Another travel treasure

I found this (or these) in an antique store in our travels. I've always thought they were neat. If you google Matroshka you will see pictures of all sorts of them. Even Star Wars and Beatles.

Treasures from my travels

We've just returned from a road trip to Colorado. I fully enjoyed driving through Estes park. My husband was not fully amused as we pulled our 25.5 ft holiday trailer up and over top the mountain pass. 12,000 feet above sea level. I thought it was wonderful. But I wasn't the driver either.
So, we made some Hobby Lobby and Micheal's stops. The first picture is some size #80 Lizbeth thread, I picked up. I've never tatted with that fine a thread before. The other is nylon thread. Not sure how it will react to being tatted. I will give it a try someday.

 RESCUE
 The next picture is a rescue. A while ago I posted some pictures of a lovely tatted and crocheted doily I'd seen at an antique shop in a town down the road. (Airdre) Well, we stopped there on the way back from our trip. I'd decided, I wanted that doily. The poor thing was stained. Needed some fray check put here and there and I feel doilies don't get much TLC in antique shops. So, when we got there, I went right to the spot where I'd seen it before. It wasn't there. (sigh). So, I wandered about looking here and there. I rummaged though a shelf full of doilies, but no, it wasn't there. Then in the next display I spotted a little section of it peeking out from under a big pile of plates. Oh, the poor thing. So, I fished it out and purchased it. It needed some stain remover and washing. In this picture, it's drying. I've pressed it and when it's dry I'll give it some fray check on some loose ends.It will look nice on top of my other stereo speaker. It's so unique as I'm sure it's both tatted and crocheted. I wish I had the pattern.

Spring Doily on speaker

Here's the Renulek Spring doily on my old stereo speaker. It covers it nicely.

Fun Things In The Mail

Today I received a lovely parcel from Patrica of Spokane. I was looking for brown GMC and she sent me hers. Also a very cute beaded key chain with "I love tatting" spelled out on it. Here are some pictures.

 This one is the key chain Pati sent me. It's on my purse now. What a nice treat. Thank you very much Pati.

Renulek's Spring doily finished

And here's why I am the Batty Tatter. Finished..whew. It's 19 inches across made with size 30 DMC. The last row is fun too. Takes some concentration.

Row 12 almost complete

I'm enjoying this row. The last three were a little dull. But this round is lots of fun.

Disaster

Oh my.....I had completed row 8 of Renulek's spring doily. So I'm puttering along on row 9 and I made a mistake. No sweat, I snipped a section off. But......my scissors went too far. I had snipped a picot. One that I needed to attach a ring to. Oh wow! Well, Crazy Glue to the rescue. It should hold well. And this doily is for me. So likely it will never show to the untrained eye. This view officially becomes the back.

Row 8 done

Whew, that took all my concentration. Plenty of oopses and reto tats going on in this row.

Half done row 8

I'm half way through row 8 of Renulek's spring doily. It is laying nicely flat. I highly recommend using 2 shuttles for row 3 and 8 and any row with  thrown rings

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Row 5

Row 5 done on Renulek's spring doily. I have a friend who works at the clinic. I usually bring tatting to do while I wait to see the doctor. She always asks if I'm working on something new. So I showed her and she showed another receptionist and then the nurse came out to call me. So she took time to look at it too. I'm glad I didn't have to wait to see the doctor and enjoyed the fussing over the doily as well. I had a few mistakes I had to cut off. I don't always concentrate as well as I would like to. I even asked the doctor today if I could be tested for possible oncoming Alzheimers. He knew I just got a new smart phone. He said if I could work a smart phone, I don't have Alzheimers. My cholesterol was good, my blood sugar and thyroid were ok too. So a good check up for an old gal who's coming up to 60 this month.  

Row 3 Renulek's doily

Row three of Renulek's doily. Whew, that took concentration. I did have a few set backs that needed picking out. I'm still using 2 shuttles. It works better for me.

Renulek's spring doily

Here's the first two rows of Renulek's spring doily. I used 2 shuttles for the second round. It made it less awkward for me when turning the chains around. I had trouble attaching the last bit. I need more practice I guess.

Dolphins and a bookmark

Here are a couple of Jane's dolphins, I was going to put them on the sailboat picture, but they don't show up very well. Maybe I can put them on a hat. The bookmark was designed by Alice Heim from Homosassa, Florida. It was in a crafting magazine (Crafts and Things) in Sept 1995.

And some more caps

Some more caps. I've run out of the light up ones. I even went back to Princess Auto, but there were none there.

Accidental Art

I had been working on this and left it on a counter top. My DH spent the weekend shampooing the carpets. I hadn't noticed until today. It got all splattered. Actually, I liked it, so I splattered it a little more. I hope it shows up in my picture.

Caps Again

Yep, I'm on hats again. Must be a sign of spring. I also, put a new table cloth on the dining room table. Another sign?

Eileen's clover snowflake

This is destined for the front of a cap.

Two More Trees

Well, that's the last of my season trees series. Here are Autumn tree and Winter tree. I painted hoar frost on the winter tree, so it has a sparkly hoar frost effect. I don't think it's showing up in the picture. I'm learning to use water color paper and preferably a glue stick. Otherwise the paper gets a little warped.

Boat and background

I attempted to paint a background for my second sailing ship. I paint like a 6 year old.

Sailing ship #2

One more of Jane's beautiful sailing ships. I like to make a second from her completed pattern so I can pester if there are any errors. Old secretaries never die, we just become a nuisance. Hummm, I hope I spelled that correctly.