An Adventure in Learning to Tat

My mom says I inherited my "craftiness" from my grandmother. She always had some project or another underway.

I vaguely remember her having tatting shuttles in her apron pockets.  I was too young when she passed so I didn't get a chance to learn from her, and until recently, I've never attempted to learn. But one Saturday out of nowhere I got the bug and sat down with a pair of shuttles and a dozen youtube videos. Ultimately, I think the lure of new "tools" and learning something new was just too strong to resist.

I have to say it is pretty frustrating.  I've gone through at least three full shuttles of thread and still don't have anything useful to show for it.  I've torn out countless double stitiches and have come close to what my son calls a "rage fit".  Oh wait. Actually, I think I may haves given into one of those fits, but shhhhh don't tell him.

All that being said....I think I've got it!  I still have to count and recount my stitches carefully and triple check to see if I remembered to add that 3rd picot the pattern called for.  But I am starting to FLY with that shuttle.  I've got the rhythm down. I'm very close to the point where I will have something to lay out in front of people and say see what I did.  

I've seen web articles that call tatting a lost art.  I am beginning to have delusions of bringing tatting back into vogue and starting a resurgence similar to what's happening in the knitting world.   But I have to say, I don't believe it's a lost art for a minute.  I've found a sweet little community of tatters on the web who share tips, patterns and their love for the art.  Also, I am amazed at the prices vintage shuttles are garnering on ebay.   I've seen an original Mdlle Reigo de la Branchardiere c.1850 tatting book from france sell for $500.00!  I've sourced a few woodworkers who are producing the most beautiful shuttles in the world.  

Nope.  Tatting isn't a lost art; there are a lot of passionate tatters out there.  I have recently joined their ranks. Well, at least at the beginner level.

You'll be seeing more posts about my new obsession.  Keep calm and tat on!

Lovin' my Cameo Silhouette!

My latest Silhouette Projects

A birthday present for my brother whose nickname is Bakka.  

I got these mugs at the Dollar Store, cut the stencil on my silhouette and used Armor Etch cream.

A more formal Richard mug for my brother.

A heat transfer t-shirt for my Son.  Make sure you read the fine print :-)

A special t-shirt for my little nephew Calvin who loves dinosaurs.

Garage Sale Chronicles #6

I stopped by a small strip mall shop where they bring estate items in for sale and found some really sweet items.

Beautiful enameled salt and pepper shakers.  They are marked Norwegian Sterling on the tops. 

These are going to look great when I fill them with glitter in my studio.

Check out these great orange sparkle cat-eye mini glasses.  

They are a bit too big for Barbie.  Wonder what the story was on these?  I love them.

The total stash.

Oh sparkly, sparkly!

I love estate sales.

Elastic Cord Holders

I travel for work and I am always misplacing the wires I use to control the cable and cord mess.  I found this idea on Pinterest.com and made up a half dozen.  Let's see how long I keep these!

It is a 6 inch elastic piece folded in half with a ribbon sewn on to cover the end.  I sewed a 1 inch seam in to hold the cable ends.

I found a cool new free app to share called Tagxedo.  It is a word cloud application.  This one lets you import any image and you can add the words manually or have it generate the text from a URL.  I used this site to make the one above.

The app lets you choose to auto generate the image and you can auto regenerate by pushing a button.  Or, you can select word orientation, color schemes, fonts, etc.  I had to screen capture the image though, but there is probably a way to save.

I think these make great cards or framed for special events like weddings, birthdays, or even baptisms as above would make great gifts.

Hope you have as much fun as I did playing with Tagxedo.

Flaxseed Foot Warmers

I originally made some mircowaveable foot warmers about 15 years ago using flannel and feed corn.  I've been seeing them on Pinterest.com again and thought I'd make a few.  Surely my relatives who received them 15 years ago needed replacements!

I saw these owls from The Londoner and set about finding all the supplies.  Since they are going in the microwave, I wanted all cotton fabric.  All the really soft stuff at Joann Fabrics was poly so I purchased a high end soft towel at Walmart and 3lbs of flaxseed.  Since flaxseed smells sort of earthy when heated, I added a bit of my candle scent to make it smell better.  I created the face from bits of felt and hand sewed them on.

I was able to make 3 owls, a small rectangle one, and 6 hand warmers out of one towel.  Feed corn, rice or beans can be used to fill, but I really liked the feel of the flaxseed.

To make the handwarmers, I simply cut squares and adorned them with some crocheted flowers I picked up at a garage sale.  Someone had been meaning to make something but didn't quite finish.

My sister started an afghan with the multi-colored one below, but got discouraged by all the color changes.

I brought an owl to my mother who is 85 years old and always cold and she loved it.  My son grabbed one and has been carrying it around warm all weekend.  Even my husband snagged one!  So I guess they were a hit.

Garage Sale Chronicles #5 - First Estate Sale of 2012

I live an hour from Minneapolis and commute into work everyday.  So, if an estate sale is on Saturday or Sunday in Minneapolis I rarely bother to make the trip.  However, this Saturday I was flying back from an LA business trip on Saturday afternoon and checked my iphone's igarage sale app just to see if there was anything to check out.

I saw a posting for an estate sale in Wayzata, MN, an old money wealthy neighborhood west of Minneapolis on Lake Minnetonka.

When I arrived at the home it was very old and poorly kept, but it looked like there had been some nice quality purchasing done by the folks throughout the years.

Here's some pictures of my finds.

I picked up four of these American Brilliant cut glass era wine goblets.  

They are really beautiful and in flawless condition.  I am going to send these pictures into the Brilliant Cut Glass Pattern Search to see if anyone can identify the pattern. 

There's a  History of Cut Glass found at this link that is very informative and interesting.

I really love the crown like affect on the top edge.

Sweet little cameos on around the glass.

I also snagged five of these Hawkes glasses.  A nice lady attending the sale gave me a quick lesson on making sure there were no chips and how to find the Hawkes stamp on the bottom.  

It's very small and etched.

They will look beautiful at Christmas!  The pattern is 7330-4 according to collecting sites.  Replacements, Inc. has 10 listed for $89.99 each!  Nice.

I'm thinking these ones will have a nice long life in my house!

I think the little ovals hanging down look like ornaments.  Pretty.

I've been collecting up crystal salt and pepper shakers

 if they are cheap to use for storing glitter on display.  

Even if the tops are a little corroded, I think that just makes them look even cooler.

Yay, a genuine old apothecary jar.  

There's no rubber ring at the mouth of this bad boy, it's straight up frosted, etched glass.  

Hubby wants to put his granola in it on the kitchen cupboard.  

I haven't decided if I'm going to put any cool vinyl designs on it yet.  Won't hurt it because the stuff is removable, but it might make it look cheap.  

I found this under a table in the box for $1.  I suspect no one else wanted to bend over and dig through the box.

So I started focusing on what was under the tables as well as what was on top.  

I found this beautiful old frame.  I think it's epoxy finished and not any sort of enamel.

Nice little flowers.  I think I'll do some sort of vinyl saying on glass in this.  

Not sure it's a match for my house though.

Nice pair of austria marked rhinestone earrings.  

Lucky for me the back is broke off one so I can use it in a necklace design guilt-free.