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I take quite a few photos of what I’m working on. Some of them never even make it to the folder on the phone. If I leave photo taking to when I have something significant to preserve, I forget. So, I snap a lot of in progress photos that never get used. Until I forget. I intended to share some photos of a vintage pattern I’m reworking. This is the only one that made it into the folder.
More later.
Some refer to these bits as thrums. Now there are lots of uses for the lengths of yarn left on the loom after cutting off your woven project. These were long enough I thought I would tat with them. I think it is 10/2 cotton. I’m using the smaller Takashimabari hook. The pattern is December 18 from Lene Bjorn’s snowflake book. I like working my way through all the split rings. It’s fun to create with waste.
I have one last
piece to tat for this year’s Fair. I decided to tat an Ice Drop. I love making
them. You think I would have plenty already tatted up, but I can always have
more on hand. I think this one will be in blue thread with beads and curled
rings.
The votes are in.
Most of the opinions were for smaller picots on the inner ring. Only one person
liked the larger picots. Several suggested no picots at all. I went with
smaller picots.
My next question:
How did I manage
that????
I was practicing the
fine art of untatting on the final repeat of the snowflake. I will be using
this snowflake as a sample in situations where the skill will be judged
repeatedly. So, it has to be correct. I’ve been using picot gauges and paying
attention to front side/back side with using RODS. But, in taking out one
mistake, I twisted up this chain so badly that I needed to take stitches out to
the join for this double picot. For context, I’m using shuttles to tat this.
So, how did I manage to get both threads going through the picot?
It's impossible. I
just don’t see how I could have done this. I’ll be unwinding the little bit of
thread left on the shuttles, untying the thread from the shuttles and pulling
the ends through the picot. Then I’ll be winding the shuttles and going back to
correcting the mistakes.
All the while I’ll
be trying to figure out how this happened, so I won’t end up in this impossible
position again. I hope…….
I know! Don’t faint!! I actually took the day off yesterday!
So, I don’t have
anything much to share. No pictures of tatting. No links to music. Nothing
much.
Well, there’s this question:
Should I use a
smaller picot in the lower ring? I’ve adapted a design in 24 Snowflakes by Lene
Bjorn. After I finished this repeat yesterday, I didn’t like how things looked
too spindly. I’m thinking a smaller picot under the chains would help.
Anyone want to vote?
After enjoying Carmel Bach Festival for the last 3 weeks, it’s time to shift gears:
Monterey County Fair.
I’ll be entering a
few pieces. Not as much tatting. The only Division for tatting is labeled
shuttle tatting. I’ve been doing more tatting with needles and hooks. So, I’ll
tat up a couple of things to enter. Time to load the shuttles!
In the meantime, you
can still go by Seaside City Hall and enjoy the display at the Avery Gallery.
And if you can’t make it past there, here’s a photo of Piece d’Orgue in a variegated
thread:
Tickets for the Art of Music Raffle will be on sale until Closing Night. That is in 2 more days. Saturday July 26, 2025 will see the final Best of the Fest concert. The lovely volunteers will be happy to help in the Evans Gallery.
For those local to Monterey Bay, please stop by the Avery Gallery in Seaside or the Evans Gallery at Sunset Center to see my tatting. While you’re in Carmel, consider catching a concert or other Carmel Bach Festival event. There is some wonderful music being offered the last few days before Closing Night.
Inside these crates are the pipes that will complete the Dobson organ at St. Dunstan’s EpiscopalChurch in Carmel Valley, CA. It’s been a 10-year journey to finish the stops. Follow this link for a video of the installation process. I can’t wait to hear how it sounds!
I’ve been busy. Quite busy! With tatting shows, organ demonstrations, and playing for services. If you here a laugh, that’s me responding to someone asking if I’m slowing down in retirement. I’m having too much fun!!
With all this future
building activity, I don’t have much to share for tatting. In the odd moments I’m
working on the multicolor version of Piece d’Orgue, a pair of baby booties, Wiosna2025 and a bun holder in bright colored thread. All worthy projects.
