Progress and a final solution!

Yesterday I made time to stock up my Etsy store which you can find here. As well as some new tatted items I've added some Aero England shuttles. Now to sit and wait and see what happens!!!! I've sort of given up on Ebay at the moment just to see if I can make a 'go' of Etsy. I've got some earrings listed which are pretty cool and very sparkly. Also a couple of seahorses and a butterfly or two!!!!

Another look at the centre of this motif and I decided (not only to make it faster to work) to change it quite drastically. Instead of small SRs I changed them to larger ones and then left out the round of chains joining to them. This now means I can add beads to the centre which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I'm really pleased with the way the 'odd' sort of split chain is working but I promise to write out the pattern for those who don't like split chains and who are happy with tying, cutting and hiding ends!!!
Don't look toooooo carefully at the scan as you will see that I haven't blocked it. I don't very often block things out relying on a 'perfect' (I know, there's no such thing!) design to make things lie flat in the first place. So I will block this later BUT I'll also look at the stitch count on the lock stitch chains too. Tat'll keep me out of mischief for a while!!! This is, by the way, at least the 5th whole test tat of this motif and I'm still not quite happy with it!!

The motif again!

OK, so this is a fine design as far as I'm concerned and is probably worth putting on the pattern pages. The two examples below are worked in a number 40 (on the left) and number 20 (on the right). The only 'concerns' I have over this being my Christmas giveaway is the amount of time it's taking me to do the centre. As I need to work between thirty and forty of these they have to be relatively fast to make. I am going to have to look at this again carefully. The part that slows it down for me is adding beads to the central SRs and performing a lock join at the same time. Perhaps it's a case of me needing more practise doing this. However I will see if I can simplify the pattern by replacing the chains round the SRs with larger SRs

A grand idea

Joanie Culverhouse sent me this picture yesterday. Remember the stork carrying a baby in a sling? It's here.
Well she used the baby in the sling for an announcement card. Isn't this a grand idea? LOVE to see what people do with my ideas.
Thanks for sending this, Joanie.

Back to the motif

I seem to have mislaid another two scraps that I did for the centre of the motif but I think the two below will show how I progressed with it the other evening. The larger of the two scraps (below left) shows how I decided to try a different centre and then promptly got into trouble with the colours and moving outwards!! The smaller of the two scraps is a result of an email from Marie Smith (she of the fast and easy split chain) who suggested that I tried the following.

Take a chain out from the centre, do a SLT and then make a SCH back from the previous round out again. The second scrap proves that this is the answer!!! I didn't use it on the large trial snowflake as the email didn't reach me until I was well out of the centre! Thanks, Marie for a great suggestion and the answer to another problem!
Oh, if you click on the motif you'll find that I've added beads too. They will be an integral part of the design as they help to hide places where there are two colours of threads used to progress from round to round!!!
More tomorrow when I hope to have the basics of the motif completed. For anybody who might be remotely interested in this design - I've done the drawings to go with it so it shouldn't be too long reaching my pattern pages!!!

Treasures unearthed

For reasons tooooo boring to mention I've been having a HUGE tidying up session. I found the following photographs which are very interesting and which I'd forgotten I had!!!
These were supposedly taken in 1966 (at least that's what it says on the accompanying letter) and I think it was at a tatting event which took place in Leicester. Not really sure about that, though! Looking at me in the photographs (horrid idea, I know!) I'm sure that it was much later than that as I couldn't drive at the age of 23 and I know that my ex husband never took me to any tatting events!! I think the year should be 1996.
However, I digress as usual!!! In the first picture you can see me with Toshiko Takashima who was the lady that invented the Takashima Bari Tatting hook/needles. I remember that Toshiko had come to the event with her daughter who did all the translation for her and that she was booked into my morning class. She then asked to come to the afternoon one as well. She was a lovely lady and we kept in touch (via her daughter) for some years.
I would LOVE to know what happened to them both. The second photograph shows us in a group and you can see in both pictures some of my tatting in the background and part of Pam Palmer's dragon on the back of my jacket.
I met Pam that day too and she took photos of my back - much the best pictures ever taken of me!!! I will blog those another day!!! Beneath the photographs is the letter I received some months later from Toshiko.

