A tatted bookmark

One craft that I would like to do more of is tatting.  My great-grandmother on my mother's side was a tatter, and my Farmor tatted also (both of them did many, many kinds of handwork).  Several years ago, my mom decided she wanted to learn, and she printed out some directions online.  I picked it up some, too.  It's a great project to have in a small bag to take with you, since it doesn't take up much space and doesn't unravel when you put it down. 

A few years ago, I brought some tatting with me to Denmark, and my Farmor told me about how she and her mother used to tat.  It was so wonderful to hear her talk about it.  My cousin saw my mom and I tatting, and she picked it up, too!  She's much better at it than I am - the last time I saw her, she was working on a tatted hat!

My skills are not so great - I pretty much only know the double stitch, picots, chains, and rings - no fancy split rings or anything like that.  But I have made a few bookmarks, and when I decided to make this bookmark last weekend, it seemed pretty fast and easy. 

I used this pattern.  My only complaint is that it wasn't always clear when to reverse work and when not to - but I imagine it would be obvious to a more experienced tatter. 

This bookmark is headed for a Christmas stocking belonging to someone who I am 99.5% certain does not read this blog.

The Jelly Roll Race!

My mom and I had a long-distance quilting date last night to start our jelly roll race quilts (but we're not racing).  We watched a youtube tutorial that claimed the top can be pieced in 45 minutes, but I took about two hours to sew the strips together, trim the bias seams, and press them.  I was a lot more meticulous than the woman in the tutorial, though: I pinned and marked all of my slanty seams, which I'm pretty sure she didn't do, but I didn't trust myself to eyeball them.  I'm pretty sure the tutorial didn't press any of the seams, either, and I just can't see how that wouldn't cause puckers all over the quilt top.  I'm extra glad I pressed, because I caught a mistake - I had accidentally sewed one of my seams "wrong side to right side," and if I hadn't been pressing I probably wouldn't have caught it until I sew the long seam, and by then it would be too late to fix!

I'm so excited for our next quilting date.  It's so much fun to do projects together, and this is a fun and easy one!

CMS knitting

We had no colloquium on Thursday, which worked out well for me since I had exactly one hour's worth of yarn left in the skein I was working from, and I hadn't brought my knitting tools to join the next skein.  It's coming along!

This was the last week of classes for the semester, so there will be no more CMS/colloquium until January.