Windmills Doily, Take Two

I'm still here. I've just been quiet. I have been tatting, in case you are wondering. I just haven't had anything to show you until now. And it's not technically finished yet, but I couldn't wait any longer. You also may have noticed that I haven't posted any chainmaille in a while too. That's because sales have come to a standstill. I think there are just too many people selling chainmaille on Etsy now. I have thought about moving to another site, but I don't think that will help. Some people are selling their jewelry way too cheaply-some are slightly over my calculated materials costs. So as items expire, I am removing items that have never sold before. I won't shut down the shop entirely, it doesn't take much effort if nothing sells. No pity sales, please. I've been working a lot of extra hours at my real job lately, so I'm not really losing anything here.

You may remember that I started another doily using Mary Konior's Windmills motif (from the NOT out of print book Tatting With Visual Patterns), made out of size 10 DMC Cebelia thread. Yeah, I don't remember either-I mentioned it here. Well a year plus later here is the result:

Currently it is about 9 inches (22.8 cm) in diameter. Since this is the one for me I am going to make it oval shaped. I am also going to add the edging that most of you didn't think it needed. Hopefully this won't take that long. I started working on this after my last post and made five of the seven motifs pictured. I haven't done as much tatting this week as I would have liked. I was preparing supper last Saturday, and was a little careless and ended up cutting one of my fingers. I didn't think it would affect my tatting as much as it did-it was my left middle finger. But since I hold my tatting a little different, it made a big difference. It is healing quite nicely and I have been tatting over the past couple days. Not a lot, but still, I was tatting. I have to finish tatting the seventh motif, then I have three more to go. I will post again when I have completed them.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I will post again sooner rather than later. I am hoping to get this done fairly quickly. Then I can decide if I will make the other Windmills doily oval too or leave it round. I can also determine if the edging round is the way to go too. Till next time.

Test Tatting for LadyShuttleMaker and a "Few" Orchid Photos

Howdy. I'd love to say I have lots of tatting to show you, but I don't. I really haven't felt like tatting lately. I have picked up my shuttles several times, and have picked up several balls of thread and put them back. I looked through my Pop-a-Bobbin shuttles again after Jane listed some of her awesome Poke Proof shuttle pouches (I HAD to buy two more as my newer shuttles needed to be kept safe). Anyway, I won't bore you any more as I did a bit of tatting last weekend and I also can share the test tatting I did for Sherry AKA LadyShuttleMaker for her recently released book. Oh, and thanks for the comments about my hook holder. In case anyone is wondering (probably not) I am trying to see how long I can grow my beard. I'd like to at least double the length it is now (it's about 2 inches long) or until a) it become an issue at work or b) I get it caught in something, whatever comes first.

Anyway, here is a sample of what I tested for Sherry:

As you may know this was tatted using "Branching Encapsulation". It's an interesting technique. I would have continued tatting this but I forgot to make a leaf on the third flower. It's funny I forgot to tat the leaf on that flower as it is the best one I tatted. I have to admit, I haven't bought Sherry's book yet. I seem to have reached a point where I have too many books that I haven't tatted from yet. I still may buy the book as this is an interesting technique.

I'm sure many of you have seen Sherry's tatted Scottie. I was lucky enough to have test tatted it as well. This is what I tatted last weekend.

This is a really cute pattern. And was pretty quick to tat too. I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in #606 Charcoal. As a side note, I love this colour! I like the look of tatting in black but it's a pain to work with. Charcoal is dark-the colour is a bit washed out in the photo-but light enough to see the stitches. Retro tatting is easier if needed too. If you haven't done it already, you can download the pattern from Sherry's blog (link to post here).

I think I mentioned a post or two ago that I bought a few new orchids. Well since I mentioned that, I bought a few more. I had better post them now, before I buy anymore. I decided to make a couple picture collages to save space. Enjoy!

Nothing really to say about these. I really like the yellow ones as you don't see many of them. The little one in the lower right is plain but kinda cute too. These are all Phalaenopsis orchids. All NOID (that's No IDentification).

Here is the two newest ones, also Phalaenopsis NOID:

I love these two! The one on the right is also pretty plain, but the flowers are strongly scented. I can't describe the scent-it's perfumey, that's all I can say. I smelled it at the store but thought it was potpourri or something and thought nothing of it. I've had the plant for about two weeks and it's definitely the plant. I love the colour of the one on the right. I haven't seen a Phal. like this before. The colour isn't quite right, but it's close.

That's about it. I'll try to get some tatting done this week. Really. I'll try hard to get some tatting done. Till next time.