Just a short blog tonight. It seems I'll be in a hurry from today until Saturday. I'm making some edgings for a towel set for a friend of mom that will marry SATURDAY!!! I totally forgot the wedding was this Saturday and I have to finish the edging of the face and hand towels. Ugh! So I have to turn on the turbo tonight. I manage to almost finish the edging of the body towel at the psycho-doc. lol But I need to finish tonight the tatting so tomorrow I can be relax to meet Aileen Chia!!!
Aileen is a young tatter from Singapore. We met in Facebook and later this year she was my partner on an exchange. Now she came to visit her Puerto Rican BoyFriend and tomorrow we're going to meet in person. Isn't is so cool when you can meet face to face with a dear online friend? And not only a friend but a Tatter and Lacer. Yay!!!! So much to show her and share. I'll be taking photos tomorrow and post them.
Okay, now that I took some rest I need to go back to my tatting. See ya tomorrow!
Orchids Festival 2006 Taken by Wally Sosa Kodak C-310 (click on it to see it bigger)
This week in Picture Perfect the theme is Summertime Fun! I can't enjoy the summers outside a lot but I love to go to the different fairs and events. One that is like a family tradition is the Flower Festival in Aibonito, PR. We used to visit that one with my grandparents when we were little girls. Now I accompany my mom to it when I'm in Puerto Rico. The Flower Festival is a full week of flowers expositions, music, food and artesanal vendors. Aibonito is a little town in the center or the island's mountains. The name means "Oh, beautiful" in Spanish. No joking!
The photo above was taken on the Orchids Festival 2006 in San Juan, but I arrived late for that one this year. So I'm waiting next month to visit the one in Aibonito with my mom. Also this was the very first photo I took with the camera!!!
If you want to see the rest of the photos they are in the Orchids Festival 2006 album.
I forgot to add this last week. I made it for mom and gave it to her Sunday. The hanky has a little butterfly over one of the flowers and a edging from the book "Every Woman's Complete Guide to Tatting", a reprint of Norma Benporath's book edited by Barbara Foster (Handy Hands). It's a great book!
The thread used in this hanky is Olympus (from Japan) #30. It ruffles a little so the scan didn't give justice to the beautiful undulation of the edging. Mom loved it and she'll happily carry it every where in her purse. This is the 2nd hanky I do for her. I made one with a very ethereal edge in Mignonette Tatting. Mom save it somewhere. I'll ask her to to take it out and scan it. Hankies are so beautiful but I get pretty bore soon because you have to repeat over and over the same pattern. I'm making another hanky and will finish it soon if my hands are not sweaty. It's a finer thread and with the heat and sweat I can't close the tiny rings well so it's taking a long time to finish.
These are the bookmarks I made for May's Bookmark Exchange. It's a pattern commonly use. I don't follow a pattern in specific, I use my own counting and I vary it a lot!
The one on the left I used Omega (from Mexico) thread #50 and the one on the right is Olympus (from Japan) #30. Great threads to tat with. I find the Omega here in PR easily and the Olympus was a gift from Palmetto's when I went there 3 years ago. I'm not going to mention who are going to receive them. Both will receive other goodies with the bookmarks.
This week I have been so tire!!! May be is the heat of the coming Summer. The heart is starting to do his little skips and that's so annoying. Don't worry, I'm taking medicines and vitamins for that. So I spend most of the day sitting still, in front of a fan, tatting small things and taking plenty of rest and liquid. You know the big plastic glasses that "Wendy's" gives you when you ask for a biggie size soda? I'm filling on of those 3 times with ice water and one or two times with ice tea per day!
Anyway... I received Martha Ess books (I had and love the 1st one) this week and I'm having a fun time tatting hearts and little block motifs. The hearts are from the book "Tat's Amore" and the angels are from "Holidays on the Block". The angel on the right still need its halo. I don't remember where I save the gold thread. Will have to "dive" inside the closet to see where it's hiding. lol
I made everything using Altin Basak #10 white and white/gold. I was surprise that the white with the gold filament worked pretty well and the filament didn't break when making rings. I have used filaments with thinner threads and usually the rings are a nightmare! The filament breaks and/or bunch up when closing a ring. So I mostly use this threads for chains only. I will use this one more often. I have another ball white/silver. Each ball is 1000 grams, so I'll be tatting with it for a LONNNNNNNNG time. lol
I'll use these to make some greeting cards and suncatchers/ornaments for some friends.
