No phone

 

Twenty houses lost the telephone and internet for a week, we were one of them.  It happened about two blocks from our house in a metal box substation.  Our phone service is on strike so it took a bit to get it back.  I did not miss the phone at all!  But, I did miss the internet.  We checked out e-mails when we parked the car in front of Sweet Thing #3's apartment and hooked up to her wireless.  Husband wouldn't stay long enough for me to follow blogs or write in mine.  I am trying to put in two blogs a month.  I won't make it this month.  

On Mother's Day I finished Renulek's Spring 2014 doiley.  The largest doiIey that I have made.  I like how it looks and I will use it as motif #7.  I have not washed or blocked it yet so it is a bit wrinkly.

 

 

I was wondering what to do next when I saw the Butterfly Doiley sitting in a basket.  It had been sitting there for a LONG time with only four rows done.  The Butterfly Doiley from Tatting from Burda was begun back in 2014.  I had tried to figure out how to make the butterflies different colors from the rest of the tatting.  I was not able to figure it out.  So, I am doing the row of the butterflies a different color from all the other rows.  Rows 5 and 6 have gone rather quickly and I am finding them easy, I don't have to do a lot of thinking.  I have done some untatting on Row 6 as I am not always paying attention.  This is being made with Lizbeth size 10 thread, blue ice and white.  We are flying to Texas for a family wedding over the holiday week.  I will see if I am allowed to tat on the plane.

 

May you all have a nice holiday and I will see you in June.

ADDENDUM: My entry was written last night and I took the pictures this morning.    Remember how I said I don't always pay attention, here it is. 

 

 

I was getting ready to finish last night and was looking at my work.  2/3rds of row 6 had been tatted.  Right in the middle of that tatting was another mistake.  Each time I made a mistake it was the same one.  The other mistakes had been caught right after I made them and were easy to take out.  This is the one which got away.  Now I will cut and redo. 

I sure hope they let me bring my tatting on the plane.

 

 

Numbers 4, 5, and 6

Good morning

Here in the Berkshires the sun is shining.  We did have a frost last night but it is leaving quickly.  Thankfully the pansies spent the night in the garage.  The birds outside have been talking since 5:30 this morning and Ted (the cat) has gone back to bed.  I am here doing a post so that I will have two for the month. 

I have almost finished with one quilt and the backing material has been ordered.  I will show it when it is completely done and sent on to its owner.  With having a pause in that quilt, I have decided to take apart two identical quilts where I am not pleased with my sewing.  These were among the first quilts that I began when I retired.  The machine stitch is a 2.4 and I now prefer a 1.8.  The 2.4 is to loose for the quilt piecing and I don't want the stitching/quilts to come apart.  I am only unstitching bigger sections of the blocks, not all the way to the beginning.  I will show pictures next time.  

Another quilt has begun in my head and I have asked the person that it will go to what she'd like.  We almost have the decision made.

My pictures for today are tatting.  Number 4, 5, and 6 for the Motif Challenge.  I am 2/3 way around row 13 on Renulek's 2014 Spring Doiley.  I hope to have it finished and blocked soon and then it will be a picture.  Wonder if a doiley is a Motif?

This is my favorite tatted egg!  (It is a soft boiled egg)  This doesn't count for the motifs as I have already shown one in a different thread color.

Here are snowflakes from Jon Yusoff's Tatted Snowflake Collection

 

Carrousel

Milky Way

 



The Twirly



 





 

 

Enjoy your day wherever you are.  May the sun shine on you also.  

Hearts

Good day to all.  Back in February I showed you one of my table runners.  The one I am showing today was the first runner made when getting back into quilting.  I made it January 2015 for Valentine's Day. The pattern is from My Runners by Disa Designs.  It was done to learn how to work with fusible web.  I did change how the hearts are joined together.  They were done by hand stitching on the backside, not using circles to join the hearts on the frontside as Disa did.

  

The second runner in grey was made for the son of a friend of mine and his new bride in celebration of their wedding.  

What did I learn?  I used fusible web for the entire circle on the first runner.  On the second runner I only had the fusible web for the first outer 1/4 inch of the circle.  It made a much softer look and feel.  I continued to used the fusible web on the entire letter, they were just to narrow to cut out the center of them.

What else did I learn from this runner?  This was the first and I love making runners!  There will be more to show in the future.

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.