Vacation Week and Challenge news

Okay, Sharon B. who has the In a Minute Ago blog has announced her challenge for next year. It is the Take in Further Challenge. Please feel go check out the post to get more details. She also welcomed people to talk about their de-stashing, so my hopes of working on projects and de-stashing should fit in with her challenges.

I got little done during my vacation. I worked on a Sampler that was started 20 plus years ago, and started a Crazy Quilt square. I also started another needle tatting motif. Much of the time I had planned to work on organizing my crafting and/or crafting was spent and my Mom's house. She had borrowed a copy of "The Barchester Chronicles" from her friend and my former boss. It is a 7 episode series, each episode about 50 minutes long. We watched it in it's entirety 2 days in a row. I probably could have watched in again, but that didn't happen. So instead of tatting, or doing anything else, I sat curled up on a couch, wrapped in a quilt, watching Alan Rickman ooze slimy charm. The show is a delightful little soap opera of politics and intrigue in a small 19th century town. I highly recommend it.

UFOs

For the subject of this post, UFOs are UnFinished Objects, maybe someday I'll write about the other kind, but not today. Sharon B from In A Minute Ago suggested a possible challenge for next year. {This year she has run the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. I only found out about it in September and that was too late, at least in my mind to join in.} Anyway for next year she suggested a de-stashing project, of finishing up UFOs, WIPs(works in progress) and WISPs(works in slow progress). I don't know if that is what the final challenge will be or not. However I decided to make it mine whether or not she runs an official challenge. I started writing down my UFOs on break. I'm not sure I want to admit to how many I have. I am trying to get them organized however, and I'm dividing my supples into; what is in progress and I definitely want to finish, supplies for projects that haven't been started but I want to do, supples for projects that haven't been started and I want to divert to other projects, then just the odds and ends that I had to have because they are pretty, and the odds and ends that are leftover.

I will definitely finish off the 25 motif challenge, and perhaps start it over again as it is just plain fun, motifs don't take a whole lot of time to complete, and they use up stash - which puts it squarely in the realm of the de-stashing part of the new challenge.

I also plan to start CQing. More UFOs? Yes I'm sure there will be, but at the same time it will give me a place to use my motifs, both crocheted and tatted. It will certainly destash fabric and embroidery floss, and bits and bobs that have accumulated.

I will be on vacation next week and plan to get my UFOs and Stash somewhat organized. At least enough to make a list, and a game plan. Also I have no internet at home so I will probably be out of the loop for a whole 9 days.

To all of you who happen to stop by, have a lovely Thanksgiving. I hope you get to share it with family or friends or both. And if you live someplace where you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, have a lovely week and I hope you get to share it with people you love.

Blog Roll

Okay, my blogroll is probably a weird thing to blog, but what the heck. At this point, these are all the blogs that I subscribe too. I use the Bloglines service for this. I check bloglines every morning, and they have done a search and let me know which blogs have been updated, and they provide the postings, either partial or in full -- your choice. Then I can go to the individual sites and browse around, read or leave comments, and see what blogs other people have linked too. It is a wonderful service. If you are forgetful like me, or just plain busy it is a wonderful tool.

The crafting sites: Embroidery, Tatting, and Crazy Quilting these sites are loaded with patterns and or inspiration.

Other Blogs: Well, just that, other blogs.

• The Criss Library is where I work, information that is a must have for any of us in the Criss Library who work a public service desk. If you don't work there, you probably don't care.
• The Pump Handle, because I am woefully uninformed about the goings on in the world. This is one way I can at least get the headlines on a topic I care about, my fellow human beings.
• Horror Movie a Day. Hard to explain, not the blog, but why I read it. The blogger watches a horror movie every day, then talks about it, like he is talking to a friend. It isn't a review it is more of a conversation. I don't even watch many horror movies, but I love this blog. Warning-He uses rough language.
• My other blog, is where I blog on non-craft things, probably where this entry should go but oh well, the lines between the two are so blurred now anyway that there is probably no hope.
• Any other blogs there at this point are friends, virtual or real-world that have blogs. Not that those who write the crafting blogs are not friends and potential friends, they just have a more focused blog.
  

Pictures Finally

I finally have some scans of my tatting. So here in all its glory, I present to you: twisted picots, wildly uneven tension, thread so soft it needs to be blocked and stiffened, and ends needing to be tucked in. Oh, and lots of stray cat hairs too. They will be happy to know that their contribution made it into this post.
Motif 5
This first piece is from the Tat-along project. This is Base motif number 2. This is the motif with the twisted picots, and well even more obvious is the uneven tension. I just need to take some time to tuck in the ends. Then I will stiffen it and use it for a Christmas ornament on the back of the tree to fill in space and not waste the thread and time.

Needle tatted.

Motif 6
This Albino Bat is from Mark Myers site. Again with uneven tension and loose ends. I'll probably attach him to something. I will say it looked much better after I ironed it, now it is at least recognizable as a bat.

Needle tatted.

Motif 7
One X from the Cecelia Doily. This is one of my old threads from when I was going to crochet a whole bunch of bookmarks. The Thread is nice and soft and even after ironing it will not hold its shape. I plan on making as many Xs as I can from this ball of thread and making a doily. Probably a rather small doily.

Needle tatted.


Motif 8
I cannot find the website for this motif at the moment. I'll have to look it up at home and see if I can at least find the name of the designer. Again the thread is very soft, and this motif will end up being attached to something else so it can hold it's shape. The designer is Lisa C. Trumble, and it can be found at this website.

