Family time and tatting.

Wow, I need to stop time so I can catch up!  It was a very busy weekend and I got a little bit done but most of the time was spent with family.  Friday night and Saturday I kept my youngest grandbaby so I didn't get any sewing time in.  I took her with me Saturday over to my #1 son's house to help pack.  They have bought another house and are starting to move this weekend.  They can't officially move in until Monday when they close on the new house but the sellers have agreed to let them move their stuff into the garage starting Saturday.  The house they are selling has to be cleared out by Monday so the new buyers can move in.  It's a lot different now since we bought our house 20 years ago.  Anyway, this week will involve helping the kids move.  Saturday night I had both boys and their families over for my #2 son's birthday and his fiance's birthday too.  Her birthday was Friday and his is not until the 28th but with the moving and everything going on, we decided to celebrate early.  It's not like we have a party anyway, my boys are grown. But, we gotta have cake and ice cream, right?!   After everyone left, the hubs and I watched a little TV and got to tat a little bit.  I made some more earrings.  These are so simple to make and go so fast.  I made one of them Saturday night while watching TV.  I finished the other one Sunday afternoon and made another little pair too.  Here's the pair I made. It's the same pattern as last week.  This pattern is so quick and easy and fun to do.  I just love this color...This was made with Lizbeth size 20 thread.

Here's the other pair I made Sunday evening.  In our Tatting group, we like to use up bits and pieces of thread on the shuttle.  I made a little tabletopper out of left over threads. Nancy is currently working on a piece that this little pattern came from.  She is also making a tabletopper but hers is made using this pattern.  I've been kidding her about this one.   It's easy to remember this little pattern.  I have teased her about it and called it Damien because it uses a 666 pattern....For those of you that are old enough, you might remember back in the late '70's, the movie, the Omen. The little boy in it was named Damien.  Anyway, it's kind of a standing joke with us and it made it easy for me to remember the pattern...

I'm calling this pair: Dear Damien

Here's the pattern if you want it...

It takes 30" of thread wound on the bobbin, don't cut your thread from the ball. I put 5 beads on the ball thread before I wound my shuttle and placed them where they were called for in the pattern from the ball thread.  You can put them on the shuttle if you want to but since the bead is on the chain, the bead shows up better if used from the ball thread.  I tried it from the shuttle and didn't like it as well.  Just so you know....

Put  5 seed beads onto your ball thread.  Push them down and  pull out approximately 30" of thread and wind your shuttle. 

R6-6 cl,RW (this first picot needs to be a good size because all of the rings will be joined into this...)

Chain 6 B 6 RW  (B means bead. After bead is in place, work 2nd stitch (to lock it in place), then do your 6 stitches as normal.  I like to lock the bead like this as I think it looks better. If you want to leave this step out, it's ok too....

R6+6

Continue in this pattern until you have 6 rings. The last chain, is ch6 - 6. Join in base of first ring and cut and tie. I do not put a bead in this picot space but you can if you want to.  Add the earring finding that you prefer and you have a cute earring to keep or give to someone. These are quick and easy.

Block exchanges, tatting, knitting and a little wallhanging.

I did a little bit of sewing on Sunday afternoon.  This week is my small group meeting and I wasn't ready for it.  I'm in two exchanges in this group and I had to get ready.  So, even though I wasn't really "in the mood" to sew, I had to suck it up and do it anyway.  So, I did. I made my 40 nine patches for my 9 Patch exchange and I started working on the other 5 blocks I needed for the other exchange.   Here's the 9 patches I did Sunday.

I finished my tatted earrings and my knitted scarf too.  The top earrings have seed beads on them. The little owl earrings have seed beads for the eyes.  I found the metal owls at Hobby Lobby and made earrings out of them too.  The other metal owl I found at Walmart and I'll just make a necklace out of him.  I like owls...can you tell? 

Here's a close-up of the earrings with the seed beads.

Here's the knitted scarf I finished.   It's made from Premier Starbella thread.  It was fun and easy to make. I have some gray/black/white to knit up too.  This one is a gift and the other one is for me.

Tonight, I finished the other 5 blocks I started on Sunday afternoon.  These are all made from Civil War fabric and we are about half-way through with the exchange.  This is going to be a great quilt.

This last picture is for Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter.  I told her I had made a small quilt out of the maple leaf blocks and had done it the same setting as she had done...I made this a few years ago and  enjoy this little wallhanging every time I see it. I had put it away and had to hunt for it to take the pic.  Now that I have it out, I'll put it up on the wall and enjoy it for awhile.

I hope you have a great week and get some creating time in.  til next time, happy sewing.

This has been a blah week.

Have you ever been burnt out?  I guess that's what I am. Everything I start to do ends up with something wrong. I haven't been in the mood to sew. I just wanted to watch TV and go to bed.  I am knitting again and tatting too but haven't finished anything to show you.  I'm working on a scarf and tatting some earrings and I'll show you both when they get finished.  I went to tatting on Tuesday and was almost finished with my earring that night.  I haven't picked it up again yet.  Like I said, it's been a blah week.  I don't know if it's the heat or I'm just being lazy but I hope this passes quickly.  


