of hail and rainbows

Well, the weather is being very fickle! It hailed yesterday. So, all those succulents we planted? They’re shivering!!! Then the sun poked through just at sunset creating a double rainbow.

I found more Connectors, so the stars will go on the flag soon. And….

Another successful organ concert was enjoyed yesterday.

Life is good….

I have several huge projects on the shuttles. This means there’s not much to share here. I am taking time to visit and comment. Although I fear what I have to say really isn’t earth-shattering. If you like, let me know what you think I should comment on. Hint, Hint….

Now, to see what needs to be cleaned up from Mother Nature……

planting

Still struggling with adding beads to designs with curled rings. I found some small crystal type beads yesterday. I’ll be trying those today. Hopefully pictures will soon follow.

A distraction lately has been relandscaping a strip in the garden. It was past time to redo. We decided on succulents. 50 feet can host a LOT of plants!!

In the meantime, I found some star-shaped “connectors” to use on the flag. Unfortunately, just one package. So, unless I find more, there will only be 20 states represented. Not.

Fair Prep begins

Remember this post ? Well, the Monterey County Fair has created a division for Cro-Tat work. When I was gifted the tool 5 years ago, there wasn’t much available for information on Cro-tatting. Georgia does have a tutorial from a 1869 publication http://www.georgiaseitz.com/classes2/crotat.html and reviews books distributed by Annie’s Attic. https://www.anniescatalog.com/list.html?q=cro-tat

And then there’s the doily I found in a resale shop:

The crazy thing about that doily is how it matches a doily my Italian tatting friend, Ninetta, found in a small shop near her home! So, how is this done? O_o? (confused face)

My crochet skills are abysmal. I hope to convince a friend to collaborate with me to create a cro-tat something to enter in the fair. 

In the meantime, I've finished another stripe of the flag and am ready for Round 5 of my Wisona 2017 doily. Whew!!! 

Rest and filing

I have my design trials in mind. Whew! I think I’ll let them percolate for a day. Today will be a good day to practice at the organ. I took a moment the other day to organize my photos from Jan 2017. I hadn’t shared this one of the flag: 

Coming together!

A feel good story

More distractions from tatting with good organ stuff. The December American Organist arrived. Usually, the cover story is about some new organ. Lately, some of the cover organs have not only been spectacular to look at, but also have a sweet story to share. I have a bucket list of organs to listen to. It keeps getting longer and longer with each magazine edition! Anyway, this is a gem that was literally rescued. If you follow links on the website, you should be able to read the story until the January cover story replaces it.

I’m still working of Mark’s angel for our tree top. I've added a bit more, but to pictures as I'm not to the assembly part. I’m still working on a stripe of the flag. I am gathering supplies for the TIAS next month. And, of course, I’m still dreaming up new pieces based on pieces.

Right now, I’m off to practice for next weekend. More later…..

More studio adjustments

No picture today. I’ve been working on the flag again and have added another motif to the Tablecloth pattern from Workbasket. Picture soon of that.

I’ve also been spending quite a bit of time at the organ. Not because I have a deadline approaching, but because we found some shutters at a resale place. They are tall. Like about 6 feet tall. There are also 5 of them, so they will fill a space between the pillars in the studio. When I saw them, I thought they might eat up the highs from the organ. I think they do. It’s hard for me to judge because I’m sitting at the organ playing, but I think they do. Now I need to figure out how to fix them up, attach them to the pillar, and get them in place. Oh, and I need to decide which gap to fill with them. I hope the organ voicer likes them. I’ll try to snap a picture once they get in place.

I also realized yesterday that there is barely 10 weeks left in 2016. I took the time this morning to refresh my memory of what I’ve accomplished, browse my goals, and pick the 5 most important. Normally, this would result in needing a walk to clear my head and refocus. Well, I’m pleased to say that after 55 years, I’m finally getting the hang of working towards goals. I have accomplished my 5 most important 2016 goals. Mind, that doesn’t mean that I’ve done what I really SHOULD be doing, just what I picked. More on that after the New Year.

Flag progress

I reached a milestone in this project. Another stripe finished and now on to the very long 5 remaining stripes. 

stripe 7 completed

I was drawn to tat this because I thought the pattern in the Workbasket had promise. I’d found it at the Lace Museum and wanted to see if the structure would be transferable. My hunch was correct. It will work for pipes on an organ very nicely. I’ve completed the cross stitch pattern,  mastered doubleweave pickup; now to do the designing (which is always an adventure).

So, back to the flag. I measured out the red thread just to make sure I had enough to finish. I do. Whew! Now I can relax and sleep easier. Just kidding.

Back on the loom

I’m back at the loom. Partly because of a project one of the Tatting Tuesday Study Group participants is working on. She used her loom to weave up a hanky. Very nice work! Now she’s tatting an edging to go with it. Perhaps she’ll let me snap a picture someday.