Dear Jane October 6, 1966
Thanks very much sending a bird patern and other paterns so fast. I will make it soon.
Thanks again for teaching a wonderful technique of biginning of tatting. It is marvelous idea, is there special way of technique at the ending? We are glad that you are interesting in our Takashima-bari. I am sure you find it very easy and fast.
We heard that some member asked to have work shop of Takashima-bari. If possible, we want to have the work shop so that the person having Takashima-bari will fully master how to use and fully use utilize it. We enclose herewith a picture taken on that day. It was really a exciting day for us to attend Tatting day, especially your work shop.
We are very much impressed that so many persons loving Tatting got together and exchange such a nice knowledge and fasten friendship. We wish to attend a Tatting day next year again. Looking forward seeing you soon.

Yours sincerely Toshiko Takashima

First attempts

This is a report about what I did on Monday evening - I'm a day behind with blogging this!!
Now to all intents the following look like a good start to the project! I always use two shuttles with contrasting colours as this helps me 'plot' where I've been and what I've done - particularly if I'm 'on a roll' and can't be bothered to type out each step on the laptop.
The first attempt (below) and I realised that I'd got too many ds on the chains.
The second one shows something better BUT there's a horrid space in the centre.
The third picture shows me trying fewer ds on the chains but I could see immediately that this wasn't going to work.
Finally (and quite out of the blue!) this is what happened.
You may well think that this design is almost there and I actually like how it looks in the final picture - needs beads but that's all. The problem is (if you click on it and look closely) there is a SR which progresses out of the centre and which is in two colours and is butt ugly!!! To avoid this I spent the whole of yesterday evening trying out different approaches to the design. I'll show those putrid pieces tomorrow. I'm now at the 'throw it out of the window' stage!

Starting another design

This is going to be my Christmas giveaway. Each year I send out very few Christmas cards as I don't believe in giving them to people I see every day. What is the point when you can wish them a happy Christmas anyway? Also the whole event has become so commercialised that I have now got to the stage in my life when I avoid the shops as much as I can. Another thing that worries me is that there is such a lot of wasted paper/card from them which is mostly not re-cycled.
Instead of sending cards to those friends who live far away I send a letter. This is a standard letter telling them about the past year (each person has that plus a personal bit too) and how it's been for me and mine. Inside the letter I tuck a little tatted piece. I started this idea some seven to ten years ago and it's become something that my friends look forward to. I make the pieces in all colours so that they can keep them 'hanging around' all year. Gives me great pleasure to see Roz's kitchen with them hanging on her cabinets when I visit!!
Yesterday afternoon I started off with some drawings on the computer. This was what I thought I might do!!!! This time I cheated by using another design I'd done a couple of years ago as a 'starting point'. Yes, I know the drawings don't look much like the original but that's how I started on this design. I never tackle a new idea the same way but always use the 'hit and miss' method!!!
In the evening I sat down to try them out but I'll show you what happened tomorrow!!!

Final piece - a bracelet

This is the last of my 'catch up' pieces for an order that I received when I was in America. Good job the lady wasn't in a hurry!!! I love these colours together - they're SO rich.
Oh, it's the final piece that I needed to complete before starting on new designs. They're in the aged brain but I just know that neither will 'work out' straight away. One I will be sharing as I work it but the other you'll have to wait for - all will become clear one day!!!!

Motifs by the hundreds!

About ten or twelve years ago I answered an appeal in the Ring of Tatters Newsletter for help needed with making small tatted motifs.
This came about at a very good time for me as I was struggling financially and sometimes working a day job followed by another three hour temp job too. The motifs were for a lady who was setting up doing handmade tatted stationery for weddings. She paid me for doing them and still occasionally needs some help.

We've become very good friends and met up a few years ago at - wait for it - a Funeral Directors Trade Show/Exhibition!!!!!! (I didn't know til then that there could be so many styles of coffins and had never given any thought to all the other paraphernalia that undertakers need.)

Back in April/May she asked if I'd like to do 100 of each of her small and large snowflake designs while I was in America. Strange now to think that these were tatted in Cincinnati and Marblehead (up on Lake Erie) and in blistering heat!!! I ran out of thread before I completed the second 100 so finished them when she'd sent me further thread back here in the UK. I thought you might be interested in seeing a couple of 'bundles' of them - all ready to be mailed sometime this next week.
Now I've got all my 'autopilot' things completed I'm ready and raring to go on my next design. Oh, one more item to complete (hopefully today) before I start on my next adventure!!!

