New Tatting Patterns

 I just listed this needle tatted jewelry pattern collection in my etsy shop and it's my intention to start combing though my other designs for ones I can write up for sale in the near future. There are a few I'll probably never share for various reasons including selfish ones, but if there are any you'd like me to sell, let me know and I'll definitely consider it. It's a big of an ordeal to get these sort of things created and listed though, so I'll be taking my time.

Armenian Lace Collar Necklaces

 I've just finished a collection of 5 different Armenian lace necklaces. I started them after I finished the 44th and final crochet doily I've made since April. These are all in my etsy shop now.

Doilies

I know I've not been around in quite some time. Truth is, I spend much of my online energy on twitter or my facebook page and even that is usually just to catch up or drop a photo or two. As I'm sure is true for so many people, I'm just not operating at anywhere near peak efficiency. My creativity is nearly nil, but my need to make has not abated. If anything I find it more necessary than ever to keep my hands busy, so I'm mindlessly crocheting antique and vintage doily patterns. Thank the gods there are so many of them scanned and uploaded to the internet. So here's a collection of all the doilies I've made since the beginning of the first stay-at-home orders. Most of these will become holiday gifts because I just can't imagine selling them for anywhere near what they are worth based solely on time and/or expertise.

Men On Boats

I know I've been absent online for awhile now, but here's one of the big reasons for that, I've been in rehearsals for a play. This is my first time back on the stage after an embarrassingly long absence. You see, you might not be aware, but long before I started needle tatting and spending the bulk of my time homeschooling and creating lace, I was a theater major. I got an AA and then kind of left it behind for a "real" job and a family, but I'm back now.

I know most of the folks who might actually still be popping by here to see if I'm posting again aren't anywhere near my geographically, but I still wanted to post about this because I'm super proud of the show, the entire cast, and crew. So for two weekends only starting tomorrow, Friday January 10th, I'll be George Young Bradley in Men on Boats. If you're near, come see it, if not, wish me luck!

For 2 weekends only, join Playhouse Merced and the Cast and Crew of MEN ON BOATS for an evening of laughs and danger down the Grand Canyon!
Opening the second half of our 26th season is MEN ON BOATS! Featuring a cast of talented local actors, this production is sure to give you a fresh look on the 1869 historical expedition of the Grand Canyon by John Wesley Powell and his team of daring boaters!
MEN ON BOATS | January 10, 2020 - January 19, 2020
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By Jaclyn Backhaus
Sponsored by Dignity Health Medical Group.
Rated T for 13 years of age and up
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Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of the 1869 expedition, led by the very real John Wesley Powell. Powell was a former U.S. Army captain, American explorer, geologist, and ethnologist, best known for his exploration of the upper portion of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. History is written by the winners and sometimes exaggerated and mythologized beyond that. Enter Playwright Jaclyn Backhaus, Men on Boats dramatizes the expedition, and her premise of using an all-women cast helps recount the exploration of the untapped frontier in a different light. Join Powell and the insane, yet loyal volunteer party as they set out to chart the (dramatized) course of the Colorado River.

 Tickets are available here.
Photo ©Shawn Overton | BlueRoad Photography

Tatted Eye Patch

I sold a tatted rose eye patch yesterday, so I spent some time tatting up a new one to put in my etsy shop, which I have been woefully neglectful of as of late, because of, well life. I've also been keeping busy with a new activity in my life. Actually it's a really old activity that I used to spend all of my time doing, but I haven't been doing so in over twenty years. I'm doing theater again. My daughter started over the summer and once I was back in a theater, I couldn't stay away. I'm in rehearsals now for my first show since college. Yikes, right? It's called Men on Boats and it opens in January for a two weekend run. So yep, still tatting and crocheting, but also writing and acting, and look I even found the motivation to write here, so yay! Maybe it'll stick this time...don't make any bets on it though.

