21 and 22 pumpkin motifs

It has been a really long time since I have posted anything! I knew it had been a while but after looking at my last post it is much longer than I had thought.  Time is just flying by and not in a good way. I have always heard that happens once you get older but it is even more true when you struggle with depression and panic attacks and anxiety disorders.
I actually had a really bad epiphany about the cross stitch I was working on for the new baby.  I had chose to do it in 18 count because I didn't want the finished project to be too big.  But I woke up in the middle of the night and got to thinking that the pattern has a spot that you stamp the babies foot prints on and there may not be enough space to put them because I used such small fabric.  It is going to be even worse the longer I wait, the baby was born in August so I am sure she is probably growing like a weed.  I have been furiously trying to get it done so I have a higher chance of them fitting.  I am stressing out pretty good because I picked the pattern for the fact that you can personalize it even further with the actual footprints.  The family lives in Nashville so I cant check to see if they are going to fit.  Pretty much every little thing about this project has been a pain. I really don't like anything about this thing so I am trying to get it done and get it out of my sight.

I have taken a few breaks away from the cross stitch because Halloween is coming quickly so I want to get my holiday project for my family done as well.  I first tried out a few pumpkin patterns that I found on pintrest.

The one on the left is one I found on youtube. The video is in a foreign language and didn't come with a written pattern but the video flashes the counts on the screen so it was easy enough to follow.  It was done with a needle but it is super small so not exactly what I was hoping for. You can find the video here.
The pumpkin on the right is a pattern by Mark Myers that is actually an apple pattern but Le Blog de Frivolet did it with orange thread as a pumpkin. After looking at it for a while I realized the stem is not quite correct for a pumpkin so I searched for another pattern.  I did end up finding another Halloween pattern but I cant post it yet because I want the project to be a surprise.  I am going to call these 2 lil pumpkins motifs 21 and 22.
I have also worked on my doily a little bit but not enough to bother taking a picture. I am waiting to hear back from my friend about some of the babies info I need to finish the cross stitch. In the mean time I am working diligently on trying to get the Halloween motifs done before the holiday hits.

Another incorrect join

After several days of just working on my cross stitch project I finally decided to just take a deep breath and cut into the mistake on my doily and hope for the best.  It actually ended up not being as bad and scary as I was fearing.  (Thanks goes to Sharon and her words of encouragement) The thing I worry about the most when I have to repair mistakes is if I am going to have a long enough piece of core thread to hide that end without undoing a ton of elements.  Thankfully this time I cut in a good place and it went really well.
I was a bit worried going into row 6 thinking it was going to be a real pain doing so many separate elements and having so many ends to hide. That row ended up not being too terrible and it went fairly quickly so I moved right into row 7.

I am happy to report that we actually had a pretty nice weekend.  For the last several years my husbands family has made it a point to all meet every year on the same weekend in Walla Walla.  The weekend always involves going to the annual car show and parade and we get the bonus of getting to see the nephews play in soccer and basketball games.  The days are filled in between with lots of outdoor games, good food and fun conversations and nights are just as fun with sitting around the fire pit making s'mores and playing games. Since the drive is almost 5 hours both ways I got in quite a bit of tatting. On a not so happy note I found I made the first join in the row incorrectly...freakin again!!

 Some of the  little 5 petal flowers that you have to join this row to got a bit funky and the very first one I joined to got twisted. To top that off I have run out of core thread with only 2 more chains to go.  Now I have to decide whether I will be ok just leaving the first join as is or if I should cut off a bunch of elements and have to deal with  hiding lots ends. This doily has been a trial in patience and I am not loving it so I am not sure what to do. I guess I probably should spend time on the cross stitch project anyway so I will try to take some time and think about it.

More mistakes!

I can't quite believe it has been so long since I have posted anything but it has been just as long since I have even touched my tatting.  I had about gotten to the end of row 4 when I realized that I did the very first join wrong.  I set it aside for about 2 days trying to figure out the best way to fix it before I got so frustrated that I completely put it away to deal with later. In the mean time I was busy trying to find the perfect cross stitch pattern to do as a birth announcement for some friends that have had their first baby.  I just about drove myself crazy trying to find a pattern so I finally just settled on one that I had purchase way before the birth that at the time I thought I loved.  So far I am pretty much hating everything about this piece.  I decided on 18 count fabric in white because I had it in my stash and I didn't want the finished piece to be too big.  I have never done one with this small of holes and it is about killing me trying to see.  The colors that the pattern is calling for seem to be super washed out and dull so I am wishing I would have picked some of my own to make it a bit brighter but that would have required a bunch of decisions that I just wasn't up for. 
At this point I am so frustrated with the cross stitch that I am getting tired of doing it and I am only about a 1/4 done with it.  I am also still stumped as to how to repair my mistake on my doily without having to cut a bunch of it off. Now that I have seen it again I have noticed that it is also curling up a bit.

  It has been a  bad week with my head spinning out of control so I really need to keep busy with something. The weather has gone from mid 90s last week clear down to barely being in the low 60s with nasty black overcast clouds with no benefit of rain to make things green again so things are just cold and dreary.   Most of the big projects that I need to do around the house have been overwhelming me and making my head spin more so I was hoping I could get lost in tatting or cross stitch.  The thought of starting a new craft project or even finishing off the ones that are almost done makes the anxiety rise.  I sure could use some happy loving thoughts!!

