Happy Easter

Today, I wish you all a Happy Easter.  Here are several eggs from Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen.  They were easy and quick to tat. 

 

With these, I will begin the 25 Motif Challenge.  They are numbers 1, 2, 3.

 

    

S'Mittens Party

My cousin K, our friend B and I had a S'Mitten party.  We had all liked the pattern for this table runner and each made one.  On the 10th of March we met for lunch at K's and the runners had a great time showing off their stuff.  We placed them on the floor to fit them side by side.

 K made the blue

 B made the grey

 and you have already seen mine.

    

They looked so different with the different materials and the quilting.  I love them all.

S'Mittens

October 2015 was the Western Massachusetts Shop Hop, nine quilt shops in three days.  I was shop hopping with my cousin, a friend and my daughter.  I had told myself that I could not buy material unless it had a purpose.  So, for this shop hop I went looking for material for the table runner S’Mittens that was in the September/October 2014 McCalls Quilting.  It was designed by Erin Russek.

The material for the mittens was bought at Brookside Quiltworks in South Egremont, the block material at Pumpkin Patch in Lee and the red and blue borders at  A Notion to Quilt in Shelbourne Falls.  I was going to use the block material for the edge between the red and blue but I ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would.  I found the gold oak flooring patterned material at Karen’s Quilting Corner in Williamstown.  I just love that it is a wooden floor pattern and the red and blue are houndstooth and herring bone patterns.  To me it looks like the mittens are drying on the floor.  I did the machine embroidery of the mittens and snowflakes from Anita Goodesign.  I also did free motion machine quilting around the mittens and the blocks and borders. 

This was made in one week in January 2016.

What did I learn?  I do table runners to try out new ideas and techniques.  It is something useful, small and quick to do.  Next time I do machine embroidery on a runner, I will do it without the backing on.  I want to cover the back of the embroidery.  I will machine or hand quilt after the back has been placed.   

Where Have I Been?

That is what I have been wondering.  I retired at the end of 2014 and at the beginning of 2015 I was too exhausted to think or do anything.  The second half of 2015 was more productive. 

Now I need to think of what to do with my blog.  There are only three entries.  So, me, what are you going to do?  I have decided this is a good place to keep a record for me, pictorial journal of what I have done or am doing.  If anyone wants to visit, may they enjoy what they see.  

I was surprised when I looked at my site the other day that 236 visits had been made. Not sure that anyone of those visitors will be back, but just in case.

At the end of November 2015 I made two baby quilts for a friend of mine who will have her first grandbabies this spring.  Yes, that is plural, twin girls.  The idea for the quilts was not mine.  I saw the material and patterns at the Pumpkin Patch in Lee and just loved them.  They were easy to do and I machine quilted them in the ditch.  They were given to the twins as their Christmas gift.

Celebration!

It has been awhile since I have been here.  Multiple reasons, that no longer matter, have kept me away. I am letting you know my first celebration.  December 19, 2014 I RETIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is the best thing that I have done for myself in a longtime.  I now wake up when the winter sun struggles to come in the window.  What a wonderful experience.

My second celebration.  I have been working on the doily that I messed up on row five and did not notice until row eight.  It was the last thing that I spoke about here.  I did not cut it up, I did not have the heart to do that.  So, I began it all over.  On the third try I was finally able to get past row five.  I do not know what I was looking at but I messed up the fifth row twice. The third time tatting it I succeeded This time I was paying some attention to what I was doing and was able to see it early enough that I never went very far.   

 

I am now almost where the other one is, I have almost finished row eight.

 

 

Major Mistake

This is a picture of Renulek’s Spring Doiley,in its bag.  I put it away on Monday and left it alone until today. 

 

I began tatting it in May.

I thought I was doing fine.  I was finally finishing row eight, I had done 31 pattern repeats.  I get to the end and I cannot end it.  I am short one section and not able to complete the final attachment.

I began to look to see what I had done.  There is a mistake in ROW 5!!!!!!!!!!!!  How could I have not paid attention????!!!!

Now what do I do?   Cut it back to row 5?  Start another one? 

 

 

 

 

Table Runner, The Beginning

Good afternoon

Here is one of my WIPs.  This is a pattern from “Helping Hands Newsletter Vol. 20 Issue 1”.  It is described as a Dressing Set but I am making it as a table runner for our dining room table. 

It is an easy pattern and I do it while watching New England Patriots and Red Sox, both of whom won last night.  It takes me an hour to do each ring.  

 I am using Lizbeth #168, size 20.  Using the shuttle and ball method, I put four yards on the shuttle to make one ring. 

I am not overly pleased with my pictures, I will get better.

Have a nice tatting evening.