Sometimes I just like to ramble. I have been tatting but am not ready to show it yet. I even brought some with me to work on during lunch.

So what inspires you to tat?

Is it something you need to embellish?
Is it to relieve stress?
Is it the challenge of mastering something done only by hand?
Is it to keep the art alive?
Is it a compulsion with no clear purpose behind it?
Is it an excuse to play with thread and color?
Is it the feel of that oddly shaped tool in your hand?
Is it to add income?
Is it something to keep your mind and hands busy?
Is it an excuse to eat chocolate? (or drink wine?)
Is it an excuse to brag about how talented and intelligent you are? (wink)
Is it an exercise in patience?
Is it a reason to be competitive?
Is it an excuse to collect ...stuff?
Is it so you can have a reason to have a blog?
Is it to make a meaningful gift from the heart?
Is it about research you've been asked to do?
Is it to test your eyesight?
Is it an excuse to poke yourself in the finger with a hook and make sure you're not dreaming? (only joking Fox!)
Is it the social atmosphere?
Or do you just love, love, love it for all of the above reasons?

I was going through some papers and such recently and found some embroidery designs from Mary Corbet of Needle n Thread. I do like to embroider but I had actually saved them because they looked like great ideas for tatting designs. I admit I get irritated with blogs and websites that only show you a snippet and then you have to click on "read more" to get the rest of the story. Most of the time I don't. But sometimes I do, if I'm really really intrigued and have time to kill. More often than not though, you've lost me. At any rate, I saved these. As much as I'd like to show them, I haven't asked permission but do a google image search on Mary Corbet and you'll eventually find them.

Unless you're like me and get irritated at having to go somewhere else. LOL!

Okay, here's the link!

And here's some eyecandy from the past!

This came from one of those online generators around Valentine's Day one year.

This was a ripple edging from Mary Maynard's Book, Four Square Tatting. The tatting designs resemble some simple quilt designs. This is something I've always wanted to explore more but I haven't gotten any further.

Before Riet taught another version of this at Palmetto, I'd seen a woven picot bookmark that was done in an exchange. I eventually got hold of the person who tatted it, probably 4 or 5 years after the fact, and got some basics on how to go about it. For the longest time, I saw long, woven picots in all my design ideas. Some will eventually come to fruitation. It's a neat, but tricky, technique that requires significant planning ahead.

I took part in lots of exchanges over the years. One of the early ones had to do with embellishing a card with tatting for your partner. I've been asking myself if this is one I sent or one I got? I think I sent it. I vaguely remember buying the card and I recognize that Manuela variegated that everyone loved, and I do remember the two cards I got, one with a tatted curtain (so clever) and another with a little bear and tatting on it, but....I didn't note it in the photo caption. So, it might have been done by someone else and just gave me the idea to follow the same idea on yet a different card.

See.....you wished you'd written on the back of those printed out pics who was who and where and when the photo was taken.....ya gotta do the same thing with digital too!

Have a great day everyone!