Needle tatted.

Motif 9.
Another motif from the tat-along project. This is motif is my variation on the first motif. More of that soft soft thread. Again this motif will probably just get stitched onto something else so that it can hold its shape.

Needle tatted.


Motif 10.
these are so small I'm counting the 2 of them as one motif. This is thread from a friends step-mother-in-law, or that woman's mother. We aren't sure exactly. They are just doodles that I needle tatted, and each motif used up what was left on a spool of thread. I didn't use a pattern for these, but I do know that a clover and a daisy are far from original. I just made up the counts as I went along and used up the thread. These will also become part of something else, some day.

So, now I am caught up on posting my tatting and moving along on my tatting adventure. I hope to be able to credit the creator/designer of the triangle pattern very soon. However if anyone knows off the top of his/her head, please let me know so that proper credit can be given. Found it, Lisa C. Trumble, her website is listed above.

Cross Posted on Zaijovan's This n That

Gate of Souls: a Familiar's Tale

This has nothing to do with fiber arts, but it's my friends book, I think it's great and I want her to do well, so if you like the fantasy genre, please consider this book!

I received my copy of Gate of Souls last night. I am quite excited and cannot wait to read it. Probably will sit down Saturday morning with a pot of tea and some scones and really enjoy it. I was a beta reader for this book when my friend Verna was writing it. It was great then, I loved it and was thrilled when she thought she had it published. That promise fell through, and in retrospect it was a very good thing it did. Since I first read the book, my friends Rick and Verna have moved so I haven't seen the changes in this book. Verna published several short stories in e-zines and in this way was 'noticed' by a book publisher. A Familiar's Tale was dusted off and has been through some serious editing. The title of the original, A Familiar's Tale, has become the series title. The story is told through the eyes of the sorcerer's familiars. The first time through Mellypip was the main character along with his sorceress Runa. I expect this hasn't changed any. As sweet and endearing as these two characters are Belwyn the owl -- and Mellypip's tutor -- was a favorite of mine, and everyone in the writers group. To a person, in our imaginations Belwyn had the voice of Edward Woodward. No one tried to give actors or voices to the other characters, but try giving this book a read and see if any voice other than Woodward's comes through for Belwyn.

I hear the 2nd book in the series is almost done. I wonder how much chocolate I'll have to mail out to Verna in order to see a rough draft of this book ahead of time?

Cats and Quilts

Cats are attracted to quilts. I've never met a cat who wasn't. I don't know the reason, but I'm sure there should be a universal law about it. Once upon a time I was embroidering white flour sack dishcloths. I was told that the embroidery was too pretty and ornate to be dishcloths, I should make it a quilt. Then as I dutifully did as I was told and started making a quilt I was told that it should be a queen-sized quilt, because then it would work as a bed spread for my double bed. Seeking approval I embroidered enough squares for a queen-sized quilt. 24 squares, plus borders. Only 4 squares are quilted. I dug it out of it's box too have a look, that's more quilting than I thought I had done. I'm rather wishing now I had not been so easily led, and such an approval seeker, but it will make a pretty quilt if I ever get it done.

So anyway, I spread it out on my living room floor to have a good look at it. My living room is almost empty because I'm working slowly on finishing that room. Finishing off the ceiling, painting and wall papering, so the furniture is all in my dining room. Lots of room on the living room floor. I sit down on the love seat (that is in the dining room, blocking any use of my dining table) to have a good look at it. The cats find the quilt. One promptly sits on it to have a bath, the other two circle around it for a bit. Suddenly the quilt becomes a mat or a ring, and the cat version of WWW occurs in my living room on that quilt. All the kitty wrestling must happen on the quilt. If a cat leaves the quilt for any reason the wrestling stops. It was quite entertaining, and I watched for some time thinking I was justified in not having cable.

And as I look over this blog and think about all the craft work I have, all those UFOs, and all the possibilities for more UFOs I'm thinking maybe the blog name should change from Catherine's Tatting Attempts to Catherine's Crafting Attempts. I'll think about it, I'll only change it if the addy can stay the same.

Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone. I did not dress up this year, and neither did my cat. Banichi sometimes dresses up as a spider and helps me hand out candy. He is usually as big a hit as the candy. I just didn't want to deal with that this year. I had somewhere between 50 and 75 trick or treaters come by, before I decided to call it quits. I got chilled, the neighbors were starting to close up and turn out lights so I did too. I didn't think I was ever going to warm up.

While handing out candy I worked on my embroidery sampler. I actually got a fair amount done. There were many nice complements on the colors and several little girls commented that they liked to embroider. I was saddened though when one girl asked if I was knitting. Here was this nice curious little girl who had never been exposed to needle crafts. A fair amount of my history is tied up in craft work -- not to mention a huge amount of space in my house. My mother taught me to embroider. My grandmother gave me my first knitting needles and yarn. My mother made me clothes, taught me to make clothes, she sewed and knitted Barbie doll clothes for me, I learned to needlepoint by watching her; she and I learned to quilt together, she on quilt tops made by her grandmother, and me using up scraps from cloth mom and I had made clothes out of. Then there is the hours of fun and enjoyment of learning new crafts with friends, and the new friends I have made simply by knowing some needlework and getting involved with groups in person or online who also practice needlework. I do hope that, that little girl who didn't know the difference between knitting and embroidery has some other memories with her parents, some other hobbies that will be as pleasing and rewarding to her as needlework has been and continues to be for me.