Finals, New Tatters, & Tatting Newsletters

Finals are over for this semester and I breathe a sigh of relief. Now I have a couple of weeks to tat and play with my guitar before classes begin again.

I got some great news today. One of my former tatting students has some students of her own. Congratulations, Heidi! To your students, let me say, "Welcome!" Heidi will get you off to a great start. I envy you the opportunity to tat with her. I know Heidi has already told you about some of the internet resources available. The online tatting community is full of people who will be glad to help you along as well. The links within this blog are just a sampling of what is available.

I have added a new set of links below listing a few of the support groups I know about personally. Ring of Tatters and International Old Lacers are international organizations with hardcopy newsletter subscriptions. I'd like to add some links or mailing addresses to some of the other hardcopy tatting newsletters. So, my friends out there in cyberspace, if you have a favorite tatting newsletter you would like to promote, please add the details in a comment to this blog.

Challenge Motifs 4 & 5

I did a little tatting this week while classes are on fall break. I'm working on some small snowflakes to give away this Christmas. Patti Duff is providing the patterns. Her book MINITATS has loads of great ideas that don't take very long to work up. Size 20 thread worked great to make ornaments that are about 1.75 to 2 inches in width. #26 & #43 are complete.

Books are waiting to be read and papers need to be written, so I'd better get back to work. Finals are just 10 days away.

Blooming Trellis Bookmark corrections

Members of the online tatting class found a few mistakes in the pattern and had some great suggestions for improvements in the instructions as well. The link at the side will take you to the corrected and improved version of the pattern. Thanks for the help, classmates.

Blooming Trellis Bookmark pattern

The online tatting class covered my Blooming Trellis Bookmark today. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it, but Georgia did a great job.

October update

School is really busy right now. I've got 4 tests this week. Tatting has had to take a back seat for a while. I've paused in the middle of my first effort at Anne Bruvold's Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon pattern. Sherry Pence's Tat It and See It #4 has caught my attention, too. I haven't loaded shuttle and thread--just printed each new addition in hopes that I might get a chance to tat it up before the final revelation. Well, back to the books!

Blooming Trellis Bookmark

The last one in the picture is the "Oops" version. The first two reflect the pattern as it is being shared. I created two different ends for the pattern version. I like to have options for changing up a pattern besides changing thread colors and sizes. I'll post the release date when I get it as well as a link to the pattern.

Challenge tats 1, 2, & 3 (new bookmark pattern)

I have finally completed the pattern. It is on its way to Georgia Seitz now to be shared during this fall's online classes. Here is a sneak peak and tats 1, 2, and 3 on the challenge for this year.

25 Motif Challenge & New Bookmark Pattern

Classes are going well and I'm even finding a little time to tat this semester. I'm working on a bookmark pattern that uses split rings and SCMRs. I've made several as I perfect the pattern for use by the Online Tatting Class. I'll put up the pictures and my challenge progress as soon as I have the pattern ready to go to Georgia--just didn't want you all to think I'm slacking off!

College classes underway

College classes are in session again, so tatting is on the back burner. I hope to get to pull out my shuttles over the holiday weekend. I'm taking one course as a special gift to myself this semester--guitar lessons. I'm not playing anything yet that you could call music, but I'm making some really lovely noise!

Butterfly Twins

I designed this motif for a greeting card several years ago.

Teddy Bear

He made his debut in the Online Tatting Class on July 22. Georgia plans to use him again during the regular sessions this fall so there will be another chance to join the how-to discussion.

Teddy Bear pattern coming soon!

I'm so excited. I finally typed up my teddy bear pattern! While testing the written pattern, I played with a few seasonal variations. Watch for a link to the pattern soon. I've offered it to Georgia Seitz for the online class, but I will provide a link to the pattern from here once it is posted on the internet.

Valeire Square Teardrop & Heart

Over a year ago, Georgia Seitz challenged me to create a heart pattern using the Valeire Square, but my brain just couldn't seem to pull it together. When we came in from our Independence Day activities last night, I suddenly felt inspired to work on it with thread and shuttle as well as paper and pencil. After ditching a few more complicated efforts that I just couldn't get to work, the simple design below was born. It is so simple you may wonder what took me so long! I certainly do.

Enjoy!

Valeire Square Teardrop & Heart by Eliz Davis: One second shuttle ring turns the square into a teardrop. Then two chain segments complete the transformation to heart.

Round 1: (Note that there are NO joins in this round.)
*R 8-8, cl. R 8-8, cl, rw.
Ch 5-5, cl, rw.*
Repeat from * to * until you have 4 pairs of rings and four chains.

Use the alligator join to climb out of round 1 and into round 2.

Round 2: (Note that you are joining adjacent rings together by joining into the picot of two rings at the same time.)
Ch 2-2-2-2-2-2+(join two adjacent rings together)

Without reversing work, tat a ring of 2-2-2-1—1-2-2-2 (to avoid the need for a second shuttle for one ring, I used the shoelace trick before and after the ring)
Ch 2-2-2-2-2-2+(join into the space at the base of the next pair of rings). Continue the progression of chains until you have joined back where you started this round. Finish as desired.

Round 3: Beginning at the second chain join past the ring of round 2, join and make a chain of 2 ds, 18 picots separated by 2 ds, 2 ds. Join to round two opposite the ring. Repeat the chain of 18 picots and join opposite to your starting point. The picture provided will be a helpful guide.

Note: Size 10 thread will produce a heart approximately 3 inches tall and 2 1/2 inches wide.

Summer Update

While I've been catching up on the housework this summer, I've also been spending some time catching up on changes in internet tatting sites. I've really enjoyed drooling over all of the lovely work I've found. A few more patterns have been added to my "must tat" stack. Tatting time is almost here! By Monday I hope to have started something. I'm ready with thread, patterns, shuttles, and even a few design ideas of my own.

Many thanks to all of you tatters who are sharing your work and your patterns on the internet. It is inspiring to visit your webpages even when I'm too busy to do any tatting myself.

Happy tatting, everyone!

Last of the animal bookmarks

School is in full swing so there has been no time for tatting lately. We have a holiday today, so I thought I'd take a minute to post a picture of the last of the animal bookmarks I completed during the Christmas holidays. I changed the pattern a bit to use more than one thread color. The swan is in white and ecru and I used a Caron Wildflowers thread for the water.

I hope to see some of you at the online class. I plan to attend the evening sessions as often as possible. I have a college class to attend during the daytime session.

Happy tatting!

Happy New Year!

My year is off to a great start. Between Christmas and the new year, I managed to shake the dust off my shuttles. My oldest daughter gave me a new Lacis shuttle for Christmas along with four new books: Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks, A Tatted Zoo; Karey Solomon's Tatting Turns Over a New Leaf; Inga Madsen's 12 Tatted Fairy-Tales; and Nancy Tracy's Tat's Where I Stopped. Oh, I've just had so much fun!

And I finally finished the Cecelia doily. It is complete, pressed, and ready to deliver. The doily has 42 motifs and measures 15.5 inches by 12.5 inches.



Besides completing the doily, I've been working some of the new patterns I received for Christmas. This yellow Oak Leaf was one of the designs I received in the book by Karey Solomon. The next three patterns were in Animal Bookmarks. The snake and the cockerel were designed by Dianna Stevens and the cat was designed by Diana Howe. The last image is butterfly variation 4A from Teri Dusenbury's book, Tatting Butterflies.

I must drop it at etats and then get back to my shuttles. There is so much more I want to do before school starts again next week and everything gets set aside again.

Happy tatting in the new year!