I went to Santa Fe last weekend to see some friends and some fall color.  I didn't want to go empty-handed, so I made a little suncatcher with one of those glass blobs that they use to fill vases.  The thread is by Marilee Rockley; the name of it is Hello October so it seemed like the ideal choice for this project.  The glass has an iridescent sheen that didn't photograph well, but I think will show up in real life.

The pattern is from the Facebook Tatters files, and was designed by Carolyn Craig to be made with a sixpence.  The central round is made twice, than the second round connects the two pieces and sandwiches the glass.  Then there's a third round with triple picots.  It was easy enough that I'm thinking about making some for Christmas gifts.

One of the classes I took at Toccoa was the Broomstick Picot Star, designed by Martha Ess.  I didn't get very far with it during that weekend, but I've finished it now.  I'd never done broomstick picots before, but I really like the way they sweep across the negative space.  As with most new techniques, there are places that I'm not happy with, but I'm comfortable enough with the pattern now that I'm sure the next one will turn out better.

Tat Days

For a few years now I've been wanting to go to Tat Days sponsored by the Palmetto Tatters.   It's held on the weekend after Labor Day, and for five years I've been in Temple with the Society of American Miniaturists for the Wonderful Workshop Weekend.  Well, this year I'm no longer on the SAM board, and I got to go to Toccoa for Tat Days!  My sisters and I made a 10-day trip out of it, and went to Asheville, NC and Atlanta, GA after Tat Days.

I met some great people and got to be all "tatting fan girl" for a couple of days.  Jane Eborall, Marilee Rockley, Karey Solomon, Georgia Seitz, Sherry Pence - I got to meet them all!  I took six classes, each one was 90 minutes long so I didn't finish any of the projects (yet) but I learned a lot.  I overheard a conversation about split rings (where else does that happen??) and made jokes about thread size.  

The Georgia Baptist Convention Center is located in the middle of tree-covered mountains, with a lake just outside of the dining hall.  Since I don't have photos of my projects (yet!) I'll leave you with some scenery.