Xmas Thread Giveaway Winner

We have a winner!

Congratulations, Barbara Gordon, you are the winner of the Piney Woods Xmas Thread Giveaway!!!

To claim your goodies, give me an email & I'll get them out asap.

I had a weekend full of wedding anniversary celebrations with my wonderful husband.  As you can imagine, I got precious little tatting done.  Hopefully, this week will bring more in the way of tatting projects and Christmas goodies- HINT!  HINT!  I may have another giveaway up my sleeve.  You'll have to check out the blog posts later in the week for details.

Congrats, again to Barbara Gordon!  Hope you'll enjoy the thread.  Until tomorrow~

Happy Tatting!

Little Ideas, Part Two

Dollar Store Finds & Ideas

Given the worldwide economic climate, I thought I would share with you some of my dollar store finds.  All of the items featured were found at a local dollar store and cost no more than $1.00.

These two ornaments on a card can be jazzed up with a simple tatted ring festooned with picots.  This is a great way to use up your thread remnants and it makes a nice gift.

This box is one of a set of two and makes a great place to add my gift topper that was featured in an earlier post.  Both boxes were only a dollar.

A couple of other goodies I found were the plastic tray in the background and the plastic Christmas tree decorated container.  These trays are great for holding your work-in-progress and accoutrements.  The container is just right for holding a ball of thread.  I punched a small hole in the top and sanded the hole's edges with a bead reamer to remove the roughness.  It makes a perfect ball holder and was very inexpensive- one dollar for 3 of them! 

 Have you checked out your local dollar store lately?

  I'd love to see what you find.

The Piney Woods Xmas Thread Giveaway deadline is December 4th!  Click the google "Join this Site" button to follow the blog & be entered for your chance to win some fantastic thread.  Good luck!

Well, tatting friends, I must be off.  This weekend is my wedding anniversary and I still have to come up with something for my husband!  Have a wonderful weekend doing whatever it is that makes your soul sing.  Until next week~

Happy Tatting!



Cause & Effect

Thanks to a fabulous shipment of fiber goodies courtesy of Valdani yesterday, there was only one thing for me to do today...

 go shopping!

I purchased some beautiful, sparkly Swarovskis, cute little seed beads, and a few strands of elegant fresh water pearls.

The local bead shop, which is actually a few towns over, had a great holiday theme going!  Who can resist Christmas music, hot cocoa and a shop full of all kinds of beads???  I certainly spent a relaxing, yet stimulating morning browsing their selection.

The day was made even better thanks to a lunch date with my husband.  We seldom have the luxury of lunch together as he works out-of-town, but since I had shopping to do, I took advantage of the opportunity.

After my lunch with Jim, I headed to the quilt shop and had to buy just a few lengths of fabric.

The Fig Tree & Co. fabric designed by Joanna Figueroa is among my favorite fabric because she uses many of the same colors I prefer to use in my own work.  The little 5" squares in the charm pack pictured above are soon to be added to one of my inspiration boards!  I also found a couple of other lengths of fabric that have some pretty peaches and roses- they just couldn't be left behind.

Before I knew it, it was time to head back towards home & pick the kid up from school.  Jocie has been sticking her nose in all my bags- oohing & aahing over the beads & fabric.  I wonder what she'll try to sneak into her stash first...

Don't forget that this Sunday, December 4th, is the deadline for clicking the google "Join this Site" button to follow the blog & be entered to win the Piney Woods Xmas Thread Giveaway!!!

Sorry for the lack of tatting, but this is all a part of my world.  I love tatting, but I also love shopping for accents and other fiber art goodies.  The artistic stimulation I get from the drive over, the atmosphere of the shops, and their displays fuels my tatting obsessed mind to create new works.  Guess it's time for me to get busy putting my loot away and organizing it before I have to get even busier cooking supper. 

Dear readers, I hope you all have had as wonderful a day as I have!  Until tomorrow~

Happy Tatting!



Distracted

Boy, did I get distracted today!  My thread shipment from Valdani came in this morning and I have been digging through my bead & button stash to find accents for the new fibers.

