Ready or Not Here I Come!

My Fair items are ready for the judge. We’ll see what they think. I didn’t find the snowflakes. Ah well. That means I won’t have anything entered in the “tatting” Division. There will be things entered. I hope the experience is positive for the judge, the tatters, and the folks who volunteer for the Fair. I’ll be missing the time to demonstrate. I have taken on other jobs this year. Next year I will return!

A tatter's vote

This is nothing political. Just your tatting opinion desired.

I have a tin with shuttles and thread that goes with me to demonstrations. In it live a few shuttles I’m not fond of, but are readily available or are examples of what tatters typically used a generation ago. I also toss in shuttles with just a bit left on them; enough for a butterfly or ring or 2.

After my last foray using the tin, I decided that I really had to empty one shuttle. The thread is quite fine, I assumed size 80. The shuttle is larger, so I thought it would work nicely for beads. I decided that I should use up the thread trying out the Hen N Chicks pattern. The one in the last post....it wasn't the greatest experience!

I should have known better than to use tiny thread for a technique I’ve not tatted before. Not only that, the thread turned out not to be size 80 cotton. It’s more of a rayon size 100. Split rings are tricky in small thread, but with slippery rayon?????

What was I thinking???? Oh yeah, right, I wasn't thinking!

But, I persevered! I had that 25^th motif in sight and I wasn’t going to back down! That’s the good news. Now I have a choice: use the rest of the thread for something else, or just take it off the shuttle and move on? What’s your vote?

Demo at Casa Grande

I apologize for not getting this up right away, but life happened.

Saturday morning I had the great pleasure of demonstrating tatting at a museum. The Park Service has a wonderful facility at Almaden Quicksilver Mine. Here’s a page full of pictures from a recent celebration http://newalmaden.org/AQSPark/CasaGrande/PioneerDay10.html . I shared a table in the corner of the gift shop with the representative from the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale. She brought a pillow and worked those bobbins hard; while I had a corner of the table to sit and tat. It was great fun!

Unfortunately, the picture is stuck on the camera as my laptop refuses to play nice with the camera! Sigh. Life happens.

We’ve also spent our free time cleaning up from the storms that roared through over the last few days. Not much permanent damage, just things getting blown around, leaves all coming down at once, and the persimmons needing to come out of the tree. Our average rain fall for the month of November is just shy of one inch. We’ve gotten close to three inches just last week. Sigh. Life happens. The good news is that there are not that many leaves left to come out of the trees. More time to tat!

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.

keeping my focus

Well, I’ve decided to not do a give-away as a celebration of my 100^th post. I’m not trying to be a party-pooper, but my budget just doesn’t allow for giving away of the magnitude that attracts attention in the blogosphere. So, I decided to rely on what I write and post to attract the attention I am targeting. I guess with a full house of family, I just feel like keeping my focus is a struggle. Not that they are making it difficult, it’s difficult for me under normal circumstances (tongue planted firmly in cheek!) and my tatting is important. So, what have I been doing lately?

Last week I continued to work on the Saint-Saens motif. I’m stuck. I continued to work on the earring using the star jump ring. I learned the hard way to let the thread sit a day before loading the shuttle, after loading the beads, it’s wise to take another break, and finally, when you’re tired after a long day of designing is not the time to try a new pattern.

So, after spending 4 hours demonstrating at the Jo-Ann’s store, I finished some samples from the class that fell off the offered list. Here’s the bracelet I was using.

False tatted plait by Gina Brummet

Now that I don’t have 4 shuttles tied up with that sample, I can use them to start more projects….No! I have to remain focused. See how easy it is for me???????

organ factory tours and such

Well, my idea didn’t work too well. I just need to tweek it, but that won’t happen for a while. Other things to do.

Like visiting an organ factory.  Now, before you roll your eyes, let me say that I joined over 30 people on this tour! A bus was rented to get the group from South Bay to North Bay. That meant that on the way, we were treated to a DVD of a tour of another organ company’s factory, a short excerpt of a talk by a third organ builder, and plenty of time to chat with other organists and curious people. It was a wonderful day! I think the comment that I enjoyed the most was from a non-musician. And the commercial at the end of the DVD for the shows visiting other factories (over 300 have been taped) really “tickled me” as my Mom used to say. If you're in the Bay Area and love to see what people do working with their hands creating cool stuff, call and see if you can stop by. They don't always have an organ being put together, but they lots of cool parts.

Like tatting the earring pattern in Sulky “Piano Keys"

I need to finish another one to make a pair, but I can’t decide which one to match. I would like to wear the for the Memorial service this week. So, best get busy eh?

Like having fun at Exclamation Point demonstrating tatting and the different techniques used with different tools. I’ll be working on my supplies for that later.

Like cleaning house (ugh!) and paying bills (double ugh!) and maybe even completing another pattern in the TAT binder (I have to stay focused!). And there’s the list of errands…….

Pattern page is live

Last week was very productive. I conquered Beanile style tatting, made good progress on some original designs (more when they’re finished nicely), and learned how to add a page to my blog with links for folks to download the documents. Just click on the bar above my picture and it’ll take you there. Whew!

But, no time to sit back. I have a demonstration to do today and it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow. And since we ran away yesterday to Monterey in celebration of 27 years of marriage, the chores have really piled up…..literally. Now where is the shovel I use for laundry????

in search of....a name???

It was great fun at the demo time yesterday. My dragon was well received. Lots of petting, new students inspired, but no name……..

Perhaps a name will be presented soon. Any ideas out there?