoses and clamps and tested for leaks before taking it back for another e-test. It failed again, although just barely. It went back for another diagnostic. No vacuum leaks and no indication why it shouldn't pass, but there was a smell of gas. On further discussion with the mechanic it was suggested it might be the catalytic converter. It was, but it took trying several shops to get one for a 1988 Z24, and several other shops to get one that could put it on right away. Once that was done it passed the test with 0 emissions. Good old car. 300,000 km and it has more get up and go than most new vehicles. We're going to hate to part with it, but they don't make parts for it any more and you can't even get parts from the junk yard for it, so it's days are numbered. 

I haven't been tatting

I've been doing this instead

The ruler is in there for perspective. I should probably add a couple of small flowers around the outside. I've got 3 squares done, another butterfly and a bird. I was thinking of doing a quilt. The embroidery is the easy part. Having to stitch it all together doesn't sound like fun. So I may have to think of something else to do with a handful of embroidered squares. It always amazes me how heavy a little square feels when it's been embroidered.

Stunning Silver

Busy, busy, but I just have to show you what was sent to me recently.

Aren't they gorgeous? So delicate that they look like a puff of wind would blow them away, but so sturdy they could stand up. These, of course, are silver tatted earrings made by Alan aka Joyful the clown. They are simply elegant and something I shall certainly treasure. Now, what can I wear to go with something this beautiful? They are definitely not blue jeans and sweatshirt attire. Although, come to think of it, if you wore these with blues jeans and sweat shirt, you'd definitely be dressed up.

We have internet! O drat, we don't have water!!

Wednesday our brand spanking new modem arrived. It didn't work, but it arrived. Just in case (not likely, but you never know) hubby installed it on his computer using the also new Cat 5 line we just strung through the walls. To be doubly sure that there is nothing wrong with the Cat 5 two strands were used instead of one to make the connection to the, also new, jack. After which hubby couldn't even log into the modem program to set it up. So he called the IP yet again. After some lengthy attempts the IP advised us they were going to check things out and call us back, which they did. After several tries it was determined that some settings in our internet browser were interfering with the operation of the modem and that the initial address we had been advised to use wasn't working. An alternate was suggested and after the preliminary handshaking the internet roared back to life.

I am so deliriously happy to be able to connect to the internet again and not lose the connection 2 minutes later. I can send and receive email, I can upload pictures to Blogger, I can even send files through the internet! Hooray!!!!!

Of course, this morning, I have a new problem. Remember this in 2008?

In October we had this.

Christmas morning as I got up to put the turkey in the oven for our afternoon feast, this was trundling past the bedroom window headed for yet another  little spot.

This morning we have this.

That makes 3 water main breaks in 4 months, none of which are covered by the city because a condominium townhouse is private property and we, it's illustrious owners, will have to cover it ourselves. Mommy! I want to move.

Not right, Not wrong, Not working

Lest you think I haven't been tatting at all, this started out to be a necklace that came to a point in the middle, but obviously I wasn't thinking clearly because what I have at this point resembles a collar rather than a necklace. I planned for the first row and the last row to have beads, and if I'd had beads on the last row I would just call it quits, but I didn't and now I have something that I have to add a row to to add the beads, except that it's already too wide and adding more will make it wider. ARGGHH!

Next question, what do you do with a project that isn't what you want it to be but isn't garbage either?

On the internet front, a second modem was sent to us express. This one was new in box and should just plug in and run, but it didn't. We have been told that the phone line into the house is fine and that although our purchased modem is functioning, it isn't an "approved" modem meaning that it will probably work with the system, but it might at times have issues. The new modem just received is approved and should resolve all of our problems. If it doesn't then the problem might be with our server's network. Hubby is currently wiring in the new Cat 5 cable to the demarcation point. With the new cable in and all of the phone lines disconnected at the demarcation we should have new line, new modem and the internet should sing.

If it doesn't the issue isn't with us, our equipment or our phone line and heads will roll. Hubby has more tenacity than a pit bull. He's brilliant about a lot of things and he knows when he is right. Don't argue with him, you'll lose.

2011?

