Well, hello!

It's been a long, long time since I posted - look at that last post - January!  Dear me. I'm fortunate to still have followers, I think.  Thanks for sticking with me, inconsistent as I am.  School, family, work, and life in general all conspire against poor ole Blogger. 

Although I am a busy person I still always find time for tatting.  Also, learning new bead-weaving techniques is one of my favorite things to do nowadays.  Here's a recent piece that combines both techniques.

Beaded leaves compliment this vintage pattern from "Lily Doilies & Edgings to Tat & Crochet" in Yarnplayer's gorgeous "Roses" thread. A picture of the entire necklace will reveal a problem however.

I've been wearing it myself (rather than offering it for sale) once I realized the mistake.  I will get around to fixing that wayward upside-down bead one of these days.  I do plan on remaking the necklace for sale and keeping this one, however, because while wearing it I fell in love with it.

In other news, the "Garden Afternoon" piece finally sold at my latest show - it looked so good on the lady who bought it that while I was a bit sad to see it go, I was comforted by the fact that it found a great home.  In my mind a piece is never really "finished" until you get to see someone wearing it.  All the work and time and creative energy and love you put into it is then - somehow - complete.

That's all for now, but hopefully I'll be a little more active in the days and weeks to come.  Thanks again for hanging around!

Picot Gauges

Does anyone else out there use picot gauges?  I've always wondered how important even picots are to people.  Now, let me say that I think that the best way to get even picots is practice, practice, practice!  I don't use picot gauges when doing regular tatting - I think they are way too time consuming and I've been tatting long enough that my picots are pretty even anyway.

But when beading, or doing a pattern where different sized, graduated, or larger picots are part of the overall design, I find picot gauges very helpful.  I created this little set out of heavy card stock and since I do a lot of bead work in my tatting and often use decorative picots in my work, I use mine all the time.

They sit with my shuttles, teeny-tiny crochet hooks and collapsible eye needles as one of my "essential" tools.  I have made a few of them to offer in my etsy shop, if anyone else is interested.

Missing Mary Konior

Is it possible to miss someone you've never actually met?  Somehow I think of people out there in tatting land as my friends even if we've never spoken.  After all, we do have something pretty substantial in common - we love tatting!  Designers are especially near and dear to my heart - so many talented people out there, and I feel like I know them through their methods, particular style and ways of designing tatting.

One of my favorites has always been Mary Konior, and so when I heard of her passing, I just had to pull out her books and peruse the loveliness within (they are quite well worn as I have perused them often in the past - but it had been a while).  Her designs are so neat, so symmetrical,  and very unique as well.  She had a very specific style, and I think it's easy to pick her designs out of a crowd.

Even though I never met her, I feel very strongly the tatting world lost a very special lady.  I am so thankful she left behind a legacy of her lovely designs for us to remember her by.

And the Winner is....!

Well, the winner has been drawn with a random number generator, and the winner is....IsDihara!!  Congratulations to you!  I will be in touch so I can ship these out to you - there's still lots of fall left to enjoy these little pumpkin earrings.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment and to spread the word.

And now, a little eye candy for your perusal - and to remind you of the next season that will soon be upon us.  These poinsettia earrings are an original pattern in a deep red DMC pearl cotton and have some very simple bead-weaving in the center to add some interest. 

Celebrate!

I'm still swamped by life.  Trying to find time to do everything - and not managing very well.  But today I had a little "yay!" moment when I made my 100th sale on etsy, and I thought I'd celebrate and share my  excitement by doing ... a giveaway!  So, for anyone interested, I am going to give away a pair of my Tatted Pumpkin Earrings.  They may look slightly different than this picture, as I use slightly different colors of threads and various ear-wires here and there, but this is a pretty close representation.

So, having never done a giveaway on my blog before, I'm just winging it here.  Ummmm - you'll have to comment to enter, and make sure, if you don't have a blog, that I have a way to contact you.(leave me your e-mail address in your comment). If you mention my giveaway on your blog to help get the word out, leave a comment here saying you did so, and that will get you entered a second time for another chance to win.  I will ship anywhere and everywhere, so please, all feel free to enter.  I'll be announcing the winner this coming weekend, probably on Sunday evening, so check back then.

Good luck to everyone!