Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate!

I was hoping to have posted a while ago, but, unfortunately, an unscheduled tatting hiatus occurred shortly after my last post. I have hardly touched the doily since. I have done some tatting though. I am working on an exchange with Tattingchic, though I think I am running behind on that too. A couple of nice chainmaille order came though a few weeks ago as well, which was nice. So I've done some chainmaille since my last post.

In case you missed in, I was mentioned in an article by Georgia Seitz on BellaOnline. You can read it here. It's about tatting with Teneriffe lace. Gee, Teneriffe Lace is something I haven't done in a while either. I should try and make a few motifs when I have some time.

Since I don't have any tatting related photos to share, I guess it's time for an orchid photo! Here is a photo of an orchid I bought a few years ago that finally flowered:

This is Phalaenopsis parishii. It's one of my miniature Phalaenopsis orchids. The whole plant is aproxximately 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) from leaf tip to leaf tip. The flower is about 1/2 inch (1.8 cm) wide. It's mounted on a piece of bark and lives in a terrarium like environment.  A few other Phals bought at the same time are or have flowered recently. I don't have photos ready for them. It's always nice to see the plants flower. It's a good sign that they are being cared for properly.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get back to work on the Japanese doily soon. I'm still waiting for spring to stay here. The weather's been all over the place. It was nice for a while, then it got rather cold for a while. Then it'll try to snow, then get nice again. This weekend was pretty awful weatherwise. We had snow, then freezing rain, followed by more snow, then rain. When it's not snowing or raining it's just cloudy and cool. The forecast for tomorrow is plus 15 and sunny. Let's hope that's what it does. Till next time.

Mary Konior's Patchwork - Bookmark For TattingChic

Before I begin the tatting portion of this blog post, I want to make a quick shop announcement. I'll make it short. I have decided to offer free shipping to Canada and the United States for the month of December. Overseas shipping has been reduced by the US shipping amount. OK, enough of that. Time for the tatting.

My previous post was about the bookmark I received from TattingChic. This time I will show off the bookmark I made TattingChic. After scanning through websites and pattern books, I decided to use a motif from Mary Konior's Tatting With Visual Patterns. I chose "Patchwork".

The above motif was actually the third motif I made for Tattingchic's bookmark. However, on the third repeat, just before I was going to join it with the first two, I made a mistake-sorry, design variation. I made one of the large chains (at the top in the above photo) smaller than the other. I didn't want to retro-tat to fix the mistake-er, design variation, and I couldn't join it to the completed two motifs. So I just finished the motif. I'm sure I find some use for it.

You're probably wonder what the finished bookmark looks like. Well, here it is:

I really like how it came out. Please note: I don't remember if I blocked the bookmark before or after scanning. So it probably looks better than the above photo. Anyway, here are some stats for the bookmark. I used Lizbeth size 40 thread in colour #120 Denim Whisper. TattingChic likes pink and other "girly" colours, and this was as close I could get. I have to admit, I can't say I have ever owned anything denim with pink in it. I usually think of denim as shades of blue. But, its still a nice colourway. This will be #6 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Finally I decided to treat myself to some more Lizbeth thread. I love this stuff! I wanted to get a few of the new colours that had been recently added to the growing list of colours. I would like to mention that Handy Hands isn't the only place to buy Lizbeth thread. Both DS9Designs and Be-Stitched carry Lizbeth. I ordered from DS9Designs since they also carry Superior Threads products such as King Tut and Perfect Quilter threads. But Be-Stitched has cheaper shipping options, which is nice when you only want a few balls of thread.

That's all for now. I was hoping to have the pattern by Jane finished, but I've spent the last few days working on chainmaille stuff for my shop. Hopefully I can do some tatting after work tomorrow. Later.

Bookmark From TattingChic

I mentioned a while back that I was involved with a tatting exchange. Well, the exchange is over. We tatted, mailed our bookmarks, and the bookmarks have been received. As the title indicates, TattingChic was my exchange partner. This was a private exchange, by the way. I'm only going to show the bookmark I received today. I'll show off what I sent TattingChic in my next post.

Here is the bookmark I received from TattingChic, first the back:

And then the front:


Isn't it pretty? This is LaRae Mikulecky's Celtic Bookmark. TattingChic mentioned in the card she sent that the site that the pattern was located on has gone down. However, I did find the pattern in the Internet Archive. If you've never been here before, you simply type or copy&paste the link you want to find into the box with the large "Wayback Machine" logo and click the "Take Me Back" button. Here is the link to the above pattern. For the bookmark, TattingChic used Lizbeth size 20 in Denim and Light Medium Blue as well as an unidentified green in size 20. TattingChic chose the colours and the pattern to be as "manly" as possible. I think she did an awesome job. Thank you TattingChic!!!

TattingChic also sent a really cool card, which was also chosen for being the mostly manly, or (as she put it) the least girly she had. I love it too.

I'm not sure if you can see, but the buildings at the bottom has a really cool 3D look. The 3D effect is much more pronounced in real life. Thanks again TattingChic.

In unrelated news, I am toying with the idea of offering free shipping for my chainmaille jewelery and accessories for the month of December. I'm thinking the free shipping offer would apply for North America, but world shipping could be reduced by half or so. We'll see. Yeah, I know. December starts tomorrow.

That's all for now. I'll post again in a few days, showing the bookmark I made for TattingChic, and hopefully the Jane Eborall design that I should finish tonight. Later.