So Weird

So these just came in the mail. I ordered just a couple of copies of my book so I could have them. As weird as it was to see the listing on Amazon, it was orders of magnitude weirder to see it in print. Thanks to everyone who has picked up a digital copy, all ten or so of you. I have no illusions that this is going to sell many copies. It was mostly about the writing and the actually putting it out in the world for me. I've got more projects in various stages of creation and now that the bandage has been pulled off the self-publishing wound...wow, that was a labored metaphor. The point is, the first time has to be the hardest, right? So here are the links again, it you're interested.

Hidden Gods Paperback

Hidden Gods e-book

A Book That I Wrote

So, again I disappeared into the real world and left this space lonely. If it weren't for the collection of patterns I've posted here over the years, I might have even entertained the thought of just deleting the whole thing. No worries about that though, there's really no good reason to not let it linger, but that's not why I'm here today. Today I'm here because after I wrote a novel, and then sat on it for quite sometime while I edited off and on with the help of my daughter, I actually pulled the trigger and self published in on Amazon.

I know, right? Scary. Anyway, it is available now as both an ebook, which is free to read if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, and paperback. Fair warning, it has literally nothing to do with lace or any other fiber art. It's a urban fantasy sort of story with gods and monsters, a little danger and weirdness. It's the sort of thing that I would read, because why write something if you wouldn't want to read the story yourself.

Hidden Gods 

If you do read it and actually enjoy it, please do leave a review on Amazon...so you know, I can pretend I'm a real writer. No worries if it's not your kind of thing, but I'd love you to share if you know anyone who might like it. There's no point in telling a story if no one hears it. Either way thanks!

Done and Done

 I've spent much of the last week working on this doily piece. I liked quite a few of the rounds to be the end of the piece because the shaping was so different and interesting on many of them, but I was looking for a particular end size so I kept on going.

 At some points it had this nice snowflake feel and at others I got an almost straight-line hexagon. I was ultimately hoping for round and that's mostly what I ended up with.

 This is the final piece done in the vintage or crappy size 10 thread. It's loose and a bit floppy, but that's why it's a prototype. The end size was about 15 inches across which was my goal. I also quite like the negative spaces as well as the repeated motif themes I managed to hold onto.







Once that was done, I worked it up in size 20 DMC Cébélia thread in ecru. It was immediately firmer because of the better thread, but also more delicate. The end size came to about 12 inches which is also what I was hoping for with it. I don't know how I managed to guess that, maybe I've been working with thread for too long or something.

Now that I've managed to recreate it and it still lays well, I'm going to work on writing up the pattern. I kind of want to do it for sale, but I'm not sure what kind of demand there is for a doily pattern. I'll take any opinions you have on that subject. Regardless, I'm pretty happy with how the project turned out. Maybe I'll do another one after I finish writing this one up, the finished product is rather satisfying to look at.

Centerpiece

So I was going to write earlier this morning, but my youngest daughter's computer had a heart attack just as she was starting her schooling. I had to sacrifice my laptop to her because let's face it school is far more important than me rambling on about thread projects.

Speaking of thread projects, I actually have one. My shop has gone quiet again, but that's not terribly unusual for this time of the year. I was starting to get a bit antsy when I was asked to create something for the center of a table. I poked around my collection of antique and vintage pattern books and PDF's picking out a few possibilities when I inexplicably found my self inspired to design my own doily.

The first bit was a piece I found in a German book from 1921. I added the flower in the center and then built it out from there as I went. I don't really have a plan going forward other than to make it large enough to serve the purpose as a center piece on a square table. I don't ultimately know if this piece will be the one I remake for the table project, but either way I've gotten to stretch my designing muscles again.

I other news I did finally list the choker I made the other week. The pictures are disappointing partly because I find myself less photogenic as the years go by, but there's nothing for it. At least I managed to get the project across the finish line. So here's that: My Immortal Corsage Necklace.

Ten Days Later

Clearly I've still got a way to go if I'm going for any sort of consistency writing here, but I'll take once a week as a start. I've gotten a couple of orders since I wrote last so I've been keeping busy with making those as well as remaking a few more pieces for my shop. I'm practically forcing myself to make something everyday to get back into the habit. It's a work in progress that involves much stalling, cleaning and occasionally playing video games that serve no purpose.

