Celtic cross

I love sitting in on the Monday class that AKTatter monitors. I’ve learned a lot. Found a ton of good patterns. Discovered tatters from all over the world. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to talk tatting.

Celtic Cross by Yvonne Reypa

This pattern discussed during was a recent class. I am always intrigued with “celtic” patterns and how the chains weave. With this cross, the weaving is done with rings; a bigger challenge. After sitting in on the discussion and looking at what others have said about the pattern, I attempted my version. The thread is size 10 Manuela. I felt like I was always one DS away from a mistake that would be hard to correct, but I think I’ve got it.

I think this will end up on a blanket a friend is knitting. Don’t know yet. We’ll see……..

apron appliques

Ever have one of those weeks where you get distracted and just enjoy life? It’s been a good week. I’ve finished a couple of pieces that will be sewn onto my apron. First, from Handy Hands website: http://www.hhtatting.com/free-lace-fan-quilt.cfm Thank you for sharing this with us!

edging for fan quilt square courtesy of Handy Hands

pansy

Then, a redo of a pattern I have attempted before. The first time was a disaster. I really like pansy and violet flowers, so I attempted it a second time. It was better, but nothin’ to write home about. After another year of working on techniques, I finally mastered the basics enough to do a better job.  The pattern is from a Priscilla book on the Antique Library page Georgia maintains:  here look on page 18. I encourage you to look for a great tutorial made by Marilee Rockley craftsy.com class and study Sarah Danks rewrite that she shared with the OnLine tatting class: Sarah Danks rewrite Of course after I worked on the flower a day or so, I looked at the cat and said aloud, “I have to diagram this or I will lose my sanity.” I’m no artist, so you’ll have to wait until I can get one made on the computer to see what I came up with.

Now to sew these on the apron and pack the bag for the morning class and afternoon demonstration tomorrow.

Teaching the earring pattern

Today is the day. I am the guest teacher for Georgia’s Monday On-going Online class (scroll down to the correct date). I’ll be sharing my earring pattern worked around a finding from a bead shop. (see pattern page of this blog) I’ve been looking forward to getting this pattern out there to other tatters. I see so many possibilities and I won’t have enough of me to try them all. Please, join in the fun!

Earring around bead cap pattern

So, quite a while ago, I was standing in my favorite bead shop, Natural Expressions, browsing at the beads seeing if anything struck my fancy. I wandered over to a set of bins with findings and connectors and such. And these struck me. Full in the face!

It took about 6 months of thinking and playing, but I like what I came up with for a simple earring.

The pattern for this is now on my new pattern pages. See the tab above.

I’ve already come up with several variations, but they’re not quite ready for prime time.

Look what fell into my mailbox!

SweetHeart bookmark. Tatted by Andrea Deike.
Pattern by Birgit Phelps

Isn’t it a lovely gift? 

I participated in the InTatters exchange this Spring. My first with this group. I love surprises, and love sending off a bit of tatting as a gift. Imagine my smile as I opened this card from Andrea! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I plan to tat this as a bookmark for the Hospital Chaplain next. After I finish a Squares bookmark in pastels.

<still grinning!>

signed, sealed, and delivered

 It’s off!! I’ve mailed my exchange piece for the InTatters Spring Exchange. I hope she likes it. I had great fun picking out the colors and such; Great fun in coming up with a design to tat; Great fun in packaging it. And the gentlemen at the Post Office had great fun helping me get it off. I’m very fortunate in that there’s a post office about a mile or two from my house. It’s tucked away in a light industrial area and lots of small business people who work out of their home use it. So, there’s usually a friendly atmosphere with chatter going on and people greeting each other. Since the package is going overseas, I took everything there and simply asked, “How should this get to her?” Well, 30 minutes later, the package was on the way, I was out of business cards, and several people are signing up for classes at the store. There was even one gentleman who kept saying I should teach through the Parks and Rec department. When I admitted I hadn’t gotten very far in that inquiry, he called and told his contact there I would be in next week to talk to them. Yikes!

I’m off now to teach at the store. Then I’ll be polishing up my notes for Monday’s class. Then it time for chores. It’s hard not to post pictures of what I mailed, but I would like it to be a surprise.

My tatting history or What I do while tatting

I learned to tat as a teen from an old book my Great-Aunt was throwing out. She had tried to teach me to knit and crochet. I learned the basics, but she wasn’t very encouraging after viewing my “finished” pieces….with good reason. Every time I set it down, I lost the little something that folks use to keep the tension the same. I was having the same problem with learning piano pieces, but there are no metronomes to use when knitting/crocheting. This book had 4 sections. Since my copy is missing the outer few pages, I’m not really sure of the title or even the publisher. Chadwick’s Red Heart and J & P Coats are listed in the materials section of the projects, so I’m assuming it was published by the company to help market their yarns and threads. The kid in me like the title of the tatting section “Watch my Shuttle Go” and the sound of the word tatted. Even though my brother was in the Navy at the time, I didn’t connect “tatted” with tattoos until much later in life. Anyway, Aunt Dorothy found an old shuttle in her stash and away I went. There wasn’t much available in my local area and I didn’t know of any other tatters. My musical career took off and college dominated my time. The tatting got stashed in a box and forgotten.

Fast forward about 25 years to a point in my life when I had plenty of time on my hands waiting and doing nothing. The why isn’t important to tatting, but I will say that it was my pleasure to be chief stage hand and taxi driver to a talented, geeky daughter. I also ended up in doctor’s waiting rooms for many hours. Tatting began to fill all those hours waiting and watching. It is portable, fun, and I was having a good deal better success than with knitting needles or crochet hooks. Besides, tatting a few DS to Bach solo Cello music is my idea of spending a delightful evening. The internet has made a great deal more available to tatters now. I've found several wonderful communities: inTatters , The Online Tatting Class , Lace Museum in Sunnyvale  , Lacis to name just a few.

Now that my nest is “empty” and I’m reacquainting myself with free time, I cannot just sit still. Fancy that! So, I tat while listening to books on tape, watching the tv, riding in the car, and even waiting in the line at the Post Office. More on where my tatted pieces end up on a different day in a different post. I forgot to add yesterday a picture of the bookmark I was working on at the Open House. It is from Learning to Tat by Janette Baker.

Bookmark from Tearn to Tat by Janette Baker

Hair Bun Holder is finished! Whew!!

I finally have finished a rather involved project. It all started last summer.

I got the idea to make a hair bun holder for myself. I decided to base it on a doily pattern attributed to Anne Orr. I first ran into this pattern published in Tatting Doilies & Edgings edited by Rita Weiss for Dover Needlework Series. It’s listed as measuring 8-1/2 inches worked in size 50 thread. It looked all too complicated for me to attempt. After the OnLine class studied it last June, I was more intrigued by the pattern. Here’s what Gina came up with for us: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2011/anneorrdoilyrewrite.html

After we all signed out of the classroom and went about our summer, I kept coming back to the idea of using this pattern. Then I wandered into a quilt shop recommended to me for colorful tatting thread. They had a glorious collection of thread in all kinds of yummy colors. Now, I’ve not had great success working with tiny thread before this point. But, I couldn’t resist the colors! I really couldn’t decide which one to use…..




Cocolatte

Teaberries

Charcoal

Woodlands

So I asked on Intatters for ideas. What a great group of people! They had several ideas that I really liked. The question remained: how to execute these ideas? This is what I decided on:

top of hair bun holder in teaberries

Based on how I worked a  different beaded hair bun holder, I decided to make the back simple mignonette with a final row around an elastic hair tie.

back of hair bun holder

I can’t wait to try it on!