On a happier note, I have been enjoying the Red, White and Blue blog hop that Madame Samm has going on.  There has been so many wonderful blocks and quilts and projects to look at.  I have really gotten some good ideas from this to finish a red white and blue quilt. I have about 17 blocks done on it but needed a few more and thanks to the blog hop, I have found some good ones to finish it with.  You'll be seeing it soon. 

I hope everyone is having a good week and you get to sew or create this week.

Happy 4th of July!

Celebration Tablefunner finished!

Ok, I finished the Round Tablerunner and I'm so happy with it.  I love it and just had to share it quickly!  I normally hand finish or hand sew the binding on but decided I wanted it finished fast so I used a stitch on my sewing machine and stitched along the ditch and finished it off. I like it alot!  Just in time for the 4th of July!

Tatting, quilting and rambling!

Woo! What a week!  It has been busy.  Why is it that time flies whether you are having fun or not????  Oh, well, June is over and so is half the year!  Do you believe that?  Bring on July and celebrations!
 When I think of July, I think of July 4th first...We always went down to see my Grandmother and cousins on this holiday.  It was always hot in south Texas (she lived in Bryan, Tx, you know, where Texas A & M is)  and my Grandmother did not have air conditioning.  I don't know how she did that but I guess it's what you get used to, right?  She always had her windows and doors open  and she had lots of trees so the house stayed fairly cool. As kids, I thought it was hot but we dealt with it.  I don't think I would deal with it too good now!  We, my brother and I always had to sleep on the floor and we always listened to the crickets or cicada's churp at night and talked and giggled until my parents or someone hollered at us to go to sleep.  Great memories!  Fireworks, food, family and fun times! 

Ok, I got off track but I just had to share.  I worked on a few things this week.  I did two more tatted crosses. I worked on one at tatting and finished it the next day, then started another and worked on it while I watched TV this week.  Had to watch Dallas!  I'm loving this show, all the sneaking around.  JR is back!  Anyway, I finished the two crosses and then I finished binding a charity quilt.  I quilted this earlier in the week and put the binding on but finally finished the binding Thursday night while watching the movie Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. I loved this show too. If you haven't seen it, it is a good show to watch. I liked this show as the two stars didn't hog the whole show. There were two younger singers in the show too that were wonderful.  I didn't recognize the two younger singers at first but  found out later who they were.

Here's the tatted crosses...

Back to quilting, right?  I bound the quilt. It is a Project Linus quilt and it turned out really cute.  I used off white quilting thread on the front and blue on the back. The blue kept coming through to the front in places but all in all, it is ok.  I'm going to have to practice more and not use different colors for the quilting too.

Here's the Project Linus quilt...

I also finished quilting my July 4th round tablerunner. I cut the binding and I'll be putting that on when I finish this post.  I'm also going to pull out my purple fabric and see if I can make some blsince this is the last day of June.  So for now, I gotta go get busy, I'll post more later today, I hope. 

The middle stripe is the binding. I'm going to go sew it on now and

Tatting Tuesday and some free fabric!!!

I went to Tatting on Tuesday and several of my friends were there that hadn't been there in weeks.  Some of them have been sick, one of them had a house fire and the other two had moved from their houses and combined into one (they are sisters.) It was so good to see all of these sweet ladies. I have really missed their smiling faces.  Everyone that comes to Tatting is not just a tatter. Everyone does all kinds of different crafts. Some do jewelry, scrapbooking, photography, crochet, knitting...you name it and I bet these ladies have done it.  Every now and again, we like to clean out our closets. So, we bring stuff up to the meeting and put it on the table and anyone that wants it can have it.  That's what happened last night.  Two of the girls that had moved and combined households had a clear out and brought stuff up to share.  Everyone got some stuff and I got some great stuff. I got several patterns and some fabric too.  I got two pieces of fabric that is patriotic fabric and is perfect for the tablerunner I just made.  I'm going to use some of it for the backing and I have some ideas in mind for another runner for the rest of it.  I'm very excited!!!  It's fun to get others castoffs to see how you can play with it! 

We met a new tatter last night too. She found us from Intatters and came to our meeting. She is a needle tatter and just started tatting in January. She said she learned to tat from the internet and books.  She's done a lot of great stuff and was excited to find a group of tatters to belong to.  We only have one other lady in our group that is a needle tatter.  Everyone else uses the shuttle to tat.  I tried needle tatting and didn't like it too much but I never had any lessons or saw anyone else do it.  Now that she is coming, we can share our knowledge. I can see how needle tatting is done and she can see shuttle tatting.  We are really excited to have her as a new member. 

Here's the tatting I finished this week.  I made a cross. I love this pattern. It is fun, quick and easy.
I use this pattern alot for crosses.  It's one of those patterns you can make it and not have to think about it too much.    With the same thread, I made my other favorite pattern. The Spinning Wheel Glass Mat.  I haven't done one of these in awhile and it had been on my mind the last couple of weeks.  I'll be making more crosses and more mats all summer.  Easy tatting and great gifts. 

Here's the stuff I came home with. Some patterns and some fabric.  Most of it is scraps but there were two patriotic fabrics in this that I'll be using.  You'll see it soon!

Tomorrow is my small quilt group meeting so I'll be showing you what my group is up to.  Until next time, happy sewing!