2011 is set up to be a good year. At least considering how bad it's been so far, it can only improve. Our internet connection died on January 1st. We have spent 6 to 8 hours on the phone trying to sort it out. There seems to be a combined issue of a dead modem and something problematic on the line. January 1 we told the IP that the modem was bad and to ship a new one. January 5th they advised us that they hadn't shipped it yet because they were waiting for a report back from Bell. So finally they got the report from Bell and sent the unit which was supposed to arrive yesterday. It finally came today, in a box, without packaging just rattling around loose. We plugged it in, reconfigured it (we're getting good at this, we've done it about 50 times since the beginning of the year) and nothing. Just to verify that it's the modem and not a problem with the internal phone lines, we plugged it in at the demarcation point where the phone line enters the house and disconnected all of the phones. Sure enough, it's dead as a door nail.

We've had issues before, so we actually bought a backup modem for times like this, but even with our fully functional modem we've had issues We have download access, so I can view web pages and receive email, but I can't send files or email and periodically my connection fails altogether. Doing things like the 25 Motif Challenge has been a "challenging" experience. Between loosing connectivity and getting kicked off my computer while the modem gets reconfigured again and again it has been difficult to view the blogs. Of course once I view them, I have to upload the pictures to the challenge blog which is an interesting experience when your upload speed is slower than dial up. Last Saturday I spent 12 hours trying to do the blog post.

Don't even get me started on the nightmare of trying to upload files for the Design-Tat course. It took 2 days just to get 1 file uploaded. It would look like the file went through and then it would suddenly disconnect. Over and over again. The file was so large I couldn't even use dial up to send it, but finally after repeated attempts it went through.

Unlike most homes we have a single dedicated line for the DSL service. When we went with DSL a few years ago it just made sense to run a separate line for the modem so there is one phone line from the demarcation point, which in our home is the basement, straight to the modem on the second floor. So a lot of the typical comments that "it's your phone line" are highly unlikely. However after the 3rd Bell phone technician was here insisting that it's the new (it's only been in 5 years) heavy gauge wire that is responsible, we went out and bought a reel of Cat 5 wire and we are now in the process of re-wiring the line to the modem. Anyone who has fished lines through a house can appreciate what this is like. Last night we brought it from the basement through the wall up to the second floor. Now all we have to do is run it under the floor to the wall and we can create a new junction up here and split off all the computers.

On top of all of this, since my computer is the one closest to the modem, it means that all of the configuration of the modem and the router have to be done on my computer. While my computer is being used I switch to working on the laptop. Except that when we need to connect to the demarcation point, it is necessary yo use the laptop. So since the beginning of the year I have begun and trashed endless emails and tutorials as I'm kicked back and forth from desktop to laptop computer. At one point the tech support person insisted that it was necessary to reset the computer's internet browser back to factory setting to fix the problem. Of course, the tech was an idiot and it did nothing to repair the issue, but all of my customization is completely gone and I'm left looking for things that no longer exist.

As frustrating as I find it, it's nothing to what my dear sweet honey is going through. He's the one who's having to deal with idiots on the phone, writing copious emails and repeating endlessly the explanation of what has gone on before while trying to get people half a world away to respond in an efficient and timely manner.

11 days and counting and we still don't have internet.

From our house to yours - Recipes for yummy cookies

These are some of our favourite cookies because they not only taste yummy, they look good on a plate. The round balls are Chocolate Carousels, a peanut butter ball full of fruit and nuts topped with chocolate. No baking and simple enough for kids to make. The white looking Lemon Squares are a shortbread base with a lemon topping that can be thrown in the blender whirred and poured over the crust. I keep a bottle of lemon juice on hand so I can whip these up whenever necessary. The pretty mincemeat poinsettias, are a twist on the usual mincemeat tarts that make a festive addition to a cookie plate.

Chocolate Carousels

1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon soft butter
I cup icing sugar
1/2 cup (scant) chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped pecans or filberts (filberts were used)
1/2 cup drained maraschino cherries chopped
Cream together the peanut butter, butter and icing
sugar and fruit and nuts and form into 1 inch balls.
Melt 4oz of semi sweet chocolate and drip over balls.

