Tatting? Knitting? Quilting Yes

Well as usual, I have been busy quilting. My back has been doing great, so I have been able to get a lot finished. The quilt I finished this week was quite the challenge. The blocks where machine embroidered blocks & heirloom sewing technique blocks. It is a wedding quilt. I did not make the quilt, a customer did. I had fun trying to figure out how to quilt each block. Here is a teaser picture. You will have to go to my webshots and see the rest. http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/562883335bdGzuF?start=24

Since my back was bad there for awhile, I was reading some books a friend gave me to read. They are murder mysteries with knitting thrown in. Author is Maggie Sefton. Titles "Knit One Kill Two", "A Deadly Yarn" & "Needled to Death". There are patterns and recipes in the book, also. Gave me the knitting bug, and I have been working on a scarf while watching TV. http://www.maggiesefton.com/knitting.html

I have managed to do a little tatting. I am still working on my nieces wedding hanky. I have tatted up some more of the crosses from Patty's book. These will be for giving away.

Also, am working on Jane Eborall's newest Tat it and See. http://tatitandsee.blogspot.com/ She is on Day 9, I am still working on Day 8. Don't know what it is yet?

I get bored easily so work on many projects at a time.

Using embossing powder on art from your printer?!?!

Last Sunday we had a women's tea and luncheon. This was put on and attended by women from all the Churches in town. This was the second year we have done it. It is always wonderful. My Pastor's wife was the speaker this year and she did a wonderful job. She was in charge of getting ladies to host tables and all the other things that went on.

I hosted one of the tables. When you host the table, you bring plates, napkins, table cloth, pitcher, teapot, teacups and saucers, a center piece, and small party favors for your guests. You never know who will be sitting at your table till that day. I had purchased a silver teapot at an antique show, last month. Instead of a center piece, I made some more of the votive covers. I love making these. This time I did not have rubber stamps for the look I wanted, so found clip art. When I printed the teacups on the velum, I decided to see if the embossing powder would stick to it. What do you know, it worked! You have to be right at the printer with the powder and be sprinkling it on as it comes out. Be careful not to get any in the printer. Then use your gun to melt it into place.

For the party favors, I made a little book, that can be used as a bookmark or hang from something. It actually has a poem in it. I found the directions for making these at http://shala.addr.com/print/minis/index.html I then embroidered and made these key chain flip flops. They were a lot of fun. Directions and the design for these is at http://www.pawdesigns2.com/. Here is a picture of my finished projects.

Tatted Seahorse

With every thing else, I have not been able to tat. I am working on a wedding hanky for my niece, but wanted to do something just for fun. I decided to make one of Jane's seahorses. I have been going through withdrawals. NEED TO TAT.....

Long Time No Posting

Well I have been so busy, I have not posted.

After my steroid shot, I had three wonderful weeks with no pain. Then one morning, my back went pop pop, but no pain. Had an hour drive to a meeting, and when I got out, I could hardly move and so much pain. So one week in a lot of pain and using a walker to get around the house. Next week less pain. This week has started out better.

During the last few weeks, I have been making things for my nieces bridal shower and a baby shower. I have also been doing lots of quilting. My nieces has always been petite. I have called her my little mouse, so I have embroidered cute mice on different things throughout the years. So, part of her decorations where crochet lace mice. I crochet them with white thread then stiffened them over their molds. Then glued the pieces together and tied black bows on their tales. I forgot to take pictures. Then I made these votive decorations for the table also.

I was in charge of the games for both the bridal shower (for a lady at church) and my nieces bridal shower. For the prizes, I decided to make cards. I love to make cards and ad the teabag folded designs. I ended up making 17 cards. I packaged them in sets of 4 with the envelopes for the prizes. The designs for the cards came from http://pages.prodigy.net/rubyburns/ This is my favorite Teabag folding site. If you have not tried it, you should. It is addicting. Here is a picture of the cards I made for it.

I also crochet this cute thong for my niece. She is so funny. Every Christmas my mom would put undies in all the grandkids stockings. Bre would get this funny look on her face and sit on them as quick as she could. She would do the same when I started embroidering their girls' thongs and the guys boxers. I draped the thong over her presents on the table. She walked past it a few times and then did a double take. She said "A u n t T a m i". She knew who had done them. She thought they were a decoration. I told her no the pattern says they are real. They are to wear. Who knows. It was fun and was quite the conversational piece.

One of the games that I did at both showers, was bingo. You make a bingo card, and then have the guest number it 1 - 24. As the gifts come in, you put a number on them. As the bride or mother-to-be is handed a gift, the number is read off of it. First to get a bingo wins. Here are the bingo cards I made.

I had never done games for a baby shower, so I looked them up on the Internet. As you can tell, I like to do things funny, or weird, how ever you look at it. So I decided on a game that is the dirty diaper game. You buy a package of disposable diapers. You use 4 for the game and give the rest to the m-2-b. On the 4 you kept, you put a letter on each, A-D. In each diaper you will open it and put in a piece of candy bar. Use 4 different ones. Melt them in the microwave. Give each guest a piece of paper and have them put the 4 letters on it. Then pass the diapers around one at a time so that they can guess what candy bar is in each diaper. It is so funny to watch. We took pictures of the ladies smelling this dirty diapers to figure out what was in them. They looks so realistic. Here is a picture of one to prove it.

Etsy Store

Well I decided to start a Etsy Store. It is a place where you can sell patterns and handmade items. I only have one thing listed, so far.

I few years ago, I had told my husband that I wanted a small bird house that could go into my house plants. He did some drawings and then made me a bird house. I loved it. I took his drawings, and did up the pattern. We then made several of the birdhouses in different colors and glued little mushroom birds on them. I sold them at craft fairs and to a local florist. They were a big hit.

I had printed up many copies of the pattern, but never did anything with them. I decided to try selling them on Etsy. We shall see how it goes. http://TamiDra.etsy.com

2nd WS Sampler Quilt & Four Legged Grandchild

Well this week, I finished quilting the 2nd WS Sampler Quilt. This one belongs to Jill. It was a big hit at quilt guild on Wed. The quilt was too big for hubby to hold it, so that you could see the whole quilt.

Some fabric was given to the guild. We were each able to choose the fabrics we wanted. We are to make a charity quilt, and then do what ever we want with the rest. There were even some fur fabrics, so now I will attempt to make miniature fabric bears.........when life slows down. I have 43 quilts on my list and more coming each day.

Here is a picture of my 4 legged grandson. His mom has him very spoiled. He gets all excited to come and see me. One day my daughter came over with him to see me. I was not home. She said that he was upset that I was not there. When she took him home, he pouted for the rest of the night. This is a picture at my place. Daughter was using the computer for a job search. Dicoti got tired of his mom not holding him. He kept whining, so I put him in the hood of her sweatshirt. He is so cute.

Tatting and Quilting

Since Martha has shown pictures from her new book, her are some of her new designs that I tatted. This was a lot of fun. I have her new book and will now have something to tat for each season. I have a teenager at church who wants to learn to tat. I think these would inspire her. Hope that I can teach her.

I have been busy quilting. In a earlier post, I shared with you pictures of the quilt blocks we did as an exchange. 2 of the 17 who participated in this, have brought their finished quilt tops for me to quilt. I have just posted pictures of the first one I quilted. Here are a couple of tease pictures....... to see the rest of the pictures of this quilt, go to my webshots http://community.webshots.com/user/tamidra look in the Customer Quilts 2008 folder.