It's Not Too Late

**All right, now it's too late.  TatDays have come and gone, and a fine time was had by all. I'll leave this post so you can see the picture, and for now, the link to the Palmetto site with more pretty pictures is still working as well. **


It's not too late to enter to win one of the quilts at Palmetto TatDays.  Follow the link HERE for more information and pictures of all the quilts.  Each $5 donation (Paypal accepted) will enter you in the drawing.  You do not need to be present to win, and they will mail them to the winners.

The quilts measure as follows:

Flower quilt: 51" x 64"
Teapot quilt:  64" x 64"
Wall hanging:  13.5" x 24"

Free Association Tatting

It's like this....  Jane was showing off her latest baubles the other day, and my instant reaction was it looked like a fish.

So I had to sit down and make a fish.  It's not in Gary and Randy's book, but once you get the concept of the bauble, making up your own isn't hard.

You may have notice I've been quiet lately.  I took a break from tatting for a while when my brain needed a rest and I only felt like doing mindless things, like spinning.  (Well, for me, working my drop spindle is pretty mindless, in a comforting, meditative kind of way, no offense meant to spinners.)  Then, once spun, the yarn needs to be knitted.  Yes, it does need; the skein calls out and whimpers until cast on.  But now, the shawl is in its latter stages, and I'm back tatting again. And not too soon, with Tat-Days coming next week.

In Celebration of Finding Lost Things

I've been looking for my reading glasses for months now.  I've got lots of reading glasses in different strengths, but the really strong pair in its pretty little sleeve has been missing for quite some time now. Time and again, I would shift and stir the piles on my desk to no avail.  Eventually I realized they were in my roly-poly bag all along.  It's amazing how much you can fit in those little bags Jane makes. 

In celebration,  I decided to make something really small, what else but Gary and Randy's little mouse. This is from their book Tatting GR8 Baubles, Bugs, and Blossoms, which Jane has been recommending with good cause.  I can't keep up with all the new tatting books anymore, but I really enjoy the ones that are unusual or really special in some way, which this one certainly is.  Besides the 3D pieces, there are also some advanced SCMR techniques I plan to master some day.

(Since the thread was so thin, I added the eye beads in a different way than the pattern, don't worry if yours look different, and probably better, than mine.)