I'm back from balmy Miami to frigid Lafayette! A light dusting of snow is on the ground. I arrived at the airport about 10:45 last night and by the time I got to my car in the economy lot, it was 11:35 p.m. I was home at 12:35 p.m., on the dot.

I had a great week with Hope and her husband, Alan.
Alan fixes superior meals for one thing.
He also took me to a used book store, which for me, is a supreme way to end the visit!

There will be more later but here are a few highlights. Keep in mind this is a new camera and I was learning as I went.............along with being in unfamiliar surroundings and wanting to tat more than take pics most of the time.

Me and Hope with the lovely dinner Alan fixed. Yes, we each had our own plate - we were sitting together for the photo. LOL!


We were working on The Peppermint Twist ring from my Greenfield Heirloom Corner Tatting Day and the Daisy Picot variations from the Fort Wayne Tatting Day with Mark Myers. You better believe we had already scoped out every bit of tatting/patterns from each other by this time! And as I'm thinking of it.....there is so much we did NOT do! Hopie - you never tried out the wooden picot gauge! We looked at it and felt it and turned it over but never actually tatted with it or the other one I brought. LOL! Well, what an excuse to visit again!


I was disappointed that the neighboring peacock was still a bit blurred in this photo. It was among the first I took. There are a few clearer ones of the less colorful one that I'll send to Hope.

We also went to a knit shop with threads, a scrapbook shop, a sewing shop, the bead store, the Container Store, and the ice-cream-to-die-for place! LOL! And.........I just remembered that I forgot to photograph the Luv2tat license plates!

So, it's going to take me a bit to process all this..........

BTW, for those interested, Hope says getting the blog in the mail loads so much faster than on the webpage - because it's only loading that entry, not the whole blog. So if you are interested in getting it by email, sign up there with the link in the upper right.

The doily I was working on............I'm to the very last point but knew I might run out of thread on one shuttle while still on the plane so it's not quite done and ready to show, but it is turning out quite nice.

Hope has put tatting on so much of her wardrobe and the lady sews like she is a full-time tailor! Amazing. Beautiful quilts too. Wish you all could see everything I saw!!!!

Here's the crinoline lady I sent to my exchange partner. I'm assuming she received it, as it's been a week on Monday. She may be out of town since I haven't seen her on the list. This is from Pam Palmer's Tatting Treats Two. I used a variegated Oren Bayan size 50 thread for the dress and white for the bonnet. Odds and ends of flowers that I make up to get the last bits of thread off a shuttle make up her bouquet.

Yesterday I came across the Martha Ess pattern that I wanted to make .................and forgot. Oh well, another time.

I found it!!!!!!!

The picot gauge!

I decided to do a quick vacuum since the cats are shedding from being indoors more. I hadn't intended to move any furniture, but I suddenly decided to pull out the recliner where I sit and tat most of the time and sweep underneath. Just as I decided to do that, an image of the picot gauge underneath flashed through my mind. I pulled the chair out and ..........................you guessed it - there it was!!!! It is now packed safe and sound in my luggage.

I am so close to ending the second round of that motif. My eyes kept slamming shut and I realized I made a boo-boo and opened the ring to retro-tat before deciding to give it up and go to bed.

Since I'm so close - but needing a shower after my treadmill and cleaning foray - I'll wait til I'm done to post this, so I can include a progress photo.


Round 2 complete. One more round - this one is going to be very pretty. I might even frame it when I'm done!


Gingerbread Monkeys! I loved making these last night. Dusted with powdered sugar for a quick frost.

Bummer! I just lost the bid on a shuttle I really really wanted. It's rare I want one that bad, but I did. Oh well. I hope the winner knows how to tat.

I've been getting my stuff ready to go to Hopie's on Monday. Can't find my wooden picot gauge on a ring. The last time I remember having it was at Tatting Day in Greenfield. I don't use them much so I haven't had reason to look for them. I'm so disappointed. Looked everywhere, in everything I might possibly have put them. One last place to look is in the car - maybe they fell out in there.

In the meantime, I got a new digital camera, though I don't have the software installed on the pc yet. I've managed to clean more than I expected while searching for the gauge. Worked on the little doily a bit more and I'm almost done with round 2.

As I started pulling out tatting stuff to take with me, I found about 3 UFO's to work on, plus several things I want to try and that will be more fun to tackle with a friend. I tend to take way more than I'll ever work on, but this is the first time I've gone to meet with a tatter too. Usually when I travel, I take something with me to work on during odd moments, times when I have to wait, so they are usually small and uncomplicated.

I missed a great event today with the Indy Tatting Guild. First I thought my dishwasher was going to be installed and only found out yesterday that it wouldn't but I decided I really did not have enough time and energy to make the hour plus drive each way with everything else I wanted to get done.

Well, I think I'll console myself with playing now.

Can't say this was a productive day in terms of tatting. Everything I did, I had to undo and redo. LOL! Yep, those two outer points............the first time, it was only a ring and a chain. The second time, it was several rings and chains - but I didn't want to cut and tie and hide ends! This is going to end up bigger than I expected. I like these colors. This is one of the threads from Perfect Quilter. I believe this one is Confetti. I made the shells out of Camouflage. It works up nice and is strong. It does seem a little fuzzy if you have to fiddle with it, but the colors and other attributes make it worth it.

Just finished the first round of another motif in Susanne Schwenke's book, Spintzen-Jdeen. It's on page 32 if you have the book - but the first 2 rounds are actually the motif on the previous page. Now the fun part is .......self-closing mock rings and rings thrown off of those rings. I've done the scmr but hadn't thrown a ring off of one before...........so I started over 3 times before I got it!

Want to know how to do them? Go here. This is the home page of Randy & Gary Houtz, tatting brothers extraordinaire, with instructions and photos of the self closing mock ring and how to do rings off of those.

Okay, I finished a second crinoline lady and that's the one I will send to my partner tomorrow, so I can show the first one I made now!



This one is Bonnie by M.E. Shaw.

Now, I hope to tat a hat band for the visor I'm taking to FL!

I'm going to experiment with something. If you would like automatic updates of this blog click here. It's a yahoo group mailing list. If you join the group, you will automatically get the latest entry I post by email. We'll give it a try and see how it goes. I'll probably set the list up to approve members only because of the spam issue.

Wow, Wednesday already, which is nearly over too! It's been a full week and the next two nights are spoken for too. This morning I was home waiting on a phone guy to come and install a new phone jack -which took him less than 1/2 hour. Now I need another electrical outlet in that room and I can get things moving again. I got an estimate today - I already had one for several electrical things I need done, but decided to just do this for now. Then this weekend, someone is coming to install the dishwasher my sister gave me. Aaack! I still need to go get a garbage disposal - they're going to replace mine at the same time. sigh.......................

My granddaughter is in a play Friday night. Tomorrow night scrapbooking at my sister's.

I started another crinoline lady this morning. This one will be bigger, so I might send it instead of the one I've already finished. Assuming I have time to tat. I want to make the other clamshell too, with Mark's suggestion to space the rows with tiny rings. And I think a seahorse would be the perfect complement to the arrangement.

And in between, I'm trying to get things ready to go visit Hopie!!! We're going to compare notes about Lacis Day and Tatting days and books and threads and projects................I'm so excited!

Click on pic to see a larger image.

Here's what I ended up with. I like the first shell, but I want to redo the second one. It was okay until I added all those picots around the bottom. Now it just looks fuzzy! LOL! So I will make another one, maybe shape it a little more and put a scallop on the bottom instead of picots. The thread is more of a pale muddied green and purple. It looks better on the first shell. I think I will try a snail shell without the snail too. I might open up the clamshell more - have spaces between the rows, so I don't have to tat so intensely.

There was a coconut shuttle from Rosita's (of course) that I wanted to bid on but didn't get back in time to do that. No matter - I am going to the Isle of Barbados anyway and will find my own shuttle. If they are that prolific there - then it will be worth it, plus the scenery and all! Whoo-whee!

No, I don't have it booked yet. Maybe over the winter.

It's been a productive tatting day so far. I tatted through most of our lace meeting and had most of the crinoline lady done before I left. It is much smaller than I expected. Not sure why I thought it would be so big. Anyway, I finished it here at my daughter's. But I won't show it until my partner gets to see it first.

I've also tatted a seashell. None of what I saw was big enough. I have three spaces about 3 x 5 inches so a 1 inch motif isn't going to look right. I've got one shell done - just a freehand sort of thing but I think it turned out well. I used one of the new threads that I ordered (which arrived today). I think this one is called camouflage, but it is a variegated gray/beige. I'm working on another shell now, the flatter clamshell shape.

I'm watching the grandkids and we just got done watching NEMO. Such a cute story. I love Dorie! What a character!

Fortunately, I brought my styrofoam lid that I block tatting on and now have both items on there! Might have a third before the evening is over. I brought enough to keep me good and busy - as if these kids don't . LOL! Katie is 10, Michael is 9, and Richie is 7. Tommy is 16 and at a dance right now. He looked so nice in his dress clothes and tie. I love my family!

I love how fragile the lavender rings look on this. It really didn't take long to finish up. Using 2 colors does tend to show spots in the block so maybe one color would be more suitable for this one, but I do like it.

My lace group meets tomorrow morning. I haven't been to a meeting for a few months now. I need to get volunteers for Dickens of a Christmas in December. I'm feeling a bit burnt out on demonstrating myself, but I'll try to get a few hours in too.

I have a few seashell patterns now, but I suspect they are too small for what I want. The space is probably 4 x 6 inches and there are 3 of them. Maybe 3 x 5 inches. But I have some ideas and will work on them after I do my crinoline lady.

I'm watching my grandkids tomorrow overnight at their house so mom & dad can have a weekend away. That means I won't get much done here. I scheduled the phone company to come out one day next week and install a phone jack in one of the bedrooms that is now my sewing/craft room. I want to put my computer in there too, plus I got an estimate from an electrician about adding a few outlets and doing a few other things here. Sigh...............I had all this lined up to do by a friend once, but something came up so I'm back to square one. I want to get it done before Thanksgiving for sure. I still need to get new carpet in the living room but I have to wait until I can move stuff into the bedrooms and I don't want to do that until all the other work is done in there.

