Nostalgia

Every so often I go looking through old photo files. Before starting my blog in 2003, I uploaded my photos and scans to an online photo server. I didn't have a scanner and had to use my sister's. I didn't have a digital camera at first either and even when I did get one, the closeups weren't that good. I actually started tatting in 1997. I took part in my first exchanges somewhere between 1998 and 1999.

This particular photo is at the I.O.L.I. convention held in Indianapolis that year. It was the first time I'd gone and I only went on vendor's day but I'd arranged to meet up with a few tatters while I was there. I don't think these were the people I actually said I'd meet up with, unless Diane was one of them and I do think she was. She is 2nd from the left. Rosemarie Peel is on the far left. She struck up a conversation with me and never once bothered to point out who she was or that she had written one of the few tatting books I had then. I recognized her name on her name tag but she was so friendly I wondered if it really was her. LOL! I had a lot to learn about how friendly tatters were and are. Diane and I had been partners in a few exchanges so it was great to see her in person.


This was my first meeting also with Mark Myers, aka Tatman. He was the one the people I emailed with to arrange the meet up. I think 4 or 5 of us thought we would be there. Somehow only a few of us managed to get in a photo together.

Yes, I had reddish-brown hair then! My youngest son had graduated from high school and I had just returned a few weeks earlier from my first trip to Ireland. One reason I was at the convention was to meet up with Ann Keller again after visiting her in her studio in Dublin. Wow - so many "famous" tatting people at one time! Can you tell I was absolutely thrilled?

This is from one of many bookmark exchanges I participated in. I don't remember who it went to but I was really getting into using two colors of thread. I tatted Irene Woo's Heart of the Butterfly that year - loved that pattern and still do. I used a lot of size 12 DMC perle cotton because it was one thread I could get at the Heirloom Corner (also new to me that year) and I loved its sheen.

This was a cross I made in one of my early exchanges. It was from a Workbasket and I loved the "celtic" shape of it. Even then I felt compelled to embellish my tatting. Little brass charms were becoming quite popular and I used this little angel to sit in the center. I made another one out of a soft green and put some green agate-like stones in the center of that one for my then-boyfriend in Ireland. No photos of that one and wish I'd taken one. It was exceptionally nice. This has always been my favorite cross pattern but I have not made another. It was fiddly and I think if I were to make it now, I know enough techniques to make it lay nicer and be easier to tat.


Wow! That last afghan I crocheted! It was also a gift to my Irish boyfriend.


And this is another reminder of Ireland. I started tatting Jane's then-famous bracelet. I used four shuttles AND that many threads because I used 2 colors and then a blending filament on each color. The button was gorgeous. You can't see it in the photo but it all had sparkle and shine. Yeah....I like sparkly things. LOL!