Welcome New Friends

Just a quick Thank You to everyone who has visited my tatting blog. I am visiting all of your blogs and learning a lot about what I want to see on my blog and how I can improve it to make it as interesting as possible. I will be posting more photos and adding some tips and techniques I've picked up along the way. Of course, I'm always looking for new widgets and improvements/add-ons from Blogger that make sharing info much easier and more fun to use.

It is a blessing to me to be able to share my interests with all of you and I am truly enjoying your blogs about tatting, sewing, quilting, and other crafts through the use of something so readily available and easy to use. Not very long ago, sharing knowledge and photos was kept within a small community of family and friends - usually only those you saw at work, school or church or corresponded with using snail mail.

Now we can easily share everything about the process of creating beautiful crafts in a few minutes all over the world. I love technology!

Again, thank you and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you a little bit more next year.

Focused on Tatting

Well, it's already the middle of November. Christmas is just around the corner! Did you notice how early the malls and stores put Christmas out this year? I was at the mall this week and noticed that Santa had already arrived there. He normally doesn't make it to the malls until around Thanksgiving so he's really early this year.

Anyway, I am having so much fun tatting Christmas motifs. To help get a little extra needle tatting practice in, I have tatted all my motifs both by shuttle and needle which has been a lot of fun and I've learned some interesting things along the way.

Even though with the needle, some patterns feel a little awkward at first, I'm growing more and more fond of needle tatting. Maybe it's because I have sewed my whole life and the needle is so comfortable to me or maybe it's because I can visualize what I'm doing better with the needle - I don't really know. But whatever it is, I'm enjoying it.

I will continue to look for patterns with techniques that challenge me. With a little experience under my belt now, I'm even thinking about joining the 25 Motif Challenge next year and signing up for the Tatters Across Time program.

Next year looks like it will be another busy, tatting-filled year.

Too Many Lists

OK, I'm a list maker; I admit it. I make lists for everything. The problem for me is that I have too many lists on various pieces of paper or on the computer or my phone and none of them are in sync.

Today I found a free app that I think will help keep my lists organized. It's called TaDa List and you can open it from anywhere. Here's what one of my lists looks like (I've already created four). You can even email it to yourself. Once you check off an item as being completed, it is removed from your to-do l ist but it is still displayed on the TaDa List so that you have an complete listing of everything (finished and in progress).

Well, I hope this works. If it does, all I can say is TaDa!!

Happy Friday!

A few more hours of work and then it's the weekend!!

I've already completed two Christmas items but I can't post pictures yet. They're for an exchange and I don't want to spoil the surprise. I'll post them later.

I keep trying but other things have kept me from starting the crazy quilt purses I want to make for Christmas.These purses are gifts where I'll incorporate some of my small and not-so-great pieces of tatting that I've saved.

This is not my work but it's a sample picture similar to what I'll be doing. You randomly sew different pieces of fabric together and then embellish that with crazy stitching, buttons, and, of course, tatting. Doesn't that look like fun? I hope this weekend I can get started on this. I'll keep you posted.

Have a great weekend!

Google Internet Search Widget

I've added a Google widget to my blog. Instead of having to open a new tab or window, you can search for tatting patterns, shops, blogs, and more right here from my blog. I hope you like it and find it handy to use. So many times as I'm reading your blogs, I've wanted to search on a name or pattern but I usually forget to do it so I put it right under Lady Shuttlemaker's button to the right so you can give it a try. Let me know what you think and if it was helpful.

Speaking of Google - and I do love Google. Have any of you received a Google Wave invitation? If you'd like to try it, request an invitation. Google Wave is a new way of communicating and collaborating with others in real time. It's a combination of chatting, email, file & photo sharing, and more - check it out. Google Wave Video.

Are there any tatters already using Google Wave? If so, please let me know.

Who's Tatting This Weekend?

I am!

I have so much tatting that I want to work on. Some of it is brand new and will be for a couple of Tatting Exchanges that are coming up this month. There are still a couple of unfinished motifs that I'm working on and want to get finished, and, of course, I'm always scouring the internet for more ideas. It's crazy. Right now, there is no way I would ever use up all of the thread I have or be able to even do one sample of all the motifs in all the books I own, and yet, I keep looking for more.

For me, that's part of the fun. Whether it's tatting, quilting, or any other craft, I want to experience all of it and see what others have created and how I can weave all of the tangle threads together into some new idea.

What tatting project are you working on this weekend?