It's Not The Tatting!

I know, there's nothing special about this tatted bit.  Or is there? It's just a simple ring and chain repeat.

It's not the tatting, it's the thread!    A thread discovery!  And I just had to share this with you.

I was working on a little gift for a friend, and pulled out some brown thread from my sewing basket. But the thread seemed a little too heavy for using in the sewing machine. I put it aside.        Later, when I wanted to tat a decoration to sew onto the gift, a little light bulb went off in my brain. Hmmmm, would it work? Gotta try it! Yes, that lovely brown thread tatted up very well. It's a firm thread, and probably won't need any blocking. About the size of Perle 12 thread, it feels nice on the hands.

I remember several tatters were having problems finding brown thread to tat little critters. What is it?     

It's Button and Carpet Thread, a cotton-polyester blend, on a spool of 75 yards! That's a lot of little critters!

So check your sewing section for different threads for tatting. Who knows what you might find!!

Hoping you make wonderful thread discoveries!

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Painting Experiments 3

I'm still playing with my painting. Last time it looked like this:

While colourful, it was not what I had seen in my mind. So, of course, that meant I had to change  play with it!

                                                                                                                                             

I sketched out three leaves and Painted around their shapes with indigo. You can see the faint texture added by the plastic wrap on the leaves.

I grabbed a white crayon to use as a resist and drew a flower shape, then added some darker paint to make the flower show up. Some leaves were painted beneath the flower.

Here are some more squiggles made with the crayon and painted over.

I added more layers of colour on one side of the squiggles to make them pop.

I then decided to darken inside the three leaves. Look what happened! One of the original wax circles came to life! I guess they weren't lost as I'd thought. Was it because the colour over top wasn't dark enough?

So I decided to try painting over the 'worm' squiggle I thought had disappeared. And look! It showed up, too! Interesting.

So now I have several areas of interesting shapes...the flower and leaves, the double circle squiggles, the indigo leaves with a circle motif, and a worm squiggle. I might just cut these shapes out to make a few cards. What do you think? Or maybe I should switch to inks or acrylics and add more texture, or just  play and see? Which would you do?

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz 

Painting Experiments 2

If you remember, I painted this:

But I wasn't happy with the results of my experiment painting through the cheesecloth. I decided to apply a wax resist, and then add more paint. And this was the result:

I really liked the squiggle on the left, and the circle motifs in the purple and green, so I thought , once it dried, I would add more paint to emphasize the saved light colours.

I added darker tones of the same colours, then topped with plastic wrap, smooshing the wrap and paint into shapes of coloured texture, and let it dry.

Once I removed the plastic wrap after drying, I was left with this:  But where were my saved light shapes? I guess the wax resist only works with one paint application! Who knew?
Darn! I really liked those 'lights.'
So, now what?
Another experiment?






I hope your experiments have more positive results!
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Look Who Dropped By.........

I was puttering in the kitchen, and glanced out the window, and spotted this visitor:

A blue heron was standing on our dock, looking to the water. Was he searching for his supper?
I grabbed the camera and ran down the stairs to the back door, hoping I could get a good shot. I was about 100 feet away.

Blue turned and looked in my direction. He must have spotted my movements through the window, because the next moment

he had spread his wings and taken off!












I hope he comes back to visit us again.
Here's hoping your visitors are a little friendlier.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Another Swap

Judy of Judy's Fabrications and I had a postcard swap. And here's what she sent me:

A wonderful Clown! Isn't it great? Everytime I look at this marvelous postcard, I smile! Wonderful fibers, metallics, beads, a fabulous painted face with the most realistic-looking eyes--Thanks so much, Judy! I love it!














It was my first postcard swap, and I sent Judy this:

On a background of green 'suede' material, I layered different fibres to give the impression of a garden, and covered them with a layer of organza, quilting them together. Since Judy loves colour, I then tatted flowers and leaves with Yarnplayer"s  'Garden Afternoon' in size 40, adding white seed beads in the centre. I then 'planted' assorted grasses at the base. I'm so happy Judy likes her postcard!

In fact, we both enjoyed swapping so much, we've decided to do it again! Yeah!

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz 

Garden Surplus

My friends' gardens are bursting with bounty. Zucchini bounty. In one week, 3 huge zucchini's were dropped into my outstretched hands! So, what does one do with a ton of the stuff?
Make zucchini bread! And squares. And bbq'd zini, and roasted zini dip.......
Well, so far, I've just made the bread and bbq'd some herbed strips.

 The house filled with a fragrant aroma that was so enticing..........

we were tempted .

And enjoyed a little feast of warm zini bread with becel.... Mmmmmm.......Yummy!    One loaf to eat, and one for the freezer.

Here's a shot of the late afternoon sky over the lake. Look at those clouds!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Swaps Arrived!

I found some nice surprizes in my mailbox!
Stephanie and I agreed to swap ATC's, and this is what she sent me:

Lots of goodies: 2 thread samples, an origami inkwell, a lovely card with tatting, a tatted flower, and a paper and fabric ATC! Wow! Thank you so much, Stephanie! I love everything!

A paper base was hand painted, a copper paper fence was built, and colourful tatted flowers grow on a fiber vine that wraps around the fence posts. Tatted clouds puff in the blue, and a dried flower also grows up the fence. What a pretty garden!

Perfect picots on petals!


















I sent Stephanie a few surprise goodies, and this:

I wrote before about Singtatter's swap. My new ATC's arrived today with extra goodies! Although I posted pics of the ATC's she made me, I wanted to show some close-ups of her work. The flowers are so tiny and perfect, and the hand-stitching on the edging is beautiful.  I love that my name is on the flower pot in metallic thread!

The background for the flying pig is painted on plain calico. Such delicate colours.

As an added surprise, Singtatter included a postcard of a Malay village, and some beautiful cancelled stamps! Thanks so much!










I love all my swap surprises!




Here's hoping your day has some lovely surprises!
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz