My Lephrechaun - William

I am one of the lucky ones to have received a Leprechaun from Pam in Ireland. She sent him to me when we had our Secret Santa Exchange. Well, I was reading Pam's Tats A Kool Challenge Blog, and she wanted all her Leprechaun's to check in. I am happy to report that William is having a grand time in Apollo, Pennsylvania. Let me tell you a little bit about William.

I have named my Leprechaun ,William , and he is my lucky charm. He sits by my computer and watches me while I visit tatting sites. Sometimes he sits and watches me tat too! He is a funny little fellow whom I feel so privileged to have.

I was tatting the other day and had to get up to answer the phone and when I came back, William had started tatting on my motif. He reminded me of the Fairy Tale by the Grimm Brothers "The Elves and the Shoemaker". Maybe William will have the motif done tonight.



Then two days ago, I couldn't find William. I wondered where he had gone off to. I searched high and low for him. Then I heard squeals of delight and you'll never guess where I found him. Did you ever see a ball pit at an amusement park? Well, I found William have a grand time with my thread. He dived right in just like a ball pit, only this was a pit full of thread. I had a heck of a time untangling him from the thread.




Yesterday I found him studying a pattern out of Mark Myers Book "Tatted Gathering of Angels". Maybe that is what he is going to tat for me tonight while I'm in bed.



That leads us to today. I came home from work and found him sitting at the computer. He sees all his friends and wants to know where they are and what they are up to. Are they as happy as I am, William asks.







So these are William's adventures for now. Who knows what mischief he will get into tomorrow. Thank you Pam, I adore William......


The reason for naming my Leprechaun William:

Why William you ask, well, I just watched the movie "P.S. I Love You" with Gerad Butler and Hilary Swank & Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Part of the movie was shot in Ireland and one of the Irish characters was William. So I named my Leprechaun after William in this movie. If you haven't seen this movie and like Romantic Comedies, you've got to see this one. I have to warn you that it is a tear jerker. I laughed and cried through the whole movie.

Nectarine Heart - Motif #11

I finally had a chance to tat with some of the new (HDT) Hand Dyed Threads I got from Yarnplayer (Marilee). The color is Nectarine and the thread has such pretty colors in it. I can't wait until the Nectarine set of solid colors arrives, I bought some of these too!

I found the prettiest Heart to tat with this thread. The Heart was designed by Sandra. Sandra has a slide show of some of her tatting on her site and there are some lovely crosses and bookmarks, earrings and two snoods. If you get a chance, check it out.



I've been going through all my tatting books, mostly the really old ones, looking for something different to tat. I saw many edgings that would look nice as bookmarks and littls tatting bits that would look good for earrings. That's what I do when I am too tired to tat, I'll just look at the books for a little bit and dream about what I could tat.

Motif #10 - Partridge in a Pear

Moving right along with the 25 Motif Challenge, I am already at motif #10, which I am very happy about, since I only joined the challenge on March 4, 2008. Here I have tatted Pam Palmer's Partridge in a Pear again. I tatted this one last year for a Secret Santa Exchange that I was in and posted about it earlier and can be seen on the post for February 6, 2008. My exchage partner was Jane Eborall, so she has the first one I tatted, which was tatted in all white. But I did this one a little different and tatted the pear in a beautiful golden color, which was made by Marilee (Yarnplayer), the color is called Golden Fleece, which you can get in her Etsy Shop. The Partridge is still in white. I used a pearl colored piece of heavy scrapbook paper and a piece of gold paper and used a fancy punch in the corners. I really like how this one looks with the golden pear.



Now I am thinking of what I will tat next. So many things I want to work on. I think I will tat a bookmark so I can use more of the HDT that I got from Marilee. I bought some of the beautiful color Nectarine. I think a floral bookmark would look nice in this color. I recently saw a floral bookmark that would look great with this thread. Now I can't remember where I saw it. Someone tatted about 8 of these bookmarks all in HDT's. I think the pattern might have been Kersti's, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows this bookmark, and knows where the pattern is, please let me know.

Tatting at Old Economy Village

Below is a picture of my Mom, Peg. She taught me to tat in 1989. My Mom learned how to tat from her friend, Evelyn. My Mom, Evelyn, and Kathy Nicklewicz and a few other ladies from Beaver County demonstrate tatting at the historical village of Old Economy. I taught my daughter to tat a few years ago, so we have three generations tatting now! I have only demonstrated a couple of times with them and I wanted to post a picture of us at old Economy from 2005. It is a lot of fun to demonstrate at Old Economy, I hope to do it again this summer with my Mom.


Peg, Katrina & Evelyn

Katrina & Carol (that's me)


Peg (my Mom), Evelyn, & Carol


Tatting display that Kathy puts together.
To see more of Kathy's tatting click on her name, it will take you to Sharon Briggs' Blog, scroll down to Feb. 21, 2008.

Old Economy Village, the third and final home of the Harmony Society, was built by one of America's ost successful Christian communal groups. In 1804, the Harmonists migrated to America from Iptingen (near Stuttgart) in southwest Germany seeking religious and economic freedom. Nearly 800 farmers and craftsmen followed their leader George Rapp (1757-1847) first to Butler County, Pennsylvania and then to Posey County, Indiana. They stayed 10 years in each, building and naming their towns Harmony. The towns were designed by Frederick Rapp (1775-1834), the adopted son of the Founder.

In 1824, the Harmony Society returned to Beaver County, Pennsylvania and settled in Old Economy. To read more about this restored historical village, click on the link at the beginning of this post.

Tatted Heart - A Workbasket Pattern

I tatted this heart many years ago, it is from a Workbasket Magazine, I'm not sure of the year or month, I can't locate my copy of the magazine at the moment. But this heart reminded me of spring, with the daisies in the center of the heart.

Motif #9 - Bead Tatted Earrings

I just finished another pair of earrings using Coats & Clark Button Craft thread. The pattern is Jane Eborall's, with a little variations that she has added. The colors I used give the earring a southwest look with the peach, turquoise, cream and brown.

I was at JoAnn Fabrics this past weekend. I wanted to get more of the Coats & Clark Button Craft thread, and I noticed they don't have as many colors anymore. They didn't have the peach thread that I like or the Copenhagen blue. I'll have to go to the Coats & Clark site to see if these colors were discontinued. I sure hope not, I really like using this thread for tatted jewelry.

Tatted Parrot

I was going through my bookmarks of tatted sites and came across a link that I didn't think was there anymore. The site is from TatChat and there are still some patterns on that site that some you of may not have seen before. A mini heart by Liz, a heart by Betsy, a bracelet by Debbie, a butterfly by Lenore, three different tatted shuttle patterns and my favorite is the tatted Parrot by Mary Parrott. I tatted this a few times, once for a bookmark for a friend who loves birds, then I tatted it and sewed it on my daughters lunchbox when she was in 2nd grade. I think I still have the lunchbox somewhere. Katrina is 16 now, but I kept the lunchbox because I put tatting all over it. I also tatted the Parrot and framed it. I kept one for myself, which I made in 1998 and the other two framed Parrots's I donated to a bird club for an auction.

I found the lunchbox, I put on it my favorite butterfly by Mary McCarthy, parrot by Mary Parrott, a swan and chicken by Pam Palmer, a caterpillar and ladybug by Brenda Bonnila. On the other side I have a snake (who lost an eye) and turtle by Brenda Bonilla, a mermaid and seahorse by Jane Eborall. I think I will clean this lunchbox up and fix the snakes eye and put some of my tatting in it. I haven't thought about this lunchbox in so long, I guess I forgot about it.