Hello, been a long time.

I really hate excuses for why something has not been getting done. So I have none. There are personal reason as to why I have not been posting of late but you really don't want to hear me rant. I believe you would rather listen to my my woes.

I recently tatted a test piece from fellow tatter "Elaine Phyllis Gan" and turned into a necklace as in the picture below. This was an update to a vintage piece for collar and cuffs.

I also have been working on a little bigger project for my grand daughters in Japan. I am doing lace borders to attach to curtain panels. I will post pictures of that project when I am closer to being done before it gets sent off.

This post is not so long on words but longer in pictures. I do apologize for not posting but you see, I suffer from Hypothyroidism. It does not sound all that bad but it effects nearly 60 million people who many go undiagnosed for years. It is just one step short of full blown diabetes. Doctors know how to deal with the latter but not the former. I have days when I just hurt so bad I don't want to get out of bed. I have days when I am anxious when confronted with things that are unfamiliar to me. There are days when I just want to run and hide because I am so depressed about nothing and everything. Don't even get me started about mood swings, let's just say my husband is a dear man to put with me. I don't work any more though I would love to earn a little money to support my habit (crafting). My doctor was reluctant to even diagnose me until I begged for a full thyroid panel after noticing I was gaining 5 pounds a week and barely eating anything. He put me on one level of thyroid hormone and expects that to fully treat my problem. (This is the standard treatment for any thyroid problem it seems.) I am currently looking around for a doctor willing to work with me to get me feeling more what "normal" should feel like rather than what "normal" I am experiencing these days.

In spite of all this, I wish for you the happiest of tatting days. I hope to be able to write another article again soon.

Happy Tatting

Arial - the Tattered Faerie

Fair Wins!

Today turned into a lovely day to go to the fair. Our state fair has the reputation of the fair being either too hot or too wet this time of year. But for this year we have had wonderful weather for the fair. Today's temperature was just right for being out and about. I will take this wonderful weather over the weather we had all last week of nothing but rain and high humidity.

I promised pictures of my fair entries with ribbons. I will tell you right now that one of the pictures does not do the entry justice.

So we will start with the White Ribbon winner:

This is a picture using natural leaves in the background but tatted violets and pansies from one of my books. Also there is a tiny butterfly in the upper portion. I will have to look up the specific book or hopefully I will be able to find it soon. :( You may or may not be able to see that the ribbon states that it is a third place ribbon.

Moving on to the next pieces:

These are the same Christmas ornaments that I posted HERE around Christmas time. If you would like to see them closer, then please follow that link.The ribbon here is the Blue Ribbon for a first place ribbon for these items.

And the final piece:

This doily is one that I have done in two or three different sizes. The size of this particular one is about 9 inches in diameter. This particular piece has both the Blue First Place ribbon and the Purple Ribbon which stands for Best of Division. I will try to look up the specific pattern for this doily and try to post a much better picture once I get them back home.

This is all that I have for now. I am very tired from my adventures today.

Happy Tatting

Arial - The Tattered Faerie

Vacation and waiting....

Well, I am getting ready this week to go on a vacation in south Missouri. I am not only packing up my kitchen necessities but also my camera and tatting shuttles. I have a lot of my tatting patterns on my tablet now which cuts down on the number of books I need to take with me. Too bad I don't have access to all of them yet, but I am working on it.

I have come to the realization that I have some how misplaced two of my books. I was going to take them with me to work on some new techniques but I can't find them anywhere right now. The first one is "Tatting: Artistry in Thread" by Helma Siepmann. The second is very much like it is "Tatting Collage" by Lindsay Rogers. I was planning on working on some pieces to learn better how to create images. If I could improve my designing, next year I might just be able to enter some items into the card class at the fair. I have also decided that this is the year I will begin to work on jewelry and working with beads trying to find a better balance between the beads and tatting so that you know the piece is tatted yet the beads are a stunning addition to the piece instead of taking it over. Don't get me wrong, I like the designs that others have come up with but to me you end up losing the idea of tatting amid all of the beads. There has got to be a balance between the lace and the addition of the bead.

I will post about my fair entries just as soon as I hear anything new. The fair starts August 8th in Missouri. Judging should be done this coming Monday just before the fair. Not sure if my friend will call me with the news or not but I will find out for sure Tuesday, August 13 when I get to go see my entries. I will also get to take pictures of my entries to post for you all to see.

Happy tatting

Arial - the Tattered Faerie

State Fair Entries

I have exciting news! I am exhibiting in three classes this year at the Missouri State Fair this August. I got my entry tags so to attach to the pieces that I am submitting. I will not be around for the drop-off time as we will be on vacation that day. My good friend Nancy Richmond has offered to drop them off for me. This is just so exciting. I am not one to push my own work but she and the other ladies at the Sedalia tatting group encouraged me to enter items into the fair. I thought I would start out this year with simple items and just see how they do. If I do well, I will create some special stuff for next year.

