Thread Received from Katherinne McKay and Giveaway by Wicked Tats

I have some beautiful thread to show today. I signed up for a giveawy on Katherinne McKay's Digital Alchamy and even though I wasn't picked as a winner, she sent me a sample of some thread that she has dyed. It wasn't enough that I received this lovely color "Fire" thread, Katherinne made an oriental oragami card to send the thread in. The card is just Beautiful!! I have already tatted a couple things from the thread. The colorway is perfect for the flower motif I have made. I have also tatted the "Hope" butterfly by Lady ShuttleMaker.

Thank you Katherinne for the Beautiful oragami card and thread!! Sherry, thank you for sharing the "Hope" Butterfly pattern. I'm sure I will make it over and over again.

Now to tell you of another giveaway going on right now. But hurry, time is running out to sign up for Aileen's Wicked Tats 2nd SPEEDY GIVEAWAY.

Happy Tatting!!

I REALLY Am a Prince - Tatting Tea Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!! Tatting Tea Tuesday I might add!!


I am having one of my favorite teas....Ginger Peach made by The Republic of Tea. I have so many favorite teas from this company and the teas come in decorative tins. They have some cute tins right now, with some delicious flavors of tea. I think I am going to order their new tea "Year of the Tiger" Chocolate Orange Red Tea and it is in the cutest tin. This tea sounds delicious!!



A few years ago, my friend Rayanna, gifted me with a Hallmark ornament which I think is so appropriate for today. The ornament is so sweet!! Two friends having tea and sweet treats. I think the spoon legs and peppermint stick legs with sugar cubes are so cute!

I have been working on a special project over the last few Tuesdays, well, I mean I have tatted on the project on other days of the week, but I want to show it today for Tatting Tea Tuesday.

This picture is entitled........



"I REALLY Am a PRINCE"







The fairy is Jane Eborall's Flat Fairy pattern and she is waving her magical wand to turn the frog into a prince. I used Flora size 20 thread. The frog is a Pam Palmer design and is in her Tatting Treats Two book. I made him a size 80 variegated thread. The mushroom is Heather "The Tarnished Tatter's design. And the crown is by Ellen "Singtatter". I drew the background to complete the picture.

Yesterday I received some HDT that I won in a Thread giveaway by Katherinne McKay of Digital Alchamy. I tatted some with it last night and will blog about it next time. I have a migraine tonight and can't seem to concentrate any more.


Happy Tats!

Snow, Snow and More Snow.....Keyed up Earrings

We Are SNOWED in!



Our area of Western Pennsylvania got 2 foot of snow Saturday. Many of the roads are still covered with snow. Many of the back roads are impassible. School was cancelled today, Monday and we just got word that school is cancelled for tomorrow. And we are to get 8-10 more inches of snow Tuesday into Wednesday. Wow, we haven't had a snow storm this bad in a very long time. Here is a picture looking off my front porch:

Here you can see the snow is up to our mailbox. Needless to say we had no mail on Saturday.

Then we had to rescue one of our chickens. Her name is Free Bird. Why is she named Free Bird you ask? Well as soon as she realized she could escape the coop and fly out, she did. At about 6 months old, she flew out of the run at the coop that has a 6 ft high fence. We kept trying to put her back in and she kept flying out. She did not want to be cooped up with all the other chickens, so she has lived free range in the elements for 3 years. We make sure she has food and water everyday and even built her a shelter where she sleeps in the grapevines. So this is why our son, Cameron, named her Free Bird. Here is Free Bird, stuck in the snow. Luckily she didn't sink all the way to the ground and must be on some hard snow, but it almost swallowed her up. We looked out the window and just saw her neck sticking out of the snow.

Cameron to the rescue!!

Look at how much snow is on the roof of Free Birds nest in the grapevines.

Then Katrina wanted to go out in the snow and take pictures, so I had to get one of her. It was very hard to walk in the snow as it was up to her mid thigh.

I don't know if we will have school the rest of the week if we get the 8 inches on top of this.

