Secret Santa update & Vic's bribe

Now that I know that Nancy has received her Secret Santa from me I can post a couple of pictures of what I sent to her.




This is the SCMR Snowflake 2 by Sally Magill on the ROT site here - I just added some beads.







This is a very poor photo of my adaptation of Ellen's December paperclip pattern from Georgia's site here

I also sent her some of the large paper clips as I found them really hard to get hold of, some beads, a ball of thread and a calendar.


In answer to Vic's bribe (see here) my favourite Christmas tatting pattern (thou I haven't done it this Xmas & can't do it now ;( ) is Jon's Rings Only Snowflake with beads here
The photo is Jon's



Must go

Finally I've caught up with myself LOL

As the heading says.... finally I've caught up. I had 4 Secret Santa's to do (my own fault for thinking I could get 3 done for the intatters exchange and 1 for the tattinggoddess exchange). I LOVE doing them but always worry - have I put enough in?, or too much? I don't want the recipient to feel either slighted or guilty about what they sent to their own partner. I'll post the pattern links and photos once I know the recipients have got them.

Now onto the AMAZING giveaway present I got from Wanda. I truly was lost for words as just one of the items would have been more than enough. As Wanda has shown in her blog here. - she sent me the most stunning doily done in Lizbeth Falling Leaves. It is based on her Arches over Arches doily that she blogged about here.



There was also a ball of Lizbeth Falling Leaves thread and a shuttle.


A great mug and a box of tea for Tatting Tea Tuesdays - only going to be used for extra special occasions as it is far to nice to risk for everyday use.


Three (yes - 3!!!!) books - two tatting ones and a lovely little photo book all about Kansas. The tatting ones were Martha Ess' Holidays on the Block and Just Tat by Michelle Goldsborough - neither of which do I own so I've been spoilt rotten.




And a bag of Hershey's choccies- yummy!

I really can't say a big enough THANK YOU to Wanda

Enough for now - take care

Butterfly piccies

Okay, 2 butterfies have flown this way across the Atlantic, the last got off to a latter start but should be here soon.

I got this beautiful one from Jenna in Canada with this card as well and a note.






And this stunning one came from Nancy in MA along with this beautiful card.






Now I have a problem - I can't remember for sure which butterfly I sent to whom!!!! I think the following are right but I'm not certain. I will also show all 3 of my butterflies as they were all posted together and should have all arrived by now.

This went to Vicki in TX, I think! The pattern is one by Kerstin Kall on the Swedish site frivolitesknuten but doesn't seem to be there now.




These went off to Jenna in Canada. The first is Ruths one from her book and the other Ellen's.





And these went to Nancy in MA. The first is Christels from here and the others are doodles.





Sorry about the picture quality but I was rushing to get them away in time.

Updates

I've finally got caught up with myself again! I was frantically trying to finish 3 butterflies for the intatters butterfly exchange - the piccies will have to wait as as yet the recipients haven't received theirs.......so watch this space! And also my DS has just finished P4 so I had 2 gifts to make for his 2 teachers.

First I tatted some earrings based on this post from Krystle and Jane's post here. Thread is Lizbeth Jelly Bean.




And then I did one of Karey's snowflakes (fish tales) from her book "Let it Snow". Thread is Lizbeth Caribbean



I am SO annoyed - before I started on the exchange butterflies I was working on my own butterfly design but quickly realised that it was far too complex to be made in time for the exchange (loads of clunies and other things)- so I put it down and did ones for my three exchange partners. Now, I've finished I thought I'd go back to my butterfly - can I find my drawing? NO! And boy am I p****d! I was really happy with it (the first time this has ever happened with my own design) and thought that maybe I could even go so far as to publish this one! I have the actual tatting that I had started but cannot find the drawing with the actual noted stitch counts on it. I had only done 3/4 of one of the 4 wings when I stopped so cannot even recount as more than a 3/4 of the pattern is just missing!!!!

Anyway on to more pleasant thoughts........look at what I found wandering about with "タティングレース" in google

look at this doily

Isn't that simply stunning!! If you look at the categories section (カテゴリー) on the left and then into "編み物" which incidentially translates as "knitting" you'll find the tatting and see some other stunning pieces.

A better shot of Jenni's bookmark

I was just about to upload a better picture of the bookmark Jenni sent to me but I found this one that she took herself and I couldn't do better than that so here is the link

Now you can see what I meant about the stunning woven picots!!!


