Backlog & giveaway

I have so many things to blog about, just haven't sat down to do so...need to get on that. Heather over at Tatted Treasures is doing a giveaway of one of David Reed Smith's beautiful handcrafted wooden shuttles. Head on over and enter!

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.

LOVE my mom

Mom went to The West today - it's a 501c3 that sells many things including many goodies for needlework. This is what she brought home to me:

I've been wanting to learn needle tatting for a while...to the point where I just picked up a regular (pointy sharp) needle and started:

 

It was slow going...b/c I poked my finger a lot, but now I can needle tat properly!

WIPs

The Delusional Knitter is trying to finish her works-in-progress and has invited everyone to join her. My problem is that I only knit if I've found a pattern I really really want to do. Knitting is really too painful for my hands to do on any sort of regular basis. So I won't be participating...because I don't have any WIPs :) I do have a crochet project that isn't finished yet - a cowl necked top from Mission Falls - but that was put away for the move and hasn't been unpacked due to the heat.

The last two weeks she's had an Optional Side Quest to organize your needle stash, which means I win because I already completed that when I joined ravelry !_!

Hanky!

WAY back in May Diane was giving away many many hankies. The minute I saw the first picture I knew which one I wanted - didn't even need to look at any of the others (though, of course I did). Before I even received it, I knew which thread I wanted to use - Lizbeth Leaf Green Lt. I have never made a hanky edging before, didn't even have any patterns, so I decided to go searching through the ol' DMC library till one caught my eye. The Tatting Goddess was also tatting up this pattern. I had to cut and restart twice b/f I got the picot lengths right.

 

This project will probably be in the 'not finished' state for a while...I'll probably only work a tiny bit at a time while I have these three other LARGE projects going. I promise Diane, it'll get done eventually!

Tatted Treasures Give-away

Fasttatter is giving a begining tatters toolkit away over here. There are many ways to enter! Ends midnight August 31st.

Test Tatting for Bree

Bree wanted some input/test tatters for her new motif. I found her diagram to be straight forward - the only big problem ended up being the thread I chose :( The blue variagated is the only Lizbeth that I've had trouble tatting with...don't know why. It took three days because the rings wouldn't close. It's a lovely pattern to tat up, and I'll be making more of these - just with different thread :)