So today we had the day off from school, I thought maybe I would get to do some tatting, but no such luck. I woke up and was so dizzy all day, I couldn't do anything but sit. Every time I moved I got sick in my stomach and my head was spinning. I couldn't even lay down or close my eyes. I am feeling a bit better this evening, and hope that by tomorrow I am completely better. Oh and I did spend about two hours on the phone with Norton Antivirus. A backdoor virus got on my computer, it represented it self as a reputable site and fooled Norton. What havoc it played on my computer. But $100 dollars later and I'm virus free. What a pain in the neck!!

Now onto the tatting part of the post. Over Christmas, I tatted Yarnplayer's Keyed Up Earrings in Lizbeth thread, I think it was the Sherbet color. I love this color thread.

One last picture for you, it is my Leprechaun William at Christmas time. I found him making new friends with some of Santa's Elf's.

Tatting Tea Tuesday - Norman the Rooster & his family plus a Tatted Scarecrow

It was so much fun to tat Jane Eborall's newest TAIS. I was pleasantly surprised that the mystery item we were tatting turned out to be a rooster. Norman and his mate Aileen worked out great with another pattern I was tatting of Jane's. My first attempt at Norman was done in a light lavender and light pumpkin color.




So after Norman was complete, I tatted him in another color to go with some other tatting I was doing for a fall display on my dining room table.


Seems like everyone was tatting leaves, which I thought was a great idea. I thought it would be neat to add a Scarecrow to the display, but where to find a tatted Scarecrow. I am not a designer, but I knew of a fantastic pattern that could be altered to be a Scarecrow. I have used Jane Eborall's Bridegroom pattern before, so this would work. The first time I tatted her Bridegroom pattern, I altered it slightly and tatted Harry Potter. I was pleased with how he turned out. Click HERE to see Harry Potter. Then in my previous post I used the same Bridegroom pattern to tat Frankenstein. I have so many different ideas in my head that the Bridegroom and Bride could be. So in the future I will have more to show.


But for now, here is my Tatted Scarecrow. I have a little stuffed animal Scarecrow that I used as my model for the color of clothes and hat he wore.



Here is my Scarecrow model and the Tatted Scarecrow:

Here is a close up of the head. I put felt behind the hat so that I could glue the hay/hair behind the hat and not be seen.


So what do you think?


I don't know now if I will just lay Norman and family along with the scarecrow on my table runner as seen in a few posts back, or frame him in the picture I drew to showcase him. Hmm, I'll have to think on that one.






Happy Tatting!

Secret Santa Exchange Part 2 - Tatted Frankenstein & His Bride???

In my last post I wrote about what I received in the Secret Santa Exchange, but I didn't show what I tatted and sent to my exchange partner.

My exchange partner was Carol Amich (Battatter) and I know she loves anything Halloween. Well, this isn't quite Halloween, but something along those lines and I thought she would get a kick out of it. I tatted Frankenstein and his Bride. LOL!! How far out is that one.....way out there I guess. I used Jane Eborall's Bridegroom pattern for Frankenstein and her Bride pattern and altered them a bit and this is what I came up with.

Then I used scrapbook paper and drew a background that looked like a brick wall, added a tatted bat and drew a spider web and put glitter on the web and added a tatted spider. Pretty creepy looking, huh??

Here is the rest of what I sent Carol. Some Halloween HDT by Heather and also one of her shuttles, thread, beads, dragonfly pin,

tatted snowflake, Halloween confeti, and the heart shaped material, is a rice heating pad. I got the pattern from Hope Green. You fill the bag with rice and heat it in the microwave and put on your neck or shoulder or where ever you need heat. It stays warm for a long time and the shape allows it to drape so nicely around you neck. I love mine and use it all the time. In fact, if it is really cold out and my bed is cold, I'll warm the heart rice pad up and put it at my feet and I get warm real quick. The polar bear stocking is from Avon and of course there is the required chocolate.

I so enjoy the Secret Santa Exchange. I think it is more fun putting together the package for someone than actually receiving a package. LOL!!

Happy Tatting everyone!

Secret Santa Exchange

Finally a chance to blog about the Secret Santa Excange. My partner was Sherry, Celtic Dreamweaver.

I sat infront of our tree with William at my side, anxiously waiting for me to open my gift.

