Well....yesterday I spent the whole day making Rita's Fan from Palmetto's Tat Day event. I thought I could get it done just like that....but mistakes were made and starting over was also done a few times in making the top edging to the fan. The thread used for the top of the fan is white silk thread. The bottom part of the fan was made with Oren Bayan metallic thread. You can get both the thread and maybe the fan skeleton from Rita if you would like to make a fan like mine. Her email address is:
threads@execulink.com
I did do the fan differently than the instructions originally called for. For one instead of making the top of the fan in separate elements or motifs...I connected them together using the side picots and on the ends of the top of the fan are also connected together. So it ended up being a continous edging on top of the fan. Anyhow...it was on my list to make...so I can now scratch off one "to do" off my very long list.
I thought I would share some pictures of some shuttles that I have decorated too...so enjoy the pictures. As usual...I would love to hear from my lacing friends. Note the one with the pansies...those are real pansies.

Okay, I was a good girl and didn't post anything yesterday...but hey...this is another day.
I was talking to my friend Erin on the phone today and I mentioned to her how my Trumpet Vine and Rose of Sharon and Wisteria has been doing nuts this past couple of years. So I thought I would get a picture to show a bit of the jungle that I see when I look out my window when I do my dishes. Not how the Rose of Sharon is touching the ground in the picture. That happened because my clematis has also gone nuts and the vines pulled my Rose of Sharon down over the years so now I have a cascade of Rose of Sharon that goes down to the ground. My Wisteria was all the way over to my property line but my husband went out and trimmed it so it isn't as huge as it was earlier this summer. The Trumpet Vines started out as little shoots that I got from my parents house. Now we have lots of little shoots that gets mowed over. I love watching hummingbirds. I have a pair of biocculars right next to the kitchen window so I can watch them when I see them zooming in for their food. It is fun... Note in the picture the bunny pole we have where one of our bird feeders is hung...see that alumium pie tin...that is our attempt to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder....but they get into them anyways.



Also here is a picture of Micheangelique( my computer)....when I am in front of her....this is what I get to see. Yeah...it is in the corner of my dining room...but I kinda like it here. Everything is kinda compacted here. right next to the computer just about is my huge China cabinet which takes a huge amount of room. Notice my wacky cartoon stuff in the picture. The flowers you see on my shelf next to my computer came from the funeral I have attended this year and the light roses are from my brother and Jill's wedding...yup I carried that glass and flowers home on the plane. They survived even though it was Feburary. But this is my space in the house...so it is crammed here. You should see what I have crammed under my desk...there is no place for a chair....but I usually just take my cushion chair and turn it around from the table and use that when I am on the computer. I know there is alot of talk of pets. I don't have any pets anymore except for Phoroah my daughter's Cuckatiel. But note the Scooby Doo frame and the doggie in the picture. That was my angel....Angel Eyes. Also note the stuffed moose sitting ontop of my computer in the back. My daughter Michelle got that for me for a Christmas a couple of years ago. I just about died when she gave it to me. It was sold by Avon. It is called Mark the Moose. LOL. It actually DANCES and SINGS a little jingle....and it goes like this...I am Mark the Moose, I am on the loose to bring you Christmas cheer.....and so on,it is so funny. I actually showed this Stuffed animal to Mark Myers when he was here staying with me for a short time. I think I remember him laughing too when I turned it on.....LOL

Now to move on and do some lacing stuff of some sort....

