Festive Beaded Eggs with Tatting and "Bling"!

Also – some amazing finds during yesterday’s trip (April 9) to Hobby Lobby.

Plus THREE CHEERS to Janette Baker!!!

I’m doing a quick post to show two recent egg designs, which I came up with last week while experimenting with pretty adhesive gems found in the scrapbook section at Michaels. I was able to display the eggs at the Maple Festival last weekend, and they received many favorable comments.

The two eggs below (normal size) were part of a set of six ‘microbead’ eggs I found at Jo Ann Fabrics last year (but are not available this year, of course!). The gem embellishments are from the scrapbook section at Michaels – adhesive, one-piece gem stickers I found this year. The neat thing is that the gems come in ONE PIECE on a single sticker, which makes them super easy to attach.

This tatted motif, done with a cranberry perle cotton (size 8). consists of eight rings and chains that I made up to accommodate the gems, so that each green
gem sits under a chain, and keeps the tatted ring visible.

The package had a duplicate sticker, which I hope to attach to the reverse side, after I tat another motif!

An adhesive strip of rhinestones (also very convenient!) divides the egg vertically, and makes it sparkly from the side.

Four metallic ‘bell caps’ are pinned on to add to the design, and the tatting itself is held on with gold bead pins. This egg is sitting on my special brass egg holder.




I had an extra tatted green wreath in my ‘stash’ (I believe it’s Patti Duff’s), so I thought I’d see how it looked on the yellow beaded egg, and it worked out nicely. I used different color bead pins to give it a festive look, and, added a one-piece ‘gem’ sticker in the center.

The gold beads (also self-adhesive, on a strip) worked great to section off the egg

This egg is sitting on a plastic egg holder but also has a hanger. I can’t seem to find these egg holders anymore, but they’re probably on the internet.







I hope to show more eggs from past years (it will have to be after Easter), but I wanted to share with you my recent EXCITING FINDS at a Hobby Lobby in our area.

Shopping Trip to Hobby Lobby on Thursday, April 9.
I have been upset that Jo Ann’s seems to have NO tatting supplies anymore, although Michaels has at least a few shuttles and some basic thread, and possibly the Big Book of Tatting by Darlene Polachic (mentioned in my previous post). .

But yesterday (Thursday) when I went to Hobby Lobby in Boardman, Ohio, I was bowled over when I saw their EXCELLENT tatting section, containing rarely seen metal Boye shuttles with bobbins (plus extra bobbins in a separate package -also rarely seen), plus a couple of Aero shuttles with metal hooks, plus clover shuttles! They also had needle tatting supplies and books and a video on needle tatting.

But my BIGGEST SURPRISES were the two books staring at me:

- The new Learn to Tat book by Janette Baker, complete with “interactive DVD”.

At my local Barnes and Noble, you have to ORDER the book. I want them to DISPLAY IT so visitors to the store can SEE it, although I haven’t told them that - YET!! Therefore, I was amazed to see it prominently displayed at Hobby Lobby! I first learned about this book from Diane’s blog http://lacelovinlibrarian.blogspot.com/ (Thanks, Diane!) and was excited when Diane mentioned that it had a DVD with it. I've been curious to see the DVD - a major step forward in the technology for our times! I believe this is the first commercial DVD.

I have so much more to say about this DVD, but will save it for another post. I can definitely tell you this: THIS IMPRESSIVE DVD IS A "MUST HAVE" FOR ALL NEW TATTERS !!!! Not to mention some of us 'intermediates'. She even goes into "right-side, wrong-side"! CONGRATULATIONS to JANETTE for an amazing DVD!!! I’m delighted that Hobby Lobby has the book prominently displayed to catch the eye of passers-by. (How’s that for a rhyme? :- )

- Celtic Tatting Knots and Patterns by Rosella Linden (aka Ruth Perry).
It was also exciting to see this book ‘in person’. I finally discovered why Ruth has chosen “Rozella Linden” as her ‘pen name”. I love Ruth’s designs and am delighted to have this Celtic ‘tutorial’ in my library!.

My next shock:

- Lizbeth thread, which has been given high marks by so many of you. Hobby Lobby doesn’t have a full range of the colors, but enough of both solid and variegated to keep me busy!!! I’ll report back on my results with it! I assumed I would have to order it from the internet, so I couldn’t believe that I was seeing it ‘in person’!

The main thing for me is that NON-TATTERS will SEE all these items – especially the books – and then become INSPIRED to learn to tat. (Yoo-Hoo! Anyone at Jo Ann’s listening?!!) I told the clerk in the fabric department how THRILLED I am with their tatting display, and she appreciated my comments. I will be writing to the ‘Management’ to express my delight.

I have so much more to write about - plus I have some things to share from the very successful Maple Festival this past weekend. We REALLY lucked out with the weather. It was sunny and warm both days (although a little windy and chilly on Saturday morning) and they again got HUGE crowds. Then on Tuesday it snowed here in Pittsburgh. Yikes – but, normal, I’m afraid.

However, I must close for now, as I want to get this post in today!

I WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY EASTER!

I have to admit that after my shopping trip yesterday , for me it feels more like Christmas!!!