Lemon Squares

Base
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup powdered icing sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
Cream butter and sugar together then add flour until
thoroughly mixed and press into a 13x9 inch pan.
Bake at 350 F 20-25 minutes until just starting to
brown as it will be returned to the oven when the
topping is added.

Topping
Beat together
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled), if using fresh
add the grated lemon zest for extra flavour.
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup all purpose flour
I do the topping in the blender adding the ingredients
one at a time as it's running, finishing with the lemon
juice as the blender starts to have difficulty working.
Return to the over for another 25 minutes or more
until the top is set. I time it for 25 minutes and start
watching until the centre is set and firm to the touch.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, cool and cut.

Mincemeat Poinsettias

1 cup margarine
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
bottle of mincemeat
maraschino cherry pieces
Cream together butter and cheese. Beat in eggs and
vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder. Stir into
mixture. Form a stiff dough. cover and chill. Roll out
half of mixture into 1/8 thick rectangle. Cut into 3 inch
squares, slit from corners. Put a dollop of mincemeat
in centre, and fold down alternate corners and press
a cherry in centre. Return excess dough to
refrigerator. Repeat with second half.
Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes.

Guaranteed to add on pounds, but it's a celebration and now and then, we're allowed to splurge. By the way, the holly in the corner of the placemat is a larger variation of the pattern for the skates done in size 10 thread.

A gift for you

This year I decided not to send snowflakes in our Christmas cards and I tatted ice skate ornaments instead. Eight pairs of teeny tiny skates were made. One thing I've noticed with tatting is that the details can often take as much time as tatting the whole project. Tatting skates takes a whole lot more time than a snowflake, mostly because we have 2 feet and need 2 skates. I thought I'd make these skates wearable instead of as ornaments, so I added a tiny pair of holly leaves to hide the bar fastener behind them. An extra pair of tatted holly leaves with red beads for berries and an itsy bitsy bell. I would have rather used 2 bells so that they jingled more and I could have put them on the skates, but I didn't have enough bells and couldn't find a store that had more of them that tiny. (I'll bet that after Christmas I see them everywhere I go.)

I expect these to be worn, maybe on a coat and they may get wet, so I thought the usual paperclips that form the blade of the skates might rust. When I found these red plastic coated paperclips, I thought they were perfect. Making tiny blades for skates, lacing up tiny little boots, tatting minuscule holly leaves and sewing on the bar fastener took almost as much time as tatting the skates, but finally they were done. TA DA! Tatted ice skates.

I thought you might like to tat a pair of your own, so here is the pattern. The whole thing is mostly rings of 4-4 and chains of 2 except for the chains at the toe and heel on the first row, and at the toe on the second row; which are 3.
Corrected pattern

An experienced tatter probably doesn't need anything more than the diagram, but some people might find a little more instructions helpful especially with the shaping of a 3D object. The first 3 rings at the toe all join into the picot of the first ring and when you are finishing and inserting the paperclip blade, that's where the paperclip is inserted, so make sure the picot isn't too small I used all same size picots. The three rings at the heel are made the same way, so make sure that picot isn't tiny either. Then when you make the second side of the sole of the skate the rings are joined to the matching ring on the first side. End with a shuttle join, and split ring to climb into the second row.

On the second row join each ring into the base of the ring on the first row. End with a shuttle join and split ring to climb into the third row.

The third row shapes the top of the foot. After the split ring, (no chain) tat another ring joining it to the base of the ring at the tip of the toe, then tat a third ring joining it to the base of the next ring. Think of it like a clover leaf. Then tat a chain of 2 and one ring joined to the base of the ring on one side of the foot and switch shuttles to tat the ring on the other side of the foot. Chain 2 and tat the next pair of rings, one on the left and one on the right. Then chain 2 and continue tatting ring and chain around the top of the shoe finishing with chain 2 shuttle joined between the last pair of left and right rings.

Row 4 begins the boot with a split ring. This split ring marked with an asterisk is the new front of the boot. Chain 2 and tat the next ring joining it to the base of the ring along the side of the boot. continue working around the boot ending with chain 2 shuttle joined into the top of the front ring. You should have 10 rings and 10 chains.

Row 5 and 6 begin with a split ring and are just a repeat of rings joined to the base of the ring on the previous row and chains. Make sure that you have 10 rings and chains on both rows.