I doubt I’ll be
focusing soon though……. So, I leave you with a picture of the gallery.
The area I live in has quite a bit of culture to offer for the population. Perhaps because tourism and hospitality are major industries here. Perhaps because in the past, artists escaping earthquake damage came to create in cabins by the sea. Perhaps because we who live here respond to the call to fill our world with beauty.
When the City Hall was
built in Seaside, CA one passage is dedicated to displaying art. Not just room
on a wall to hang paintings, but several floor to ceiling cases to show baskets
and small sculptures and weaving and……
TATTING!
I gathered up a few
pieces I use in workshops and when I talk about tatting to kids and adults. I
really didn’t expect all of the lace to be “hung” as this display is to
represent the Guild I belong to: Carmel Crafts Guild. We welcome those who
craft, those who focus on fine art, and those who wish to learn to create in
new ways.
The Avery gallery is
open 8-5 just like the Evans gallery (10-4) both waiting to help you explore
local artists!
Tonight starts another year of excitement with Art! There will be a wonderful selection of paintings, photographs, and other art. So……..
Please come to the Artist Reception and Opening!
Show and Raffle
Margorie Evans Gallery, Sunset Center, Carmel, CA
Tuesday, July 8, 2025 from 5 – 7 PM
Benefiting the Carmel Bach Festival
My tatting will be in one of the cases. The short explanation is displayed in the binder of Artists’ Statements. For a more thorough version, comment here or send me an email.
Enjoy!!
The other day a student had a revelation: listening to the music you play is part of the learning process. Now, before you scoff and say or think the obvious, please note that being aware of what you create is not automatic for everyone. The devil is in the details. We can miss the finer points as we produce our art. The parts of the process that are difficult for us sometimes are not important and other times are crucial to the success of creating. And yes, practicing those difficult skills can make the experience more successful for all of us.
So, what can we do
to support each other? Ask for feedback, critique, and help.
I try to post photos
of lace that I enjoy making. I try to post descriptions that help others make
better lace. I try to encourage the exploration of new techniques. I hope that
lends support to those who create.
What I have to offer
today is an exercise I frequently do: work a pattern in different size, color,
or fiber content thread. Here’s the simple round motif in Knit-Cro-Sheen, size
30 and size 80:
I hope you create
something today!
Well, on my part that is. The shows are still in the preparation stage. I’ve turned in my lace. After a few days of rest, I picked up my shuttles to tat up a couple of samples. These are in Knit-Cro-Sheen which is a 3-ply similar to size 10.
The round one is a
pattern a student is trying out. She sees this as an earring. At first glance,
I saw little to stumble upon. Then I realized this is one of those patterns
that is worked in one pass starting with the outside and working in. So, a TOR
on the second side of a SR.
I’ll be turning my attention to the piece I’ll donate to the Carmel Bach Festival next. The wonderful volunteers will be gathering the art at the end of this week. For me, that means labeling (somehow) my piece of lace and writing (another) Artist Statement. This is always a humbling experience for me. The binder where these papers will be gathered is always available. Sometimes I see people looking through it. So, I try to write something that introduces the piece and explains my design and a bit of the process. Yes, I will be asking my favorite proofreader to look it over before I hit print!
Some of you have shown
interest in the grid templates I use. My favorite 3-D print shop has more options available now. Check it out!
I spend some time
last week preparing to loan items for a show in a local municipal gallery. It’s
tedious labeling your lace. It takes time to fill out forms and assign value
and give credit where credit is due. Oh, and the Artist Statement. Yeah. It all
takes thought and time. Don’t get me wrong. It’s worth it. 100%. I hope we
tempt other people to investigate tatting with our local group. Or at least
watch a video or two.
This week I’m
preparing my donation for the Art of Music. Just a few more elements, hide
ends, block, photograph, label and document, and then take that deep breath and
hand it over to the wonderful volunteers. (I found out last month that my blog
is read by some of them. Gulp! Thank you!!) I hope it helps to raise lots of
money!
