Easy Stuff

Well, this will be very a boring post (aren't they all?).  I decided to finally take out the wooden ornaments that I bought last year on vacation and paint them.  I have no idea what I'll do with them aside from throwing them back in the box from whence they came, but at least they're not plain anymore. :-)

 Ugh.  You can't tell, but the snowflake is shiny, too. 

There is also a gift tag almost done.  I couldn't make up my mind about the background color, so I just might be taking out the paints again tomorrow.  You can't tell in the scan, but he's all pearly and shiny, as are the snowflakes (which also have bits of blue). 

Well, that's it for me tonight.  I hope you've all had a wonderful week!

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Sunbonnet Sue Number Two

Since yesterday's Sunbonnet Sue ended up with a ring wrong-side forward, I knew that I had to do another just to prove that I really could tat her.  I'm still not in love with the pattern, but it tats up so easily (i.e. no natural stopping point so I don't really feel the need to put it down) that I might make a few more.  I guess that depends on if anyone on my Christmas card list voices a fondness for Sunbonnet Sues.  I'm a tad old-fashioned or something, so I'm used to people not agreeing with things that I like.  *shrugs* It happens.

She's done in Lizbeth size 20, Harvest Gold (699) and Victorian Red (670).  I think that I might try silver and blue for the next one again, but with the silver on the outside and blue for the chains.  I'm trying to keep her Christmas-y so I'm avoiding the flowery threads that seem like they'd be a good fit. 

I started a very scary (to me) pattern today, too.  Hopefully, it will work out okay, but thus far it's only confirmed that I *hate* super large rings. (Is there any way to make a ring of 36 stitches look neat?  I haven't mastered that skill yet.)  

Hope you're all having a lovely day.  The Giants are getting slaughtered, so it's probably about to become a cruddy night in my household. :-/

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Christmas is Coming...

I realized that Christmas will be here before I know it, so I've been trying to focus on the little trinkets that I'll include in the cards I send out.  I bought Christmas cards on Halloween ... I'm as bad as the stores when it comes to rushing the holidays.  (Note: I'm generally miserable from now until all this holiday stuff if over.  I don't observe Thanksgiving and I hate Christmas.)

My plan is to mainly make snowflake ornaments, but I also want to do some other ornaments and, hopefully, some bookmarks if I can find a few patterns that I like and can tat quickly.  I just bought Tat's Where I Stopped by Nancy Tracy, but I'm a bit iffy on some of the patterns.  Does anyone have the book?  How do you handle patterns like the leaves bookmark?  I never trust just knotting and cutting, but I also wouldn't want to use glue on a bookmark.  I iz confoozed. 

I have had this pattern printed for literally years.  I've never been brave enough to try it for some reason.  It's a lot easier than I imagined, but I found the directions to be wrong in several places. 

Sunbonnet Sue; Big Book of Tatting, pg. 19

I used Lizbeth size 20 in Sky Blue Medium and Silver.  It's not a bad pattern, but I should have paid more attention.  My initial ring has the wrong side facing forward because I flat-out didn't realize there was no RW before adding the ball thread.  *rolls eyes*  It was my third time starting, though, so I just went with it.  

This is another "December Motif" by Joelle Paulson from leblogdefriole.blogspot.com.  All of the beads are pink, but none of them look like it in the scan --and the seed beads, in life, look white if you don't look closely.  They annoy me.  They're so pink together, but turn white on thread.  >.<  The thread is Turquoise Light --Lizbeth, Size 20, of course. 

Well, that's it for now, but at least it's something. 

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Blue and Silver

One of the first books that I bought when I started tatting was Christmas Angels and Other Tatting Patterns by Monica Hahn.  I always loved the Cloverleaf Bell on page 13, but never completed it.  Every time that I looked at it, the song Silver Bells would fill my head and I'd imagine how lovely the bell would look in silver instead of the white pictured in the book.  

My best guess is that I avoided it because it is done in three different parts (four, counting the hanger).  Until a few weeks ago, I dreaded sewing in ends, so anything that required cutting and tying usually got put on the "someday" list.  Nothing really changed, but a few weeks ago, I suddenly had no problem sewing in my ends.  So...

Ta-Da!

Of course, this made me feel all brave because I actually love it.  Right away, I wanted to make the pattern again.  I started, but I didn't load enough thread onto the shuttle so I aborted the mission.  I did not, however, abort the book.  I flipped a few pages and and decided to finally do another pattern that I've always liked but never finished. 

I do not like this one as much.  I knew that I wouldn't like a star in silver, but I always think that blue and silver are the best Christmas colors, so I had to try it.  I'm just proud that I finished, even after realizing that I wouldn't be in love with it.  I'm definitely going to have to try this one in a gold-toned thread.  For some reason, the ball of silver that I have (Lizbeth 20) feels very dry so tatting with it feels ... weird.  It slowed me down a bit because I had trouble getting some of the rings to close, but this still only took a few hours (I didn't time it).  By the way, I am not blaming Lizbeth thread.  I love it and only mentioned the dryness because my other ball of silver feels completely different.  I've never had Lizbeth feel dry like that before.  Like I said, weird. 

Well, hope you've had a wonderful day!

♥,
Stephanie Grace