a real quick post

Thanks for those who stopped by to offer sympathy for kitties. Fleas are doing better for now. The literature says maybe one more outbreak, but if I treat for that, then again a month after that it should take care of things. I hope so, my poor Banichi has bald spots from scratching.

For Tatting Tea Tuesday, I had water, and I tatted exactly 1 chain. Count it 1 chain tatted. 8 ds, picot, 8 ds. That was it. Then last night one whole ring. 3 ds, picot 3 ds join to picot on chain from previous round, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, close. Will the fun never end? More importantly, at that rate will the doily ever get finished?

TTT and fleas :-(

Today is tatting tea Tuesday. No tea for me tonight didn't have any during the day either. No beer for tatting beer Tuesday, I think it will be tatting milk or tatting water Tuesday in my neck of the woods. I hope to get some tatting done. I discovered last night that my cats have fleas. Major bummer. I'll be stopping by the vets and picking up remedies on my way home from work. Hopefully I'll have a little bit of tatting to tell you about tomorrow, but if not it will be because I have to comfort traumatized kitties.

poor furbabies.

Timber!

Only a little tatting today and no pictures of that to show. I had a doctors appointment yesterday, just a routine med review and a documenting of various aches and pains. I did get some exercises to do that may help with the tension headaches I get occasionally, very occasionally, once every few years type. It’s probably the same type of exercise everyone else gets to do for that type of headache. Things to stretch out the muscles in the neck and shoulders. I never though to try those as I never seem tense there, I just get this weird random muscle over my skull that starts spasming. Bad news is she said the tatting may actually be causing some of the tension. I will choose not to believe her and assume that some other life matter is causing the damage. After all, tatting and other hobbies are to relax us! After the appointment I took vacation. The last of the big trees in my yard came down the night before (Wed. night) That was an adventure in itself. My neighbor who has been helping me made all the cuts. The tree was set to go down in an angle to the south east. I saw the cuts, I know a teeny tiny bit about physics, that tree should have gone down to the south east. Nice neighbor started making more cuts and again I checked, tree should go down to south east, but it started sliding off to the southwest. Neighbor didn’t believe me, after all, those cuts should have sent it the other direction. He kept cutting and sure enough tree went down south, south west. He got out of the way in time, and the tree missed the 2 trees I wanted to keep and the house. The very top tips brushed the electrical wires coming down. Gravity and strange angles of the tree that appeared to be going pretty much straight up conspired against us. Thank goodness no one was hurt. No electricians needed, and no houses or fences damaged. Here are some pictures of the downed tree. Sorry if pictures are grainy, they were taken by my trusty phone.





It is now fire wood, or in sacks and barrels ready to go to the city compost. Neighbor and I are down to cutting the stumps as close to the ground as possible, then using stump killer, or salt water to try to prevent recurring growth. I need to get around to the parts of the yard I could never get to before and pick up all the trash that is there. That trash has been there for longer than the six years I’ve lived there. It is rather appalling the amount of trash that was allowed to hide in that yard. Off the top of my head I can tell you there are car parts, parts of campaign signs, clothes, rags, odd chunks of cement, broken glass, tin and aluminum cans, Styrofoam, and plastic containers. I may have to take a couple of pictures of just the trash as it comes out of the yard, but that may not get posted, it may actually be rather revolting.

Don’t know how much I’ll get to/feel like tatting this weekend either. A friend is remodeling her bathroom and I’ve promised to help. She needs to get most of the tiling done on the floor and I think counter tops before plumber comes to install the new toilet and whatever other plumbing needs to get done. the electrician has already been there. This weekend while I help her I am hoping to learn how to tile, I also plan to fetch and carry things for her so she can concentrate on getting the work done, and maybe make some food for lunch. In fact I’m planning on making her onigiri for lunch. In case you don’t know, onigiri is a traditional Japanese dish, riceballs. You make up sushi rice, and frequently hide a little surprise inside. I like teriyaki salmon or umiboshi for the insides. Umiboshi is pickled plums. You can also just season the rice and not have fillings. It is the sort of food that we cannot get in restaurants here in the great plains states. Anyway the remodeling friend loves onigiri, but never takes the time to make it for herself. And shouldn’t one have a food they really love when they are working hard?

More Motif’s finally!

I was trying to post at least once a week. How many times have I said I would do that? Life just gets in the way. I flat out decided I needed to make time to post today, and I even have photos to show. I still don’t have my latest tatting photographed, I’ll have to take care of that soon. But this is pretty picture heavy anyway.

Motif # 14 Remembrance Ring by Marilee Rocklee. This is being modeled by my almost niece. Since I don’t have kids, some of my friends' kids have let me become a surrogate aunt to them. The ring looks much better on her hands than on mine. It is done in size 20 Lizbeth Falling leaves and the pattern can be found here. The picture doesn’t do the ring any justice it was taken from my cell phone as I didn’t have the camera with me. Our model is now off to school, and we all miss her and are looking forward to seeing her again at Christmas.
Motif # 15 Bookmark (right) by Nancy Tracy This was done in size 20 Lizbeth Mediterranean, and the pattern can be found here.
Motif # 16 Foldover Bookmark (left) by Jon Yosuf done in size 20 Lizbeth Carousel, and the pattern can be found here.
Motif # 17 Ruffled Snow flake by Vida Sunderland. It was done in size 20 Lizbeth Seascape. The first is from the side so you can actually see the ruffles.