Our Mother's Day was great and I hope yours was as good as ours. Mom and I went to the Plaza of Carolina to take some photos and later went to Letty's home. She cook a delicious lunch of "Carne Mechada" and rice with coconut. Mom made strawberry jello with cream cheese and fruit salad for desert. After that we went to Piñones to eat a late afternoon snack of Puerto Rican fritters. Going home we were stuck in the famous "Piñones' Traffic Jam" and we decided to go back to Carolina and eat on an Italian restaurant. I added a photo album with the ones I took. Tomorrow I'll post some that Letty took with her camera and also the photos of mom's new babies.
It's 1:17 am and I'm so tire and full of delicious food that I think I'll hit the sack and fall asleep really fast!
Brazilian Artisan working a blouse on the "Tenerife Lace" technique Taken by Wally Sosa 2008 Kodak C310
This week in Picture Perfect the theme is Magical. To my delight, today I was able to walk a little more and mom wanted to go to the International Artisans Festival in Old San Juan. I think there's nothing more magical that been in an international festival. Visiting all the kiosks with artisans of different parts of the World and appreciate their beautiful crafts. You can hear the different accents, the tourists of different countries and even music from different parts of the world.
This photo accompanying the post is of a Brazilian lacer doing Tenerife Lace. I'm always in awe with the laces. I found it so magical how a small, thin and may be insignificant thread, with the help of a needle or other tool and the skill of the lacer, and transform it into an art masterpiece that will last for years to come, even after the lacer is no more in this world.
If you want to see all the photos from the Festival you can see them in this album.
I decided to start a group for the crafty Multipliers. Weekly or Bi-weekly a part of a pattern will be post to work on it all together. At the end of the pattern you're welcome to post your photos or scans. Also questions about patterns or techniques will be answer. I already sent some invitations to my crafty friends but if anyone else is interested here is the address:
Right now I'm the only one that will be working on this, but if some one else wants to help as administrator is welcome too. The crafts, for now, that will be discussed are crochet and tatting. Today I don't have more time to be online but slowly I'll be posting the 1st patterns for crochet and tatting. Hope to see you all there!
My sister Naida has the XBox 360's game Rock Band. Oh my! That is so addictive. I guess it's like Guitar Hero. This game has a microphone, a guitar and a drum set. You can play any of them or play up to 4 people (add another guitar and use it as a bass). I'm not good with the drums but the guitar I use it as a bass and I'm not so bad. But what I like the most is singing!!! So cool when they applause you! lol I will try to record a video of the game with my player singing. I have several songs that are my favorite. Oh! There's even one from Bon Jovi (Dead or Alive) and of coure, I make over 95% in that one. There are parts that I still need to care for the pitch, specially the low parts. And there's another song that I'm trying to master the bass, guitar and singing and it's "Maps" from the group Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. Here is the video. Enjoy! May be one day, when I master it you can hear me singing it.
Yay! I'm back participating in Friday Five!!! This week's theme is Fivethings on your "to do before you die" list. I think this one is easy for me. I made a list of things I would love to do in my life. Here are 5 of them:
Have a family of my own
Loose some pounds (I'm working on it!)
Have my own house or a permanent place where to live. Traveling is fun but moving is horrible!
Become a recognized lacemaker (author and teacher).
Make "Hajj". I'm Muslim and that is the pilgrimage that Muslim do to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Inshallah (God Willing) I know that I can accomplish some of them, someday... With help from God, family and friends.
Well, half of the dance 'cause it's still hurting my bones. But I'm happy because the labs I made last week came most of them great!!! My hemoglobin, sugar and all the chemistry is normal. My coagulation times are in the range for a person that is taking blood thinners and above all, the Lupus tests reveal that it's well controled without medicines! Yay!!! Still I have to deal with the pains and keep taking all the medicines I'm taking now, but at least I won't need more medicines, just an evaluation of the pain medicines. As soon as the pain medicines start working I'll come back to do my little bit of weekly cardio (just 10 minutes once a week) and start with the Tai Chi.
The other thing that is bugging me is the cholesterol. It has drop just a few points but it's still way high. *sigh* diet and the medicine I was taking is not helping. The doctor recomended some natural supplements. So next time I have money I'll buy them. Flax seed oil and "nopalina" (a Mexican cactus). She cut me off from the other medicine because is not working and anyway I can't take others because of my liver. I hope these natural supplements plus the diet and exercise help better.
Meanwhile I'll keep crocheting and tatting. I finished a few projects and need to take photos of them.
