January 2009 update

I always have the best of intentions ... but sometimes the follow through is a bit sketchy. A few more of the fundraiser sets have gone out. Last month, I attended a craft fair with one of our Guild's members. I made 18 pairs of beaded earrings and several dozen angels of which we sold about half of each. We also sold a number of other items that had been made by our guild members so every little bit helps.

In addition to preparing lesson plans for the Guild, I've been test tatting some patterns for a designer who lives in the Western US. Hopefully, her next book will be ready and available soon. The patterns are variations on a theme and the concept is a bit different from anything else I've encountered.

We had a quiet holiday season, with DS#1 spending several days at Christmas. He gave me Jon Yusoff's "Tatted Snowflake Collection" for a gift. I really hope to get to some tatted soon. DH mentioned when we were taking down our Christmas tree that he thought it would be nice to have it decorated something with just tatted items. Snowflakes, Hearts, Angels etc. I think he would also like the tatted "garland" that Dianna Stevenson did some time ago. Don't know if she got her domain back but I think I can find the instructions somewhere in all the printed stuff I've never organized but have printed off the Internet.

DH is scheduled for eye surgery in early February ... cataract removal, replacement lens and corneal transplant on the right eye. Recovery from surgery is expected to take a bit of time and DH has never been known for his patience. Well, better get back to doing something.

Wish all of you a prosperous 2009!

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.

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.

May 2007 Challenge - Daisy Mat

Wow, has it been nearly a whole month since I posted? I've been working on several things ... including a couple more of the tatted pieces for the TAT Master's program. I'll post pictures after everything is done and has been evaluated --just hope I won't have to re-tat much. I've finally gotten a 3D bee that looks presentable but I've got a half dozen (in various stages) that didn't suit what I wanted to accomplish.

I decided for a bit of a change to work on the May Challenge from eTatters (soon to be eCraftWorld) at http://www.etatters.com/showthread.php?t=3541.

I decided to call this a Daisy mat for want of a better name. All the daisy flowers consist of 8 rings (both true rings and split rings) and the buds are all split rings. The far left of the picture is part of my progress (instructions later!). This is worked frontside/backside with all split rings on the front side and split ring joins accomplished using the technique on the right side of the picture. All "normal" joins were treated as the first half of the next stitch with normal rings worked using Shuttle 2 as RODS. Since I'm still working on the piece, it hasn't yet been blocked.

The daisy flower rings are variations of 2 - 5 - 5 - 2 with the split rings being either 2 - 5 / 2 - 5 or 5 - 2 / 5 - 2 (written in working order). All the picots on the daisy flowers should appear as small or construction picots. The buds are all split rings with those in the "line of progression" being 2 -- 2 -- 2 -- 2 / 2 -- 2 -- 2 -- 2 (where -- is a longer picot). Buds at the ends of the rows are asymmetrical ... more complete instructions later.

The technique for split ring joins is one I came across in some of my stuff from Bobbie Demmer, courtesy of RoseMarie Peel of the United Kingdom ... aren't her diagrams WONDERFUL! This technique goes 'hand-in-glove' with the lesson taught at Palmetto Tatters at our April meeting.

Strawberry Fields - Revisited

Here is a much clearer picture of the completed piece from the PTG March lesson by Mary Donohue. My older son took this one with his digital camera. As you can tell, he has a much better camera than mine. The sheen of the perle cotton in the pistils really shows itself in this picture.

Strawberry Fields

Mary Donohue gave the lesson for Palmetto Tatters' March meeting. Consisting of mignonette-tatted beaded strawberries, flowers and a small collection of leaves with the steams encapsulated from the threads of each element. This one is really a hodge-podge of threads. The strawberries of Altin Basik with Mill Hill seed beads in a pearlescent pale yellow.

The pistils are made with size 12 perle cotton in old gold and pale yellow. The flower petals are size 30 white Cebelia. The leaves and stemwork are done with Olympus 40.

Photographing this was a bit of a challenge. The red strawberries don't show well on my black display board. I placed the piece onto a manilla background but the flowers got lost. Finally, I used a CD case that is a gold color. This is the picture here and gives decent contrast.