Coconut Island Quadrille Earrings

Here is Marilee Rockley's Quadrille Earring design in my Coconut Island HDT.  Until yesterday, I had forgotten to list the size 40 of Coconut Island, but that has been resolved now! :o)

These earrings are my first pair of tatted earrings!  I am so excited!  (I finally changed out my earrings the other day from my new piercing!)  I do believe I am going to have fun with this!

Instead of adding a split ring or jump ring, I have added a very tiny (3mm) rubber O ring, it's of a cream color to the top ring.  I mostly decided to do this because I had bought these not realizing how incredibly tiny they were, but this seems like a perfect place to use them. 

You can find some: HERE

Here is how I intend to wear them:

This way I can add them to add post earrings, and could even let someone borrow them without the sharing of the actual post.

The other beads are 15/0 off white beads, two Blue Zircon Swarovski Crystals, and the drop... can be found here (But if you would like a few of the beads, just let me know I'll add them to any thread purchase! I have quite a few left over and I don't mind sharing!!)

Little Rainbow magic...

So, as you can see, I'm still working on the whole stitching and sewing thing.  Except, this time, I'm doing RAINBOW!! I really like it already!

You can see in the corner area, I have half of one of my flowers in size 80, then I have the center of Debbie Arnold's Square doily in size 20 and size 100 in the center.  I love the size difference! So fun!  Then I have a size 40 edging around some rainbow yarn.  

I love how cheerful it is!

Also, the thread that making the running stitches and frecnch knots outlining around the size 80 (half flower) is some doubled up "Ablaze" (one of the MJ!s) 

For the edging, it just had a bare thread space between the rings.  I tacked down the bare thread under the yarn.  I didn't sew down the actual rings and I don't intend either.  It kind of gives is a layering feeling that I really like. :o)

Also!!  I messed up while winding some skeins and they ended up shorter than usual.  They are approximately 45 yards rather than 50 yards.  Since I don't feel like doing the math and figuring out the exact length, I've just marked them down to $6.  And I've named them "Whoopsie"  :o)

Grab them while you can!! <3

Citrus Blossoms

Well, with the help of Facebook, (both my personal account and the Tat-ilicious page) this new colorway will be named "Citrus Blossoms"

If the colors look familiar, it is because they are the same colors used in my "Spring Lightly" Messy Jess!-y which was released a week or so ago. I felt like the colors needed to be done in a mot messy form though :o)

I have some tatting to show but been so hopelessly busy that I haven't had the chance.  I did finish my pillow though:

Again, remember that I am a complete novice when it comes to sewing.  I am proud of it but I can already see that I am "getting better" since I can see many many ways that I could have improved this.  But I'm already working on another one, so there will be more.  I especially like it because I can start tatting patterns and get tired of them and it okay to not finish because I can incorporate it into a little bit of fiber art. :o)

New Projects

Here lately I've been playing with the new Craftsy course I joined : Stupendous Stitching with Carol Ann Waugh.  It's a lot of fun.  It's basically artistic fiber art using sewing and embroidery.... but I fully intend to add tatting as well.
Here is what I have so far: This picture was taken before the tatting was introduced

And then I added this:

A bit of one shuttle rings that are not completely closed, tatted with Yarnplayer's Stardate size 40.  I machine sewed this down to the fabric and then took a length of thread and made little french knots to secure the rings on the outsides.

I really like how it looks.  I think the final piece is going to look superb with little tatted bits all over. :o)

I'm excited!

Oh and if the machine stitching looks horrid, go easy on me. lol I am completely new to sewing so while I know that what I have here is probably crap... I am really proud of it. :o)

The Source of my Current Frustration

So, when I started this latest row of Debbie Arnold's Purple and Teal Square Doily, I had to start it at least three times because this Daffodil thread kept breaking.  It was very frustrating.  So, when I missed a ring. very early on, I decided to just go with.  The idea of sewing in a ring later on was much more appealing than the thought of restarting.  I am still glad that I chose that route.  Except that the daffodil thread kept breaking.    I persevered though and kept adding thread when necessary.  I also opted to not keep doing SLT and using the yellow as a the ring thread for any of the split rings.  And now.... I'm right at the end...
I was running out of purple thread so, instead of making the ring with purple and direct tatting the yellow... I rolled the dice and made the ring thread yellow.... and guess what!! It friggin broke!! :o(

Frustrating right?

I am contemplating just cutting the whole row off and starting again... with different colors!!  This is not just because of the thread breakage malfunction.  I actually feel like these colors are not the colors that I envisioned when I started this row. 

This is how the colors would look without all the crazy frustrating out of place stitches.  This really needs to be blocked though.  

On a brighter note.... I finished Frivole's Flower Quatrain Bookmark in "Graced"

Isn't it pretty?

Graced!!

I'm still working on the square doily.  But, for now, I'm working on a bookmark for a young girl who has a birthday coming up.
So, what better than to tat the bookmark in HDT in her favorite colors.... purple and aqua!
Her middle name is Grace, so this MJ! will be named Graced!

What do you think??

Susie said that Frivole's Flowering Quatrain Bookmark looks gorgeous in the Messy Jess!-ys... so I just had to try it out for myself.  I'm not done with this one yet which why I'm only letting you see part of it. :o)


Spring Break is next week so I'm hoping to get even more dyeing done then!  Until then, I still have one midterm to prepare for!

<3<3<3