Make Your Mark

 I tell my students that frequently. Of course, they usually interpret it just a bit different than I do. I spend a lot of time encouraging the judicious use of pen (never pen) and post-it notes (seldom highlighter) so that their brain can focus on tasks that cannot be “marked” as they create.

Setting my organ hat aside, I have suggestions for those who look to me when I have my tatting hat on.

Understand and accept there is no standard notation. Just as there are many ways to write out how a team should line up for the start of play, there are many ways to write out how to execute a tatting pattern. I do recommend being familiar with the notation documented and made available to us by these wonderful organizations:

- Palmetto Tatting Guild: https://www.palmettotatters.org/patterns/StandardTattingNotationforPTGTatDays.pdf

- Shuttlebirds Tatting Guild: https://www.shuttlebirds.com/tatting_abbreviations1.shtml

I also recommend that you be kind to yourself. The more you note by marking a pattern, the more brain power you have available to create beautiful lace. You have a powerful brain. If you feel a bit overloaded and overwhelmed, chances are you need to use a tool (like a pencil or post-it) to help out your brain. By using thread grown, spun, dyed, and marketed by others, you’re already using tools. Using a pencil can seem like it slows you down, but your lace will be more exquisite if you make your mark.

Shuttlebirds cancelled Lace Museum still on tentatively

We spent yesterday discovering what the flooring was like under the carpet in a bedroom. All things considered, it is in pretty good shape.

That took my mind off the fact that Shuttlebirds will be postponing their Tat Days until April 2021. I will plan to teach and enjoy getting to know them in a year.

The Lace Museum in Sunnyvale is still operating, so I hope that we can still hold that workshop. We’ll see what the government decides.

In the meantime, I’m making progress on the Elephant canvas. I think by this time we were to be stitching the final section. I’m just finishing lesson 1. Hope to share a picture soon!

The tough get tatting

The cancellation of the Noon concert took the wind out of my sails yesterday afternoon. I had to sit myself down and remind myself that the Lace Museum workshop is a month away. A lot can happen in 5 weeks. While the news from Sunnyvale and Santa Clara County is grim, so far, I have hope that all will be well in 5 weeks. I also have hope that all will go as planned 2 weeks later at the Shuttlebirds Tat Days. I have not finalized my travel plans, but need to soon.

As I was contemplating the next few days, watching a squirrel under the oak trees, my biggest fan commented, “Well, when the going gets tough, the tough get tatting.”

I’ll be tatting today!

Substitutions

Since my injury, I’ve been on a journey of last minute gigs for organ jobs. I’m the substitute in the wings colleagues call when life happens. Almost each time it is for a happy event: babies coming early, winning a trip to a wonderful location (Paris!), and receiving a gift of time with a treasured friend. Sometimes the events are not so cheerful. Last week I received one of those breathless "I have good news and a request" calls. I filled in Sunday, will fill in Wednesday and a few Fridays. More information on those Noon concerts in a later post. Right now I must gather my music and shoes and get busy!

Good thing I finished all the samples for the workshops last week!! Pictures have already been shared as much as I’m allowed. You’ll just have to sign up for Sunnyvale Lace Museum or Shuttlebirds Tat Days to join in more fun with those patterns. Classes are filling, so get your application in (scholarships are available for new tatters).

Spring Tat-along

Announcing a new tat-along for 2020!

Renulek has started releasing her Spring doily! I like how the pattern looks this year. I’m still working on the 2017 “napkin” (gotta love Google translate!) so I won’t be starting this one. I see a patriotic color scheme though.

Join in! The doilies work up quite nicely.

Oh, and classes are beginning to fill up for Shuttlebirds2020. More excitement!

Joy in orange

😀

I’ve been working on this sample for months. Not steadily, but whenever the deadlines clear enough to pick up a pattern I can work in small sections. And because the center section has beads added as you go, not loaded onto thread prior to tatting, I didn’t work on this in the car but rather just sitting around the house. OK, those of you who know me can stop laughing! I rarely just sit. I’m usually doing two things at once: tatting and …… watching TV, talking to friends, reading a book on the computer, listening to music that I want to analyze/perform, ….. you get the idea.

