Beads n' Lace

Logos added

2012-01-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

I have been planning to add InTatters and StitchMAP logos to my blog for the longest time. Finally, today I found the time to do it. I am getting blog saavy!! I wish Georgia's site had a logo that I can use as a gadget on my blog. She has been my greatest inspiration for my tatting adventures. Thanks Georgia. A great BIG hug to you!

Happy Friday!!

2012-01-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

I love Fridays... I think everyone loves it. I haven't tried much of serious tatting in the last week. However, I tatted bits and pieces. I am trying to see without a pattern, just from my mind, whether I can do some tatting. It has not been successful so far. But, I was just doing it for the fun anyway.

I received a neat package yesterday from Gloria in Chile as she was one of my Winter Exchange partners in InTatters. I love the purse she send with tatted edging. She actually made the purse on a loom. Very nice. Thank you Gloria!!!

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T16:58:00.001-08:00

I am keeping my 2012 promise to myself....that is, find time to do more tatting. Yesterday I tatted Yakut from Jon's latest book Elegant Tatting Gems. I like Jon's designs. I was able to block it and here it is for you!

I have done another snowflake from that same book today. But, I did not get a chance to sew in ends or block it. I will post that next time.

2011 .... Where did it go?

2011-12-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

Holy Macro! I did not realize until today that I did not even have a single post in 2011. Where did 2011 go? Well, life was hectic this year especially with our move from New Jersey to Texas. I can't believe that we actually made it in one piece...I mean "our family". There were a lot of "ups" and "downs"....mainly "downs"; but we all survived.

I am thankful to the Lord Almighty for giving us faith and confidence. By God's Grace, we are all doing well. I don't know anyone whose life was easy. So, I am just among the normal set of people.

Anyway, I joined "Winter Exchange" at InTatters and yesterday I finished my gift for my exchange partners. Here is a peak at it.

I plan to be active in Tatting and Stitching in 2012. I am looking forward to it. To start with, I will be a mentor at StitchMap for the Color Theory course. I hope I do a good job at it.

Wish y'all a very Happy and Delightful 2012!!!!

Ending 2010 with Needle Tatting

2010-12-31T14:47:00.000-08:00

During Fall of 2010 I learned Needle Tatting through the Online Tatting Class conducted by Georgia Seitz. My main interest for Needle Tatting was to do more tatting with beads. Above is a small sample of my trial. The left most and center motifs are the same flower pattern. I like the one with beads better. I used Flora Size 20 thread with Size 7 tatting needle. The right most motif tests out thrown off rings. Here you need to un-thread and re-thread the needle. Next time I will use two needles instead. I was favoring shuttle tatting mainly because my tension using shuttles were much tighter and uniform. My first trials in needle tatting was very loose. I think it has a lot to do with the size of thread and needle you choose. I am beginning to enjoy needle tatting. However, I need to practice a lot to get the speed I have in shuttle tatting.

I do have a glitch in these....somehow my last repeat is not as neat as the other ones. You can see that where the loop is. I feel that the curve of the chain is not as good as I like it to be. Anyone has ideas how to fix that???

I am looking forward to 2011. I think it will be an awesome year for me. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL. See you in 2011.

Thanksgiving tatting

2010-11-24T16:19:00.001-08:00

Normally I don't get to tat often. This week I was lucky. This is actually my second doily/coaster this week. The first one was given as a gift before I could take a picture. so, I decided to do another one. The pattern is the latest "freebie" from Jon Yusoff - Merriment Doily/Coaster. You can find the pattern here. Thank you Jon for this lovely pattern. Happy Thanksgiving all..... I will be busy tomorrow cooking and eating.

Back into Tatting

2010-11-21T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted in my blog. I got side tracked doing Silk Ribbon Embroidery. I will show you my creations later. I love snowflakes since they are easy to make. When I say "easy" I mean I get instant gratification since the item is small. Here is JANUS, the first snowflake, from Sharon Briggs' latest book. Sharon has inspired me to design tatted elements. I haven't gotten very far in that. But, still doodle my way through. More of the snowflakes from her book will be coming along later.

First attempt on Needle Tatting

2010-09-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

I have always tatted with a shuttle, mainly because that's how I learned it. Since Georgia's Online Tatting Class has resumed and since I am now able to attend Monday night class (no more waiting for kids to finish homework on the computer) I decided to learn Needle Tatting. Yesterday was my first lesson. I did not get it the first time. However, I practiced a lot since then. Here is my first medallion. I am sure there is room for improvement. My shuttle tatting stitches are very defined and strong. Needle Tatting does not look that strong. I am sure I did not use the right size needle/thread. I am going to learn to do Split Rings and use beads. I am enjoying it.

