Going on Vacation!!

Thank you so much to everyone that made purchases through my etsy shop to help me raise money for Livi's birthday and for our trip!  (We are going to Myrtle Beach if I hadn't already specified.)
Between my garage sales and the Etsy shops, we should have enough to have a pretty good time.  We are all really excited!
If you haven't noticed, I've come up with some really great colorways here lately!  I would love to be able to ship some more out before I leave tomorrow.  I'll be gone for over a week, so if you don't pick them up now, you'll have to wait to get them when I get back. ;o)

One of the colorways, which I think is really lovely is this one: Under the Sea
This is Jane Eborall's Ferris Wheel.  I may make some more of these while on the beach next week :o)

And I've been working on the wedding doily.  I'm getting excited about how this is coming along!

I dyed this tread up just for this project and I actually have more in this color that I'm thinkng of calling raspberries.  It is a MJ! if you can't tell. I may wait until I get back into town to list it though unless someone just expresses specifically that they would like some. :o)

This is actually the third attempt at color picking that I've done for this row.  I didn't photograph the first attempt but here is what the second looked like (after I cut it):

I think I may use the Olive Warbler at some point in this doily, but just as a chain I think though.  We'll see though.  I really love the Olive Warbler, but it may not be "classy" enough for this particular piece.

This doily is "A Special Gift from Scotty" *I think that's the name anyway!  It's from Mary Maynard's Tatting a 4 square.  

Well, I better get to packing!  

If any of you tatters, within traveling distance of the beach,  need a "reason"/ excuse to travel to Myrtle Beach this weekend and next week, shoot me an email or message through Etsy and maybe we can meet up for a "Tat and Chat"  on the beach!  That would be fun!:o)

More thread and a destashed shuttle

I've been busy dyeing again!  Two batches again!

One is a not messy Grackle!  Which is really pretty and I think will tat up very nice:

And a Messy Jess!y called Purple Streak!  It's a light blue, teal mix with a streak of purple. :o)

Also, I've got some upsetting news.  Chris lost his job this week.  So, while I've already been destashing a lot of my items to help pay for Livi's birthday and to give us some extra cash when we go to the beach next week.  Now the money that comes from my destashing (and thread sales) will be the only money available to fund my girl's birthday and our beach trip.  

So, I'm making some hard decisions, and the first one is to part with this lovely Gr8 brother's wooden double bobbin shuttle.  It's gorgeous, but the money from it will help a lot.

Well, that's all for now.  We had a yard sale today, which actually went pretty well considering that it's a holiday weekend.  But, it means that I haven't had any tatting time!

:o)

Heads up!

Even with all of my packing and in general... being busy.  I have managed to dye up two batches of thread.  They are both new colorways and I hope you will be impressed with them!

They are:

Under The Sea:

and Gloom:

I've even started Jane's ferris wheel with the Under The Sea:

Don't the colors play together so well??

More to come soon!

From one ordeal to the next...

Hello!  I've missed you all so much!!  I've been so horridly busy that I haven't been able to check the blogs like I would like, so if I've missed anything big, please give me a heads up!

Anyway!  I am now done with undergrad!  What next?  Well, any thought of grad school has been put on the back burner for right now.  My parents have been wanting to move for quite some time now and they  told me a couple of weeks ago that they want to move by the end of the summer so that we can get Livi into a new school come fall.

So, this summer, I am pretty much going to be packing moving.
AND, in fact, for the next few weeks, and maybe longer, I will be going through all the crafty supplies that I have acquired all the years and will be destashing them in my Etsy store.  (I have two listings up right now, so check them out!)  All of my destashes are going to be set cheaply because the whole point is get them out of here quickly so that they don't end up coming with us when we move.
I would just give it away, but shipping is expensive and I really do need to raise up some money for a trip to the beach that's coming up soon and which will be immediately followed by Livi's birthday!

I will probably have a lot of other things that I will try to sell rather than pack but since they won't be crafty, I may go though ebay or storenvy.



So, enough of that.... let's get down to the tatting!

I actually have managed to get some tatting done!

