Motif Thirteen

Just for a switch I decided to post something other than jewelry - I don't get to make other kinds of tatted items very often. Here is an ornament I made for an exchange. It is made with one strand of DMC metallic floss in copper (same as the earrings in a previous post), and one strand of Anchor, size 80, in a similar copper color. The metallic floss is soooooo much easier to work with when combined with another thread. The pattern is from a small Japanese book that is not translated at all - so I have no idea of the title - but it looks like the author is T. Fujito and it is (c) 2001, in case that helps anyone locate the book/pattern.


I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Enjoy the time with friends and family!

Motif Twelve

My life is way too busy. I need to take that "stop and smell the roses" saying more seriously. My life is passing me by and I have no time to enjoy it. Don't get me wrong - I love my life. My family is wonderful, I love both my jobs, most of the time I would be hard pressed to find something to whine about - but some days it seems like I am on the outside looking in and watching my life go by at the speed of light. How is it Christmas 2007 is only two weeks away? When did my kids get to be 15 and looking and acting more like men every day? When I tell customers I have been creating tatted jewelry for 14 years I think to myself - it seems like just yesterday I went to my first craft show and how could it possibly be 14 years ago?!

Well, enough rambling. Another original pattern here - but one I have been using for just about as long as I have been in business - a cross. Here are two versions, one with a rose and a beaded one.

The beaded version is relatively recent - I like placing the beads the way they are - dangling like that, but it is a pain in the neck and really doesn't work well because of the design of the cross to use that particular technique. I have to come up with something better. I would also like to do some beadweaving in the center of the cross but haven't had time to play with that yet - in January. (Of course, if you knew all the things I am going to get to "in January" you would realize I have way too large of an agenda for the alloted number of days in that month. Especially with tax season starting.)

It's been three weeks since I posted - I must do better at keeping up!

Sick but still tatting wildly...

I have been sick - yuck! Started out with a sore throat and maintained a low grade fever while moving through chest cough, runny nose and now sinus infection. Finally today I went to the doctor to get some antibiotics, but only because we are leaving tomorrow for Kentucky for Thanksgiving. I didn't want to get a serious sinus infection (and man have I had some doosies) while far away from home.

I have been tatting a lot. Sinus infections don't really interfere with tatting, except that I have to quit and take a nap now and again. I have been tatting so much that the base of my thumb on my left hand has started to hurt - this is not a good sign. I do have gloves I wear sometimes but they make my hands hot. With a fever and two cats sitting on my lap I'm warm enough already, so no gloves! I'll take another nap instead and give my thumb a rest.

I don't have any pictures of tatting to share at the moment, however, because I have been working mainly on orders and many of them are similar to patterns or pictures I have already posted. Hopefully when I get back in a week I'll do a massive scanning session of things I get done while in KY.

Instead, I'll share pictures of my kitties.

This is Sammy. He was my baby for 15 years until we had to have him put to sleep this past March. We got him at a garage sale. He was born with only one eye, but it didn't slow him down any. He was the most vocal cat I've ever known - he'd follow you around the house yelling all the time until you sat down. He was the first pet I ever had to put down, and it was just AWFUL. It took me months before I could even think about him without breaking down. But now it's mostly happy memories with just a few "I still miss you" tears.

This is one of my new pals, Dorito. You may think he looks like Sammy, but in real life he doesn't. He has these crazy big tufts on his ears and huge eyes and big lion-like paws. He also has a really pointy face, and I suspect he may have some wild cat - maybe Bengal - in his lineage somewhere. We rescued him from a shelter. He is a cuddle-bug, but also very skittish, so I think he also may have some abuse in his background. For instance, he will not go through the cat door to the basement where the litter boxes are because he thinks the door is hitting him, so we have to tape it open. Once he gets to know you though, he loves to put his paws around your neck, get up in your face and give you kisses.


Here is my other lap-buddy, Staten. Isn't he gorgeous? He is on the small side and loves to climb into things (my purse, plastic shopping bags, boxes, you name it, he's in it). We rescued him from the shelter as well. He yells at me when I'm in the shower - I really have not been able to figure out why. In the early mornings he climbs onto my pillow and combs his claws through my hair while purring loudly and drooling.

Both of them can fit in my lap but it makes it hard to tat so usually one is along side of me in my chair while the other is on my lap. We spend many happy hours like that!

(If I didn't have a husband I'd be one of those crazy cat ladies with 20 cats running around the house. Well, maybe not that many, but I could have easily brought home 4 or 5 that day at the shelter.)

Motif Eleven

Well, I found out it was fun to be tagged...and then I spent hours going around to all the other people who had been tagged to find out all the interesting stuff about them - I am feeling remorse at not getting any tatting done! Oh, the guilt - yeah, well - you can see I'm still in avoidance mode as I thought I would update my blog instead of tatting even now.

Does anyone else have that disease which manifests itself with the following major symptom: whenever there is a lot of something to do (in this case, tatting, because my inventory is so low and I have another show i a week and a half) you avoid it at all costs. Why do I do that? It it that I am overwhelmed at the thought of all that needs to be done that I don't know where to start? But isn't starting the only way it will get done? It's a disease all right, and I've got a full blown case of it. Procrastinationitis.

And here is motif number 10. Guess what? Yeah, it's still an old pattern of mine - nothing new yet. The two tatting pieces on each side of the bead were originally designed to look like a shuttle for the TatChat group back in the late 90's: the pattern is still on the web and available here. So I gave it a new twist in this necklace by putting a focal bead between the two "shuttles." Of course, most of my customers don't recognize the "shuttle" part of the design, but to me and hopefully other tatters, that makes the design a little extra special. Below is the same pattern in a pin.

Tagged?!

I have been tagged by Yarnplayer

I never heard of this before - I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to blogging - so I'll just cut and paste the rules and follow them to a T.

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

7 facts about myself:

1. My favorite movie is A&E's five hour version of "Pride & Prejudice."
2. I edit for an online publishing company - Double-Edged Publishing.
3. I have fifteen-year-old twin boys.
4. I am addicted to the TV show "The Office." I live about 1 1/2 hours from the place where it supposedly takes place (Scranton, PA), and am seriously considering going to "The Office" convention they are holding there next weekend.
5. I am 6' tall.
6. I am a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
7. When I have some free time (which isn't too often) I love to play the online game Runescape.

Whew - that required some thought about what things to reveal about myself!

I am going to tag:

Ruth
Mark
Teri