West Pine's idea - nuntium trecentesimum tricesimum

The craft show went very well although I found myself worrying because I was selling everything!  (Strange but there is another show next month and I'm tatting less because of my hand.)  Then I would get very excited because I was selling everything ($$)!  Silly me!

I saw these bookmarks on West Pine's blog and thought they were wonderful.  And I have a few Christmas-y type charms so I came up with these.

They are Lizbeth Cranberry Blush size 20.  Some of these sold, the blue balls sold, all the white or blue ice snowflakes sold and over 20 of the MN flakes sold!


 And in other projects, here's my sweet, silly, lovable, (not-so-bright) dog learning "come".  We do this in the morning when there are fewer distractions (and the squirrels are still sleeping?).

This is her maximum tolerance before she "comes" by herself.  She's barely sitting and wagging the whole time!

And the right-side pumpkin with the smiling ghosts was mine.  ; )

Craft show in four days! - nuntium trecentesimum undetricesimum

I don't know why I never noticed this pattern before in Robin Perfetti's Snowflake Variations.  Isn't it lovely?  It's called Traditional Clover.

Oops, 7 "arms".  but it's okay.  It kind of reminds me of a poinsettia.

Sunday's dinner - Moroccan lentil stew with goat cheese and cilantro, made in my pressure cooker (gift from Dad).

We just couldn't give up the carving of pumpkins even though the girls are out of the house.  Guess which one is mine!

30 years! - nuntium trecentesimum duodetricesimum

Many years ago, my mom gave me a bag full of satin Christmas ornaments and said, "You should tat around these and give them to me for Christmas."  I'm still laughing.

I couldn't figure out how I could do that without tatting them ONTO the ornament and then closing around them.  Then a few years ago I started seeing them with bare thread for sewing pieces together and that seemed so clever.  I made a few from patterns, i.e. Renulek (which, by the way, was gorgous) but for these little guys I just couldn't find what I wanted or the patterns were too big or some other "not quite right".

Last night I decided to look at my pinned items on Pinterest and then did a bit of modifying to come up with this.  It's not terrifically different but it works for what I wanted.  Not too involved, not too much bare thread and I just might finally get rid of these blue satin balls.  (Mom's tree is very specific and gorgeous but no blue anywhere now.)

Cute enough.  I might even put one on my tree.

Fall Break - nuntium trecesimum vicesimum septimum

Last week we had Thursday and Friday off from school.  We went to Lanesboro, Minnesota which is one of the top 20 most beautiful small towns of America.  And it was!  We stayed at the Historic Scanlan house.  Lovely and we felt so pampered.  Neither darling husband nor I are very good at sitting still, especially with days off so going away forced a bit of relaxation on us both. 

We rented bikes (with an additional discount if you stay at the Scanlan) and rode along the beautiful Root River on a trail created by the DNR along disused rail line.  It was gorgeous with gorgeous weather and leaves turning.  And I was able to ride a bike although my hand started to hurt near the end.

We ate one night at The Old Village Hall and seriously it was amazing food.  I've eaten at Michelin starred restaurants before and this was as good.  With zero pretense.  It's a long drive for use from here but I'm thinking about it.  : )

And, I got to tat in the car while he drove. 
Here are some old friends and new:

There's Festive Tatting, Calixa, a few from Patti Duff's Mini-Tats. a snowflake from Decoromana which I've made probably 40 times and Elizabeth Zipay's Tiny Snowflake.

My school recently made me switch my Apple ID from my school email to a private one.  It makes sense of course but when I started doing email/Apple ID, we used these things so differently.  One HUGE hassle though is that patterns I had stored on my ipad are now gone and I was alarmed to find that digital downloads are NOT always available.  After a certain number of years, you cannot re-download them!  This is very frustrating and even though I contacted all the vendors from these older patterns, only ONE has contacted me with the patterns.  Fortunately I can read a picture and recreate (although it's a lot slower) and since I've paid for them once, I feel no guilt.  But ETSY, come on!  Figure this out, they should be available to the buyer forever.

Well, where did that rant come from?  : )

Thank you! - - nuntium trecesimum vicesimum sextum

Well, well- that was a pleasant surprise!  Thank you all who took the time to write and tell me your thoughts about blog vs. Instagram vs. Facebook.  I really appreciate your input and shall continue my meager blogging.  (and the instagram too).  I have a FB account and am a member of several groups but honestly I don't look much because I find FB to be such a rabbit hole.  I go to see tatting patterns and next thing I know it's an hour later and I'm watching videos about Kate Middleton's shoes.  I mean really, who has time for that!

So back to blogging.
Here a snowflake that I've never tried despite owning the book Festive Tatting for 20+ years.  It's never appealed to me from the book but Diane's looked so nice, I thought I'd give it a whirl.  Sadly mine is about as inspiring as the one in the book.

Maybe I should have blocked it instead of the quick iron method.  I'll be interested to see if anyone buys it at the first craft fair.

Again thank you for taking the time to write!  I appreciate each one of you and think of you as friends.  The first 25 years of tatting was such a lonely thing, now I feel I have encouragers and inspiration everywhere!

Calixa - - nuntium trecesimum vicesimum quintum

Thank you all for your kind encouragement!  I have been tatting.  Less than usual but I still am.  By the end of the day with all the typing I do, I can't quite tat for as long as I would like.

But I have managed to make 2 3/4  Calixa snowflakes which are Frivole's 2019 snowflake. 

One!

 3/4 or 5/6 I suppose.  So close but a total screw up in round one.  Grr.

Number #2

I'm wondering about blogging anymore.  Do people read blogs?  I do -but I wonder.  I have started instagram (for tatting and rarely a few other things).  If you'd like to follow me, here's my thing @mamagistra  It's a private account but if you're a tatter, I'll "approve" you.  

Modern miracle - nuntium trecesimum vicesimum quartum

Doesn’t look like much, does it? But to me, it’s huge. Six weeks ago I was walking, fell down and broke three bones in my hand. I won’t show you any pictures because it was absolutely awful but thanks to the miracles of modern science, I can tat again. Five weeks to the day and almost the hour I was able to wrap thread around my hand,  hold my shuttle and tat.
I’ve been absolutely dedicated to the physical therapy and when I did all the exercises (most days),  it was over five hours of PT a day. I’m not complaining, I can use my hand and I can even tat!  My stitches are not perfect or even but I figure that it will be sort of like a visual record of my progress.   I can’t believe how lucky I feel to be able to do this again.

New project - nuntium trecesimum vicesimum tertium

Here's the next project:

Or at least part of it....