2009 TatDays in the Books!

The Palmetto Tatters Guild 2009 event "I've Been Bitten by the Tatting Bug" is now history. I believe everyone enjoyed themselves ... I know we (DH and me) certainly did. Lots of work but it was worth it to see everyone we hadn't seen for a year and meeting face-to-face tattings friends that we had only meet through the Internet. There was lots of shopping, classes, shopping, laughs, shopping, chocolate (of course!), and did I mention shopping!!! Kudoes to JoannieC and HopeB as the co-chairs! Both of them, with the rest of their team, did a wonderful job. As everyone was leaving yesterday, the phrase we heard over and over was "Hate to go ... but we'll see you NEXT year!"

Tracy and Bill Jackson of The Lacemaker did another terrific job to bring all the newest threads that have just recently become available. There is the replacement thread for Coats Opera (discontinued a couple of years ago) ... it's called Freccia. Some of the balls (as they appear in that form) remind me of a perle cotton while others are closer to Opera. The thread has a pretty firm 'hand' for a 3-cord ... much firmer that Opera did and a bit firmer than Altin Basak. I do believe that Lizbeth 40 has become my favorite thread. I love the 'hand' when tatting ... nicely firm, beautiful sheen from the mercerizing and luscious colors. There were also lots of books and tatting tools whether it was shuttles, needles or other "stuff."

Georgia Seitz has to be the most OUTRAGEOUSLY entertaining auctioneer and game show hostess I've ever seen. The treasure chest put together by the Tatting World was so HUGE that it was broken into least three prizes. I couldn't tell whether AKTTTER was a female version of Monte Hall (Let's Make a Deal) or Bob Barker (The Price is Right) ... well, maybe more Monte Hall. Erin Holloway did a wonderful imitation of Carol Merrill ... the hand gestures and voice inflections were PERFECT. The auction for the Tatting Treasure Chest was a lot of fun but it raised some serious money for the Guild's scholarship fund. Watch for announcements about quilt blocks for the next PTG Scholarship Fundraiser!!

There were so many of our participants who also brought WONDERFUL items for the Silent Auction. The Georgia-Lina Tatters (one PTG's Palm Fronds) had issued a challenge to the other fronds. Everyone certainly lived up to the challenge!! The Lacemaker put in a couple of items ... I lost out of the bidding on the jar of threads, tatting tools and other goodies I was watching but I known Sharon will enjoy her additional stash. Each of our teachers contributed items. Several other tatting groups whose members were attending also contributed to the Silent Auction ... in fact, we had a wonderful challenge of finding enough table-top space to display all of the items and put the bidding sheets with them.

We also hosted the first ever, LIVE TAT IT AND SEE. Donna T was posting various stages as they were completed onto the Guild's official website. It was a lot of fun ... there is one stage that if you switched working shuttle, you could have wound up with a perfectly different critter!! In order to participate, we had to sign a SUPER, SECRET CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT for Part 1 (because some of us were a bit antsy about blood, there was a red ink pen). To receive each consecutive part, you had to show the completed parts to JaneE, DonnaT, JoannieC or BonnieG in order to get the next part. Had a great time with that!! There were just enough distractions that I had to retro more than I usually do but with everyone having so much fun it was no problem!! My part 5 can be found here: TIAS - Part 5; my first effort was one of those that would have been very strange (went into the round file) so I changed from two decorated shuttles from SLT to a laminate shuttle by Richard Seitz and a Texas Fence Post shuttle from Jack Coen so that I could tell the difference between Shuttle 1 and Shuttle 2 ... multi-tasking brain cell disappeared!

DH rode his Kawasaki motorcycle down and there is a picture of it (sans the cover) on Lori's Facebook page: The 650! He had a good time and it was a nice ride down from Gastonia on US 321 for him. Because he had his own transportation home, I got to join the Chocolate Therapy frond at the Mall Sunday afternoon for a bit more tatting but instead of chocolate we had ICE CREAM!!  Better dash and take care of some reports and maybe pick up a shuttle to put some double stitches onto a core thread and make more lace!