Operation Snowflake: June's Flake

Well I started working on this flake for June and feeling a little lazy I decided to not use two shuttles but use the work arounds for one shuttle and ball... oy... the work arounds just don't work as well as using two shuttles I wish I had just filled another shuttle! LOL Now that I'm half way through I'll just finish it anyway.

Crazy Quilt Throw: Another Big Block

Here's another one!

Operation Snowflake: May

Finally took a photo of May's snowflake! It's "Ice Crystals" from the book "Big Book of Tatting".

Crazy Quilt Throw: Four Block, Block

I started making a larger block with four small blocks from my Cream Crazy Quilt Throw.  I figure if I make these larger blocks maybe it will be easier to keep working on them in larger chunks at a time.  At first I went to lay out all 48 to see how to put them together but what I saw was it doesn't really matter they are all really well randomized in the piecing so I can just throw 4 together and it will work...I'll make it work! LOL  I forgot what the size was going to be so I had to check back on my blog posts and found that I had decided on 8 blocks by 6 blocks.  So I'll need 8 blocks of 4 and then 4 blocks of 2.  I might add the blocks of 2 to some 4's to create 4 blocks of 6 which would make it overall into 8 larger sections to work on before piecing those together.  Anyway 48 single blocks just feels so overwhelming, which I believe is why it's sat for a few years with just a little work here and there.  It feels a little overwhelming to piece these all together too but I think if I can get going it will start to snowball for me.  Crossing my fingers that I can keep it up...I kinda see it as a miracle that I even have all 48 pieced in the first place!!! HAHAHA  I started in Sept. 2007 finished piecing in June 2009, and now starting to put those together in Aug. 2013 sheesh!!!

Operation Snowflake: May's Progress

Here's the snowflake I chose for May. It's "Ice Crystals" from the book "Big Book of Tatting". It says intermediate on the pattern but it is very easy and a nice one to tat after the last one! LOL

Operation Snowflake: April "Leaves Flake"

This snowflake is so pretty but for my tatting taste all the things I loved about it were the very things that made it annoying for me to tat! Oy! But at least I have this beauty done, albeit imperfectly done but DONE! LOL  If anyone else is interested in tatting it you can find the pattern here: Leaves Flake Snowflake
Now to continue playing catch-up...

CQJP 2013: April Block Progress

I added chain stitching to the wavy line. Added some vintage tatting from my stash. And doodled a bit of a motif and started filling in a vine stem with back stitching.

CQJP 2013: April Block

Here's the start of my block for April.  Ahhh this makes me much happier!  Nice and bright!  Sunny and cheerful!

I'm going to make the cabochon into a pearl surrounded brooch.  I folded a piece of lace and thought it makes a great napkin!  Then I started marking a seam.  Last block I didn't do seams first and I hated that I didn't!  So this time though it feels like I'm walking uphill in sand, I'm going to do the seams first!  Then get to all the rest.  I just feel like I draw a blank when it comes to seams, motifs I always have ideas flowing.  I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to envision seam treatments.  Maybe it's because I want them to be perfect and I'm not that good at being meticulous even though I enjoy the look of meticulous! HA!  Whereas motifs are very free-form and look great that way.  Oh well, I'm hoping it'll get easier as I do it more, that's usually how it is.

What do you do? Inspiration, Motivation, and Oz! LOL

What do you do when inspiration and motivation to create seem to have flown out the window?  Lately it seems the mood to create has left me.  My garden is blooming like crazy and I'm enjoying taking photos of the flowers again, but CQ and Tatting have been pushed aside with no desire to pick it up.  I'm happy to be taking lots of pretty flower photos and tons of them are on my Honey Bee's Photos blog!

I also took a trip to visit family and it was fun!  I had packed some tatting for the airplane but I never picked it up once!  LOL  I did get that round of chains finished weeks ago on the doily but I still haven't taken a photo of it!  LOL  It's like procrastination set in and got out of control! LOL

I did pick out some pink and yellow fabrics, inspired by my roses.  I think I better just buckle down and make a block at least...sometimes it's like giving your battery a jump-start to just DO IT.

How do you overcome the blahs?  Do you wait for it to come or do something to jump-start yourself again?  It seems that not even eye-candy on Pinterest is helping!

