Look what my WONDERFUL hubby gave to me!!

Look what my sweet hubby gave to me!! Our 15th anniversary was March 29th, and he had this specially made for me. A shuttle from The Shuttle Shop, with an ivory rose on the front, and our initials on the back!! I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful hubby!!

Silver Earrings by Alan Kolodny!

YAY! Look at the GORGEOUS set of earrings that was waiting for me in the mail:-)

These earrings were tatted by Alan Kolodny, and, as he explained in his letter, they were the first he tatted in wire. They are very delicate earrings in a very fine gauge (silver over copper wire), with swarovski crystal teardrops. His newer earrings are done in a heavier gauge and are pure silver!! They are simply stunning, and can be purchased at his Etsy shop The Joyful Tatter.

I was the lucky winner of Alan's first giveaway, and I am so excited to have won:-) He is a very interesting character (Preacher, Professional Clown, Wire Tatter). If you haven't checked out Alan's blog before, I recommend you check out Another Joyful Creation. I cannot wait to wear my new earrings:-)

My Pendant for Julia!!

YAY! My InTatters Pendant Exchange partner IcePrincess (Julia) received her pendant yesterday:-) She seems very pleased with what I sent her, which pleases me to no end!!! But what makes it even better is now I can share it with all of you as well!!

The pendant was inspired by Ruth Scharf's leaves and flowers. It was tatted in Flora size 50 and Venus size 40 thread.

Flora- 5083 for petals

Flora- 5085 for leaves

Venus-525 flower center

The necklace is two thin leather cords in two shades of brown. I was so pleased with the finished pendant!! I may have to make myself one as well:-)

I also included in her package some shell accents for jewelry making, a set of clover shuttles (which she had never tried before), a small tin of Altoid mints (not shown), and two balls of vintage thread- DMC Cordonnet size 50 (color number unknown), and DMC Cordonnet size 150.

I had SO MUCH FUN with this exchange!!! I recommend if you have never done an exchange before you give it a try:-)

Three Giveaways to Announce!!

Three wonderful Giveaways to announce! First Shantock Bears is having her first Giveaway for the cute little ornament to the left! Just drop by her blog to enter. All she asks is that you offer her ideas for a name for this little cutie, and spread the word about the giveaway. And do hurry, because the drawing is next weekend!! Good luck everyone:-)

And while you're in the "NAME THAT___" kind of mood. Jump on over to Tatting Fool's Blog and enter her Name That Snowflake contest! Just enter your name suggestion, and if yours is chosen you will receive a copy of Catherine Austin's book "A New Twist on Tatting," and the snowflake pattern!!

And finally, this sweet little teddy bear needs to find a home! If you would like to offer Ruth a home, just drop by Desert Mountain Bear and enter to win. Such a sweet little lady needs a good home, so all teddy bear lovers rush over to enter! Good Luck All!!

My First Hanky Edging

This is my latest project! It will be a handkerchief edging for a bridal hanky for my sister's wedding in May. The edging is done in size 20 Lizbeth thread in colors #688 Seagreen Dark and #692 Mocha Brown Dark. These are her wedding colors. The pattern can be found in Tatting Patterns by Lyn Morton. It is called "Pansy Edging". I have never done a handkerchief edging before, so this is a new adventure for me:-) I know it doesn't look much like Pansies, but I really like how it is turning out so far, and my sister absolutely loves the colors!

A Wonderful Suprise!

I received a wonderful suprise in the mail today. My pendant has arrived!! My partner for the InTatters pendant exchange was Julia Haug (IcePrincess). She did a lovely job on my pendant and I had to share a picture with my online friends.

I love the gorgeous green beads she used:-) It is a large sized pendant, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 inches across, on a clear necklace, so it looks like it's floating on my neck. Such a nice affect I might have to try this idea out for my next pendant:-)

I do love it and I hope she loves the piece I tatted for her as well. Hopefully she recieves it soon so I can share a picture with you all. It is simply killing me not to show it off. Oh well, I guess this is a lesson in patience:-)

Lots to Share- New Tatting- Plus I won TWO Giveaways:-)

Hello again to my dear blogging buddies! I know it has been quite a while since my last post, but things here have been quite chaotic lately. I have managed to squeeze in a bit of tatting time here and there and have two wonderful giveaway wins to discuss:-)

First things first though. Shortly before Easter my DH was told he had a middle ear condition that would require surgery. We spent the next week and a half or so trying to get things in order for surgery. He had his surgery day before yesterday, and the Dr. seems pleased with the results, but it will be a while yet til we know if, and to what degree, his hearing was effected. He is back home now, and although in pain, he is recovering nicely.
Through the chaos of Easter holiday shopping, socializing, and of course preparing for DH's surgery I did manage to squeeze in a bit of tatting time. I managed to complete three tiny teddy bear collars for teddies I put in my youngest son's, and my two nieces' Easter baskets. I think they came out very well!

I also completed my pendant for the InTatters pendant exchange. I want so badly to show you how well it turned out, but I feel it wouldn't be fair til I know my partner has received it, so you can look forward to seeing it in the next week or so once it's made it's way to Germany! I do so hope she loves it as much as I love making it:-)

Now through the chaos of Easter/Surgery I do have two bits of EXCELLENT news to share!!! I feel like shouting "I won! I won!" But I will compose myself for a minute:-) I am very excited to announce I won not one, but two wonderful giveaways! First I will say this just doesn't happen to me everyday. I enter drawings and such but don't win, and so to win TWO was kind of mind blowing for me!! I am so excited- can't help it:-)

Ok, so here are my wonderful wins!

