TIAS - Day 5

Well, I finished this last evening just after returning home from the office. I really do enjoy Jane's mindset I'm just having trouble wrapping myself around her instructions for the modified Josephine Ring. I'll want to try it sometime when I'm not so tired and can follow the methodology.

I don't have a clue as to what we are all creating but I am enjoying the process. Oh, Jane ... how many clues can we anticipate?

TIAS - Day 4

Here is Clue 4 and can you see a difference from previous installments?

I changed my mind and decided that I wanted the colors reversed so I started over again this morning. I really like this version better ... at least at this stage of the game. Being female however, I do reserve the right to change my mind.

Hector Bracelet Plus

Well, even charging the batteries on my camera didn't help much. Since it is only a 3.2 megapixels, I think that the problem. At any rate, I finally finished the bracelet I started the 3rd of May. Yorkie Sue was still in the U.S. and we had so much fun.

It's difficult to see but the charms (starting at 1 o'clock and proceeding clockwise) are:

• Ruth Perry's Little Heart
• Sue Hanson's Ankh
• Sue Hanson's Lucky Horseshoe
• Lori Dunlap's Hat (tat off pattern from Palmetto Tatters Tat Days in 2005 Fan-TAT-istic)
• Sue Hanson's Blue Moon (mine is terrible; doesn't do Sue's pattern justcie)
• Sue Hanson's Button Sun
• my block tatted fan - no pattern; just an experiment
• Sue Hanson's Lucky 4 Leaf Clover
• Sue Hanson's Mini Star
• one of my beaded butterflies
• Sue Hanson's Celtic Triangle (I LOVE this pattern)

TIAS - Day 3

Here is Day 3 of Jane's latest Tat It And See. I have no clue and Jane just doesn't release the clues fast enough. Of course, I say that about and "craft"-a-long.

I just wish I had my son's camera. While mine does an okay job, his does so much better. He also has a wonderful eye and does take some wonderful pictures.

TIAS - Day 2 and other ramblings

I've already sent this onto Jane and she has posted to the TIAS blog but I thought I'd go ahead and post the picture here as well. I've been haunting the TIAS blog this evening hoping that the time would hurry so that I could do another of the exercises before heading to bed for sleep. Of course, it would be very early for Jane (~2 AM) as I write so I don't think she's about yet.

So I'll spend some time on my "infamous" soccer tablecloth. This is a project that I started a number of years ago ... probably as far back as 2001. The picture of the lace was taken in 2005 when my mother was visiting from Texas. The size at the time made it an overwidth tablerunner. I've since added another 9 rows of medallions along the length and need to add another nine rows to the length.

The name of this piece salutes the hours that I've spent with my boys at practices, games, and tournaments through the years. I could tat a stack of the individual medallions. When I would get home, I could then pay a bit more attention to the work to tat the medallions together into strips (usually about 8 long) and the tat the strips into blocks and then join the blocks. At the time the picture was taken, I figured that I had nearly 300,000 ds in the fabric itself.

I've challenged Ruth Perry (this medallion is her original motif) to design an edging to complete the cloth. I'm really excited about the prospect because Ruth is another of the designers whose work I love to tat. She uses negative space so well; her designs are really pleasing to my eye. The second picture is a closer picture of the way that each medallion is joined to the next. Originally, Ruth's suggestion would have joined the medallions on the corners but I wanted a more substantial (takes a lot longer too ) cloth. I plan to clean off the table this weekend (I really need to chase the dust bunnies!!) and lay out the lace onto my table again. This will really allow me to check to see whether or not the cloth needs to be bigger before I start the edging.

Newest TIAS

It certainly took me longer than usual to select my threads and the accompanying beads. the first day's tatting (hope it's not too far off the mark). I've also included The royal blue is Hakelgarn and the complimentary color (orange) is a Flora as is the "natural" I chose, a medium to light value gray. The beads are some hanks that I had gotten YEARS ago on a trip to the Cary-Raleigh, NC area when my boys were playing a tournament, probably a State Cup in that area. The beads simply scrumptious although I don't know the original brandname. They pick up and reflect so much of the light and reflect the thread colors but the beads do not appear to be irridescent.