Sherry sent so many balls of Lizbeth thread in the most gorgeous colors. I do love tatting in color :) There were 8 balls of variegated and 3 balls of solid colors. In fact I am working on the latest TIAS in one of the variegated threads that Sherry got me.

William couldn't wait to get his hands on the thread!!

She also sent lots of pretty beads in different sizes, shapes and colors, a few fancy pins that tatting can be added too, seven books on crochet and lastly, a beautiful cross stitch picture of a snow scene with a snowman with a tatted edge of Mary Knoir's blackmagic. The picture is Gorgeous!! I will have it framed and leave it up year round to enjoy. The tatted edge looks perfect on the picture. Thank you again Sherry!!

So Many Things to Blog About

I'm so excited to have won the Garden Giveaway that Clyde the Madtatter had on August 24, 2009. Clyde made a video slide show of his beautiful gardens and added a Giveaway if you could identify a plant in the slide show that was around when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I guessed the Sago Palm and won the Giveaway. Clyde tatted the most beautiful, delicate bookmark for me and sent it along with a skein of HDT. He used Yarnplayers HDT Lavender Orchid in Size 100. I love the bookmark Clyde. Thank you so much. Please visit Clyde's blog and watch his garden tour, his garden is so lovely. He also has a slide show of Rocks and Gems and Fossils that he collects, which is amazing. Thank you Clyde!! Hope your surgery went well and you are on the road to recovery!!




I also entered a Giveaway that IsDihara at Ambitatterous had. She wanted little motifs and edgings to send to Mothermark to use in the cards she makes. Mothermark makes such creative cards to resemble teapots she collects. My little tatted samples were chosen and will be sent off to Mothermark to be used in the future on one of the cards she creates. Just for entering the Giveaway, IsDihara sent me two packets of flowering tea and two balls of peach star thread. I have never heard of this kind of tea and am excited to give it a try. Thank you Isdihara!!


Then Heather The Tarnished Tatter, asked for a few tatters to test out her tiny shuttles that she made. They are so cute and so tiny. I have small hands, so tatting with them was fun, they fit in my little fingers perfectly. I used size 80 tatting thread and got at least 4 yards on each shuttle. Below is the heart I tatted with Heather's tiny shuttles. Thank you Heather for letting me test the shuttles.



Then I have been wanting to post this picture for sometime now. It is a pattern by Lenore English. I taught my best friend, Rayanna, to tat in 2006. We get together to tat in the evenings and she came over this fall when my Mom was here and we all tatted and chatted the night away. Rayanna tatted this Awareness Ribbon for my daughter, Katrina. I like how Rayanna added the Angel in the center of the ribbon. Rayanna just started blogging and has been putting her tatting up on her blog. You can visit Rayanna's blog here!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been voting to help the"Kiski Marching Band" win Band of the Year. (((WE WON)))) KISKI was named as Band of the Year!! We already knew we were band of the year, you only have to look at Kiski's band competitions and see that they have won all their competitions. So Thank You again from Katrina and I for helping us to achieve that goal. We had almost 50,000 votes.

Tatting Tea Tuesday

IsDihara at Ambitatterous is having a fabulous Giveaway, but today is the last day to sign up. All you have to do is tat a small snippet of an edging or a doodle or small motif and put it on a 3x5 card to be entered. Just by entering the Giveaway, you will receive a flowering tea. If you win the Giveaway, your tatting will be sent to Mothermark and your tatting may be used on one of the cards she creates. If you haven't been to Mothermark's blog, go check it out. She collects teapots, very unique teapots and she creates cards resembling the teapots. The teapots are pretty awesome as well as the cards she creates.

I have more to blog about, but ran out of time. In my next post I will blog about the Giveaway I won when I entered Clyde The Mad Tatter's Giveaway. He has a slide show of his gardens, which are so beautiful. You really should go check it out. But more on that next time.

Here are the samples I did for IsDihara's Giveaway, just a few edgings and motifs out of Rebecca Jones book.
Happy Tatting!!