Here I am ....I have a blog....so look out...HA!!
Anyhow...what will I have here on my blog...it could be just about anything and everything.
First of all...this is so new to me that I had already wrote a blog post and saved the draft and then I decided to change my Blogger's name or title. That lead me to more problems for I couldn't find where to change it and when I did I deleted my own title blog and with it went the post that I already wrote...so here I am writing again.
One of the first thing I will warn you about is I have been known to be quite wordy when I am in front of a keyboard...
What else is there to know about me. I love crafts and have been doing some kind of crafts most of my life. My love for crafts started when I was a young girl. My parents were not rich being they both worked in a restaurant and when my poor Barbie Dolls needed a larger wardrobe I made them my hand with scraps of material my grandmother gave to me. Later on when my parents allowed me I started to make them on a sewing machine. These clothes were made without any patterns...so they were try and error kind of clothes. I have no clue whatever happened to those Barbie clothes.
Just before I got married I learned how to crochet. I was taught by a neighbor...and the funny thing is...I believe she was right handed so how I do crochet left handed is a mystery. Being that I am left handed and crochet left handed make it difficult for me to follow crochet technique diagrams. I have to flip them in my head. Anyhow...the first thing I crocheted was an afghan which I made in different shades of purple yarn and white. I gave the afghan to my parents when I was finished with it. The next thing was another afghan... which I gave that one to my grandmother for Christmas. This afghan was made in all kinds of colors. And both of these afghans were very simple basic crocheting. I have the afghan that I made for my grandmother on the rocking, swivel, orange rocking chair to cover it up. The orange is very bright and orange is not exactly my color...but the chair is a real good chair and I rock in it alot.
When I found out I was expecting my first child Shawn I learned how to knit from my girlfriend who was also my bridemaid at my wedding. I knitted a pink sweater for my first knitted project which I also embroidered flowers onto. Well....Shawn ended up being a boy...so he never wore that sweater. But lo and behold mother nature decided to grace me with another baby within a year. Yup....you got it...Shawn and Chrystal are less than a year apart which means for some days they are the same age. I can tell you from experience btw...that having children that close is worse than having twins. Up all day chasing after Shawn and up all night with Chrystal. I don't know how I got through that....I am sure the Lord was watching over all of us.
Anyhow...over the years I have made all kinds of baby blankets and sweaters for my children. About 5 or 6 years ago in one winter I sat and made 5 knitted sweaters. One was a Dale pattern and 3 were Alice Starmore patterns. The Alice Starmore sweaters I made all had Celtic Knotwork in them. So with a chart and a cable needle the knotwork formed. All of these sweaters were made with wool so alot of times in the winter instead of wearing a coat I just pull on a sweater. But because of making all those sweaters in that winter...I haven't touched a knitting needle since.
I have done alot of cross stitch which I have a dresser drawer full of and I have also done needlepoint, crewel and hardanger.
I did finally learn how to tat some years back. I think I am starting to loose track how many years ago it was. Anyhow...I learned from a book sitting at my dining room table for two days just about. When I learned how to tat...there was no such thing as "the flip". It was either the knot moved or it didn't. One of my personality traits is determination. I loved the tatting I saw in pictures and I was bound and determine to learn how to do it. So there I was...over and over again I made knots that went ...you guessed it...nowhere. But finally one knot moved and the word tension finally sunk in my head. From there on ....I was tatting and thought I was the only tatter around....but I know different now....there are other tatters out there in Tattingland. Yippee!!!
I also learned how to do bobbinlace. This came about not too long after I came home from a trip to the UK and Ireland. I went to Ithaca at a Lace Day for the public event. When I saw all that lace....well....I was overwhelmed at the beauty of it all. And the fact it was all hand made...was WOW!! In the lace display there was this thistle book mark. It was so pretty and after being that I just came home from Scotland I decided I needed to learn how to do bobbinlace so I could make the bookmark. Can you believe it that even though I have the pattern for the bookmark I have yet to make it....but I will one of these days. It is a Bedfordshire pattern.
On my blog here I will be sharing with you whatever ...you will never know. But this way having this blog maybe I can share more with all of you my love of all kinds of lace.
So what have I been up to lately....I have been tatting a hat. I know I have done one hat before...but this one will be really different. I will warn you....to go out and get yourselves a pair of sungloggles....the hat might be a bit blinding to look at.
I also just recently have been playing around with decorating mini M&M containers that I know alot of tatters use to transport their tatting with them. I was kinda hoping that maybe I could inspire others to do the same. I bet if people decorated the containers that there would be some real beauties created. Besides that...it is fun. You can use just about anything. In the pictures I am sharing with you I did one with a bunch of fish stickers that I had and I also tatted a fish and a seahorse, painted some seagrass and made a marine scene. On the other one I put some dried flowers on it and some reinstone looking stickers to make the container sparkle a bit. But you could put just about anything on them, as I did, tatting...wether it is with thread...or how about some tatted wire, or stickers, jewels, painting...cut up paper...anything...and they would all be different and unique looking.
I guess this is enough stuff for today....see I told you...I got carried away here at the keyboard.
Enjoy the pictures.....