I'm finally working on the next round of the Debbie Arnold Square Doily.  This row has proven to be the hardest yet.  You really have to pay attention to the pattern.  For me, this is annoying, because I like to tat while I do other things.  It takes away from the experience if I have to keep referring to the pattern.  But, I am still really enjoying it.  I'm trying to think what my next color move will be.  Luckily, I've got enough different colors in here, that I think any color would look nice but I'm leaning towards a blue for the next round. 

This next one, is actually a secret project I'm working on.  I just really like it so much that I just have to show a bit of it.  :o) Plus, I'm fairly positive that the recipient does not read my blog, so I think I'm safe.  This is going to be a wedding present.  It's from Mary Maynard's Tatting a 4 Square Ring.  It's the only pattern in the book that actually has directions.  I love the oval shape!  I am going to start adding a little bit of color in the next round .  That will be fun!  Right now, the colors are Charcoal, Silver, and Cream (all Lizbeth size 40)

I am fairly certain that I have gotten other things done, but I can't think of anything else for now. :o)

String Beans

I asked Chris ( my man/ lover) if he would help me name this new colorway.  He said it looked like Green String.... which turned into "G-String"  {Sigh......} SMH Grrr :o/ lol
But upon further reflection... we decided upon String Beans. :o)

So, here it is:

It looks a bit like "Havana" except with out the gold.  I shot the first picture on a blue book because for some reason, my camera is wanting to turn this Spring Green/ Chartreuse into very yellow and then yield everything else looking very blue.  This is annoying since this colorway is actually quite green.

Go figs.

On a more personal note.  Miss Livi has been ill.  Yesterday she went to the doctor and come to find out she  has two ear infections and bronchitis. :o(  Poor Boo!

After a round a antibiotics, and lots of loving care she felt good enough to go to school this morning. In fact, she was quite eager to back.  I think, in part, it was due to the fact that I just finished sewing her a dress.  (with a lot of help from my Mom).  She was super excited to actually be able to wear the dress to school.... I have no doubt that when she gets home she will be ready for a nap. 

And would you believe it, I actually forgot to get a picture of the dress before she left!  I couldn't believe it.  Hopefully it didn't get too messed up on its first outing.  But, oh well :o)

UPDATE:  Livi is back from school, so we took a quick pic of the dress before she eats her veggie soup :o)

I'm calling this one a win!

So I decided to over dye with a blue and a teal with my Messy Jess!-y technique and the results are superb!

So, since the last dye didn't coat the thread evenly and there were white spots due to that.... that means that there are places where you can really see the over dye of just blue or just teal.  I think that makes this batch extra fun!

I am going to call this one "Happy" because that's what it makes me :o)

If you don't know what I'm talking about these, these skeins looked like this yesterday:

Hey!! Remember me?

Hello All!!

I've been so busy with the end of the semester approaching.  But I have been tatting, dyeing, and even managed a bit of sewing.  So, I figured it was time to show a bit:


First, a bit of messed up tatting....

I was a little bit heart broken when I started the next row of Debbie Arnold's Square Doily and realized that I had focused too much on the stitches of the split rings and added too many stitches to the regular rings.... Sigh..... SNIP!

I got some dyeing done, but while they look pretty, I think I am going to over-dye them with a teal.... which should render some very purple and teal thread... but I am debating this.  Maybe I'll just over-dye with a light blue.  These pink dyes are so pretty, but they don't dye evenly.  I would just sell these as is at a reduced price but I really don't want to make a habit of that... the last reduced price item hasn't moved any... so that's certainly not a good marketing "ploy"

Next, I'm going to do another one of Debbie Arnold's Square doilies, but this time I'm taking a slightly different approach.  I'm doing the ringed row separately and then I'll attach them with the chains that go between.  I would have already connected some of the pieces but the middle section has M.I.A.

Finally, I sewed myself a little purse.  I'm very proud of it.  Though, I realized after posting a picture of it on Facebook that the pattern didn't actually call for a top-stitch around the entire bag.... only around the top and handles.  Oh well, I am pleased with it anyway. :o)

Isn't the fabric gorgeous?