As always, Valdani has the most fabulous color selection.  The above group of fibers will be used in my upcoming "Romance of the Piney Woods" collection.

And I had to order more of another favorite variegated combo:

 Valdani's M40 "Violet Meadows"!

I just love this colorway.  The purples and greens are so beautiful- wait until you see what I'm doing with it...

As the new fibers totally distracted me, I accomplished very little tatting today.  I also had absolutely no luck in finding those tiny shell buttons.  Don't you just hate it when you hide things from yourself?  Those buttons were on my working table in the atelier, but have somehow vanished.  They will turn up eventually.  Hopefully, it will be in time to do the little project I have in mind to post on the blog.

 Tomorrow's post probably won't have much in the way of tatting, either.  Since the new fibers have arrived, I feel the need to make a trip to the local bead shop for various accents and findings.  Thought I'd give you fair warning!  I will share images of any new goodies I find, though.

Remember:  the Piney Woods Xmas Thread Giveaway is going on!  Deadline for clicking the google "Join this Site" button to follow the blog & be entered is December 4th.  Good luck!

Well, I 'm off to the atelier to move the work table and hunt for those dern buttons.  Until tomorrow~

Happy Tatting!



Little Ideas, Part One

Some of my most cherished Christmas memories are of the small, tiny things that perhaps, others did not notice.  I have always delighted in giving gifts that have been lovingly wrapped with special care, thought & attention.  Oftentimes, I will top a gift with a tatted motif instead of or with a handmade bow.  Pictured below is a gift topper I recently made.

It was tatted with Valdani size 8 pearl cotton in colors O560 and M43 and is accented with golden jingle bells. 

Here is a closer image:

Keep a small box or tin by your favorite tatting area and place a random motif or two in it as you tat through out the year.  Use these to slip into a card or in place of/in addition to a pretty bow.  The recipient will be sure to feel special by your extra effort.  And nothing is more beautiful than a litte piece of lace gracing a special goody!

Speaking of goodies:  be sure to click the google "Join this Site" and follow my blog for your chance to win the Piney Woods Xmas Thread Giveaway!  Deadline for entry is December 4th.  Those who are already listed as followers are automatically entered.  Good luck!

Well, I am off to hunt for some tiny, antique, mother-of-pearl buttons that I have hidden from myself.  I need them for tomorrow's blog post.  Let's hope I can find them.  Until tomorrow~

Happy Tatting!

   

Piney Woods Xmas Thread Giveaway

'Tis the season to clean out the thread cabinets!

I am in dire need of more thread storage in the atelier, so this lot of Christmas colored thread needs a new home.  For the first of my Christmas themed giveaways, I am offering~

 This cute hinged-lid poinsettia tin filled with the following balls of thread:

1 ball of size 20 Lizbeth in color #144

1 ball of size 50 Altin Basak in color #369

1 vintage ball of  size 70 Coats & Clark in color #21

3 balls of size 80 Majestic in colors #800, 829, & 854

1 spool of size 12 wt. Sulky Blendables in color #4104

 2 bobbins of size 12 Sulky Blendables in Antique Xmas & a red I cannot find the # or name for

& a mystery tatted goody (which may or may not be the one pictured).

As always, to enter this giveaway you must be a follower of the blog.  Simply click on the google "Join this Site" button located on the right of the blog just below the poll.  Deadline for entry is: Sunday, December 4th.  The winner will be selected by a random number generator and notified via email on Monday, December 5th.  Good luck!

Please note:  I tried the Lizbeth thread as everyone has been going on about how great it tats up.  Well... I was sadly disappointed.  It was NOT a good thread for my work.  It felt a little too stretchy and I just did not like the texture or the way it tatted up.  It has been my experience that different tatters prefer different types of threads.  I have very strong opinions as to what works for me and what doesn't.  The Lizbeth does not work for me at all- I wish it did.  Hopefully, it will find a home where it will be used and enjoyed. 

The Sulky Blendables 12 wt. quilting cotton thread tats like a dream!!!  As do the others in this giveaway. 

 Jim is busy hanging the lights on the exterior of the house and could probably use a hand.  I had better run and see if I can help.  Until tomorrow~

Happy Tatting!