Pizzazz Snowflake

I’m working on the latest round of my crazy quilt round for the HGTV message board.  On every round I’m trying to do a piece of tatting.  This time it was the Pizzazz Snowflake by Laura Blanton (Tattycat).  It’s made with Yarnplayers size 30, night wind HDT – I LOVE THE COLORS!!  I decided not to add any beads because I didn’t have any that I thought would blend nicely with the thread, so I only added the button and let the design stand on its own.

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The colors of the HDT match the colors of the block perfectly!  Good thing I had it on hand!!  This is going to be motif #9 for my 25 motif challenge.

A co-worker of mine is retiring and her retirement party is on Thursday, March 26th.  I REALLY want to make her a quilt (she’s a wonderful person and she has been with the company for 30 years!) so last night I picked out the fabric (2 1/2″ strips from my collection) and the pattern so tonight I’ve got to get working on it – along with the eight other things on my to do this for this week – YIKES!!!  Wish me luck.

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Seriously????

What a GREAT weekend in New Hampshire!  Both days were almost 60 degrees and sunny.  We are actually starting to see grass in the backyard.

That was until this morning!  Today it’s 30 degrees and snowing – near white out conditions.  Here is what it looks like outside of my office today…

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Last Friday the tress were all bare and getting ready for Spring – not today!!   And last week Owen lost his snow boots at school – try finding a pair of boots in March, while you’re at it look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow too, I’m sure the boots will be there!

Even though this weekend was crazy busy, I did get some work done on projects I have going on – I’ll post about them later once I have photos!

Til then, enjoy the snow!

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I’m going to be a new Mommy!!!

OK, that sounds bad – please allow me to clarify!

This is our new baby…

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This is Deuce – he is a spaniel/saint bernard mix – isn’t he a love????

I was raised with saint bernards but our house simply isn’t large enough for a dog that big.

He’s coming up from Louisana sometime the week of 3/21.  Right now we’ve named him Beast (I’m a big Disney Beauty and the Beast fan), but I’m thinking he needs a good French name!

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St. Patty’s Table Topper

This weekend I was working on a St. Patrick’s Day table topper for a mini swap I took part in.

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Sarah received her box yesterday so I can post photos of it!  I wanted the topper to feel like St. Patrick’s Day, but not scream it!  I’ve made this pattern before and it’s a dream to do up.  It is from Heather Mulder Peterson’s book On A Roll.  It is indended to be made with charms, but I’ve always used the fabric from my stash.  I have charm packs, but I have the hardest time bringing myself to open them and use them!!

These versions I made a year ago for a teacher’s appreciation luncheon:

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It’s funny, I’ve made this pattern 4 times now – I really like it – but I don’t own one!!  I’ll have to work on that.  I cut enough fabric so I’m going to make another St. Patty’s Day one for my Aunt and Unlce (he’s Irish).

Last night I took Owen to karate again (thank goodness they openned the door to let some fresh, yet very cold air in, because it smelled pretty funky in there!!) and finished working on another of Jon’s snowflake.  This time I used two shades of my new Lizbeth thread for the two outer rings and white for the inside ring.  I came out really nice.

I bet you’re wondering why I’m not posting a photo of it.  Well, as I was sitting in class, the mother sitting in the row in front of me seemed to be having a really rough day (her daughter what giving her a hard time and it looked like she didn’t have much patience left – BEEN THERE!!!).  Toward the end of class she turned around and asked me what I was doing and said it was lovely.  So at the end of class I had just finished it and I handed it to her – told her she could hang it in a window since we’re nowhere near Christmas.  She was very appreciative and grateful and it made me feel good too.  So no photo, but at least I have a good reason!!!

And I taught myself a new tatting technique last night.  SCMR (self closing mock ring).  Jon’s snowflake book is filled with so many GREAT patterns but a good number of them call from SCMR and I’ve shided away from doing them – WHY????  So I downloaded the directions from Jane Eborall’s site as well as her Flowery SCMR Bookmark pattern.

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Since I had some Pansy thread left on a shuttle – I jumped in with both feet (OK, maybe not the best way to learn a new technique!!)  I found doing the SCMR is easy but the pattern is a challenage – as it should be!  So I’m about half way done with the bookmark, it’s going to be a birthday gift for best friend Cea who is a huge reader!!

The only problem I’m having with the pattern is attaching the second half of the split ring to the picot on the previous ring.  I just can’t get it flat – this is the first time I’ve had to attach the second half of the split ring to a picot so I’m sure I’m doing something wrong – if you have any advise please let me know!!

