Well, I got back to it after about a year. It was a good project to work on while sitting in a nursing home on death watch for an elderly woman from church. I finished the flower and a couple of the hearts while there. Managed to get the connecting bars done around the hearts, too. Still missed another Christmas, tho. It's a slow project but will be well worth the wait. Since she still does not know about it, I'm not too stressed.

Trouble with my thumb

It's definitely going to be Christmas by the time I get this project done. I've been having trouble with my thumb and had to go buy a stabilizer that I can wear during the day when it's bothering me. I haven't tried to see if I can do any of my crafts with it on yet. Since she's leaving in 2 weeks, I don't hold much hope of finishing it even if the brace does make it easier to work on burying the threads. Oh well, since she doesn't know about it, she won't be disappointed.

Running late

At this rate it'll be a birthday (October) or Christmas present! I forgot how hard it is to get the threads buried in the cord. I'm working on the bookmark test to practice stitches and using colors.

Mom moved from her house to the empty trailer on my aunt's land. I was a little disappointed that she packed everything I made for her and put it all in storage, even bookmarks which I would have thought she might need at school. (For any non-family members that might read this, she's studying to be a Methodist pastor at the Wesley Theology school in Washington DC and will be there from June 20 thru December.)

It would be better if I could get out of my own way. I'm so tired all the time that I haven't been working on much of anything. My doctors are at a loss because the usual blood tests come back normal. I still haven't found a job so that is stressful, too. It's a good thing mom doesn't know to expect this since I'm not sure when I'll be able to get it finished.

Here's what I have done on the bookmark so far.

Life happens

Well, I haven't accomplished much on the project. Life happened and 4-3-08 I was laid-off from my job doing accounting at a transportation company. Rising gas prices forced cut backs. I've been doing the job search thing and haven't felt very creative lately.

I'm thinking of trying to get this done for mother's day (5-11-08) with the fall-back as a going away gift when she leaves 6-20-08. So, I suppose I need to get going on it. The next part is to finish tacking on the cording and start stitching the joins. It's a beautiful day and the bugs aren't out yet, so I think I'm going to go sit outside to work on it.

Here is the close up of the butterfly and 3 yard leaf.

I think I'm going to do one of the pretty bookmarks in the book Romanian Point Lace to test that the dyed thread isn't going to run off into the white cord before I use it on the picture frame. I just dyed some cranberry red and violet, very pretty!

Still Dying threads!

I've done some red, too much in fact. It didn't come out even. Then I did green. Still not quite as even as I had hoped. The yellow came out the best but there's a tangle that I have yet to get out. In reading the book on Romanian Point lace, the threads for the filling stitches are used in approximately 1 yard lengths. I think from here out, at least for threads to use in fillings, I'm going to do no more than 3 yards at a time. That should make it much more managable. I'm still going to use this green and I definitely have enough yellow that's not tangled.

I'm going to re-do the red, tho. I had also done some #20 red and that worked ok for the padding cord which I was able to cover well so you couldn't tell that it wasn't evenly colored and didn't quite match the working thread.

Here are some of the motifs that I've completed. I'm not sure I'm going to use them in this project. I'm going for a more delicate look. The butterfly is definitely a keeper, tho. I just have to block it and hopefully shape it some more. I'll do some smaller roses instead of the wild rose next.

The blogger isn't letting me add any more pictures right now. I have a close up of the butterfly and the leaf in the middle.

For that leaf I measured out 3 yards and put a slip knot at each yard. I was right, it took just less than 3 yards. You can tell by the quarter how tiny it is in #70 tatting thread with a .60 hook.

The yellow is for the flower petals, the red for the heart border pattern and the green for the flower leaves which I haven't tacked down the outline for yet. The angel will stay white. I asked my son for suggestions so that he would have a part in this project as well, he suggested the colors instead of the traditional white lace. He also picked out the braid I made for the outside of the frame.

Time to go play with more thread and dyes. It's rather fun!

Dyeing fibers

I started a wild rose in red and needed some red #20 for the padding cord around the outside. My first attempt was with the microwave dyes I bought at Ribbonsmyth a long time ago to dye silk ribbon. That didn't work on the mercerized cotton. I called my friend Alanna who does lots of dyeing and she suggested the Dye-na-flow that she had suggested before for the satin cording I use for Celtic knotting.

Since I also want some #30 for the heart border of the RPL to be red, I wound several yards of the #30 and a couple yards of the #20 around a piece of plastic canvas. I used a paint brush to paint on the red dye and let it dry. Well, it didn't come out as well as I had hoped. I didn't quite get it even and it's a little stiff.

Today I tried to do some green pulling it off the ball into a glass dish with some green dye in it. Then I pulled it thru my fingers using a plastic baggie since I couldn't find my disposable gloves. Definitely have to get some tomorrow since it would be much easier. I'm hoping that by pulling it thru there it will be even and there won't be any excess dye so hopefully it won't be stiff. I wrapped it on a piece of plastic canvas as I went to keep it from tangling. We'll see what happens when it dries!