R.I.P. Mary Harris

Recently, this week, the Tatting community has lost a very wonderful member, Mary Harris. I met Mary at a lace convention in Lafayette Indiana many years ago.(we are both from Indiana, though not from the same city.) She was one of the very first people to greet me there and she was very warm and welcoming. I only ever saw her at these conventions, but it was always a bright spot to see her, and I always looked forward to seeing her and catching up on what has been happening in our lives. Every time I saw Mary, she had her blonde hair in a high ponytail, and was wearing some sort of tatting on her clothing. She would always bring something to show me, or a pattern she was working on to share. And it was always a fun spot in the day when we would show each other the purchases we had made and cheer each other on in the raffles. I have a couple of pictures of Mary, but my computer is down at the moment. I will post them here when I access to them. I am not sure how many people knew Mary, but for those who didn't, you missed out knowing a wonderful person.

Halloween crafting has begun!

When I told my sister I was going to make a skull afghan, she asked "Why?" I said, "Because I want one." Pretty basic reason for all the crafting we do,right? To be fair, I do have a vintage Afghan on my couch… You know granny squares of different colors with a black border. I got it at a yard sale or somewhere. But I have seen these afghans with skull centered granny squares and I have always wanted one so I have decided to make myself one. I found a couple of free patterns on Ravelry, but they both involved a lot of cutting and tying, which, I wasn't willing to do, and one of the patterns I could'nt even figure out. I tried over and over and could not make head or tails out of the directions. So, I sat down the first night, and figured out how to make a square with only three cuts. One per row. I started the first night making 12 skulls. Just the skulls. The next day I started adding edgings on each one. By the third day I had finished 19 squares completely, and have several skulls waiting to be edged! Since the pattern is so simple, I can just sit and watch TV in the evening and do them. I decided to make each square three different colors, as I do enjoy the day of the dead decorations with all the different colors. I also made myself a little dowel rod holder form for the squares. As I finish each one, and I put them on the holder to sort of stretch and hold them in place so they will all be approximately the same size. Here are a couple pictures of some completed squares and my holder. I will post more later as I get deeper into making this…

3d Tatted Sandworm!

It has been quite a while since I posted here. I'm going to try to do better, so I will begin with my newest creation… The 3-D tatted Sandworm from Beetlejuice!

Yes, I kind of have a thing for making sandworms. I have sandworms in several different forms around my house. This is my newest creation. It took me about four evenings to finish. He's completely tatted in the solid 3-D method, he has tiny oven baked clay for eyes and tips of toothpicks for teeth. He is 5 inches tall in this standing position. I absolutely love him, he is a great addition to my collection of sandworms.