Lizbeth thread, strawberries, old lace

It's nice to have a day with pictures that show progress! I mentioned a couple days that I made a motif that curled outrageously. That gave me an idea, since it was a pincushion pattern from Tatting for Today... why don't I actually try to make a pincushion? So first I did some creative "blocking," if  it can be called that.

I tried making my chains loose because I usually have a problem with tatting them super tight and the pattern not working. Apparently whomever came up with this pattern actually tatted tightly like me. Bah on trying to change my tatting habits, then!

I cut up some old linen napkins I had from antiquing, sewed them...stuffed them with random stuff aptly labeled by my meticulous hilarious mother...

and voila! Not done, but close. I got distracted. Here, take a look.

Here was a random motif I had no idea what to do with, so I sewed it on my first trial pincushion.

Then I got a little more creative and remembered I had another curling motif stored away. And instead of sewing this one on,

I decided to try tatting on a backing. It kindof worked, although it definitely looks like an amateur project. I think I will sew sequins or something around the midsection to make it look flat and more completed.

Then I got distracted by the Lizbeth again, and I tried a motif from Lyn Morton's Tatting Patterns. I like it. Although I'm not convinced about the Lizbeth. I find DMC is much smoother to work with, but I am also used to working with sizes 70 and 80, so that is a big difference.

It probably doesn't help that yesterday I tried to work with the Lizbeth on a cute motif and ended up getting so distracted, I have no idea where I went. Seriously. It was supposed to be a 6-point star... I was trying to think of something to make it into, but I got bored after about a minute and decided it will work just the way it is as a bookmark. I can't even figure out what it looks like. Apparently this is what happens when I watch Fringe and try to tat at the same time: I make weird unidentifiable things.

 I finished the necklace, too! I'm pretty happy with how it lays. And I love the light green freshwater pearls. Makes me proud to be a freckly red head :)

Yes, this is as tan as I get during the summer. See all those freckles? Half of them are my summer "tan." They'll go away in a couple months and I'll look translucent again!

 I found a few other goodies while I was rummaging around for material earlier. I also picked these up antiquing and I need some creative ideas for what to do with them.

 I can't quite give them away in this state... They're a little smoooshed. The picots would all need to be reopened. Heck, if someone wanted to spend the time doing that...? I think I'd rather tat a new one than bend over the ironing board for hours. Unless there's a trick I don't know about.

I love this one, although nothing in my house really works with this. I'm a modern Victorian lace kind of girl, and this one just tells me that it was under a vase for years. Makes me think of my cluttered grandmother's house, that's all. I don't want to think of dust every time I look at it.

Okay, enough about yesterday. I need to get moving on laundry, making strawberry jam, and cleaning today. Hopefully I'll have something new to show tomorrow!