Even though I spent
some time figuring out hiding ends in TDS, I’m still not sure how this is going
to turn out. Time to take a deep breath, pick up the shuttles and figure it
out.
The kind that whooshes by in a flurry of not-important activity? Yeah….the last few days were like that for me.
I played the third
Sunday in a row. My hands and wrists are telling me. So, I haven’t been tatting
a lot. Rest has helped. I loaded the beads for my final round of BWV 572. Now
to pick up the shuttles and put the ideas into lace. I have until the end of
next week. Best get cracking!
Have I used that as a title for a post? I probably have.
This is one of my
distraction designs that waylaid me earlier. I want to use it as an outer round
for BWV 572. This section of the piece is sparkly. Most of the beads are loaded
before tatting, so it should work up quickly.
I think it will
work.
I promise to finish
the Art of Music submission. I promise to keep working on the shawl. I promise
to keep working on Wiosna 2025. But, if I find I have a bit of time, I’ll be
dragging out my templates to help me get the designs to lay flat more quickly.
While walking in the woods, I see wonderful snowflake designs in fern fronds.
A bouquet of Sweat peas fills the room with scent and fills the eyes with overlapping curves.
I’ll need a fair
amount of discipline soon. I’m almost done with BWV 572. I have a list of
design possibilities. Sticking to the grand plan and not getting distracted will
be important!
I’m working
carefully on this round. The technique is a bit fiddly, but very effective for
this point in the pattern.
Make mistakes.
Most of the time, we
strive to get things right. We know we have learned things when we complete the
pattern correctly. If we’re lucky, we don’t make a lot of mistakes along the
way. There’s something to be said for finding a teacher/mentor that can guide
us so we have more success than mistakes. However…..
Creating something
new usually ends up with mistakes along with those successes.
I’ve been working on
new ideas lately. That means some mistakes.
I’m learning.
I’m happy to say my
design is coming along just fine. The lace is working up to be flat. I haven’t
had to change anything once I started my final version. I like the color of
thread and the beads. To say I’m relieved is an understatement. Now is the
exciting part of creating a piece.
And fast approaching summer. To be fair, where I live is perpetually spring in a sense. We don’t really have cold weather. We don’t really have hot weather. Our big ole Historic house stays a pretty constant 62 to 65 degrees F. year-round without much change in furnace use. We don’t have AC. If it gets warm, we just open a window or two. The breeze off the Bay usually cools things down quite nicely. Because our weather is the same all year round, I find the same chores on the list year-round: water plants, weed, prune, etc. Getting the roses pruned for the annual hard pruning sometimes doesn’t happen. It’s just too difficult for me to cut unopened buds off the plant!
It's about this time
of year, just after Easter before school ends and the Bach Festival, that I
find myself with very little to show for my tatting. I’ve finished all the
gifts on my list. I’m in the final stage of getting my piece ready for Art of
Music. You could say I’m a bit numb from all the extra music for Holy Week/Easter.
So, not much to take pictures of. Not much to pass around for Show and Tell. Lots
in the half-way done phase. Most of my time is spent
cleaning/gardening/resting. Lots of rest, i.e. napping, the past 2 years. One
more year of recovery and then I should be better able to predict what I can
commit to do for music and tatting.
I promise to do
better about posting twice a week. I am touched by how many of you asked if I
was OK. I’ll let you know if I bump up against my mortality again. In the
meantime, I will continue to create with music and thread. Join me?
I finished my sample using the TDS for a middle round.
Now the next question to answer is how to hide ends
……….
Tatting is one of those activities that can land people in a puddle of frustration. You’re happily on the Adventure of Life and boom, you step into this smelly, disgusting mess of thread you thought could be pretty lace. If you’re lucky, there’s an experienced tatter around to give you a hand and help you figure things out to get back to the rings and chains you see in your imagination.
Sometimes, you end
up just setting things aside for a day or so and tatting something just to create
lace. I needed a break from the design project. The deadline is looming, so it
wasn’t going to be a grand project. This square from Takashima book 3 is just
the ticket!