Finish by breaking off the excess part of the paper clip and insert the remaining overlapping section one end in front and one end in back. Then use a strand of contrasting thread and lace up the front of the boot and tie a tiny bow at the top. Repeat for the second boot and tat a chain of about 30 stitches to join the two skates together.

Just an additional note, these were tatted with size 20 thread and measure about 1.25 inches.

The holly leaves that were used as an excuse to hide the bar pin at back are just cloverleaves joined together. You tat the first cloverleaf and do a shoelace tie before doing the next ring or you end up with a wreath shape instead of holly. Tat the next 2 rings, one with each shuttle and the last ring as a split ring. If you want to add 3 beads between the leaves the beads need to be on the shuttle before you start. They're tiny leaves that take only a small amount of thread, so you could unwind the shuttle and add them on in the middle. Slide the beads into place and do another shoelace tie, then tat the split ring starting the second leaf and tat one ring with each shuttle, joining the 2 leaves together at the side, followed by another shoelace tie and a final cloverleaf joining the last ring to the first cloverleaf of the second leaf. This same design can be made larger just by increasing the stitch count to 3,4, 5, 6 etc. and it still seems to work.

It must have been fate

When you "have your finger in too many pies", there comes a time when you really have to sit yourself down and give yourself a good talking to. There are just so many hours in a day and when you start avoiding things like sleeping, eating and carrying on normal conversations with your other half, it's time to realize that not EVERY challenge to tat something new and interesting has to result in a finished project. So when the Fringe Element, tatting exchange for something from The Place I Call Home I reluctantly realized that I just didn't have the time. Then there was an online challenge to make a set of earrings and pendant and again I closed down the web site and kept plodding along with the "jobs I had to do". I even resisted IsDihara's challenge to decorate your chocolate box with tatting, or I sort of resisted, until this happened.

I was pulling some coin rollers out of the top shelf of the closet and this fell on my head. I couldn't manage a full size box, but what harm would it do to make a little something for such a tiny box? So first I covered it in pink paper.

I had visions of doing something Victorian in deep red and yellow, but was prevented by my lack of yellow thread. I have some yellow, but not the deep dark yellow-y gold colour I was imagining. For that matter I didn't have the dark red in my pallet either. So knowing that I really didn't have enough spare time to play with possibilities I turned to the boxes contents and thought I might see if I could make some lace chocolates for my box. That's when I realized that brown is another colour I don't have. I turned to my embroidery threads, but splitting skeins of thread wasn't something I wanted to do for any but the tiniest of projects. So I almost gave up until I remembered that I had been given a mixed bag of size 10 crochet cotton which happened to include a ball of brown. A little brown cloth and a little bit of tatting and I had the contents taken care of.

Then I turned my attention back to the box. With the box covered in pink I had effectively cut down some of my options and since I didn't have a lot of ideas percolating in my head, I settled for plain old white since it would let me keep my other options open. I made a simple ring and chain band to go around the side, but it looked skimpy. So I turned my attention to the top and began to cover the lid with more ring and chain tatting adjusting for the corners. It wasn't too long before I realized that I might end up with something weird happening in the middle, so I switched to doing rows of split rings.

That gave me a very uninspired box covered in plain white lace. It needed something to finish off the outer edge so I added a border of gold chain which finished the edge nicely and then I though a matching gold ribbon would be just the thing the box needed. One band of gold looked off balance so I tatted a second to cross in the other direction. That gave me a plain white box with a gold ribbon, but that wasn't really what I had been imagining so I took a look online at Victorian chocolate boxes and when I saw the flowers I knew what I needed to do.

Delicate violets with yellow gold beads in the centres. A single leaf and matching stem and I had the topping that my little box needed. I removed it from the box so that you can see it better here, although neither shot shows the gold edge along the bottom.

At least this was one challenge I didn't have to forgo entirely, but now that it's done I need to hurry up and get my Christmas card tatting done. I know my hubby, the first Christmas card he gets, he'll be wanting to send out ours. My niece has a habit of sending hers out in November, so we have this ongoing battle about when is the right time to send cards. I'd rather it were later to give me more tatting time. He'd rather it were sooner so that they don't arrive late. I'm off to tat snowflakes.

