Lace Escape IV--part 4

Sunday morning, Maggie taught me some new techniques. The first was a "dizzy picot." Mark Myers (Tat-man) explains this technique http://www.tat-man.net/tatterville/howtotat/DP/DP.html . Maggie and I were laughing and talking about different things, when she said that she wished she could see butterflies illustrating new techniques--well Maggie, here is my Dizzy Picot Butterfly!

The next technique that we worked on was Maltese Rings. Martha Ess has a good explanation of how to do these at http://my.att.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=87&subpageid=30108&ck= . One of the ladies asked what we were doing and I pointed to the samples of Maltese Rings, and laughed that it had "outie" and "innie" picots. Maggie immediately said that my future Maltese Ring Butterfly was to be named "The Belly-Button Butterfly."

Words cannot explain how much fun I had with these ladies. I really broadened my tatting techniques and skills. The retreat center was lovely and peaceful, and the company was fantastic. Now to save my pennies so that I can attend Lace Escape V!

Lace Escape IV--part 3

Saturday afternoon, Maggie and I worked on putting beads in joins. This is her original bookmark pattern, which I did at the retreat in purples (Lizbeth129). Here also are two that I did later at home in Lizbeth 620--I left out the beads in the joins on these.

Saturday afternoon I started this snowflake. The pattern is by Pam Palmer. This was the first project that I did the beading "myself"--I decided where the beads were to go, and had to count them up and load them correctly, etc. I finished it right before time to go to bed that evening.

Lace Escape IV--part 2

Later Saturday morning, as practice for adding beads to picots, Maggie shared with me her original pattern for making these flower pins. Maggie generously let me use her beads, which enabled me to make this multi-colored bead flower. I loved this pattern. It is a great way for emptying bobbins (I use the metal Boye shuttles, which it seems, most of the tatting world hates.) Anyway, I went "flower pin" crazy when I got home.

Lace Escape IV--part 1

Friday night at the Lace Escape IV put on by the Lace Guild of Greater Kansas City, Maggie Brown taught me how to put a bead inside of a ring. I was able to finish the first candy cane that night. Since it was a learning project, I didn't worry about finishing the ends (cane on the far right). I've done the other two candy canes since then, adding a hanging loop in the tenth chain. One candy cane has red beads inside of white rings, and white beads inside of red rings, the other candy cane has matching rings and beads. The candy canes are done in Flora thread, the pattern is by Pam Palmer. *If you do this pattern, make your picots as small as possible! Jennifer Williams has the technique for adding a bead to the center of a ring, on Jane Eborall's pattern pages, http://www.e.n.e.btinternet.co.uk/BeadRing.pdf .

Early Saturday morning, Maggie taught me how to make a "Double Long Beaded Picot." This technique is also on Jane Eborall's pattern pages, http://www.e.n.e.biternet.co.uk/BeadsMulti.pdf . These were so neat looking, that when I got home, I made a bunch of them and decorated a t-shirt with them!