Fabulous Giveaways, Tatted Heart & Kiski Band Needs you Again

There are so many great giveaways going on right now, I hope I remembered to list them all and that you will click on over to the blogs and check the giveaways out!!
First There is a giveaway at Annabelle Stamps Blog




She is having a giveawy on the stamp set and sprinkles. She also has a blog Andrea's Stampin' Moments that she blogs about the cards she makes using her stamps and sprinkles.
I like to use stamps and embleshments to make cards and add tatting to them, so this would be a nice set to win!!

The next giveaway is by Elizabeth's Tatted Lace, Elizebeth is celebrating her 100th sale at her Etsy Store. She is giving away a pair of her Tatted Pumpkin Earrings, they will look similar to these earrings in the photo below. Aren't they just AWESOME!!!





Then LadyShuttle Maker at Tatting Tales, is still having her Random Monday Mondo Giveaway. She will pick a random Monday to give something away. So far she has had 15 winners and plans on doing the random giveaways indefinetly. Now how COOL is that!!!!




Of course I had to show some tatting in this post. Here is a quick little tatted heart that I made, the pattern can be found at Victats Blog. This little heart makes a great bookmark, or would look great as a pendant. Thank you for sharing the pattern. There are also other lovely patterns on her site, she just put a pattern up for a "Bandaid Heart" it is so cute!!


Now onto the Kiski Area Marching Band. Thank you all who helped vote Kiski Area Marching Band of Vandergrift, PA, to be band of the week in my last post. We did win band of the week and it was so exciting.

Now we are trying to win BAND OF THE YEAR!! If you could take a moment to help by voting for us, Katrina would be so happy!! VOTE FOR KISKI BAND OF THE YEAR Voting will go on until November 20th. So Vote often if you can. Thank you so Much!! CLICK HERE TO VOTE


Here is a clip of our band when we won band of the week. Katrina can be seen towards the very end of the clip, she is to the right of the drum major directing the band, her face is partially hidden by a boy infront of her, but you can see her playing her flute.

Here is a picture of Katrina, her Dad and myself. It was Senior Night at the football game and we got to escort her down the field with all the other seniors.

Tatting Tea Tuesdays - Tatted Leaves, Acorns & Pumpkin - OT Please vote for KISKI

Fall has arrived and I have been busy tatting all things Fall. For the last few weeks, I have been tatting leaves, acorns and a pumpkin. There are so many great patterns for tatted leaves and some really pretty variegated threads, that it makes the tatted leaves look authentic!!

Before I learned to tat and tatting took over my life, I use to cross-stitch. One of the pieces I did was a large table scarf with cross-stitched pumpkins and fall leaves as a border. I have used this on my dining room table every fall for about the last 25 years. Well, I thought maybe I could change it up a little bit by tatting some leaves and just laying them around on the table scarf. Here is what I have done so far.

First I have a lovely little pumpkin designed by, Sherry Matthews. I really like how the leaves are tatted.


The next two leaves I have done so many times. It is an old Workbasket pattern that was updated by Tammy Rodgers. Here I used Yarnplayer's Sugar Maple HDT and a solid butter cream Manuela and the right leaf center is also Manuela in light pumpkin. I also tatted a few acorns, which are designed by Karey Solomon and is in her book "Tatting Turns over a New Leaf.

Next is another leaf out of Karey's book mentioned above, it is called "Simple Leaf". These are also done in Yarnplayer's Sugar Maple HDT.

Here is another pattern out of "Tatting Turns Over a New Leaf" by Karey Solomon. This is a Silver Maple Leaf, done in Sugar Maple HDT and a solid red Manuela for the center. I like how this one turned out.
This cute little leaf is designed by Sherry "LadyShuttleMaker".I used Altin Basak thread.


My Last leaf is a desgin by Gale Marshall at Tats All, I used Yarnplayer's Nectrarine HDT
I really like this color.

Here is my dining room table all decorated for Fall. I think next year I will continue tatting a few more leaves and pumpkins. There are still some different leaves I didn't tat, but it will wait till next year. I'm ready to move on to my next project.

Wait a minute, I took this picture thinking I was done, I was putting my camera away and I noticed that something looked different on my dining room table. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought I better take another picture, just to make sure...........

yes, I see him now..............

he just had to get in on this picture...........

I see he has made a new friend...................
Do you see him????????