I sold a immortal corsage bracelet and remade that piece for the first time in a rather long time. Then as I was working on that I recalled that I had made a choker version of it. Of course that was a decade ago so I had so go back through my sold items to figure out how it was that I had done so. Once I found it, I promptly decided to make some changes. The original had flowers with just a single petal round, I added a second. Then I worked on making the structure better between the elements, adding additional joins. I should get it listed in my shop next week, whether permitting, because I'll need new photos to go with the changes.



Other than the tatting, I also did some crochet cording so I could remake an Armenian knotted lace necklace. I had spent much of the last few months crocheting large projects like blanket gifts, so the return to small thread knotting definitely took my fingers some time to get used to again. Thankfully muscle memory is strong and I've been enjoying my return to thread.

Speaking of thread, I had a bit of a panic when I heard that DMC was not going to be importing cébélia thread any longer. I almost exclusively use that thread in size 10 black, so I spent quite some time looking for and then buying boxes of it just in case it becomes too difficult to acquire in the future. I also bought up the entire supply in the only yarn store that carries it near me and they had very little. I'm hoping I'm worried for no reason, but I'll probably buy even more should I run across it. It's not like it goes bad.

Monday

So clearly I'm not going to be back to writing in a scheduled and consistent way. I think I'm just going to have a go at writing when I've got a few pictures to share. For now I imagine they'll just be these sort of in process pictures as I get back to also tatting with a bit more frequency.

I had a couple of pieces that sold during my holiday sale that I wanted to get remade last week. The first one here is my version of the hen and chicks pattern with some Victorian sets instead of regular chains and then repeated on the other side to make a bracelet. The next one is just a simple chain necklace made in a nice curve.

I also had a mask to remake and I got that finished up as well, though I didn't stop for a picture of that one. I think it might take some time before I get back into any sort of good habits with all this, but this is a start. I did get a small order over the weekend that needed making, so I'll get to that today and hopefully that'll give another photo opportunity. I'm also back to homeschooling today after the holiday break and after just a half hour in, we're all already to take another break. It's going to be a long week ahead.

Back to Work

I've been working hard on a mask that was ordered during my sale. It was the only piece that needed to be made before shipping. I just finished working it up despite the best efforts of the cat to distract me, so I should have it in the post to its new owner tomorrow morning.

I have a few cuff bracelets that also sold that I should get tatted up so I can put them back up my shop. I was just waiting for new hook closures to come in the mail before I could start on them and they've just arrived in the mail. I'm going to take a little break this afternoon and then get to work on them as well. Hopefully those will keep me busy and give me some tatting to share here and elsewhere over the next couple of weeks.

Still Alive

Wow, so it's been awhile and I can't imagine there are many people out there that will stumble back into this blog ghost town, but I'm going have a go at writing here again anyhow.

So, let's see, I'm still making lace, though not as often as I once did. My etsy shop's business dried up and with it my motivation to keep creating new pieces. I am still tatting, doing Armenian knotted lace, crochet, painting, and knitting, pretty much anything to keep my hands busy.

I've also been writing fairly regularly, though I've not actually put any of that out into the world yet. There's a finished  urban fantasy novel, a handful of short stories and several WIP's waiting to be finished. I'm hoping to get focused enough to get some of it self-published this year, but it's a scary proposition. It's almost as if writing thousands of words was the easy bit.

In tatting news, I just ran a sale in my shop to hopefully jump start it a bit. It's too soon to tell if it will have any lasting effect, but I needed to do something. I've got some fairly nebulous plans to get some more patterns written up for sale and do an overhaul of my inventory. Again, too soon to tell how all that is going to play out.

This whole past year has been a little creatively unfocused really. I'm going to try and turn that around, but I'm not naive enough to think that a January first proclamation will be enough to keep it going. So, I'm just putting this out into the world. I'm alive, I'm still making things, and I don't plan on stopping.

