TIAS 2013

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?  When that question is asked I always opt for the bad first as I like to get that over with and out of the way.  Actually Geraldine prompted this post with her comment yesterday so I thought I'd better update y'all (as they say in the southern states of America)!!!

The bad news is that I really, really struggled to get started on next January's TIAS.  Oh, in case you don't know a TIAS is a 'Tat It And See'.  It's a game a lot of people play with me in January each year.  Here's a link to the TIAS blog.  Last year's links are on the left side of the blog if you want to see how it works.  The introduction here will give you some idea of what you might expect.

Well the good news now - I've finally started on it.

Now what took so long?

You guys - you caused poor old brain cell 3 a lot of worry and angst!!!  You're getting too darn clever at guessing what the finished piece is going to be and I'm trying to make the guessing harder!!!!

I THINK this year's idea will work.  Do you want a clue?  Well here you are!!!

What to do when you can't think of what to do!

My tatting life has been a bit in the doldrums lately.  I'm not sure why but it has.  I've been tempted away from what I ought to do by the wonderful variety of threads I've got.  

Anyway I thought I would settle down and do something a bit more than 'just something small' and decided to have another 'go' at the chicken wing doily.  

This time I've used my all time favourite Rainbow Taffy and another (can't remember which!) Lizbeth variegated for the centres of the 'wings'.  I love it and now it's done it's been put away in the cupboard!!!!  Having got that out of my system I wonder what will happen next in my corner of Tat Land!!!!

My travel project

Now before I left for America I had to decide what to take with me to do in those 'odd moments'.

I never tat while in the departure lounges (too many people to watch) or on the plane (too easy to drop things and not be able to find them again) so that made it slightly easier to decide - or did it?  Not at all as making decisions is hard sometimes!!!

In the end I settled (as usual) for a hanky edging as it doesn't involve beads (who wants to rub their noses on beads on a hanky?!?!?) and does require a lot of mindless repetition!!  So I decided on using the 'Oh So Simple' edging which I happened upon last Christmas.

I've now finished it as I needed something to do when I got home because I wasn't in the right frame of mind to start something new!!  Life's like that sometimes!!!

Finished the pattern!

Well that didn't take as long as I thought to finish off.  It was 'almost there'.  That's the problem with my hit and miss way of life - I start a thing months and months before I finish it and meantime (as you've probably realised) forget I've even done it!!!  

I worked up another pendant to run a final check on the pattern (not got the last metal split ring on yet) which will go well with two new tops I bought last week.  

Oh, here's the link and here's a final picture!!!

Stephanie's doily

Stephanie gave some of us a doily at Tat Days and this is mine.  

Now I must admit that I'm not a 'doily person' or rather - not until now!!!  I never ever ever keep any of my work out on display unless Nick finds it and puts it out.  In fact the only thing that is on display is the big hanging I made last year (OR was it the year before?)!   

BUT this doily has to be seen to be believed.  It's worked in a size 80 (or maybe even less) and hasn't been put away since I got back home.  It sits on the cupboard next to 'tat corner' and smiles happily at me the whole time.

I have quite a few items that other people have made in tat corner but this one is the biggest even though it only measures six and a half inches.

It's just waaaaay too pretty to put away anywhere - thanks Stephanie.

Doodads!!!

I've been following the wonderful excitement over the doodads which Diane started a few weeks ago.  I amend that last sentence - it was in August (doesn't time fly?).

It's been making me smile to myself as I've long had a 'thing' about doodads and started using them many years ago in a butterfly pattern.

In March last year I bought some earrings from Asda - here they are - and took them apart!!!!  This is one of the many, many things I made with them.

So, when it came to putting in my application to teach at Tat Days I wondered what to submit.  I'd recently been working on this pendant which has a doodad which Irma had sent me (another picture below - in coloured threads).  They're not easy to find here in the UK unless you get lucky as I did with the earrings!!!  So, should I submit this to teach and would I be able to point my students towards where to buy them?  A limited use pattern, I thought at the time.

So as I liked the pendant idea I had to go into 're-design' mode which is where the last picture on this page comes from - now on the Palmetto Tatter's CD.  This meant that nobody would have to go hunting for the doodads - good job!!!!

Since then and as people are finding doodads to use I can now add the pattern to my site.  Well, I will in a day or two's time as I've still got to finish off the page and check it out!!!