One more picture to show you a view of the gold border along the edge.

I had to share

I received an email from Coletta when she ordered the Tatted Flurries book, and attached to it was a picture of her entry in the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival. She's the only tatter and her work was judged against the other heritage artists and she took the 2nd top award. I wrote and asked permission to share the picture with you:

The basic pattern is the tulip pattern from Linda Davis which she had memorized after making two of the four petals. The other flowers were from the same tulip pattern. She made two flowers from the basic pattern and  set one inside the other at an angle. The top part was a simple ring with chain work going round and round with lots of double stitches and picots to make the fluffy center. One of the leaf patterns was from Linda Davis' page but she's not sure about the other.

The Tsumami silk rose buds and two other buds were already done from when she used to do Tsumami which is the art of folding squares of silk. Each flower petal, buds, and leaves are separate squares going through 7 - 9 stages of folding. It dates back to the Edo Era of Japan about 1640.

She had a few stems already but had to do several more as she didn't have enough for the flowers. There are no wires in the stems - the stems are made by rolling the inside material with a glue/paste mixture and then rolling the outside material over that. The outside stem material has been dyed to the color needed and she still had some stamens made from years ago.

The arranging and tacking down took about four hours as she kept re-arranging the flowers. None of the tatting is glued down. She took a push-tack and push the tack into the mat board. Using a large needle with monofilament line, she took the needle from the back to the front catching a picot and going back down in the same hole.

The threads were DMC pearl 8 and Lizbeth thread but she doesn't remember the size. (I'd guess 20 as that seems to match the perle 8) She wanted to do a presentation bouquet that would lay on a table but then
remembered that people love to touch. She had two old frames an oval and a round one and decided that the round one was the one for the look that she wanted. What she liked the most was the different textures that were achieved from the two fiber arts.

I think Coletta created a wonderful work of art with her tatting It's the kind of thing anyone would be proud to hang on their wall and it just goes to show what can be done with tatting. I love seeing people push the envelope and do things with tatting besides making doilies.

And the winner is................................

There were 80 people who added their comments,with awesome ideas of what to do with snowflake patterns whether they are done in white or in colours. Several people reported problems with commenting, but I included them too. Since I thought everyone might like to see the ideas I put them in a list.

Join together as a choker or necklace
bracelet
earrings
brooches/pins
headband
barrettes
Hang on tree, in door frame, IV pole, ceiling, in window
make dreamcatcher
make bookmark with joined snowflakes
make flowers
mobiles
coasters,
ornaments,
hanger for earrings
doily or mat
make purse
appliques on sweatshirts, coats, purses, Christmas tree skirts, quilts, scarfs, little girls dresses, cummerbund
zipper pulls or fobs
cards
decorating quilts with snowflakes
tree covered only in snowflakes
decorate book cover
invitation for a winter wedding
snowmen
angels
gifts
doily
gift tags
garland
runner edging
suncatcher
border a skirt
pincushion
Santa's hat
pill box
compact
line with fabric for a purse.
ornament drape
centerpiece when placed on satin balls and placed in a clear bowl or vase
scatter them randomly on your holiday table
use the smaller ones on your place cards at dinner
on lamps shades, ceiling fan pulls
in live or artificial plants
Arrange them in the shape of a tree on a wall above a table so that it looks like it is sitting on the table
frame
clock face in place of the numbers
decoupage them on plates or tins and fill with cookies to use and give as gifts
decorating a holiday wreath for the front door
holiday place mats
hostess gift
edgings on pillows and on pockets
made 2 alike and put a bit of tulle with potpourri to put in lingerie drawer
tacked to the walls of cube at work
tatted snowflakes in the "V" on shirts
decorate a picture frame

There were so many great ideas, I think I may have to tat all of the designs over again in colour just to try out some of them. If I'm going to do a blitz of snowflakes, I think I may as well join the 25 Motif Challenge again just to keep track.

Add of course, the thing you are all waiting for..........the winner of today's draw. The names were all printed and put in a hat and hubby pulled out a name. The winner is:

Rose Anne B

Please contact me with your address so that I can mail your book out to you. If I don't get a response, another name will be chosen.