Small cat stretching up

Just when you thought it was safe to visit this blog - this is what happens!!!  Another feline appears.  This is part of the reason you never got the other cat until yesterday.  Not only did I have problems with tweaking that cat but this one just didn't want to be designed back then!!!

When I remembered the two patterns a week or so ago I just picked up this one and it 'happened' straight away!!!  No idea why sometimes I struggle and other times things fall off the shuttles.

Anyway - here's the companion to yesterday's cat!!!!

Small cat.

First of all - thank you to everybody for your comments and private messages about the TIAS.  There will be another next year and it will be mainly the same as before but with one or two small improvements.  Please check this link too to see the three TIAS's sent in yesterday - there's a surprise on there!!!!

I have been clearing out my computer with a confession or several to make.  

This little moggy was started and was ready to go about two years ago but I wasn't quite happy with parts of him so he got forgotten!!!!  I also wanted to make a companion too!!!!  I like animals to be 'doing something' sometimes so this little critter was 'born'.

Well finally the pattern is ready and is here.  

I've got his alter ego nearly ready to go too and just hope that I get time today to finish him off.  It's the links and uploading odds and ends which seem to take the time.  Anyway, enough rambling - happy tatting!!!!

A sort of a questionnaire!

This year has been the sixth year of the TIAS and it occurred to me the other day that I'd never asked what I could do to improve it.

I'm sure there MUST be improvements I can make so I'm taking notes now in preparation for next year's 'effort'.

I need to know things like are there too many parts to the designs?  I aim for around 10 but should there be fewer?

Is each part of the pattern released too soon or is the gap too long?

Do you feel you are obliged to send in comments and/or pictures?  I don't want this to happen although I do like to have a first and a final one from everybody just so I can see if it's worth doing another the following year.

Should there be some sort of 'signing in' to do the TIAS in future whereby those people and only those get the links?

I'm also curious as to why so many start and then roughly only half finish.  I know things like 'life' get in the way but does it mean that people give up because either they can't manage it or because (when they realise what it is) they don't want the finished item.

Any help or suggestions would be very welcome and I'd appreciate if they were sent to this email address.  lovetotat @ gmail.com.

A host of bookmarks!

Well, not quite a host - more like 7 to add to the other 3 already in there!!

Over the past ten days or so I've been making more of the Wrap It, Flip It and Mark It bookmarks for the Etsy shop.  

I've been using one of these since I first came up with the crazy idea.  Well, it seemed sort of crazy at the time but they actually work very well.  

You take the tape and fix it round the back of the book cover (this is adjustable) and then the motif can be flipped into the book to mark your place when you've finished reading.  

Here are a few of the ones I've listed.

Snowflake 2 again

Well I'm still playing with this snowflake.  I'm like a dog with a bone and can't leave it alone.  Sheesh, that rhymes!!!  

As you can see this time I've used one of the shell beads for the centre AND it fits in a ring too!!!!  So, do I feel another play session starting?  Well I had to do another - just to check the pattern out!!!!

Pram

Well I managed to get the pram back on one page!!!  The pattern is now here.  

I know it was originally on one page because that's the way I first did it but that was before I chopped it all up, messed around with it and then couldn't remember which was the original document!!!  BUT then you all tested it for me!!  

You see you've all been tricked!!!  What YOU thought was a fun tatting experience was really a HUGE trick to get you all to test tat the pram for me!!!!

Actually it's also been re-tested by Cheryl during the past few days too.  Thanks, Cheryl - much appreciated.

Valentine's Day - a non event!

So today I present you with the 'not a lot else' side of my tatting blog!!!!!

These earrings (yes, there is a pair - somewhere) were found buried in a basket in one of my favourite charity shops.  I was with Sally at the time (a few months ago) and she didn't spot them!!!!  Her loss - my gain!!!

So they came home and have since been taken apart ready for Valentines Day.  What happened next?  Precisely NOTHING!!!  They're still waiting in 'tat corner' for attention.

I forgot to show Sherry last Saturday which may have made me do something with them if I had!!!  So, I suggest you come back next year to see if anything has happened to them by then!!!!

Remembering

A year ago today a big space was created in my life.  Miss you so much, Gina, my friend.

