Something Old, something New, something Blue.....

I completed a few things lately:

The square for the Brussels monument

There are 4 of them because I practiced Direct Chain tatting using up thread and then tried both size 30 and size 20. The smallest one turned out fine although I couldn’t tell you what I’d done to make it come out looking OK. By the time I tatted the largest one in size 20 thread, I wasn’t paying close attention and had to start over twice as I’d forgotten to join, or Reverse Work, or all three! The thread is Cebelia. Too soft for my taste, but it was the only size 20 pink I could lay my hands on.

That’s because I was packing for the workshop last Monday. It went well. I covered both needle and shuttle technique for DS. The group caught on fast. Perhaps because they all stitch and are comfortable with needle, thread, and were ready to have fun with knots. I look forward to coaching them. Perhaps we’ll even see some more tatting at the Fair.

I also complete the next section of Jane’s TIAS:

Since I’m on a roll, I plan to spend more time today and tomorrow finishing up projects. This coming weekend, I’m taking the Rigid Heddle Class that the Craft Guild is sponsoring. I’ll be working with wool. It’ll be a long 2 days, but I should have a cool scarf by the end.

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!

Thinking outside the round

Perhaps it’s because music is typically printed in square or rectangular format, but I’ve always been drawn to square shapes in tatting. No, I guess that can’t be the reason. Could be I’m just all angles and points. Regardless, when a friend showed me a copy of Workbasket from the 70’s, I had to try this from the tatting page:

Tatted Scarf Square from Workbasket

I thought that the onion ring corners might turn out better than my previous attempts at onion rings. The picots joining to the chains help. I rather like the negative space with the long picots from the center ring. I have a list of possibilities to dress that area up: beads, twisting, complex chains, maybe even daisy picot style wrapping. I left the square unblocked so that I could remember the issues working through the pattern easier. The center ring was a bit difficult to keep from twisting around as I tat the DS separated by so many picots. The chains forming the onion layers tended to wander away from where they were supposed to be due to the picots joining. Overall, I do like the basic structure. I’ll be writing up my notes and practicing making diagrams with this little bit.

snowflake from Lene Bjorn book 24 Snowflakes in Tatting

I have conquered block tatting! Finally! I’ve tried several patterns with block tatting sections before. They turned out OK, but I knew I wasn’t getting everything quite right. I hate that feeling. You’ve finished a project, it looks fine, but you know it isn’t quite right. This time I think I’ve used the correct stitch count and executed the chains in a much neater manner.

Snowflake by Lene Bjorn

I chose to use colors close to those used by the school we graduated from: University of Michigan. Go Blue!!

Practice, practice, practice….

I’ve been practicing my chains and lock joins. I’m not sure how this will turn out…..

progress on chains and lock joins

I’ve also been practicing my hymns…sort of. Need to get back at the keyboard today.