I love Doubleweave and have been intrigued with the process of using a chart, like cross stitch or needlepoint use, to weave up a design. I have a chart for a small cross stitch of an organ with BACH on it. I’ve always wanted to weave up a sample.

You remember the flag I’m working on? Well, I’ll be finishing it to look like a flag from the era our house was built. Another story. Anyway. I got the idea to use a ring & chain pattern similar to the flag to represent the pipes. Then I thought, if I weave the chart Doubleweave, it’ll be like a black and white photo. Then I could add the tatting on top to give it some texture. Like the edging to the hanky.

So, I’m back to the loom……

Slow but sure

I picked up tatting again as my kids grew older. I found myself with “dead time” while they stretched their wings in sports and music and tech activities. Not being one to sit still, I started to revive my love of thread and lace. What I had learned as a teen came back quickly, there’s more information available now with the internet, and I even found a small band of folks at the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale. The projects and patterns I tat during these times are often repetitive and not very exciting. Satisfying to be sure, just not as complicated as what many designers are putting out there for us.

I try to remember to tuck a shuttle with some bright colored thread into my bag. If people are curious, I can tat them a butterfly while explain tatting. This leads to the Mary Poppins effect with kids. They will eye my small bag with a curious look. You can almost hear them thinking, “what else is in that bag?”

Yesterday, I finished another stripe of the flag.

rework of flag pattern from Workbook

 Because I don’t tat fast, it may be finished by Fair time, or may not. I really find the fabric effect of the pattern very satisfying. Now to find the red thread and load the shuttles again.

25 motif challenge

I’ve recommitted to the 25 motif challenge. 

So far in 2016, I’ve completed

Ornament cover:

Pattern # 10 by Nadine Nunnelley

10 shawl crosses: 

Wild Rose: http://picotsnkeys.blogspot.com/2016/01/wild-rose-22.html

And a snowman: 

Snowman by Melanie Cervi

Shawl angel

4 down and 21 to go.

On the shuttles now:

Jane’s TIAS

Another Shawl angel

Flag http://picotsnkeys.blogspot.com/2014/10/flag-with-red-stripe.html

That’s pretty good for me! Just 3 UFO’s!!

That encourages me that I can tat 25 motifs in 2016! Off to the shuttles……

Back to my goals

Well, it’s been awhile. My bad. I’m very embarrassed!

 My excuse is I’m moving….soon….to Monterey/Carmel area. That means we have to sell this house. Now, we’ve only been in this house for 15+ years. So, there’s not too much archeology required. But, we’ve raised our children here. So, there’s all the “stuff” associated with that and the memories. ‘nuff said.

 What have I been tatting you ask?

 Well, I’m still bouncing around ideas for an angel for the Prayer Shawl Ministry. I’m getting closer. I’d like to have a skirt that seems to swirl, so I’ve been looking for geometric patterns that are dense. I found this heart pattern:

Morales heart

 Lilly Morales reworked an older pattern. I kinda reworked her pattern. I’d like to adapt it for the skirt of the angel. Along with keeping up with Jane’s TIAS 2015 and continuing the flag. More on those later.

Flag with red stripe

So, here’s an update on the flag. I was able to work on it quite a bit during our weekend by the sea. To give you an idea the size this flag will be, I did not crop the scan. My scanner bed is just 14”X8.5”; so this will be huge! I figure it will be done by next 4^th.

Flag with one red stripe



Blue Field of Flag

I’m very lucky to have a good space to work on my tatting at my house. Remember the tatting chair? I still TIP (tat in public) quite often. It’s not practical to take all of my projects out the door though. So, I always have a smaller, generic project in the ole tatting bag.

my bag for tatting in public

what's inside my TIP bag

 My current project? A tatted USA flag. I first found this pattern through the OnLine Tatting Class several years ago. Now, Workbasket was not a scholarly magazine. It was published several times a year with all sorts of handiwork projects described. The patterns sometimes needed a bit of editing, but they can be a great springboard for a creative tatter.

I’ve been intrigued by this flag pattern for quite some time. I could tell with a bit of study that we didn’t have the whole pattern. Well, not just the whole pattern, but if you followed the pattern as given, you would have one funky lookin’ flag! Fast forward several years to summer 2014.

I’ve been working on my version. Here’s what I have so far. 

blue field of US flag

This blue field will have white tatted stars sewn on top. The red and white stripes are next to tat. I can’t wait to see it done. It’ll probably be next summer before I get very far. Sigh!

another bookmark experiement

I’ve been mulling over a pattern found in an old Workbasket magazine. These publications are always interesting to flip through. I feel a bit like an archeologist as the pages turn. A pattern for a flag caught my eye several years ago. I feel it’s time now to update the pattern. The first puzzle for me is the join between rows; just a bit counterintuitive for this tatter. But, I was able to persevere and figure it out:

tatted American flag sample

Now I need to figure out exactly how many rings and chains to do in each row to make the proportions correct. And then there's the stars to dream about.

I think this sample will go to my chaplain friend for her stash of bookmarks to give out.