Work in Progress, Thread Exchange

Feels like it has been days since my last post... Oh! It has been. I've been catching up on reading blogs and forums I belong to. Being away for 24 hours can really leave a lot to catch up on! So Time to catch everyone here up too!

The two bookmarks I had on the blocking board are done.

I had some mess up on the second one and it is on my to do list to tat again and clean up my mistakes.

My current work in progress is is a piece out of Tatting with Visual Patterns, Masquerade. This is tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Spring Garden. I'm unsure of how many of the small motifs I'm actually going to make for this one piece. 

Speaking of thread... Fox came up with the idea of The Thread Exchange.  On the page, Tatskool mentioned maybe using flat pieces of cardboard to wind the threads on, so we could use a normal envelope and keep the cost of postage down to a minimum. So that's exactly what I did! I recently posted my exchange items on the blog, so please go take a look.

In the mean time, I have been trying to figure out how to obtain more thread... And not just Lizbeth thread.. Besides Handy Hands where do you purchase your thread (excluding HDT's from Etsy)? Last night I was severely side tracked and tatted up this quick little flower. Cool right? I thought so. I don't have the floss numbers anymore, but there are two strands of each color (three colors). This got me thinking, my mom used to do a lot of cross stitch, so with her permission I raided her stash of floss and got some more pretty colors. I guess I will be playing around with this for awhile. Just a close up image of the flower.. 

Some other things that have been going through my head is storage. My storage for my completed pieces is lacking.. Let me show you. This is where the bulk of it goes. Whereas the current pieces, if the are done go on the suede pillow next to me on my chair. Okay, unfinished pieces and mess ups go there too.

So tell me, how do you store your completed pieces? And with that, how do I know when I am ready to open up an Etsy shop?! Now that is truly intimidating! But I have all these finished items with no where to go...

That should be it for today. So until next time, happy tatting!