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Couldn’t Resist

I took Owen to karate tonight and I had to bring something with me to do so I started another one of Jon’s snowflakes.  This only only took me a few hours – much better than the almost all day it took my yesterday!  This is Flora 20, white/purple.

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I’m going to give this one to a friend who said she liked the one I did yesterday – hope she likes hers!

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Motifs #7 and #8

I’ve been busy with many small projects lately.

One on going project is my crazy quilt round robin through HGTV’s message board.  This latest round I did some square motifs with beads attached on point.

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The pattern is from This ‘n’ Tat.  The only changes I made was that I used less picots in the center rings than called for.  The thread is DMC Cebelia 30 pink.  I think it fulled the space nicely.  It is motif #7 for my challenge.

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The next round I have to work on doesn’t have any large spaces so I’m going to have to come up with something small, yet stunning to make!!

Yesterday I took the day off to spend it with the kids since they are on vacation this week, I thought we could hit the library, a movie or lunch.  Sadly Julianna had the same stomach bug that I had last weekend so we didn’t go anywhere!  It was nice to be home with her while she was sick – Mommy’s do sick better than Daddy’s (IMHO)!

I did work on a project for the colorful snowflake round robin swap that I’m in.  Since I’ve only been tatting since last fall, I’m very nervous about joining any tatting swaps as I don’t want my work to disappoint anybody.  However, Bina who received my Valentine’s tea towel, was SO very supportive of my work I figured I’d give a swap a try.

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This snowflake is Jon’s wonderful Quantiesque Snowflake.   I just love her patterns!!  I’ve seen so many people do this one in so many great colors.  Mine is done in Yarnplayer’s “Pansy” HDT 20.   I orginally tried this pattern with Yarnplayer’s “Snowflake” back when Jon posted the pattern in December, but I ran out of it!!!  Never fear, I see that Marilee has more in her shop so I’ll just HAVE to order more to finish that one off too – maybe for my tree!!  This is motif #8 for my challenge.

Next I want to work on Marilee’s “Eternal” cross.  I know a little girl who just might like it!!  Although I have to say the 3-D rose scares me, but I’ll give it a try.

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Teeny Tiny Quilt Finished

This weekend I was able to finish quilting and binding my teeny tiny quilt that is going to be sent off to my secret swap partner.  This little wall quilt measures 15″ x 19″ and the blocks of each pinwheel are 1″ finished – which was the challenge.  The best part about this quilt was that I used all Thimbleberries fabric and batting from my stash!!!  I sure hope my swap partner likes it – I’ve been reading her blog so I’m sure she will enjoy the colors.  Nice to have another quilt off my to finish list!!!

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Great Surprise

I have the best hubby in the whole world!  Look what he sent me for Valentine’s Day…

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And sending it to me today made it even more of a surprise because I wasn’t expecting it.  My co-workers are enjoying it – just in time for lunch!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

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Valentine’s Day Tea Towel Revealed

Yesterday I got a GREAT call from my tea towel recipient Bina in WA.  I’m so happy that I didn’t do something stupid like “Google” Bina before I sent her the towel, turns out she is a very accomplished tatter as well as a teacher.  YIKES!!!  I was worried enough without knowing that information!

It was so great to speak to her.  She was very encouraging of my work and also gave me some great advice as to how I can improve my skills!  She even walked me through how to do directional tatting (which was totalling confusing for me before) and some 3D tatting.  It’s great to be connected to somebody who can help me when I get stuck.

So without further ado, here is the finished tea towel:

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And thanks to Bina I’m going to try my hand at some more tatting swaps.  Thanks so much for all your support Bina – it means the world to me!

I’ve been busy working on some tatting for my crazy quilt round robin block, hopefully I’ll get that finished up tonight and stitched on.

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Table Runners – 3 Ways

My children’s school has a teacher appreciation luncheon in February and this year again I volunteered to make the centerpieces.  Last year I made table toppers and they were a big hit so this year I made table runners (I was asked to stick to valentine colors):

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I didn’t follow a pattern, just took 2.5″ strips, make simple 6.5″ blocks and used the setting triangles and corner pieces.  I wanted to make each one slightly different so I went with the three color ways.  You can’t really tell, but the center one has Valentine/heart shaped lollipops in the center block fabric – and it’s used in the binding.

I didn’t think the runners would be enough so I bought some small bowls (I was looking for heart shapes, but this was the best I could do) and found some coordinating ribbon and filled each with candy:

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I sure hope the teachers that win these at the lunch tomorrow like them.  They do so much for our kids and this is a great way to show them we appreciate them.

Now all I have to do is finish my crazy quilt block for the round robin by Saturday and I will have met all my deadlines – YEAH ME!

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