November?

Holy Cow - I can’t believe it’s November already.  And we’ve had a few days of super cold weather here in Minnesota - only in the 20’s F, and a bit of snow.  Already.  Yuck - we have 6 more months of this!  But, one positive is all the tatting/sewing I can get done while indoors.  Ha.

I finally ordered a shuttle I’ve looked at many times.  Banyek on Etsy has such pretty wood shuttles - I love the wood inlay, though I don’t know how much I’ll use it.  I’m not a big shuttle collector, but I sure do like to have pretty shuttles! Fun to have from a shuttle maker in Hungary:

I’ve been working on the 3rd of my 4 quilts for the kids as they turn 30.  My son-in-law turns 30 in February, and to avoid the Christmas rush of quilting I have his lap quilt to the quilter!  Good timing, as I don’t need it until the first week of February.  His is flying geese, as he is a bird hunter.  More ducks than geese, but the fabric reminded me of him, and that’s the fun!  The backing is Labrador dogs, of which they have 2 for hunting.  So perfect!  I love making these simple lap quilts focused specifically on each one as they turn the “Dirty 30”!!  Son-in-law #1 was fish, Daughter was music, and Son-in-law #3 is bird hunting.  Just have Daugher #2 left, so I’m pondering her quilt already.  They probably think I’m nuts, but they’ll enjoy the personal quilts more as the years go by.

The bird hunting quilt, front of geese and backing of labradors.  I’m happy with how I was able to get the binding fabric of rust/black to pull together the front goose fabric and the back dog fabric.

Since sewing has been my main objective lately, my tatting has been on hold.  I’m making progress, albeit slow, on the tatted ornament.  We had our Twin Cities Tatters gathering today, so I got a little more done.  But my goal is to finish that ornament by tomorrow to see which ball the size 30 thread fits on best.  Time is getting away from me again as the holidays gradually sneak up.

Next Friday, Mom will come to stay for the week of Wisconsin deer hunting.  And you know what that means.  Eating out, shopping, eating out, and-did-I-mention-shopping?  Ha!  We have so much fun running around the cities to various stores and quilt shops.  And lunches all over town!  A fun, annual tradition for us.  By the time she goes home, it is December, and the holidays loom large.  I don’t have much to do for holiday preparation, but it just seems to come up so quickly.

Back to tatting on my ornament.  I’m using size 30 thread, and it’s looking like it will fit the large Christmas ball the way it’s supposed to.  I will know very soon . . .

Fall to Winter in the Blink of an Eye!

Well!  We’ve gone from fabulous fall days to winter pretty quickly here in Minnesota!  Last weekend we were enjoying our sandals again, and yesterday we got SNOW.  Ugh - too early for that!  We were just enjoying Halloween decorations.

Our neighbors have a fantastic yard display, and they add to it every year.  This year they added a small airplane - we had to laugh when we saw the trailer pull up with that!  Anoka, Minnesota is considered the Halloween Capital of the World - and we are near Anoka.  The neighbors entered and won 1st place in the Anoka House/Yard Decorating contest - mostly bragging rights, but so fun!

The band plays and the fog rolls - and the cars pull up nightly to have a look!  Fun.  We go out to eat on Halloween - ha ha!

These photos were taken on Wednesday, and then the snow rolled in.

I’m still working on a size 30 Christmas ball cover, but have been sidetracked with another one of my kids’ 30th birthday quilts.  My son-in-law will be 30 in early February, so I’m getting that quilt done before the Christmas rush hits.  I can’t believe all 4 of the kiddos will be 30 in 2018 - I’m not older, so how can they be?  Ha! I haven’t gotten photos of that quilt yet - I’m still working on choosing coordinating fabrics.

And, another button was calling me.  This is a button made from an antler slice - fun to try working around the more oval shape.

Again - the color choosing of the beads and thread is my favorite part!  This thread is plain, but since I have a family of deer hunters, I used orange and a sort of “gunmetal” color beads.  Silly, but I knew what I meant :)

More Buttons

We are having a SPECTACULAR fall weather week here in Minnesota!  Upper 60’s and into low 70 degree temperatures along with beautiful fall color is a real treat - especially knowing that this is it until about April or May.  Sad, but true.  We know what’s coming.

I will get back to my experimenting with the beautiful Christmas ball ornaments, but I HAD to tat another button.  Mom gave me a little stash of pretty buttons to play with, and it’s about as addicting as ice drops for me - such a quick, easy tatting fix.

These beautiful leaves are dropping fast.  With rain in the forecast for the weekend, I’m thinking the trees are going to be bare and brown within days.  Must. Enjoy. 

Loving Fall but Thinking Christmas

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but FALL is my absolute favorite time of year.  Sweatshirt & jeans weather, still no winter coats to lug around - and watching the leaves change color is spectacular! I wish it lasted longer, but a little rain and wind and POOF! we have bare trees for a few months.

I’ve always admired Renulek’s beautiful tatting and patterns for doilies, Easter eggs and Christmas ornaments.  I’ve tried to cover Christmas ornaments, but they just never fit right - so I purchased a couple of Renata’s patterns.  My biggest problem is figuring out which size ornament will work with which size thread! Why is this so difficult for my brain?

This pattern is beautiful, though size 20 thread requires a huge ornament.  I usually tat fairly tightly, so I’m not convinced it’s my tension.  This ball is a bit larger than 3” diameter (it never says on the dang box!) and still not large enough for the tatting to fit nicely.

The bottom piece should also be further away so the bare thread can zig zag up and down.  I’m not getting nicely rounded chains either. The pattern does call for size 20 thread, but the ornament doesn’t look this big on the pattern photo. I need to ask Renata what size ornaments she uses.

Good thing I’m thinking about this EARLY - I need to try some smaller threads and practice some more to make these beauties before Christmas!  

Twin Cities Tatters - WOW!

Our Twin Cities Tatters group has GROWN this year - and today we had the largest group ever!  We've been increasing in numbers all summer, and finally decided to switch to a meeting room at a local library.  Thank heavens we did - we had 14 today.  14!  We may have beaten the Tollway Tatters gatherings with this one, though that wasn't really the goal.  😂

Good thing we switched to the library meeting room, or we would have taken over the Caribou Coffee.  (Well, we have done that before too.)  But it's certainly not quite as comfortable.

We had tatters from not only the north metro, but from even farther north as well as south-central Minnesota.  Fun!  These are tatters from beginners to . . .  AHEM . . . experienced - all willing to share ideas and good conversation.  Michelle and I just have to laugh at all those times we met and it was just the two of us, or sometimes 3 or 4.  The Twin Cities Tatters (Michelle and I) met the first time on 11/13/2010.

And here we are, 7 years later.  Thanks to all for joining us!