Saturday, November 5, 2016

The mail arrived.  I have a top-secret project in mind for these, if I can just figure out the Japanese method of diagramming.  It looks fairly straightforward.  The main thing will be to settle on a pattern to start with instead of hopping from picture to picture.


Sunday, October 23, 2016

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.




Saturday, October 1, 2016

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.


Tuesday, September 6, 2016

1I started this blog with such good intentions!

I finally get to  go to Palmetto Tatters' Tat Days  I've been wanting to for years, but had other obligations that weekend.  Now that's over, I can't wait to go immerse myself in a world of tatting for a couple of days.

Choosing the classes I wanted was a bit of a challenge.  As with miniatures, I went more for new techniques rather that interesting patterns.  I'll get the CD with all of the patterns anyway.  Okay, I admit, I did choose one class for the teacher more than the piece.  Jane Eborall's blog and website pages have been incredibly instrumental in my tatting abilities.  Of course I want to take her class!

I've picked out the threads I want to use for each class.  Now I need to choose beads for Jane's class and do all the prep work for the various classes, then get it all packed.  The hardest part may be choosing which of my many containers will be the most efficient for the weekend.

Toccoa, here I come!