Summer projects are winding down and fall will soon be here. Next weekend begins our summer vacation. My daughter will be returning to college after that is over for her first of two senior years. Since she is a double major, it will take her an extra year to finish up her school work. She has done exceptionally well in school over the years and I am so proud of her.

This will be a short post today. I have to plan out just what I can take with me to work on while on vacation. I like having my patterns in electronic format because I can take my books with me for inspiration. But I will also be taking my camera so that I can practice taking good pictures. That way I will have much better pictures when I take them in the future!

Happy tatting

Arial - the Tattered Faerie

What can I say?

I am not going to apologize here for not posting. If you are like I am, you hate the excuses that some people use for not posting in a long time. Well, what can I say? I have not posted because I am out living life. Yes, all the messy sloppy things that come with life and often get in the way of our good intentions to attempt to post something everyday. I am not sure just how productive my summer has been tatting wise. I did get my very large project done. The only thing not done on that project is still adding the ribbon. I will most likely not post another picture on that project until September once we have had our gathering.

I am still debating on entering the state fair. I was promised help with the entry form but as usual life got in the way. She has since opened up a shop which, right now, is taking all of her time. I don't blame her for the lack of help, she is after all trying to get it up and off the ground. I had to go in a couple of time and help out with some network set up so that the stations could actually talk to each other. I am just not sure which of my pieces I should enter and what categories  They are just so confusing to me and I am not one to blow my own horn about my work. (That is what makes this blog so hard to do sometimes, I feel like I am bragging.)

The picture below is of the components for a corsage  I am making for the meeting. The large components are "carnations" from the recent flower pattern that was posted on the internet. The smaller components are small flowers that will have a bead for the center. Now I just have to put everything together.

Maybe I will post again before fall, maybe not. Just know that I am out living life until the weather turns cold again. I wish that you also are living life with friends and family.

Happy Tatting

Arial - The Tattered Faerie

Summertime Brings Hats. . .

I was wandering through some of my pictures today. I found several of my hatband pictures that I had done over the last few years. The white band was the very first one that I had done. It came from the Mary Konior's Visual Tatting Patterns "Black Magic" pattern.  I had worn it several places shortly after I made it. Almost got the hat grabbed off my head a couple of times. I had one waiter actually comment that he would have liked to have one as well.

The next two motifs were from a couple of my Japanese pattern books. The first one has now been moved to my newest white fedora which is actually formed from eyelet lace fabric. I will have to get a picture of this one sometime. 

The next one still resides on my straw fedora and I really like the way the black sets off the straw color. I have received more compliments on this hat or any one of the hatbands when I wear them.

The last hat band I did from a narrow band pattern but it seems to really get lost on the hat. I will have to explore with some other patterns to see if I can add something to it to make it stand out. 

I put up a recent picture of the straw hat with the third band and a purple carnation that is tatted as well. I am currently working on a black one for now to see if that would look better. Something about mixing color with the black on the hat seems not to set well. I may do a second or third one as well just to see how they look in a group. I may also order some colored threads to create some colored hatbands this summer. I may also try to find another white hat to dye just to have another color hat besides tan, black and white.

Happy tatting

Arial - The Tattered Faerie

Busy days!

I have been too long away from my blogging. I do have some pictures to share with you all. I believe that the last time I wrote I shared that I was working on a special project for our annual fall ladies gathering at church. As of today I am up to 76  motifs. The jar that I started keeping them in is now half way full of these motifs. I plan on getting them all done and then attaching ribbon to each to form a bookmark.

I took a break at 50 motifs and tatted a cross using the modified pattern from Mary Konior's Visual Tatting Patterns "Black Magic". You can find the modified pattern HERE.

I also tried out a pattern called "Thank You Carnation" by Tammy Rogers that can be found HERE.  I have temporarily attached it to my straw fedora until I can put together the pin backing for this item.

We also have a new member of the family at our house as of a couple of weeks ago. She is called "Baby Girl" for now and is settling in nicely to our home. The first couple of days she spent in hiding because that was what she was used to in my son's home. Seems she really didn't like the little ones so spent much of her day in hiding and then coming out at night. She is finally out during the day and up in our laps when we sit down. She is a tabby / calico mix  because of the markings that are tabby and several color spots like a calico. She loves to climb on things and is now very loving and affectionate. I do find that if anyone else is around she tends to avoid my lap in favor of someone else.

We have spent the last few months travelling on the weekends to visit my son & his family in Nebraska. Celebrated birhdays and holidays. I have gone to local meetings with other groups, one in Sedalia that meets every Monday and one in Versilles which meets once a month. I only go once a month to Sedalia because it is over an hours travel from my home. I am looking forward to a visit from my other son & his family as they have been stationed in Japan since August. I have a grand daughter who I am anxious to meet for the first time since she was born last September.

I had almost forgotten how much trouble this blog can be. I can create the content on my tablet but I have to go onto the computer itself in order to set up the layout. The blog app will load the necessary pictures but they seem to be added to the end instead of where I want them to appear.  So I end this blog knowing that I will just have to re-edit a little later before publishing. (Now that editing is done, it is published. )

Happy tatting

Arial - The Tattered Faerie