Think I'll go pick my colors for the crinoline lady now. But I won't be saying anything else about it, in case my partner reads this. Don't want to spoil the surprise!

Another day, another point on the star! LOL! I don't think I'll get to finish it tonight - too many other things I had to catch up on. But very soon!

Scrapbooking at my sister's tonight, got another page done and started a new one. By the time I got home, not all that long ago, I had things to do and my daughter called about the weekend.............and suddenly, I'm out of time.

Got the latest issue of Anna today. This link actually goes to the Caron Threads site which then links to Anna, but the Anna link wouldn't work when I tried it. There are some nice free patterns on this site though. From the issue I got today, I liked the crochet lace edgings with gold along the outer edge. Nice Christmas touch. No tatting at all in this issue, but it put me in the Christmas mood.

Got my crinoline lady exchange partner this evening. I want to get started on it too!

I also ordered three spools of thread from Perfect Quilter. I got a sample from Nell once and really liked it but have never managed to get around to ordering some for myself. For one thing, I wonder if I will really use that much thread up. I'm already drowning in thread!

I'm looking for a tatted seashell pattern. If you know of one, please email me! Just click over there on the right to email me!

I got some tatting in during my lunch hour and this evening. I'm working on another snowflake star from the same book. This one has some block tatting in it and I'm using 2 different colors. I'm down to the last 2 points and it will be done.

Right after work, I met with 2 other co-workers to work on our Spanish. One is a native to Spain and is our "teacher". I brought my copy of Realce so she could see what I wanted to translate. She loves my tatting. She told me her mother does bobbin lace and that is really big in Spain. She didn't call it bobbin lace though. She told me there were these long wood things and you move them back and forth, while she was going through the motions with her hands. (gg) Easy to recognize what she was talking about. So she learned from me too, that those tools are called bobbins and the method is bobbin lace. I couldn't tell what word she used. LOL! I knew enough Spanish before I met Elena that I could follow along and get the gist of the directions, but not enough to do it without the diagrams.

I'm finding in this German book I'm using, that it lacks arrows/symbols to tell you where the starting point is, but the written directions are easy enough to figure that out. However, the written directions don't tell you to reverse work, so I rely on the diagram for that. There is a translation of terms and abbreviations in the back and they've been immensely helpful. There is one more design in this book that I love and want to do. It looks like a bit larger project than the snowflakes though.

I saw the logo for fiber art blogs on Tatman's page so I joined that ring - don't think it's approved yet. I tried the etatter's webring before that but I couldn't get the logo to show up for some reason. I might try again later, because I did get the same message with this FA logo, but somehow I got it figured out.

Well, it's late & I'm tired. Tomorrow is scrapbooking day!

Oh Mi Gawd! I've died and gone to Tatter's Heaven!!!!!

I was checking out more on Tea's Tatting Blog (link to the right->) and found these delicate photos:

tatting bag
square & star
square, purl tatting, & gems!

This is the list of the Japanese Tatter's Webring.

I haven't begun to look at all these beautiful bits of lace! Here are some samples. Whenever something lit up under my cursor, I clicked on it. You don't have to know the language to appreciate beauty.

Motifs from round robin
Jewelry
Click on anything you can - EYE Candy!
More! I recognize one motif I made from a Japanese book!
Exchanges!

Mark giving some added help.

There were three tables of tatters!



Some of Mark's talent. Wish my camera took better detail photos.

I have more photos but now that I know I may have to redo all of these, I'm reluctant to show them all. This is a lovely tatting guild. Wish they were closer!

I finished the snowflake last night. It's tatted from Handy Hands Flora, size 20, color 84 and the pattern is from Susanne Schwenke's Spitzen-Jdeen which can be ordered from Tatting Designs. It may be available within the States too - this was the 1st place my search turned up. I see an 8 point star I would like to do too, but won't have time before I turn in my review. There is quite a bit of block tatting used in these designs - just little blocks that add a different effect. I may try one of the edging to see how that works out. I'm wondering about the color effect too, since chains are easily another color. There are some patterns for egg and round shapes - such as Christmas balls or Easter ornaments.

I just found out today that the program I've been using to make thumbnails for this only holds the link for 3 months! So now I've got to figure something else out or I'll be spending all my time fixing broken links.

Going to walk on the treadmill now and then later I'll do the Tatting Day photos.

I signed up for a crinoline lady exchange this week. I should get my partner in another day or two.

Angelique
Crinoline Lady by Roger
Bonnie
Miss Caroline
There is a crinoline lady in Pam Palmer's Tatting Treats Two
2 in old workbaskets
1 in Big Book of Tatting

These are the patterns I know of so far. I would love to see some new designs!

I just remembered, I left my photos out in the car, but I got the roll developed with pics from Tatting Day in Ft. Wayne. I'll try to get to those tomorrow. I also need to get a pattern to someone - as soon as I find it again, Jill!