The orange plain Clover is currently loaded with the six beads and the royal blue Hakelgarn. The orange Flora is loaded onto a beautifully decorated Clover shuttle. Hope Bates from Palmetto Tatters had a number of these at our Tat Days last September and I believe she is planning more for this coming September. The shuttle in the foreground is one made by Richard Seitz (yes, Georgia's DH). This one is made from laminate used for countertops and is a really lovely shuttle. I have several more pieces of laminate to send him that I picked up 2 years ago and had put them into a safe place. So safe that it only took two years and a little spring cleaning (good grief, but I need to do more) to find them. They'll go out in the post later this week.

PTG Lesson - Betty Magill's Heart of Gold Earrings

While I'm still working on Sue's charm bracelet (with fat wrists, I needed to make some more charms), I did finish a pair of earrings from our lesson the 17th at our Guild meeting. The prime purpose of the lesson was to share Sue Hanson's dimpled ring method. This method uses true dimples but the manner of working and closing them makes it very easy. Jane Eborall has posted the technique at http://www.e.n.e.btinternet.co.uk/dimplerings.htm. The primary difference appears to pay omage to Gary and Randy Houtz (The Shuttle Brothers) use of self-closing mock rings.

The pattern is a variation of Kim Millar's Basic Earring pattern that she posted to the web in 2000 (URL: http://www.geocities.com/kimmtats/basicearring/basicearpat.html). I love this pattern and the variations are practically unlimited ... of course, imaginative people use it unlimted, I need help. The change that Ms. Betty asked us to incorporate was on the center ring (where the jewelry findings are attached). We used a dimpled ring without any beads on it.

I used kidney wires for my jewelry findings as that is my personal preference. The thread is Flora 20 in a light to medium value grey and the beads are from some that I picked up YEARS and YEARS ago at the Hook, Shuttle and Needle shop in Cary, NC. If I remember correctly, one or the other of our sons was playing in a soccer (football to the rest of the world) tournament in the Raleigh area. I say the shop, an old house converted to a reatail shop, and the name intrigued me. I did a quick U-turn and spent a couple of hours exploring. I picked up 5 hanks of beads, the ones used here, some milky-white, translucent beads and some really sparkly, royal/emeral/purple beads.

Vist with Yorkie Sue!

Just got home from a wonderful day with Sue Hanson. She is such a trip with her purple hair and cape! Really enjoyed her lesson ... she has a wonderful way to manipulate a dimple ring. Her method really makes it so easy to close a dimpled ring. I hope she'll share it on either her blog or the HBT list on Yahoo.

There were nine of us and we laughed, shared goodies, tatted a bit, laughed some more, had soup together. When I had left, Karen L. had taken Sue, Erin, and Anitra on a shopping expedition to AC Moore's in Lexington. The store was having a sale.

When I get my charm bracelet completed (Sue's pattern), I'll post a picture. In the meantime, Happy Tatting to all.

PTG lessons

I'm really trying to complete some small projects this year, especially the lessons our members at Palmetto Tatters are willing to share. The above picture is a bracelet pattern designed by Deb Strickland, one of our newer members. She's had some health problems which have prevented her from tatting. Deb gave everyone kits with thread, rice beads, jump rings and a size 5 tatting needle.

Sharren Morgan from Greenwood, SC (one of the super teachers scheduled for Tat Days 2008 in September) helped demonstrate and most of us learned to needle-tat. I hadn't pick up a needle in a long, long time and had to have Sharren give me a personal tutorial.

When I first did the pattern, fifteen split rings to add the beads just wasn't long enough to go around my fat wrists, so I dug into my bead stash and decided to "stack" 3 size 8 beads. The center bead in each group of three doesn't show very well in the scan above, but it is a smoky, translucent bead that really sets all the color variations well. The finished piece is just under 8 inches (20 cm); I just have to get some silver-toned jewelry findings to add to the jump rings and I'll be ready to wear it.