Pink & Green Butterfly

I tatted this butterfly, I planned to put it on this pink t-shirt (shown), as a start to adding smaller butterflies or flowers. One of the smaller item's purpose was to cover a stain on the shirt. However now that I have the butterfly tatted--I'm just not in love with the green in the butterfly. The butterfly is done in Lizbeth, size 20, #620, and #124. The pattern is by Iris Niebach. What do you think about the green? I'm not going to sew it on until I decide how I feel about it.

Monogrammed T-shirt

I did a lot of sewing, yesterday. I finished a three tiered skirt yesterday. The fabric comes in different colors with beige letters of the alphabet printed on it. My tiers are black, blue and red. I bought a black t-shirt and tatted my monogram to go on it. I did the hand-sewing on it yesterday, as well. I thought it and the skirt would look cute together. The monogram is done in Lizbeth. size 20, #601 (snow white). The pattern for the letters is by Gillian Buchanan.

Shawl--9 months

This week my grandson is 9 months old! I started this shawl about the time he was born. At this time, it measures approximately 40 inches X 12 inches. I'm making it from a modified version of motif #30 from the book Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. Modified, in that I left off the last round (it rounded the motif, whereas I wanted it six-sided,) and I left off a picot in the previous round. It is made of Lizbeth Threads: #113, #633, #625, #601, and #663. Here is my wonderful hubby holding our grandson on the day he was born and then again now....I think my grandson is growing faster than my shawl! My goal is to have it finished before his first day in school!

Speaking of my dear husband, I have to share. Last month my husband was given the Merit of
Excellence award for the High School Teacher of 2010 by the Professional Oklahoma Educators! In layman's terms the "High School Teacher of the Year". He's taught for 28 years at the same school. He truly loves his job and I am always proud of him....but now the world knows how great he really is!

Antique Eye Candy

A lady at my church who specializes in buying and selling antiques, bought this for me at a sale. What a lovely gift! There was almost 2 yards of the lace, but only one of the joined motifs. I can't believe the size of the thread! Oh I hope my tatting is this good someday....and I hope my tatting isn't sold at a "sale" but treasured (and used) by my descendants or by the recipient.

Hector-Final thoughts

I finally finished the gold angel earrings today. The gold thread that Nina provided for us I broke closing a ring. I replaced it with DMC metallic thread on a spool. I had fits closing rings and had to keep starting over--stringing all those beads over and over. Finally I figured out to work with the twist of the thread instead of against it....it worked like a charm!

My first class was with Sue Fuller. She is a real sweetheart of a lady. She is a published tatting designer who created for us the cutest "Lil' Blossom Lamb" pattern. She encountered real difficulties with our class. Her demo rope for showing us split chains wouldn't behave. She planned to have handouts to give us, but then didn't have access to a copy machine. Last but not least, was the diagram and written material in the pattern that was given to us didn't match. None of this was her fault, but created bumps in the road while she tried to teach us. I'm still struggling with this pattern, however, because of this project and class I CAN DO SPLIT CHAINS a skill I've struggled on and off to learn for several years! I'm not giving up, so the fact that there is no picture is hopefully, just a temporary thing. Sue is working on "updating" her book for another printing--and I can't wait to get a copy.

My experience at Hector was exhilerating! They had it set up so that everything ran so smoothly. There were a variety of food issues that people had, and the menus were planned so that everyone always had something that they could eat. The vendors had such a wide variety of things to purchase. My big $ purchase was a pair of fishhook earrings with tatting shuttles on them. One of the things I liked best was getting to look at tatting books before I bought them! I don't know if I'll ever get to make the trip from OK to NY again, but I certainly have another trip to Hector Tat Days on my wish list!

Hector-Ornamental Angels

One of the people I enjoyed talking with the most at the Hector Tat Days was Nina Libin. Nina is the creator of Beanile Lace, and if you haven't seen her work, you are really missing something. Her website is www.beanile.com/index.html. She showed us how to make beaded angels. We made one out of thick thread for practice (Picture D). She provided us with nice metallic thread and beads so that we could later make earrings. This was my first real experience using more than a few beads, and Nina's directions made it very easy. It was also my first experience using metallic threads, and I could easily become an addict! I can't wait to get the wires on my silver angel earrings! (Picture E)

Hector-Celtic Blessing Box

A very busy person at the Hector Tat Days was Karey Solomon. She publishes Tatting Times, and also has a shop, I think it is called Fiber Arts Studio. She designed the cutest fabric-covered blessing box and an intricate Celtic Motif to go on top of it. I had a fit with the size 50 thread that she provided in our kit...I've never worked with thread that small, and I kept breaking the thread. I was also having trouble seeing the knots (I have failing eyesight.) Then I misread the directions--to make a long story short, when I got home, I redid the Celtic Motif in size 20 Lizbeth threads. I used white beads, which don't show up well (in person, or in the picture.) If I were to do it again, I would definitely use colored beads. Picture C shows the motif before I put it on my blessing box. This was my first time to ever work with tatting and buttons together!

Hector-Tassel Angel

The Hector Tat Days were so exciting....before that, although I've tatted for about 30 years, I'd only met three other tatters....and there I was surrounded! People were wearing the most amazing tatting...collars, necklaces, shawls, etc. Over the next few blog posts. I'd like to show you the things I made, and tell you what I learned in each class.

In a class taught by Kathy Robinson (who was one of the organizing workers at Tat Days), I learned the balanced double stitch. We made wings to go on a tassel, creating an angel (Angels Among Us was the theme of this year's Tat Days.) Front of angel with a snowflake charm: Picture A, Back of angel showing wings: Picture B

Hector-A Visit with Georgia

In April,on our way to the Hector Tat Days, I was privileged to meet and visit with Georgia Seitz. Georgia is a tatting designer, teacher, and has done much to promote tatting on the internet. She is also a very gracious and lovely lady. She shared some samples with us of Lizbeth thread. This is the bookmark I made with three of the samples: #125, #656 and #658. The pattern is Jon Yusoff's Chinese Coin Bookmark.