Here are some of my motifs waiting to get blocked and turned into Christmas ornaments.
And here is another batch of tatted motifs waiting their turn on the blocking board.
Also, since I made a post earlier about my UFOs & WISPs, I’ve decided to show that I can finish off some projects. This was finished in about 1990. It is from a magazine whose name I no longer remember, but the pattern is circled wagons. It is hand pieced, hand appliqued, and hand quilted.
I did get a touch more done on the powder room bow I mentioned and had pictures of in an earlier post. I haven’t worked much on it since, but here is part of the next section to be stitched.
I did however dig out an even older project. I wasn’t slated to finish this up till next year in my list of crafts. I started this angel by Rebecca Waldrop on 9-11-2001. The other cross stitch I had going at the time is a dragon attacking a castle. I just couldn’t bring myself to work on it and started Tapestry Angel instead. She is now with about 3 other angels by Rebecca Waldrop waiting to be gently washed and then turned into pillows. I almost always have at least one of the Waldrop angels in progress, but I do finish my projects VERY slowly. I’ll have to get the current 2 out and get pictures of where I’m at and also photo’s of the patterns so you can see where I‘m going with them.And here is a shot of my tatting/crafting space. That collection of creamy fabric on top of the couch's corner is a slipcover that I need to put back on the couch.
Here is a box of some of my threads,
and here is my cat Banichi checking out the threads. Actually he is checking out the plastic bags that they came in. He and I have a long running argument over whether or not cats need plastic in their diet. I say no, he says yes. Maybe if some of you weigh in on the subject and let us know what you think we will be able to settle this. I won’t hold my breath though. I don’t think either of us will change our minds.

Another quick check in

Tried working in yard without neighbor. Forgot gloves. Hands and arms ripped to shreds on weeds, it aint pretty. Don't know if I can get any crafting done till this heals up. Hands are also stained, I've tried soap, a soft facial pore brush and rubbing alcohol to get them clean. I think they are clean even though they look filthy, and the fingers are really rough from the small cuts and abrassions. I'm afraid I will stain fabrics/threads or snag them with these poor hard working hands of mine. I have my gloves right under my clippers for working in yard tonight. I'll see if someone can get a picture of them to remind me to never ever ever forget gloves to garden in ever again.

oh, and somehow through all the damage to the skin, I didn't break any nails. Whatever.

Another post - no pictures

No I have not fallen out of the blogosphere. I just hate staying after work to make my posts. Somehow it feels like being made to stay after school.

I have tatted some since the last post, I've also done x-stitching. I've even started a x-stitch sampler, despite what I said about not feeling like they are true samplers in a previous post. True sampler or not some of them are just so appealling!

Also, my house and yard are both fixer uppers. I guess some of my neighbors have gotten tired of how much fixing up needs to be done, and one of them has taken pity on me. Last week he trimmed up trees, cut down a bush and cleaned out the gutters. Don't worry, he did have permission to be doing this on my property. Well all except the gutters. He was supposed to wait till I was there to spot him on the ladder on uneven ground. Let me tell you, he is one tough gentleman. I tried to keep up with him for just an hour and a half after work on 2 days, and it came close to heat stroke. He on the other hand was just fine.

I hope to get pictures of all my WIPs soon, and then I will stay after school/er work and get pictures posted.

Motifs 11, 12, and 13 plus cat

I apologize here and now for the following pictures. I took them with my phone as my camera is currently staying at Mom's house. I got a fair bit of tatting done. But no pressing or blocking. The first motif doesn't really have a name, but it is one I had in the past tried repeatedly to tat. Never could get it. Then I read up on how to do rings on chains, something I had never heard of the first 10 or so attempts to tat this motif and I learned more of the principle behind the shoelace trick, and voila! My first attempt in my second tatting life turned out a completed motif! The pattern can be found here. It is by Lisa Trumble of This 'n' Tat. (Sorry for my fingers in the pictures) Here is Motif 11.
This next motif is number 12 and it is Trefoil Snowflake from Vida Sunderman's Tatted Snowflakes. It was tatted in size 20 Carousel by Lizbeth instead of the called for size 10 white. I'm kind of liking my multi-colored snow-flakes.
Motif 13 is also from Ms. Sunderman's book Tatted Snowflakes. It is the Glitter Snowflake tatted in size 5 instead of size 30. It is plenty small in size 5 thread.
And just because I found it on the phone, here is an 'awww' picture of Leo taken around Christmas time. Talk about one relaxed kitty. He is sleeping on my double wedding ring quilt that is taking me forever to quilt. I really need to quit finding new crafty things to try out and finish up all my WISPs and UFOs. Oh well, some year.