Anyway…..

This sample is in vintage thread using size 15 blue beads. I rather like it. Orange is associated with joy and happiness, so this makes me smile. Or perhaps that is because I’m looking forward to teaching in April and May. Join me!

Lace in Sunnyvale

I spent a wonderful day Monday exploring the Lace Museum inSunnyvale, CA. They were in the process of photographing some of the recent donations, so I didn’t get out my little phone and get in the way. I'll be teaching there in April: here's the flyer. We’re going to have great fun looking at vintage and heritage patterns to update our imagination. If you will be in California just before Shuttlebirds, consider attending the 2 day workshop I will be leading at the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale. You will receive my Sonata pattern with one-on-one help tatting up the doily. I’m looking forward to learning a lot from those who come to tat with me.

Gift idea!

Treat your favorite tatter to a workshop!

I offer these two possibilities:

 Adapting Tatting Patterns using Sonata in Sunnyvale, CA at the Lace Museum. I’ll be guiding students through looking at vintage tatting patterns, taking inspiration from music for tatting designs, and step by step guidance through my pattern Sonata. Side trips to area museums and local attractions will be encouraged! I plan to visit San Francisco while I’m there.

Celebrating in the woods close to Spokane, Washington with Shuttlebirds. The theme is Mardi Gras. I’ll be teaching my Joy bookmark pattern, a snazzy way to decorate candle sticks, and guiding students through my motif inspired by a Bach Cantata. I hope to get lots of ideas for ways to use tatting in costumes for Laissez les bon temps!

Both of my classes at these workshops will be taught using needle and shuttle techniques. So, rest assured, the lace maker in your life will be creating wonderful lace! You can find the registration form on the LaceMuseum website to use as a gift registration for the Sonata workshop, or create a coupon to be redeemed for the weekend in the mountains. Registration will open beginning late January on the Shuttlebirds website.

We’ll see you there as we have tatting good fun!

Application for Shuttlebirds Tatting Workshop and Retreat is in

I’ve stepped off the edge AGAIN!

I turned in my application to teach at Shuttlebirds in Idaho next May. That will make the spring very busy. What have I committed to?

Singing/playing during Lent (Holy week in 2020 is April 5-11)

Teaching at the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale (April 18-19, 2020)

Walking 5K in the Big Sur Marathon (April 26, 2020)

With the Workshop/Retreat in Idaho (April 30-May 3, 2020), that will make those weeks quite a flurry of activity! Truth be told, I just couldn’t resist a Carnival!

So, if you want to get away right after Easter for an in depth weekend looking at Sonata, contact Kim at the Museum.

If you want to walk or run along the edge of the Pacific, register now!

If my application is chosen, I’d be pleased to meet up in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest for a tatting party. Just bookmark here and watch for registration to open.

Grab those shuttles and join in the fun! Mmmmm maybe I should have something on the shuttles I can tat while walking in April………

It's turned in.......

.

....my application to teach next May at the Shuttlebirds Tat Days.

I’m excited to be jumping in on this adventure of teaching about and around. If you have enjoyed tatting in the North West, let me know. I hope to meet more tatters I’ve been following, and who have followed me, online.

Chicks from Hen and Chicks with beads

As part of the OnLine Tatting class, we’ve been discussing Vintage patterns as rewritten using modern tatting techniques and notation. As a musician, this seems such a natural process. Baroque music was frequently written with just a bass line and numbers that we call Figured Bass. Guitar players use Tablature rather than Grand Staff. But, I digress…..

Chicks with Beads

Hen and Chicks is a beloved pattern many, many tatters have used to create yards and yards of lace. Many years ago, I create a bookmark pattern using beads based on this simple Vintage pattern. I have found teaching it to be quite rewarding. Now, it’s a very simple pattern. As tatting patterns go, there’s not a lot to distinguish it. But, it seems to fit the bill for requests of a pattern to tat from knitters and crochet fans.

All this is to say that I’ve gone back and dusted off the file and added a picture. I just may propose this as a class for my next adventure at a tatting conference. Mmmm….when is the deadline????