New Tatting Books

2010-07-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

I have been away in Dallas last week for work. Meanwhile, I had ordered two Tatting books - one from Jon Yusoff and the other from Marilee Rockley. Marilee's book just arrived today. Jon's book has been available for a while and Marilee's is a brand new one. I will drool over this for a while before starting to tat. I owe a friend of mine some white tatted edging. I promised her that I will give it to her by end of July. After that is done, I better get to work on my CQ. I have some lessons to complete.

Happy July 4th

2010-07-05T07:21:00.001-07:00

In my last post I had mentioned that I was trying to work on some braided and beaded necklaces. Here is my first trial. I love it a lot. Now my challenge is to make a matching bracelet and earring. But guess what???? I never kept a track of where I placed my beads. At first I thought I did not like how it was emerging and wanted to just give it a shot (thinking that I will rip it apart). However, I kept on going and started liking the way the focal bronze beads where laying. So, now my challenge is to come up with the exact pattern. Wish me luck!!!

Gifts in the Mail

2010-06-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have post. Life has been a little hectic with High School graduation, final exams, dance rehearsals and recitals and honors program. Things have settled down and I do feel I will have some time to play. Today was a great day. I got TWO gifts in the mail. One from Erica and another from Connie. Erica is in the Birthday club with me at StitchMAP. Thank you ERICA!! She sent me this:

Connie is my mentor for the Crazy Quilt course at StitchMAP. She send me some of her lovely hand-dyed threads. Now I want to learn dyeing also. When will I stop wanting to do it all? I think Connie knew my birthday. She is the organizer for Birthday Swaps. Thank you CONNIE!! Here is what Connie sent me.

The wonderful part to my story is that both the gifts came today - the day before my birthday.

I will have something to show off soon. I have been wanting to learn Kumihimo braiding for the longest time. I bought a disc at Palmetto TAT days last September. Actually, I gave it to my daughter as a gift. Well, the directions were in Chinese and she just left it in her drawer. Recently, I found it in her room and decided to give it a try. You will be surprised. I finished a sample (no beads this time) today and loved every bit of it. Therefore, tomorrow I am going to see whether I can do it with beads. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Finally......

2010-04-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

Finally I can now say that I can do Random Tatting. I did this tatting in my car when I was waiting for my daughter's dance lesson. I started it since I wanted to refresh my "split chain" tatting skills. After the two continuous rounds of tatting I thought of a design in my head (of course I have seen something similar as well as pictured this in my mind when I was doing Sharon Brigg's Design-Tat class). I was so happy that I could produce something without looking at a picture or reading a pattern. It was a wonderful feeling. Here it is...... my very first one!!

I have not been feeling quite well. Lots of breathing problems that has randomly appeared in my life now. With the two inhalers, steroids, and other medicines, I am better, but, feel "drugged".

I joined the CQ ATC's swap and here is what I received. Don't they look beautiful? The one on the left is from Ira and the one on the right is from Wilma. Thank you Ira and Wilma. I now know how you can finish the edges. These are way better than what I did. Therefore, something to learn now.

Back to Blogging

2010-03-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe that my last post was about 2 months ago. I knew this would happen.... Sometimes I get lazy to post my adventures in Tatting, Hardanger and CQ, my three passions at this time. This weekend was rainy and luckily the soccer games got canceled which meant that I was able to stitch. I have two pictures to share. The first one is a set of small tatted motifs from Patti Duff's book that I will be using for Georgia Seitz's CQ blocks and the second one is the lesson 5 homework from my Basic CQ course at StitchMAP.

Some Tatting to Share

2010-01-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my yesterday's post, I am sharing my tatted heart. It is the Hearts Desire pattern by Susan Fuller. It was a real nice pattern to tat. I wonder why I never did that before, even though I had the pattern in my binder. The second motif is from a picture I saw in one of the blogs I was viewing. I wish I had the pattern. Both are tatted with Carribean Blue size 20 Lizbeth thread. Hopefully I will get to do the TIAS Day 7 tomorrow.

I want to get back to Hardanger homework and learning some CQ stitches this weekend.