Split Chain again!

This is just SO funny. I didn't know that Mark (Tatman) Myers was also working on instructions for Marie's Fast and Easy Split Chain until yesterday evening when I read his message on HBT!!! I'd just settled down to tat for the evening when we got chatting on YM. Fatal when us two get talking - no tatting done yesterday evening!!!!
Anyway I've now added a link to his version (which I think is a lot better than mine) on his site. Thanks, Mark.

Fast and Easy Split Chain

When I was in SC Marie Smith showed me her way of doing a split chain. I offered to put it up on my site and this is the link.
BUT Mark is also doing his version too and he showed me his last night. Personally I'd wait and see his because his is much clearer than mine.
Thanks Marie for this really clever way of doing the split chain.

Back to the Tatbeads!

I was in bed last night reading through the messages in a book given to me by Karey and which came from all the people that the family met on their travels. Thank you to all who wrote in the book - this will be treasured for ever.

I've finally found the time to divide them up and can now tell you who they all are!!!
Before I start I'll add the complete picture again here!!!

As I said a couple of days ago - Karey has the red hair and green crutches.

Next and to the top right of the picture is Dani 'The Geek' Rotach.

Ginny Weathers is at the bottom in the centre.

Kathy Robinson is also at the bottom but on the left.

Shirley Putzig is next and can be found to the right of Karey.

Tanya Walsh (who is a nurse) is standing to the right of the Finger Lakes.

Finally at the top (on the left) is Amy - though whoever wrote that it was her in the book wasn't quite sure that they'd got the right name! I do hope that if it's wrong somebody will let me know so that I can alter the post accordingly.

The lakes are where Karey lives and are called the Finger Lakes and you can see why on this link. In fact in the middle of this map and two thirds down you can see Hector. Karey tells me it's a beautiful place and from doing a Google search I can see that she's right.
Once again thanks to all who wrote messages in the book and I'm also relieved to hear that the Tatbeads behaved themselves so well. Perhaps they'd be better living in the USA!!! I do know that I miss being in America BIG time and can't wait to do another trip.

More tidying up of loose ends!

I think I've nearly got to the end of the unpacking!!
On Friday I found the part tatted designs with shuttles wound ready (should I need them) for the Tat Day lessons. I try and have projects 'part done' in stages and in anticipation of any problems during lessons. This means I travel with lots of shuttles!! I finished the frog on Friday evening and yesterday mounted him in a ring!!! This will be sent as a gift for somebody who collects frogs!!!

Tatbeads and Palmetto!

Something else that I found when unpacking - a new branch of the Tatbead family!

A week or so before Palmetto Tat Days I remembered that my branch of the family was still with Karey Solomon and I decided that I'd better email her to remind her to bring them to SC. Well, as anybody who knows me will realise, my memory is poor (always has been) and I forgot!!!
Met Karey and had a good natter shortly after she arrived at the White Oaks Conference Centre and again forgot to ask after them!! Duh!!!!
Imagine my surprise when their arrival was announced at the banquet!!! Not only that but another branch had come with them - see below. The one at the top left with the green walking aids is Karey herself (love her hairdo!!). With them came a book signed by all the people they'd met up with in America. Each person on the picture is named in the book. To say I was overcome was to understate my feelings.
Thanks, Karey, for organising this and also for the pin and thimble also in the package.

How can you ever?

How can you ever say a big enough thank you?
I'm spending the morning unpacking all my tatting treasures from the Palmetto Tat Days and remembering so fondly the fun of those days. Everybody, but everybody was so generous.
Below is a heart which Mark Myers gave me. It's incredibly beautiful. It measures three and a half inches across by two inches high.
Right, back to the dreaming and unpacking!!!

Tatting a cartoon

The missing suitcases are in the U.K.!!! You can now track them online which is a great help. How things change in two years since the last time mine went AWOL. They should be delivered sometime today!