He is hiding, and he just popped out to say...................

Happy Halloween!!!!!!

HI WILLIAM!!



p.s. Very OT - Could you take a moment to help vote Kiski Area Marching Band for Band of the week???


My daughter, Katrina is in the Kiski Area Marching Band. This is her senior year and she so enjoyed her time in our Marching Band. Kiski Area Band is in the National Class of Marching Bands and have won 1st place in their AA class 28 times in a row. They just had a regional competition in Masillon, Ohio and 21 bands from 6 states participated, they once again won 1st place in their class and took 1st place over all.


Our local news station WPXI in Pittsburgh always showcases a "Band of the Week". In all four years that Katrina has competed, the local news station has never done a story on our band. We sure would like to see Kiski get recognized and showcased on our news station. If you go to this link:

WPXI Vote for the Band of the WEEK

Just vote for Kiski Area that's all you need to do.

Whatever band has the most votes by Friday, October 30 at 12 noon will be showcased on the local news.

This is Katrina with tears of joy, after learning they took 1st over all!!!

Thank you so much!! Katrina appreciates your Vote.

Tatted Pig and Lady Shuttle Maker's Giveaway

I Tatted this cute little pig a few months ago and forgot to post a picture of her. She is a Pam Palmer design, she is in one of her Tatting Treats books. I'm not sure I like the background paper I used behind her, I may change it to a plain lighter pink bacground.

I think I am done tatting leaves and will start on some pumpkins tonight.

Happy Tatting!!

Tatted Crosses, Blog Award & Aileen's Halloween Mystery Giveaway

I have so much to blog about, but I am still not feeling 100% from being sick. But I would like to show a much honored blog award that I received from Carolyn at Draffin Bears. She has awarded me the Bella Sinclair Award. The Bella Sinclair award is for Art Inspiration, Friendship Sisterhood, Sharing, and Caring. Bella is such an awesome person who is a very talented artist and a very caring person. Please visit her blog as well as Carolyn's blog, they are both such wonderful ladies.



I would like to pass it along to a few people whom I enjoy sharing e-mails with and visiting their blogs as well:


Laura at Laura's Tatting Muse

Pamela at Tats a Kool Challenge

Isdihara at Ambitatterous Tatting Tea Tuesday

Aileen at Aileen's Wicked Tats

Thank you again Carolyn for passing this award on to me.

I also wanted to mention that Aileen at Aileen's Wicked Tats is having a Hallowversary Mystery Giveaway on her site. So far there will be three prizes awarded. How fun is that. Can't wait to see who wins and what the prizes are. Thank you Aileen for the chance to win a mystery gift. Click here to enter her giveaway.

Sometime ago I made a couple of crosses for a friend, I think the one on the left was from Rebecca Jones book and the other from a Ring of Tatters book. Both are very easy crosses to make.



I am currently tatting leaves to add to a table scarf that I have crossed stitched leaves on. I made the table scarf about 10 years ago and I thought the addition of some tatted leaves with Yarnplayer's HDT Sugar Maple would look good on the scarf. I am almost done tatting the leaves and I want to tat a few pumpkins as well. I will blog about it when I am finished.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great weekend!!

My Tatting Throne - Where I Tat!

Sometime ago some tatters were blogging about where they spend their time tatting. I know this is soooo late, but this is where I spend my time tatting.

William - My Lucky Charm, is always by my side when tatting. He also helps me locate my tatting tools when they are misplaced. I had trouble finding my Birthstone Shuttle, he told me it was in my new tatting bag, the one made by Jane Eborall. Isn't it so cute, the material is musical notes.

So William kept insisting my shuttle was in the bag, so I told him to find it for me. He dove into the bag and pulled out my favorite shuttle. I was able to tat again. I was working on another Lotus Flower. I will post that next time.

I wanted to show the heart bookmarks I was tatting. The pattern was in an Australian Newsletter and is by Julie Patterson 2008. The purple and green one is Valdani Thread. The pink and rose one is Flora.

I am home sick today, I have a bad cold. I haven't had a bad cold like this in a long time. I hope I feel better by tomorrow. This is my third day of feeling awful.