Holiday Sale

My how I have abandoned this space. I have been feeling less that creative with my needlework lately and that means I have little, it anything worth sharing. I have had a few small orders in my etsy shop, so I've remade a few things, and work on the Armenian lace piece is ongoing as ever. I've done a little crocheting and some knitting and I'm still hard at work writing. I'm still muddling through the editing of my first novel and my hope is that I'll have something to share before the year is out. I'm also writing daily on at least three different projects, though there is currently much doubt as to which ones will survive to completion. I may have bit off more than I can chew on that front.

‪Knotting up an Armenian lace pineapple tassel pendant today.‬

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Nov 19, 2017 at 12:53pm PST

Last bit of news to share is the SALE in my etsy shop. No coupon code is needed, but you do need to spend at least $20 to activate the 20% off. It will likely be up through the holidays, but sooner is always better, especially if you want anything custom.

Still Alive

I'm getting awful neglectful here again. In my defense I have been hard at work on several different projects. I've finished the third draft of my novel and it's currently being copy-edited by my 10 year old. I know that might sound like a daft idea, but if you could see the skill this child has at finding typos, missing commas, and the like, you would be seriously impressed. Anyway, once she's done with that and I've tackled a few more details, I plan on self publishing it on Amazon. Regardless of how that goes I'm already at work on two other stories that may or may not become novels. The point is to keep writing, right?

Other than the writing, I did tackle an interesting tatted art project though I'm not at liberty to discuss the particulars of that. My part in the task is complete and now and it's up to the real artist to do the hard parts. I'm crossing my fingers that the idea works out because I think it's genuinely interesting and I really want to see it finished. I will of course share if and when I can.

The Armenian lace piece is really my fall back project. I work on this when I'm catching up on the scads of television I try to consume and while I read. This is the last image of it that I posted on all my social media places. I'm much better about updating those while the blog languishes untended. Of course that's mostly because I can post a picture across everything in a minute and here, well it's a much larger time commitment. So if you're actually missing what I'm working on and I know that's a big if, you might want to pop by my facebook page, twitter or instagram. It's generally the same things on all of them, so dealers choice.

I'm also been lucky at least the last week or so to have some orders in my etsy shop. A couple of them have included custom pieces, so I'm alternating the tatting of those with all my other projects and homeschooling the kids. I guess I really am pretty busy. I'm also pretty happy that the summer and it's subsequent expensive air conditioning bills is past us for now and crossing my fingers that these orders represent a trend for the fall. Here's hoping.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Sep 29, 2017 at 3:07pm PDT

Back Again

Well, I am certainly getting lazy when it comes to writing here, sorry. Things around here have gotten into a nice routine as of late. Schooling has reached a comfortable rhythm and I'm working on all sorts of random things like I picked up some large day of the dead skulls to paint for our walls. It's been slow going on those, but it's something different to do and that's what I wanted them for.

I've had a couple of small orders in the past week that have gotten me tatting a bit and of course work on the Armenian lace is ongoing and very close to hitting the 4 foot across mark. I've also been hard at work editing my novel. It is a glacially slow process though and I'm barely a third of the way through it. I missed the pure writing process so I've already started writing another thing. I'm less certain about how long this one might end up though. It could be a short story or a novel or somewhere in between. Since I achieved my first goal of simply writing a book, everything else just feels like cream at this point.

I may actually have another art tatting project soon. It's a little early to say for certain, but if it does pan out, I should have more to write about in the near future. Otherwise it's now schooling, painting, editing, writing and knotting for now.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Sep 5, 2017 at 4:22pm PDT

Checking In

I've been pretty busy lately getting ready for the beginning of the homeschooling year that started yesterday. There were of course all sorts of issues that needed to be sorted out before we started. I'm sure we'll have a few more bumps before we really get into the groove of things, but so far so good.