UPDATE: Just realised that you may not be able to see the above if you are not a member of intatters so here it is as well with the relevant info as well.


From: Liyarra
To: Trayna
Pattern: Jen's Woven Picot Bookmark
Designed by: Jen Chioatto
From: Australian Tatters Guild - New South Wales Branch newsletter 2001.
Thread: Manuela variegated 204 - size 20 and white Coats Mercer Crochet - white size 20.

The promised pic's and bookmark exchange

As promised here are all the wonderful goodies that Aileen sent - firstly the tea towel itself.



Then there were packets & packets & packets of beads & sequins & ribbon.


Two wonderful threads.


And candy & chocolate.


This is the whole lot together - Wasn't I an extremely lucky girl!!!



Also I participated in the bookmark exchange on intatters - choosing to send and receive 2 bookmarks. My partners were Jenni in Australia & Kaira in Norway. I am very lucky that I have received both my exchange bookmarks - this very poor picture is of a stunning woven picot bookmark from Jenni (by chance she had done it in my very favourite dicontinued :( Manuela thread & white (I'll scan it later to post a better image). She even sent me the pattern!!!!
Jenni hasn't received mine yet so I won't post it as yet.

The other stunning one was from Kaira in variegated blues & white - isn't it lovely!! The pattern is here.

The ones I sent her was an adaptation of Iris' Eleonora doily as suggested by Marty (see here) and my own version of Ellen Lai's bookmark.

Feeling very virtuous & extremely lucky

As the title says, I am feeling very pleased with myself!! I have finally caught up with everything - the teeny tinsy winners things are packaged up to post tommorrow, so are the two bookmarks for the intatters bookmark exchange, as are a couple of other gifts for other people - 8 different packets going to 4 different countries!!!

I am also extremely grateful to Aileen, after the lost Secret Valentine exchange she has more than made up for the wait I had. The parcel arrived a week ago but with everything else that I have been doing this is the first chance I have had to post about it - her generosity is truly extra-ordinary - I got packets & packets & packets of beads, thread, chocolate, candy & ribbon as well as the tea towel. I have taken photos of all the items in this post and am planning on posting Aileen's gifts tomorrow. I will also add the ones of the tatting I have done after the recipents have received their respective gifts.

Part 1 of thread exchange

Having participated in the thread exchange, I am now the proud possessor of (at this moment in time) 3 new (to me) threads. Why 3? Well, 2 haven't arrived as yet - this is why I made this part 1. I'll wait and post pictures once all are here. For the moment I'll just describe.

First to arrive was a gorgeous pink holographic thread from Libby.
Then, yesterday I got a stunning 100% silk ladyshuttlemaker HDT from Karen and from Jeff I got a wonderful metallic Oren Bayan thread that I've seen talked about by various people.

Haven't I been spoilt?!!! Now all I have to do is find some extra special patterns to do with these special threads.

I have just bought some vintage Dutch tatting books I found online, so when they arrive I'll post some photos and maybe I'll find some patterns to do in them. I love the patterns in the Finnish book and have done one of them but don't have a photo as I gave it away (the story of all my tatting) to DS's teacher at the end of the school year last year.

Valentine Tea Towel Exchange

Now that I finally know that Irma in Chile got her tea towel I thought I would post the pictures I took before I sent it. Sorry some of the pictures aren't very clear.
This heart is Brigit's SweetHeart.



Clockwise, the pink heart is Ruth's Medallion Heart from the Tatting Calendar, the next two are also from the Tatting Calendar - the tiny red one is Ruth's Easy Little Heart and the little green one is her Spiral Heart; The larger red one is Brigit's Li'l Heart.

















The edging is a variation on Jon's Dimpled Chain - I made every second chain plain with 3 picots.










This is the whole bottom edge.




I also sent Irma a chocolate heart and a tatted bookmark.

What a lot of creative talented & generous people there are

I have spent a bit of time over the last few days wandering around the One World-One Heart Gypsy Caravan that both TattingChic & Marilee are very generously participating in. (I wish I was more organised and then I might have been able to participate in it as well, hopefully next year). I am just staggered by the generosity, talent and creativity there is - the only thing I would have thought to do with a rusty key was throw it away not use it for any type of craft purpose!

Back to tatting for a while. I have finally designed a pattern I am happy with - a little heart - so after writing it down I will possibly post it. I have doodled with designing for a few years but am usually not entirely happy with the end results so have never taken them any further - maybe I should try again? What do you think? I am going to do the thread exchange with the celtic group so may send a little heart as well!