Row 3 mess up

I seriously cant believe I messed up on row 3!  To add insult to injury the mistake happened 7 chains into the row.  I did a long picot where is should have been a joining picot and I didnt find this mistake until I went to close the row.  The big decision now is whether to cut out part of the row and repair it or just leave it be and hope it wont be too terribly noticeable.  If I choose to repair the row it means that I will have tons of ends to hide and I really am dreading that. For some reason the doily seems to be bunching up a bit and I am not positive how I would have to try to fix that. I can only hope that the next row will help it lay flatter.  If it doesn't I will just have to try to figure out how I can avoid the same problem with the next try.  So I guess as soon as I make a decision whether to fix the mistake or roll with it I will just keep tatting along!

Next Doily

After much debating and more time spent cruisin the internet I finally just decide to do another doily from the lovely Ranulek. I absolutely love how easy her patterns are to follow and how she usually posts the execution order as well.  Most rows are very easy to remember stitch counts on and you can pretty much stop at any row to make the desired size doily.  I decided to do the Wiosna 2015 doily.  There is only one row that I am a little unsure of how to execute but it is clear up to row 7 so I figured that if I couldn't figure it out I could just stop before that row.  I m not sure how much I am going to enjoy row 5 as it is making each motif separate and tying off after each one so I will just have to see how I feel up to that point. 
The first 2 rows have gone very nicely. I am working with artiste thread in size 10 and it is cornflower blue. I have had pretty good luck with this brand of thread so far so I am going to stick with it.

It looks like the next row is going to be fairly easy and very repetitive as long as I can pay attention to the counts and the size of the picots. Sometimes I have more trouble with the easier rows because I tend to get a bit complacent and not pay enough attention so I hope that wont happen on this row!

20 motif

It has been a very emotional and stressful last couple of weeks. The trip back home to Idaho was great but as always  it was way too short.  As always the first couple of days after our visit are extremely difficult. It is very difficult to leave and it is so very lonely for weeks afterwards. 
I ended up taking only my new black Lizbeth thread in size 20 plus lots of shuttles. My thought was I could buy more thread there if I found I needed more. This was my first try with Lizbeth thread and my first try at anything smaller than a size 10.  It was certainly not the best idea to start with black! The darker the color the more difficult it is to see the knots so tatting with black requires really good lighting and the right eye wear.  If I have my contacts in I need really good cheater readers, it is better if I have my glasses on and I can slide them down off my nose to get my work close enough to see.  I am legally blind without lenses so crafting while doing anything else (like visiting or watching tv) can be a big challenge.  It ended up that I didn't really have much time to tat while we were there so it wasn't a huge issue.
Once we got home I was able to finish the choker I had started. This is motif 20 in the 25 motif challenge.

  I used the same pattern I used before which I found in the book Tatted Bookmark edited by Barbara Foster.  I decided I liked the way it looked by stopping after the first row.  They look like little hearts  so I am going to try wearing it to see if it is stiff enough without blocking it. I used one of my new shuttles and this thing fought me the entire time.  It is a moonlit shuttle by handy hands that has a crochet hook on one end.  The hook seems to be longer than the one on the Aerlit so I could not find a way to hold it that it didn't try to hook on everything. I wont completely give up on this shuttle until I try it with different thread and with a different mind set but for now I don't love it!

I think I let the combination of the hard to see black thread, the new smaller size and the shuttle that fought me, get to me so I haven't tatted since I finished the choker. I decided to start a cross stitch that has limited colors so that I didn't have to make any decisions. I am just about done with it so now I am in panic mode because I have to make more decision on what project to do next. Once again we are between holidays so I cant base my decision on holiday.  For my mental state I would like to find something that is easy, very repetitive and one color.  I have been looking for a doily to make but so far I haven't ran across one yet. A few weeks ago I scored several tatting books at Goodwill so I have been pouring over those as well as the ones I ordered off amazon. I am finding I don't understand the patterns and most of the pictures are not clear enough to figure them out.  I spent most of yesterday on the internet looking at doilies and catching up on some of my favorite tatting blogs but all it did was overwhelm me.  It is so easy to loose track of time when on the internet so I try not to do it too often.  Since I  didn't find a pattern I feel like it was a bit of wasted time.  I really need to find another craft project so I can keep my mind busy.  I am sure hoping I find something soon!

Another decision

Looks like it is going to be another day where I cant seem to get going. Its been 5 whole days since I have touched a craft project.  I enjoyed working on the last 2 doilies because they take so long to finish therefore I don't have to decide what the next project is.  Right now we are also between holiday seasons so I cant base my next craft project, be it tatting, beading, plastic canvas or cross stitch, on what holiday is next.  I have been trying to find the perfect baby announcement cross stitch pattern to do for some really good friends that are expecting their first baby in September. So far I have not been able to find one.  They don't have a nursery plan yet so I cant base the choice on the decor of the room but I cant wait much longer to start or the birth announcement may become a graduation gift. 
I was pretty excited to see my new shuttles and Lizbeth thread in the mail late yesterday but now I cant seem to find a project to do. I have been trying to find something I can do on the plane because we are leaving tomorrow to go back home for a visit. Really the only pattern I have memorized is the little stars I did and I am pretty sure I don't want to do any more of those for a while. I am pretty sure I wont have time to look for a new doily to do so I am hoping something will hit me soon. I am looking forward to trying out my new shuttle so...come on inspiration!!