I’m continuing to work out the design for Piece d’Orgue BWV 572 . I’ve completed a good portion of the pattern. The next part has puzzled me quite a bit. The music is full 5 voice chord progressions wandering around several different key centers. I think the ticket is to use TDS developed by Ninetta Caruso. I like that it looks so similar both from the front and from the back.
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TDS from the back |
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TDS from the front |
This summer I will be staying local. There is more than enough activity to keep me occupied, refresh my creativity, and inspire new ideas.
I’ll be attending Carmel BachFestival. I help by donating a tatted piece for their fundraiser. I’ll be attending the convention of the Music Teacher’s Association of California. I help by staffing a booth for our local Chapter of American Guild of Organists. I’ll continue to teach. My adult students have really been stretching themselves in theory, composing, and designing. I know I should block in a vacation. It will be busy and exciting and fun!
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Wiosna 2025 to Round 5 by Renulek |
I finished Round 5
of the Spring Doily Renulek created for us. I liked tatting it a lot. I’ve just
not been focusing on it lately. So, I finally have this part done.
I paused actually
tatting yesterday to pick what I wanted the next few rounds to look like. I
will use the dark brown thread. Maybe a bit of the variegated too. Once I get
the next two rounds done, I’ll decide where to add beads.
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Balloon Dog Doodle by Sarah Nielson |
What to do with a couple of yards of thread? Create a doodle. This came up in our Study Group yesterday. I had great fun tatting!
I’ve fixed the bungled join I shared in the last post. I haven’t yet finished the Round.
I’m still tweaking
the stitch count in my design.
I’m still sorting
through all the stash I was asked to distribute. I did share some really cute
little crocheted treasure chests. I think one Grandma will make some
Granddaughters very happy.
Yesterday afternoon
I sat down with some bits and pieces of size 5 Pearl cotton and a fun canvas
design. After a few minutes of sorting out what looks good with what, I came up
with these colors for the project. The original design calls for 5 different
colors. I couldn’t help but throw in a few more!
One lapse of
concentration and look what happened. I’ve been working on this in the evenings
after I finish my goal in other projects. I won’t have a problem untatting the
chain. I think I can convince the picot to let me open the ring enough to pick
out the last DS of the ring. I’ll be looking at this when I have the afternoon
light coming in the study windows. There’s one more repeat and then round 5will be finished.
I’m often asked, “How do I block?”
That’s usually just
after the student notices the lace isn’t looking particularly tidy and
symmetrical. I will generally hasten to say something along the lines of
blocking is not mandatory, but it helps a great deal. Yes, I even block my 3-dimensionalpieces.
Just polar grid templates that help me square up my lace. Since they’re plastic, I can lay damp tatting on them without fear of the printer ink coming off on my thread. They won’t stand heat, so no ironing is allowed. I figure they’re large enough to handle most snowflakes and the ever critical first few rounds of larger doilies. I’ll be using them frequently.
It’s April. That means Carmel Bach Festival preparation is well under way. The Season Passes are just about sold out. The applications for Art of Music items have been sent out. Some artists have already returned their form. (I’m one!) I’ve brochures for my students to look through. Most of them prefer to look at the onlineversion. I’m still a paper kinda girl.
With all that, it’s
time for me to finalize a design to tat up. I’m still leaning to BWV 572.
I will be celebrating with local tatting friends this year. Several are new to tatting and I’m trying to adhere to the KISS principle. I will mention how many people tat around the world; perhaps the tablet will be showing websites and blogs of tatted lace from overseas. I always leave a few books out for them to browse for their next challenge; those books will be published outside of English-speaking territory. My focus will be on what they are creating. Each tatter has adopted a slightly different method of producing DS. All the lace is lovely. We will be celebrating!
I didn’t get to correcting the last post until today. I apologize. I know such stunts do not build trust and such. I won’t explain. Just forgive my not delivering. Tuesday ended with me a bit overwhelmed.
But, now it’s corrected…..enough.
