My New Shuttles, And Some Tatting!

Sorry. I've been meaning to post earlier, but it just didn't happen. I was dealing with some work issues last weekend, so posting wasn't going to happen then. Some tatting did happen, however, but we'll get to that later. Nothing really new to share otherwise. It's hot here right now. I'm hoping for a thunderstorm, but I'm not being too hopeful; we didn't get one yesterday either. I'll move on, it's too hot to write out a long post.

I teased you last time with the pair of unfinished Pear wood Pop-a-Bobbin shuttles. Well, they're finished now. Or as finished as they are going to get.

They didn't quite turn out the way I wanted them, but whatever. They're blue!!!! In case you're wondering, I used a water-based stain to colour them. The front one, is lighter than the back one as I had added some white stain to the blue (the bottle says "Azure") stain. The darker one is the straight Azure stain. I guess if I wanted the colour different, I should have painted them. However, I wanted the grain to show through, so painting was out. What do you think?

As I said, I have been tatting a fair bit lately. Mainly to keep my mind off of the work issues. I didn't really know what I wanted to tat, so I eventually settled on a WIP from a loooooog time ago. You can see it here. If you follow the link, you'll see that I started the doily over two years ago. I'm not done yet, but here is a photo to show my progress:

For those of you who didn't follow the link to the original post this is Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel doily from Tatting With Visual Patterns. I'm using Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour # 117 Country Side. I should point out, I was about half done the tatting when I picked it up again. Since the end is near, I'm going to keep working on the doily. I will post again once I'm done. I'm really hoping that the doily centre I used is the right size. Once finished the doily should measure about 10 1/2 inches in diameter.

That's it for now. Like I said above, I'll post again once I'm done the doily. I'm hoping the new tatting book I ordered will  have arrived by then. And I'll be inspired to tat something new. Till next time.