Alrighty! I absolutely could not find an allowance in this template for links in the sidebar. I finally found it in another blog and borrowed it for here, but I still had to play around to get it readable! I also want to change the hover and visited colors, but haven't quite figured that out either. I have lots of html resources - it's just a matter of sitting down and reading through them. I'd rather tat. But I have to clean first. LOL!

YESTERDAY.......................

I was up by 5:30 a.m. and getting ready to go to Ft. Wayne. I found out they were in the same time zone so that saved me an hour but I was still there almost an hour early so I drove around a little, found a one lane iron bridge with a lovely stream and took several photos there. I still arrived about 20 minutes early but there were lots of early arrivals so I didn't feel out of place. The Ft. Wayne group is a nice sized group of tatters. I only knew two people, besides Mark & Kim, and that was Mary Harris, who publicized the event, and Laura who had attended a tatting day in Pendleton year before this.

We spent the morning learning to do the Daisy Picot which I've linked to Gale's site so you can see for yourself how to do. Mark also had several variations on the original for us to play with. Two of them were featured in the necklace and earrings he designed for us to make. Then after a scrumptious lunch, we started on the project. I made one earring that I'm not entirely happy with. Instead, I believe I will do the necklace motif, including beads as Mark did, and use the spiral stitch for the neck chain. Might be awhile before I get to it though. Jewelry isn't a big priority with me and I need to start on Christmas gifts.



The red and white are my practice pieces and the pink is the earring. I joined my picots on the earring center ring which weren't joined in the pattern, and I added a few stitches in the chains. So I'd like to do it over without joining the picots, without the extra stitches, and with beads, and maybe 2 colors that would provide more contrast. I used a solid pink and a pink variegated which didn't show that much difference.

One woman brought a huge bag of tatting thread, ranging from size 60 to 80, for everyone to help themselves to. I got some lovely colors I've not had - including the red/green I was really looking for originally for the hummer. I didn't catch her name, but I am so grateful for her generosity. J & P tatting thread is not available here, only DMC.