The error is in
Round 4. I missed a chain in the mocha thread and a ring in the Cairo thread. I
discovered it after I had tatted 3 more sets of mocha rings. I’m running low on
the quilting thread in Cairo, so I decided to add another repeat with the two
elements left out again. That makes 13 instead of 12 repeats in Round 5. I can
live with that. I think. It is ruffling a bit yet when that happened in the
swirl of Ornamentation, it blocked out nicely. So, error adapted into the
pattern.
I’ve also corrected
an error in my version of this year’s Wiosna by Renulek. I missed a ring and
chain in the pattern. I had to pause when I got to this point tatting Round 5
and snip threads in Round 4 then add the ring and chain. Now I can resume Round
5.
Errors come in 3’s
right? So I’m looking carefully at what else I did before yesterday just to be
sure!
Can you make lace that is practical?
Yes, if it’s tatted!
Can you make fabric with lots of holes?
Yes, if it’s lace!
Can you use lace every day?
Yes, if it’s designed
well!
I have tatted quite
a few items I use just about every day. Edgings for linens. Earrings. Hair buncovers. Doilies to protect furniture. The patterns are usually simple and tend
to be classic. Just a ring with a chain repeated over as many times as I need.
For pieces I make into covers for hair buns, I like using ring only “Mignonette”
style patterns. The fabric is flexible yet chorales the ends of my hair well. I’ve
been working on one using Quilting Thread.
I’ve ended up with ruffles.
I’ve ended up with
too many rows before the focal rows.
I’ve started over too
often.
I’m very close this
time. Even if I made a glaring error. Can you see it?
There are two places where I omitted a chain in mocha and and ring in the variegated. Top center of the picture and bottom center of the picture. Now you know, you won't be able to un-see it! I sure can't!!!
I finished a round of my hair bun holder. It's a bit different from my previous ones:
Before I add the
rings to finish out the 4-ring set to each repeat, I need to decide what the
next round will look like and what beads I would like to use. That way I can prepare
picots for bead joins and how I’ll transition from this lacier section to a
fabric that can hold in the ends of hair. That creates a neater finish to the
hairstyle which is my goal. Especially when I’m trying to look nice performing
or presenting.
Time to pull out the
sketch paper and brainstorm away!
That’s what has been happening with my shuttles lately. I look at the pattern, tat the element, realize I’ve made a mistake and spend time correcting it. So, there are no pictures to share. I have decided what to do for the Fantasia piece. One more decision and then I’ll start to tat in earnest.
Here are all three samples. The top left is the half stitch count, the bottom left is the original Lene Bjorn pattern. The yarn on the right is KC Botanical
Bamboo/cotton blend. There’s a LOT of ply in this with a gentle twist and a
lovely sheen. I like the color name: Feather Grey. It works up nicely using a
needle. With the added picots filling the negative space created by the chains,
I think it will make a nice cloth.
This is my version
of a lovely square designed by Lene Bjorn. I found it in Tatting Together
Square Motifs by Iris Niebach. The book is a collection of “magic squares”
designed as a part of a workshop. It’s been fun to explore. I used one design
as inspiration for Glissando. I tested this out as a possibility for making a
vest out of some bamboo-cotton yarn. It’s a bit too open for my taste as a
garment. So, I adapted:
I had fun laying samples of edgings up next to the Assisi motif I stitched. It wasn’t hard to pick the size thread I should use. It wasn’t that hard to pick the color from my stash. I narrowed it down to a couple of options. But…..
I decided there
needed to be more of a buffer between the negative space in the stitching and
the tatted edging. But……
I couldn’t find the
floss I used. It’s here somewhere…..
I decided to use a
darker color to provide a bit of a mat effect. We’ll see where this takes me.
For those who
dislike hiding ends after tatting a lovely piece of lace. This post just may
give you the willies. To start with, I persevered with plunging the canvas of
the elephant ear to attach the applique piece.
The next step: tack
down the ends of the canvas.
I estimate it will take me weeks as I usually run out of steam after hiding 4 ends.
I wonder where that comes from?
Oh yeah….
tatting!