I am nearly finished Jon's "Quantiesque snowflake" in variegated red and variegated green, but think I shouldn't have combined the two threads for the last round as it isn't quite right colourwise. We'll see when I finish it, I'll post a pic and see what you think. I have also been using my Silent Tatter shuttle from Roseground, which I must admit I find hard to use but love the feel of it in my hand - it is just a fraction too heavy (I keep dropping it) after the Aero Englands I love & use always. I have had it for about 3 years now and keep trying it every so often, but I suppose to be fair I don't use it enough to get used to it. It's funny how the shuttle you learn with remains your favourite no matter what - or so I've found anyway.

FIL got out of hospital on Thursday but for how long is anyone's guess. We were up to see him today and he does look better than he did but still terribly unwell. I just hope he doesn't suffer too long.

Still avoiding it

I will have to apologise profusely to Karey - I am still avoiding the issue with the "thing" for her. I did unpick the mistake a few stitches back and then very carefully put it away!!!!;) I really must get back to it.

Instead I started on the edging for my Valentine tea-towel - now I remember why I don't normally do edgings - I don't know about anyone else, but no matter how pretty the edging I find them intensely boring to tat. I would much rather tat a doily, mat, earrings, motif etc - in other words anything else rather than an edging or insertion. The pattern I have picked is really pretty and I have modified it slightly so it has more attachment picots so I have the option of adding it as a proper edging rather than on the tea-towel itself, but I still struggle.

I finally got my belated Christmas present from Ally (DS) in the post from Malaysia today - he picked Jon's Snowflake book (available from Jon at her blog) as I frequently do her Rings-Only Snowflake as an exchange gift and he loves it, so he chose the book. I have been very good and only had a quick glance so I don't get tempted till after Karey's & the Valentine exchanges are finished.

Must finish & New beginnings

Life is a bit complicated around here at present (long story which I'll tell another time) and I ran out of time to finish all I had wanted to send Karey for the Secret Santa, so I must finally finish the last item for her (the others were sent pre-Xmas). I have also been procrastinating as the pattern I chose to do is great but I made the mistake (in this particular pattern) of adding in an irridescent thread to the plain white and they are constantly getting tangled - it has been finished all but the last 2 or so cm since before Xmas, but I got so frustrated spending all my time untangling it that I am having a hard time picking it up again. Once Karey has received it [assuming I finish it ;)] I'll post a picture.

I am going to do the new Valentine Tea Towel exchange so I got a tea towel today - it is okay but not what I had wanted. I wanted a plain white or very pale coloured one to enhance but you try getting a non-patterned, non-checked, non-striped, etc tea towel that doesn't cost an absolute fortune up here!!! Now all I have to do is see if all the things I have planned for it will work out to give a decent look?

New Things

I really have to learn how to customise this blog as it is not pleasant to look at, at the moment. I'll also have to work out how to post pictures too. I don't suppose it is difficult, but it is just a matter of familiarising myself with new things.

I really love listening to Arlene's Podcast (now lets see if I can attach the link) but couldn't do it myself - for instance, I have just had to leave the computer to break up a fight between DH (DH does NOT stand for dear husband in my instance, but at present "damned husband") and 7 year old DS. I know which one is older in his mentality!!! They just about drive me to distraction. Enough family in-fighting!


Tatting wise I got some really beautiful things from Erin in Gina's SS exchange

-an absolutely stunning tatted tiny purse (like an amulet purse) bedecked with beads with a sweetie inside














-Ruth's 2008 celtic snowflake
-a gorgeous tiny pink tatted angel (I must find out from Erin what pattern she used)














-a skein of Sherry's Royalty thread (now I'm part of the HDT brigade too!!!!)













-a packet of Mill Hill petite beads
-a packet of tiny heart buttons
-a packet of gems

and a large bag of sweeties (the remnants seen in the photo)










OOOHHHH I've just managed to do the same trick as Sherry, though not as badly. I hit the toilet seat (of all things) - oh well I had to cut my nails anyway but that one will be in the quick!!!!!

Having taken the photos now all I have to do is find the usb cable to download them onto the computer - that could be easier said than done! Once I remembered where "the safe place" was it was easy!!!!

Now to add them...................... okay let's see what that looks like? Well, so-so, but alright I suppose for a first attempt - must do better.

Must go - haven't fed the 7yr old & he is fading away...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!