Final round doily

Before I start - I have 52 people who have completed their prams.  THANK YOU.

Well I finished it.  Really enjoyed doing it too.

I stuck with the same colours that I used on this round.  Why?  Well I was limited to the choices of this type of HWT so that really solved the 'problem'.

I've put in an extra middle as you can see but I'm not really convinced it works.  Still as it was put in after everything else a pair of scissors will sort THAT problem out!!!  

Meeting another tatter!

I was lucky enough to meet up with another tatter on Saturday - somebody you'll all have heard of - Sherry Pence.  She lives in America but is over here for a week or so with her husband.  We met up and I took them on a walking tour of the town.  Then home for a cuppa tea and tatting chat!!!

The picture below is Sherry in the mirror maze in the main theatre.  I take my grandkids here when they visit but suddenly realised that I'd got two slightly larger kids with me who may also like to see it.  Hmmmm, same as the younger ones - a job to tear them away!!!  This is a travelling exhibition which will be gone in April.

I had a wonderful afternoon and we thoroughly enjoyed talking about y'all in Tat Land too!!!

Look what Sherry gave me too - one of her splendid new hooks.  You can find them in her Etsy shop which is here and when she gets back home later this week.

Final day of TIAS 2013

The final day and the final link which is here. 

Please don't forget to send in where you live and the threads used if you know them. The first picture is MINE. One of the many 'trials' I made while designing this pattern. NO, it had nothing to do with the Royal baby which is due sometime this year as this was ready back last November when that was only a twinkle in it's parent's eyes!!!

Snowflake morphing!

Now many, many years ago I had this pattern (one of a series) published in a UK weekly magazine.  Originally these were made on doodads which I'd bought locally but when they were no longer available I re-did them on cabone or curtain rings which is what you see on my pattern pages.

Another almost twenty years on from the original pattern I've decided to re-visit the pattern again and 'get rid of' the ring in the middle.  

So, my first foray into re-vamping the design is below.  Hmmmm, it's sort of OK but not what I'd call a good design.  

Please come back another day to see what actually happens to this idea.  Believe me - in the end it's a much improved one!!

This must be a record!!!

A record in that it's only a few days since I showed you these notes and here now they're up and floating around in cyberspace here.

Big pat on the back for the OG, eh?

Day 10

Today I am posting the link for Day 10 of the TIAS.  This is where you can use a new (I suggest plain) colour.  It may take you a little longer this time but I thought that by now you'd be bored with the game so there will be this one and just a small portion on Sunday (Day 11).

Treble clef

Thanks everybody for all your comments on yesterday's post.  I'm pleased to tell you that I'm even more confused now than I was before.  I'll put all the names in a pot and pick one out in due course!!!

I was heartened to also find out that I'm not alone on not liking music too - makes an old git feel not so odd!!!

Now I know the name of this note - it's a treble clef.  No idea why I know that but I do.  I think it's quite important in music but not sure why.  No, I really don't want to know either - ignorance is bliss and I'm truly ignorant!!

HELP needed

Now just lately I've been working on musical notes - small ones for notecards etc.  Mainly because my sister asked me to although I must admit to having been asked many times over the years.  One thing quite a few people know about me is that I utterly HATE music of any sort.  It makes me tense and angry for some reason.  Now you have the proof that I'm bonkers.  

Anyway, having done these two notes I suddenly realised that I don't know what they're called!!!    I did try googling them but still didn't settle on a 'real' name.

The top one I've called 'small note with bar and blobs at both ends' and the one underneath has been named 'small note with squiggle at top'.

Can anybody out there tell me what their real names are before I put the pattern onto the doodle page?  I don't need a long explanation of what they say to you - sheeeeeesh, it'll only make me abandon them again.  Just a name - tat's all!!!

One more to come but I know the name of that one!!!

Day 9 of the TIAS

Here is the link to Day 9. Have fun!!!

Day 8 now available

Yes, Day 8 is now available here. 

Must warn you that Day 9 will be out on Monday. 

I'm shifting it a day earlier so that I can get a 'quiet day' next Saturday - I'll let you know more about that on my regular blog after it's happened!

