A few weeks ago, I was enchanted by finding this adorable little vintage Sunbonnet Sue Needlebook in a second hand store:
Poor little thing… she’s very stained, and rather frayed around the edges.
Even so, she stole my heart, and I knew that I just had to see if I could rescue and re-create her.
If you are wondering what a needle book is, it’s a rather sweet bit of stitchery history.
Needlebooks are small ‘books’ with cloth pages that are alternatives to pin cushions.
Needles are stored in the inner pages of the needlebook.
Her front and back are way out of kilter with each …read more

I’ve been thinking about upcycling and recycling projects in honor of  Earth Day.
Green and eco projects are always a good idea.
I wanted to celebrate Earth day by coming up with some fun ‘eco-upcycling’ projects that would be quick, easy and oh so friendly to the Earth.
I’ve made a few notes about a couple of them, and will be sharing them this week.
Today, a very very easy one  popped into my mind.
I was rummaging through a drawer and
I found a bit of  inkle weaving that had been left over from another project.
I thought… hmmm…. this would make a great bookmark!
Bookmarks are …read more

A member of the Ravelry group: Tatta tat tatters had a lovely idea for a shower gift for her friend.
She decided to make her a hankie with simple tatted edging, and asked for input.
I thought…. ooooooooh how neat…. I have a collection of vintage lace trimmed hankies that I love,
so it seems to me to be the perfect timeless and heartfelt gift.
I looked on the net to see if I could find some entry level tatted edgings,
but didn’t find any.
But, I did find 2 sources for linen hankies to add the lovely lace to:
mielkes farm
and
lacis
I looked at a heap of …read more

It’s so easy to add a little touch of springtime to your sockies! So…. why have plain jane socks?
You can add a little embellishment to socks that you have knitted or crocheted,
like these ones that I just finished knitting.
Or, you can dress up purchased socks by stitching on purchased or crocheted or tatted
lace.
I tatted super simple flowers onto these socks…. it took 4 attempts to get the sock
edging right.  I found that I liked it best when I cut the self striping yarn into colorways
that made sense for the flowers.
The flowers are rings of 3 ds, p, 3 ds, p, …read more

One of the members of the Tatta-tat-tatters tatting group on Ravelry mentioned that she tatted edgings onto her daughter’s socks.
I was immediately inspired!
I have sewn lace edging to socks, but never tatted it on.
Last fall, when I was teaching workshops in Portland at the Knit and crochet conference, the goodie bag had sock yarn in it. So, I started these socks, and have picked away at them on and off all winter.
I finally finished them the other day, so now….
I get to have fun with them!
I am doing a super simple tatted flower edging on them, and I am really …read more

When I posted about exploring carving bone, I had a somewhat uneasy feeling that I might offend some people.
And…. indeed, I did offend someone.
This morning, a reader wrote me a letter, telling me so in no uncertain terms.

She found the comment that I left, talking about carving bone as an ancient technique to be patronizing.
I most certainly DID NOT intend to be patronizing.
I had my doubts about working with bone – my husband and I don’t eat meat (but I do have some leather shoes, and was given some vintage leather coats that I wear).
Bones do have to have …read more

Recently, I signed up for a very neat online class about tatting and design. I’ve been really remiss and haven’t done a single snippet of homework for the class.

I’ve been focused on finishing up the designs and projects for a new book, and have been totally immersed in it.  Oops…. the homework  for the tatting class got  pushed to the back burner.
I decided today that I would play catchup, and get going on the homework.
I filled a tatting shuttle with rainbow colored hemp cord and tatted up the first exercise.
I decided that it would make a great bookmark….
so…… I tatted …read more

This week’s listing of artsy bloggers links has, as usual, some fun stuff for you to check out!

Cyndi always has great tutorials to inspire you. Check out this week’s: She shows how to make absolutely gorgeous monoprint papers.
I just loved Chloe’s tutorial on making woven heart bags, so I couldn’t resist including it in today’s roundup:
A New Creative Journal
Heather Goldsmith is starting a new blog about journal writing.
How to Make Window Envelope Cards
Which do you prefer – the stamped or digital version?
Recycling and upcycling for threadies
My  husband bought me a bag of mystery …read more

Of course, I couldn’t stop at just one bracelet…
so I made a second one:

Because I had a plan…. bangle bracelets look better when there are more than one….
(BTW, the flash does nasty things to the bracelets…. in real life, they look smooth and kind of irridescent. The flash seems to expose their undies. How rude!)
AND, because I love Furoshiki.
What’s  Furoshiki?
It’s an ancient and elegant Japanese solution to carrying things in the greenest possible way.
Here’s a link: FUROSHIKI
I’ve impressed the heck out of all kinds of people by whipping a headscarf out of my purse and tying a couple of knots …read more

My husband started it all. He bought me a bag of mystery synthetic cheap and cheerful thread at our favourite second hand store, and then magically made it appear in my studio.  (He’s such a romantic! He knows that I am addicted to thread in all it’s manifestations – even cheap and cheerful mystery thread! LOL)

Part 1- upcycling a bag of funky mystery thread
So, I got out some of the tatting shuttles that I love to carve and filled them up with multiple strands of the threads:
Part 2 – Choosing colors and loading tatting shuttles
Now, some folks might say that …read more