First, Ambitatterous had a lovely International Tatting Day giveaway, and I am so pleased to have won it. It was my very first giveaway winning and when it arrived she had thrown in a few extra goodies I hadn't expected! A skein of Vanilla Sky by Tatskool- what a lovely colorway! I cannot wait to try it out:-) And a Tatted Easter Egg, which I do so love:-) Isdihara does very beautiful work!!! I cannot wait to try the lotion and soaps, as they smell so nice. If you would be interested in purchasing some as well, you can visit the Etsy shop to buy some.

Then, day before yesterday I got a message from Alan Kolodny from Another Joyful Creation, that I was the winner of his FIRST Giveaway! A gorgeous pair of Tatted Earrings done in a silver wire with Swarovski crystals!!! How happy am I to have won these lovely earrings!!!! I love Alan's work, and have admired his pieces for quite some time. I have tried tatting with wire once, and it can be quite difficult, his is definitly a skill to be admired in my opinion! I will show a picture once they arrive.

Thanks to Isdihara and Alan, for having these generous giveaways (and of course to all other tatters and non-tatters who have them as well)! I cannot wait til I hit some sort of milestone so I can have my very own giveaway!! Hmmm...what should it be? 100 posts seems too far away, and so does 100 followers! Ah...perhaps Mother's Day!! We are all either mothers or have mothers right?! Could be the perfect excuse to have my FIRST GIVEAWAY!!! I guess you will just have to follow my blog to see what happens:-)

InTatters on Facebook and another wonderful Giveaway!

I have news to share with my tatting friends! InTatters in now on Facebook! I am not sure if this is old news to some of you out there, but I stubbled across this fact today, and thought I would share, just in case some of you don't know yet. Make sure you check out the InTatters Facebook site!

Another giveaway to announce as well! Ambitatterous is having a giveaway for a lovely soap and lotion set. This giveaway is in honor of International Tatting Day, also know as April Fool's Day to the non-tatter. April first is a day to celebrate our love of tatting. So enter to win this special gift, and keep on tatting!

Ok, I am sure you can tell by the lack of tatting updates I have had little tatting to brag. Well, life's that way sometimes. Four boys to run around after (14, 12, 9 and 15 months) sometimes makes finding tatting time impossible. No matter how busy they keep me, or how much sometimes I wish I had more "me time", I know these days are flying by and someday I will miss this. So I try to enjoy the chaos, and squeeze in time here and there. And I have managed to do a little.

I am a little over halfway done with the edging on mom's doily, and have been playing around with two other small projects. If I could have just focused my attention on mom's I would have finished by now, I know, but sometimes you just can't help yourself. And now I need to redirect my focus and work on a pendant for the InTatters pendant exchange. I am really excited about doing an exchange again! But this is yet another setback for completing mom's doily. I think I might need your help to keep me motivated please:-) I will keep you posted!

Another Give Away:-)

Bearbits is having a Spring Give Away!! Check out the lovely little teddy she has decided to share with her blogging buddies:-) So Many lovely Give Aways lately...GOOD LUCK ALL!!!

Nicki Lee's Give Away

Nicki Lee's RaviloLee Dreams is having a GIVE AWAY!!! She has decided to share her love of Crazy Quilts and Hand Dyed Lace with her fellow bloggers. This give away include a crazy quilting book, lots of lovely hand dyed lace, and other goodies:-) Just visit Nicki's Blog to enter, and while you're at it check out her lovely hand dyed laces at her ETSY STORE

Mom's Doily Almost Finished!

Mom's Doily is almost finished!!! YAY! I was able to complete the seventh and final motif for her doily last night (photo a bit dark) and I started the edging round today. The edging is moving rather quickly and I hope to finish it up by the weekend. I will show a final photo once it has been cleaned and pressed.

Well it's been a slow week for tatting, but I was finally able to complete round 6 0f 7 in my mom's doily! Just one more to go before the edging:-) I think it is coming along nicely, and hopefully I will be able to find time this week to finish it. That is if I can tear myself away from my new toy. My new pop-a-bobbin shuttle!

I absolutely LOVE this shuttle

I was one of a lucky few to purchase a pop-a-bobbin from Jane's Etsy store when they were first introduced, and I absolutely love it so far! When it arrived I was already in the middle of round 6 of my mom's doily, and simply couldn't wait to try it out, so I loaded my old faithful silent tatter and my new toy and started another project. I couldn't help myself! This is another of Iris' designs (Delia from Tatted Doilies) I am loving everything about this project...shuttle, thread (lizbeth size 20 Antique Violet), and design:-)

The pop-a-bobbin is a really nice shuttle to work with. It is similar in size to my silent tatter, but instead of the screw there is a bit of wood you simply pop in and out to remove the bobbin. There is also a neat little tool used to push out the wood plug, and hold the spool while you fill it with thread. It is a winner in my book and I would love to purchase more in the near future:-)

Alrighty...time to share a bit of my progress on the Iris Niebach doily. I decided to make this doily for my mother as a Valentine/Anniversary gift because it is just covered in hearts! As you can see I did miss Feb. 14th by a bit :-(But I have shown her the WIP and she is very pleased, and anxiously anticipating the finished piece. You can see the hearts really well (just wish I had a better camera)! I am up to the 6th out of seven rounds, but have not taken a photo yet. Perhaps I will upload tonight if I can. Well, Back to my tatting!! :-)

One step at a time!

Well I finally figure out how to add photo links, slideshows, etc to my blog (much thanks to TotusMel). Now hopefully soon I will get to add a few photos of a doily I have been working on. It is a free pattern by Iris Neibach.

http://irisembroidery.homestead.com/DEC-2005-FREEPATT.html

My new Blog!!!

This is my first post to my first blog! Hope to get picture of my tatting up soon!