Lucky Clover part 2

Tomorrow will be Day 8 of the TIAS.

Well I've been quietly working away at the Lucky Clover doily that I showed you here.

Now I thought it might be a bit overpowering in just the variegated thread so I decided to use plain for the chains.  The problem is - I hadn't got any plain thread of the same sort (Perfect Quilter) so I went and dived into my stash and came up with two threads that matched - one thinner than the other.  The thicker one is a quilting thread which I picked up in Ciincinnati many years ago.  The thinner one is a Coats and Clarkes polyester.  All I really know is that they work well together!!!

I'm really pleased with this but am now wondering what to use for the final round.  Time to put on the thinking cap OR send for brain cell 3 who seems to have been on vacation recently!!!

Final suncatcher

I've just done this suncatcher which I think is my favourite.  Something to do with the colours, I think.

OK, I'm tired of this game now - I'm off to find something new to play with!!!  I like to make several of 'something or other' and then I get bored!!!!

Another two suncatchers

First of all - tomorrow will be day 7 of the TIAS.

OK so this is what I decided on next!  A session with the doodads!!!  Actually some people suggested this idea but I'd already got these done!!  Great minds think alike, eh?

They look a lot better (to me) with something in the middle although I do like negative space yesterday's wasn't very stable.  Not sure I'm into these colours at the moment but I usually love them so it must be down to the 'time of the year', I think.

Story of a suncatcher

Now I do know how old this pattern is because it has a date at the top (2005) which I never used to bother with when I first started putting up pattern pages.  

I also know it was at a time when it was intriguing to me to use rings.  These are small rings used in the making of blinds or fancy schmancy curtains.

The problem is that I now consider them rather ugly unless they're entirely covered in tatting!!  Times and ideas constantly change.  This is the original one that I made (below top)and I still love the colours.

So off I went on a journey to 'get rid of' the ring.  Here's my first attempt below.  Now, IMHO that is NO GOOD at all.  Back to scrub up brain cell 3 to see if he's got a better idea.  Oooooooh, my other two brain cells are hurting with the thought of it all!!!!

Day 6 of the TIAS

Here is the link for Day 6 of this year's TIAS.  

Another doily adventure.

Now do you remember the doily I did recently from the Penelope book - here?  Well I enjoyed re-visiting my childhood so decided to then do another of my favourite doilies - remember I'm NOT a doily person!!!!  

This is one I really took to many years ago as soon as I saw it.  I originally made it in a size 20 thread and a sort of 'dirty ecru' too.  It's called 'Lucky Clover and is on page 80/81 in the book called 'Tatting Patterns and Designs' by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson (English version).  I bought the hardback edition of this book back in 1967 or thereabouts when it first came out in Swedish (well, I'm not sure what language it's in!) and remember being able to easily work this and many other designs in the book even though I didn't understand the words!!  Obviously I've got the paperback edition too - in English - an old git can't have too many books!!!

The reason it appealed to me was it's lack of picots in the days when everything had so many.  I can remember so well looking at it and seeing the clear lines of the design.  

I'm working this in a variegated Perfect Quilter 30 weight!  Well, at the moment but things may change.  Watch this space!!!!

It's OK

It's OK to wash it is the name on the bottle.  This post today is mainly for Sally and Joanie who were with me when I bought a bottle of this fabric 'glue'.

It's taken me ages to pluck up the courage to use it for some reason.  I finally found a tshirt that I didn't mind 'risking', made a heart and took the plunge off the diving board!!

It does look a bit naff on the top picture but I can assure you that it ain't that bad!!!  I'll be a bit more careful next time I use it - yes there WILL be a next time, I assure you.  Since these pictures the shirt has been through the washing machine a few times and it does look better.  I can promise you one thing - that heart will be on there until the shirt dies a decent death.  It's not going anywhere else, I assure you!!!  

So, I'm pleased with this product and wish I'd had it when I put these letters  (below) onto Nick's jumper a few years ago.  Before  you throw up your hands in dismay - he ASKED me to make them and add them to the jumper!!!  The picture is him modelling it!

Day 5 now available

OK, this is roughly the halfway point and it's now time for Day 5 which is here.

Some pictures to keep you going and to see some of the guesses too!!!