Finally .... all caught up

2010-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

I got a lot accomplished today. I am all caught up with Jane Eborall's TIAS days 4, 5, and 6. I did a small vintage edging in Altin Basak size 50 thread. I also worked on Battatter's ball cover (test tatting it basically) and completed a heart by Susan Fuller. I ran out of thread for the test tatting. I could not get the scan for the heart and therefore, that will be posted later. The rest are here for your viewing. Now I can move on completing my Hardanger lesson. But, I think it will have to wait until the weekend.

Test Tatting
Vintage Edging
TIAS Day 6
TIAS Day 5
TIAS Day 4

Behind things....

2010-01-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

I am now really behind the things I wanted to accomplish this week. I wanted to do Janes TIAS and I have to get caught up. This week will be a little more easy (at least I hope). I wanted to tat Carol's (batatter) ornament cover, do my Hardanger lesson 4, start on tatting an edging. Sorry folks, nothing to show this week. I did get some tatting done, but it is not worth showing since my tension was totally off. It was hard to unpick since it was a vintage thread and I kept on feeling that if I pull tight, the thread will break. I will certainly have something to show later this week.

I am on a roll....

2010-01-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

I am really on a roll with tatting these days. I usually try to make the best of the time I get to tat. Today I had the time, but was not able to concentrate and do anything. I was way too tired. I completed this heart (Nellie's Heart by Teri Dusenbury) in size 20 white 6-ply cordonnet thread yesterday but, did not get the computer to update the blog. I think I am giving this to a friend as well.

First Weekend of 2010

2010-01-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

I thought I could get more tatting done, but that did not happen. DH and I spent time with some friends over the weekend and the rest of the weekend I was doing the normal household chores. I wanted to complete Day 2 and Day 3 of TIAS. I accomplished that. Here are my creations. Hopefully I will have something more to show you later this week.

Day2

Day3

Tiring Day

2010-01-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

This week has been tiring!! Even though I did not take much of a vacation last month, may be I was more relaxed. I know..... I spent time doing the crafty things I like. Anyway, I havetwo eye-candy - one is Day 1 of TIAS and the second one is something I am making for a friend. Hope she likes it.

Snowflake for the new year

2010-01-03T17:27:00.001-08:00

Just the thought of going back to work tomorrow already makes me feel tired. Not that I was on vacation - just the three days, but I was able to do some tatting, complete the Hardanger Lesson 3 and just watch some TV. I still love watching the re-runs of Golden Girls and Full House. This snowflake is Magic Moment from Jon Yusoff (the pattern can be found here). There is a slight mistake....but please don't point it out. It is going to be used as a candle mat and no one will see it.

Quiet and Cold Day

2010-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

I am keeping my enthusiasm up and was able to complete this snowflake/doily that combines Hairpin Lace and Tatting. The pattern for this can be found in Georgia Seitz's Online class site. I have been wanting to do this for quite a while. Hope Green gets the credit for motivating me to do this. BTW, she was my first instructor at Palmetto Tat Days in September 2009. I took her class - Precious Butterfly - which uses hairpin lace. She was so kind to provide all her students with a hairpin lace blank. That made life very easy. Once we were done with the butterfly, the second part was to learn to make the hairpin lace. I was determined to get it right and kept up with her the last night of the event to learn it correctly so that I won't forget when I get back home. Once I got back to NJ, the first thing I did was order the Clover Hairpin Lace Tool.

Of course, I made many adjustments to the actual pattern. Lenore English uses 72 loops but I had to use 90 loops to have the strip at least 7" in length. Therefore, my snowflake/doily has ended up with 7 points instead of 6. This is my first try and I will try it again with another count of loops.

I am going to participate in Jane Eborall's TIAS that starts on Tuesday. I better find empty shuttles and get ready. You can find the details at http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/TIASintro.pdf (sorry folks, I could not get this to work as a link....need to figure out what I am doing wrong)

First Post - 2010

2010-01-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

I finally got the courage to start a blog and showoff my creations. This was my New Year's (2010) resolution. I hope I will be inpsired to continue tatting and the other needle arts that I like to do/learn. 2009 was a very lucky year for me, in so many ways. I was able to attend the Palmetto TAT Days in SC in September. I met so many wonderful women who have been inspiring me in many ways to continue my passion. Then I stumbled across StitchMAP (a Yahoo Group) where I have two mentors. I will showcase my work very soon. I hope this year will be more inspiring!!!

Here are the two things I tatted for the New Year. Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel Glass Mat in Lizbeth size 20, color 115 and Sharon Briggs' latest snowflake in size 20 (don't know the thread name).