TIAS days 6-7, Mystery Doily and Earrings

Here is the next 2 days work on TIAS. You can see how it was cupping, before I gently stretched it out. I don't know if this means my picots are too long or too short.

I had also started in on the Mystery Doily that so many other tatters have been working on.

This weekend is Tucson Meet Yourself, and the tatting club will be there demonstrating lace. It looks like there will be even more 'folk artists' this year, and I'm looking forward to some delicious food from all the world's corners!

Milena, Delia and the County Fair

I finished Milena over a week ago. I did iron it but the tatting club was demonstrating at the Pima County Fair, so it's not as flat as it was.

 SO CLOSE to finishing Delia (only 3 rings left!) and my shuttle's out of thread :(

I think I'll start Beatrice next...

And from the Pima County Fair, another blue ribbon. It doesn't seem as cool when yours is the only tatting entered. If you notice that it looks different from the last photo I posted, I added parchment paper as the background. It looks like rice paper!

Last three months

I've let this fall by the wayside :|

So, TMY happened...months ago now, but here's our table: 

There were SO MANY PEOPLE! We even got 2 new members out of this weekend. Showing that you can make jewelry really helps intrigue fellow young ladies.

Then last month the Lacy Ladies of Phoenix, AZ had their annual Lace Days. I randomly found out about it somewhere online, otherwise we wouldn't even have known about it! We got there a little late, but they started with a little history of bobbin lace. They had lots of old lace and bobbin pillows (of course, I didn't take pictures...) We took a class to learn bobbin lace, and once I realized it's just weaving without a loom, it was really easy! My first two pieces:

On the left is just practicing the three basic stitches: Cloth(Linen), Whole, and Half. If you start by yourself, it's better to leave the half stitch for last, 'cause it will look like you're doing something wrong. On the left is my second piece, a snake bookmark. It's twisted in this picture b/c I haven't ironed it yet. I'm currently doing a third bookmark that will be all just half stitch. Don't know what I'll do with them, I prefer to use paper as bookmarks b/c I can write on them.

Also at Lace Days were plenty of things to buy...wish I had gotten some 40/80 Lizbeth, but I FINALLY got two books I've been wanting forEVer -

I immediately started in on the Spinning Wheel that I've been seeing everyone else make -

First time, the thread kept breaking :(

 

And then I ran out of thread on the shuttle :(

So I've had to set that aside for the time being. Especially with the Norwegian Fair coming up (happened this last Saturday). Judith Lind, the founder of our local tatting group, was Norwegian so the group has always sold tatting at this fair. It was a little weird b/c tatting is so old, no one country can really claim it as "theirs", and Mrs. Lind was the only one in the group whose ancestors hailed from there. I made a number of earrings and sold all but three pairs! I might have sold them all if I'd not gotten there 2 hours late (trying to finish the earrings). They had some delicious food though!

And with that over, I can get back to other projects. I've start in on this other Konior pattern, Rosa Frivola.

This book is ridiculous, I want to be making every single thing in here right now. Impossible!

Non-tatting news: Our bougainvillea finally put out "blooms" again! (The bright pink in the photo are actually specialized leaves, only the little white things are the true flowers)

And they've since moved on, but back in October we had our annual butterfly mating days (I've only just gone through the photos)

This years butterflies seemed extra antsy, it was really difficult to get close enough to get a good pic.

I will never let this go this long again :) So much to post!

Getting ready

The Judith Lind Tatting Club participates in Meet Yourself Tucson - spend a weekend letting everyone know we're there, show off our tatting skills and even teach a few people how to do it. We're going to have business cards to hand out, each with a little piece of tatting on them, so we're all tatting up little motifs. I don't want to do the same little motif for every single one (boring!) so I've been scouring my patterns for things that I could do.

LadyShuttleMaker had put up a pattern for a little treble clef a while ago but I had never gotten around to trying it out. I don't want to have to learn a new technique(folded ring) to do this, because I want this to be quick and easy. I thought if I change the pattern so I'm using the same technique Ruth Perry uses in her tatted Celtic snail, it could work out really well and I wouldn't have to worry about keeping to any stitch counts. I would also have more control over the look of the clef - I began learning to play the piano when I was in 3rd grade and picked up a few other instruments over the years. I've always thought the treble clef was beautiful, so I guess I'm a bit picky about the look.

 

The next ones will be even better. I suppose I'm not saving any time by not learning to do a folded ring, but I tried to understand the directions and my brain is just not getting it tonight. This Celtic way is easier to tat though - practically one long chain book-ended by two small rings. I think in the next one I'm going to make the top ring into a mock ring (a chain joined to itself)...might allow it to lay flatter.

Finally Finished!

Finished and flattened.So happy this is done; I enjoy tatting but sometimes a project just becomes a chore :(





Annika over at Tatting It Up was giving away some handmade shuttles; Got it a while ago, along with some of her lovely hand dyed thread but had no ideas on what to start working on. Luckily our local tatting group, the Judith Lind Tatting Club, meets once a month and during this summer there are technique demonstrations. For July, we learned front-side/back-side tatting:


I'm excited to incorporate this technique into more projects! Now I must plan for August's meeting: I'm teaching the split chain! The first time I was introduced to the split chain was this geekalicious bookmark by Anne Bruvold. That bookmark ended up leading to a slightly larger geeky project, but I think I'll save that for a future post.