I've done a lot of work on the Armenian lace piece. It's just a couple of inches shy of being 4 feet across now. No, I'm not stopping anytime soon even though it's now large enough to be a bit unwieldy on my lap. I'm going for ridiculously large now.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to get a nice sized order that needed a few pieces made up before I could ship it. Since we're back to schooling that has to wait until after classes are wrapped which means I still have a bit more work to do on them before I can get them in the mail. There are also a couple of pieces that I will want to remake for the shop even though sales are coming maybe every other week or so at this point, save for pattern orders that are a bit more frequent.

Last bit of news is that I finished writing the first draft of the novel I've been working on much of the summer. It topped out at over 82,000 words. There's still a ton of work that I'll need to do before it sees the light of day. There's editing and proofreading and probably more editing. Since I'm back to work so to speak, it may be quite a while before I get these processes done, but for now I'm reveling in the fact that I did indeed write a book.

Birthday Sale

I've not got much to share this week. I've been working slowly on the Armenian lace, but most of my time has been spent reading and writing. I'm at 66,000 words now so if I keep working at the same speed I should be done with the first draft of the book by the end of the month. Of course I really have no idea where to go from that point. I made a point of not thinking beyond the actual writing of the thing, so I don't have a clue what might or might not happen with it after I edit and proofread it. I guess I'll have to do some research at that point.

That's not why I popped by though. It's my birthday, so I've set up a coupon code for a birthday sale. It looks like soon I'll be able to run a proper sale in my etsy shop as tools for that have just been released, but won't be live until next week. So for now get 25% off anything in my shop through Friday with this link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TotusMel?coupon=BIRTHDAY25 or you can use the code BIRTHDAY25 at checkout like usual.

Armenian lace piece is 42.5" across now.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Aug 8, 2017 at 1:26pm PDT

Monday

I really did mean to write here again last week, but I was yet again distracted by life. The children are back to homeschooling at the end of the month and the prep work for that has already begun which includes a myriad of issues that need dealing with. I did get a order for earring last week so I spent some time making a custom green pair and then remaking these firefly ones. It was nice to get something out in the mail to a customer, but that was about it on that front for the week. I have been selling more patterns than usual, which is nice, but since they are such small cost items, it really doesn't add much to my income.

I also worked some more on the new headpiece project. I'm really taking this one much slower than usual. I like the shapes I'm getting, but I think it needs more. The idea right now is to have it be worn with chains over and around the back of the head so I don't have to worry so much about sizing. I'm also debating whether or not it would be a good idea to use a wire base for the center part that's meant to sit up like a crown or just use stiffener. Obviously I'm got a lot more playing around with the piece before it's ready to move from the prototype phase.

I've also still been writing and reading a lot. I've broken 51,000 words now and the whole thing is starting to get a little unwieldy. At first it was easy to remember where each character was and what they'd said last time I wrote about them, now I feel slowed down as I reread what I've written to make sure I'm not contradicting myself. There's still no end in sight as I've still not worked out the resolution to many of the situations the characters have managed to get themselves into without much help from me really. This writing thing is real work, but I'm determined to finish this sucker.

Weekend Recap

I know this is shocking, but I have new tatting to share with you today. A loose idea has been percolating in my brain for a little while, but then one of my favorite people shared an image with me as inspiration and it was so close to that percolating idea that I actually started work on it.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Jul 28, 2017 at 10:52am PDT

The idea is a potential headpiece that will come down in a point across the forehead and then also down on the sides of the head with the top edge being a bit like a crown. There are a lot of details to work on on how to will be worn and how this prototype shape will be further adjusted to form the other shapes.

The shape here started with an antique edging that I twisted into a square. I've actually made up three different versions already and I think I've sussed out how to join them. The next challenge will be to modify the shape for the side sections. I'm working slowly on it, so I can keep working on all my other summer projects as well. I've reached about 45,000 words on my writing and received some wonderful and unexpected supportive messages to keep it up from a couple of people that I really respect. I can't tell you how nice it was to get those and it out a bit of a fire under me to work harder on it. Hopefully this week will see some substantial progress on my writing and my tatting. I won't say no to some orders in my etsy shop either.