Sometimes I can figure out what's demotivating me, but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it this time.  My last block was really hard to work on and it's been harder and harder since then to work on things.  I had the idea to crumb piece a block and make it really "crazy" inspired by "The Patchwork Girl Of Oz", since I've been reading through all the Oz books and love them, but I hated the results.  Hopefully the pink and yellow rose inspiration will do the trick.  Hmm, maybe it's color!  I know I get energized seeing the bright colors in my garden, and my bright colored blocks are the ones that are making me happy, so maybe that is what was demotivating me.  Also the color of the crumb pieced reject is what really put me off...it's anemic looking to me and just upsets me to look at it, I hate it, I need to throw it away and get it out of my workspace! HA!  The only way I would do it again would be if I picked a rainbow of jewel toned colors, and in fancy fabrics too, that's how I "see" Scraps in my mind.  She's bright and spunky and whimsical, and she's a bit crazy (of course being crazy patched) but very fun and has lots of energy.  Hmmm, maybe I will work on this idea after all for next month.  Scraps my not be able to drink tea with us, but she'd be a fun addition to the tea party!  In Oz that never stopped the ones who didn't eat from hanging out with the meat people who need to eat at any dinner or feast. ;-)  I could see myself doing a whole Oz series after reading so much about them.  I'm almost done with the set, I just finished "The Lost Princess Of Oz" (in which Scraps is one of the main characters again) and started "The Tin Woodman Of Oz" after that there are only 2 books left.  I think it's really neat reading Baum's letters in the intros of each book and in "The Tin Woodman Of Oz" he talks about how the Oz books are for all ages, the young and the young at heart.
It's funny because I didn't start reading the Oz books because of the movie or anything, in fact I never really cared for the old movie that much and I HATE the song that everyone loves, it's like nails on a chalk board to me kinda like the titanic song...HAHAHA ;-P  Anyway the way I got into reading them was searching free books for Kindle and I read Baum's "The Sea Faries" and loved it and then when searching for more books everyone raved about the Oz series so I figured I would probably love those too.  And I do.  Then it just so happened that the new Oz movie came out in the midst of reading them!  LOL  I really loved the new Oz movie too.  It may not be perfectly true to the books (they never are) but I loved it and all the nods to the books and I felt it was true to the spirit of Baum's Oz.  I think he would have loved the movie!  It's so neat how what once could only be seen in the imagination is now able to be put into movie form!  I could see how now the ideas in the Oz books could be made into movies and really work!  The porcelain girl was so cool looking in the movie! Wow! Ya, Baum would be impressed.  Live, yet porcelain!  So cool!  I digress...LOL

Okay I better get to work if I have a hope of getting a block done this month! ;-)  At least I'm feeling better to have talked about it!  Thanks for read/listening!

Sweet Shot: Sun-Filled Rose

 Here is my Photo Of  The Day plus some extras.  I just love the sight of the sun shining through petals and leaves!  These just look so cheerful I thought I'd share it with you all too.

My First Doily: Progress

More chains! One more row to go till this round is done.

Sweet Shot: Lady Bug

Thought you all would enjoy this photo I took today too.  Such a cute little Lady Bug hiding in my Daylily leaves.

Sweet Shot Serendipity

Gotta love it when right as you are taking photos and have everything just right...wildlife lights upon that very spot!  This is what's called a 'Hummingbird Moth'.  Not a hummingbird but a moth, a large one that is mistaken for one when first seen, they hover and sip nectar too. LOL  I even love how its wings are lit up...so cool!

I remember the first time we saw one of these we didn't know what in the world it was and tried and tried to get a photo of it to see what it was!  They are really common here in the desert and they love all the nectar plants, and usually come out in droves in the evening! LOL  Today I looked out my kitchen window and saw my yellow climbing rose all blooming...made me really happy!  Gotta love that I got roses blooming in March!!!

My First Doily: Progress

After a long pause...lol...I have finally resumed progress on my first doily.  Here's the pattern!  It's such a pretty pattern.  Not sure where the finished doily will end up but, my goodness it will be finished and I'll have finally made one!  LOL

Operation Snowflake: March Snowflake Finished

Finished with the Tatted Snowflake by Nancy of Be-Stitched!  Yay!  It's my biggest one so far! 

Now I'm going to work on the doily I mentioned the other day that has been sitting since 2008!  I had to print the last couple rounds again because who knows where the pattern which I had printed disappeared too! LOL  At least it's still up online!

Operation Snowflake: March Snowflake Almost Finished

Almost finished with the Tatted Snowflake by Nancy of Be-Stitched!  This one's a whopper with a 4 inch diameter!

New Stash!

Just came in the mail yesterday from Flights of Fancy!  I joined the monthly Trim and Treasure Club!  Yay I really love this month's package!  Gotta love the pretty honeybee trim!  That's the kind of bee graphic I like too...I don't care for the cutesie versions out there, give me vintage etching!  LOL

Operation Snowflake: March Progress Halfway

Gotta keep tatting on...LOL  This is a Tatted Snowflake by Nancy of Be-Stitched.  These larger ones take more time to get done, they are like tatting 3 snowflakes in 1!  LOL  The bad thing is my fingers are really sensitive to the harsh thread so it's hard for me to just keep going till it's finished.  I have to pace myself.  I might need a shield for my other hand too for pulling rings closed.  It's almost like tatting a doily! HAHAHA well it could be the start of a doily, they usually start with something like this and just keep going with rounds getting added.  I still have never completed a whole doily!  I still have my first and only one waiting for the last couple rounds to be added! LOL  WOW could it really have been waiting since 2008? SHEESH!!!  I will finish that thing!!!  LOL  I think what kept me back was all the chains to be done in the last rounds but now that I have my finger shields that shouldn't be too bad anymore.

CQJP 2013: March Block Finished

Here is the finished block!  I'm waiting to turn it into a page.  I may do it differently but I want to collect a few more before I go ahead.  I'm just not feeling the inspiration for turning it into a page at the moment. LOL

Operation Snowflake: March Progress

Here is a little update on the progress of my snowflake for this month.