This week in Picture Perfect the theme is Safe. I haven't been out of the house too much due to a fall that hurt my left hip and knee and my right ankle. I was just walking when I fall. Why? Because I didn't use what make safe for me to walk: my WALKER! I'm suppose to use it all the time I go out to walk and even inside the house it helps me if I'm in too much pain. But, I guess, pride and trying to look strong, I keep leaving it in a corner. Tsk, tsk... It's been 2 weeks of pain, labs and x-rays. From now on I'll use the walker to move safely!!!
Mom asked me to make her some dish soap dresses. I saw somewhere some fancy ones made with thread. All that I have seen are made with yarn. Does anyone knows where I can find the patterns? I made a search but all that I find is yarn like the one on the photo and I'm not in the mood (nor have time) to modify the pattern from yarn to thread. Any help?
I was today looking at the CMT Music Award winners and saw that Brad Paisley won an award in "Comedy". I went to see the video and got it on YouTube. LOVE IT!!!! It's so true that is so funny. lol Enjoy it!
On March I participated of a Doily Exchange and I didn't post the photos until now. This doily is from Aileen Chia. She is from Singapore. Also sent me some beads and a lovely postcard. Still I haven't scan them because they're still working on mom's pc.
The doily is so lovely and goes really well with a Lotus I made a few months ago.
Thanks so much Aileen and I hope one day you can come back to PR and we can meet in person!
I got another one, form Valerie Cho, but I'll post it tomorrow. Now I need to lay down because the pain medicine is knocking me early!
This is one of the collars I finished the other night. The pattern is by Jan Starwasz from Poland. His patterns are marvelous, though he has his own tatting method and can be a little confusing. I'm getting use now to his method and this one worked much better than the other patterns I tried before. It's made in 2 rounds and took me like 4 days to complete. The thread is DMC Cebelia #20 and it's to be sew in the front of a shirt. I didn't count the points to make a complete one so this is only half. It's a wide collar measuring around 4" from neckline to tip of the point and 16" along the neckline.
This other is a Russian pattern and it's more of a traditional pattern. It's longer than the green and goes around all the neck. The thread is Altin Basak #10 in white and pink. It was a fun collar to make. Simple but elegant. This one is 3" from neckline to tip of the point and 22" along the neckline.
They will be on the Marketplace if anyone is interested.
Wally Sosa at Palmetto's Tatting Event Taken by Robert Holloway 2006
This week on Picture Perfect the theme is Hobby. What better opportunity to talk about my favorite hobby: lacemaking! I mostly do Tatting but I also enjoy doing bobbin lace (torchon), soles (Tenerife lace), punto in aria (needlelace), crochet, knitting... Anything with a needle/hook/shuttle and thread I'll probably know how to do it. This "obsession" started when I was 5 and my grandmother taught me to crochet just to keep me still and out of problems. Because of the asthma medicines I was way hyperactive and was always in trouble. The crochet really helped me. I used to do long long chains and then rip them off. And then start all over again. Later, at 6, learned to crochet properly, got my 1st crochet book (Elizabeth Hiddleson 4A) and since then I have enjoy crocheting and everything else. I learned to tat in 1990 but wasn't until 2000 that I got really interested on it. Since then I have designed over 200 patterns, publish several booklets and participated on events as teacher and student. Also have win several awards for my projects and one small trophy as the fastest tatter at Palmetto's in 2006.
Sorry for rambling too much, but I enjoy so much my hobby of lacemaking! If you want to know more about tatting click on the tatting tag.
Oops, forgot to add a photo showing what is tatting and what I was doing when Robert took my photo. Here is a Celtic Hat weared by my tiny teddy. The pattern is by Martha Ess.
I'm making some edgings for a towel set for a friend of mom that will marry SATURDAY!!! I totally forgot the wedding was this Saturday and I have to finish the edging of the face and hand towels. Ugh! So I have to turn on the turbo tonight. I manage to almost finish the edging of the body towel at the psycho-doc. lol But I need to finish tonight the tatting so tomorrow I can be relax to meet Aileen Chia!!!
This is the 2nd hanky I do for her. I made one with a very ethereal edge in Mignonette Tatting. Mom save it somewhere. I'll ask her to to take it out and scan it. Hankies are so beautiful but I get pretty bore soon because you have to repeat over and over the same pattern. I'm making another hanky and will finish it soon if my hands are not sweaty. It's a finer thread and with the heat and sweat I can't close the tiny rings well so it's taking a long time to finish.