Right, back home and back to tatting seriously. I remembered yesterday that I'd never shared a 'design' that I did a few months ago.
When SueH was going through a rough time with her flat renovations I decided to do something to cheer her up. I took Mark Myers cartoon of her on her soapbox which is on the front page of Here-Be-Tatters and decided to 'tat' it. Mark and a few others know about this. When it was all done I sent it to Sue as a surprise!!!

Here's the progression in pictures!! First of all I drew it on the computer.

I tatted this up but it really was a 'bad hat day' and the coat was way too big too. I wasn't happy with the colouring or the arms either.

Next a re-draw.

Followed by another 'tat'!!!!

Duh! Who forgot to change the hat? I did change the coat and this made the whole thing a lot better. I then decided that I'd have to change the colouring a bit for 'design purposes' (whatever THAT means!!).
Now that looks better and the hat's a great improvement too.

Finally the 'extras' which was the fun bit - decorations for the hat, hair, soapbox, shuttle and tatting. Next task was mounting it and framing it.
The final results are below.

Home - but!!!

Home and tired to face a load of mail (some of them bills too).
I'm home, Nick's home but my two suitcases are not!!! Nick's arrived on the carousel - his is bright pink with lurid spots on (don't ask)!!! Mine are somewhere between Newark and Birmingham. This has happened before but with another airline and another airport - my suitcase last time too!!! ALL my special things from Palmetto are in the one and I'm so hoping that they both turn up tomorrow. The certificates I won in the competition, my pattern CD (and one for the witch in London!!), the threads and other goodies I bought for myself (and the witch in London!), beads etc, etc and worst of all - the gifts I was given.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll be picking up a shuttle to start a new project.

On the way home tomorrow

Well we're all packed and ready for the long haul across the pond tomorrow. We leave here at around lunchtime to go to the airport where we have a three hour check in. There's a forty five minute stopover in Newark which is a bit worrying as we'd originally booked with two hours to get from one hub to t'other. Still, we'll keep our fingers crossed that the first plane is on time.
It occurs to me (and I can't be bothered to go back and read it all) that in my Palmetto report I didn't mention the fact that the Palmetto 'gals' had run a competition to design the logo with the teachers being invited to submit ideas. I thought about doing a design but in the end 'threw' a wheelbarrow and some flowers on the scanner and sent that. I picked the 'bits' up a few days later and popped them in a plastic container and promptly forgot about the whole thing. Much to my delight - followed by consternation - I was told a month or two later that I'd won. The consternation came about as I realised that I'd no idea where the 'bits' of the logo were!! A frenzied hunt round the house found the plastic box in a corner under a table.
It was really great to see 'my' logo being worn by people at tat days. Thank you to all the Palmetto gals for the compliment.
Right, tat's it from the USA - back to blogging when I'm in the UK!!!

Sunday

Sunday and the last day.
After breakfast the Palmetto gals finished taking the bits and pieces to their cars. Lots more goodbyes and hugs too.
Afterwards the people at White Oaks told us that as long as the bedrooms were cleared early they weren't bothered how long we stayed on in the classrooms. As inveterate tatters and always wanting to learn new things a group of us 'drifted' together in the 'social' classroom. Here Mimi took on the role as teacher to show us how to put a bead into the centre of a split ring. Just as we were going into this impromptu lesson I realised that Tonya Smith was still around so she quickly got 'kidnapped' into the session too. Her instructions are here. This was a very good winding down to the event when those who were left really, really didn't want to go home!
Eventually Hope and I piled into Joanie's car and we went back to her house for lunch and to watch the hummingbirds again.
Now you may think that that's the end of the story - no, there's more to come!!
After lunch the three of us set off for the mall. This is where a group of the Palmetto girls and any others meet on a Sunday afternoon. They 'take over' part of a mall and move the tables and chairs to make a good place to tat and chat informally. This is great fun and also gave me time to chat to those I'd missed over the weekend like Pam and Jerry Freck, Babara Havener, Jane and others. We covered a few techniques and had a good natter.
On the way back to Joanie's we popped in to see Ricki who seems to live at his store!!!
Now for the things I'd forgotten to mention in my other posts!!!!
I must thank Jane who was my teacher assistant in the Fantasy Flower. Such a charming lass who said she hadn't managed to do the flower before class. Whatever she said she was an invaluable assistant and was much appreciated for handing out and collecting the teacher appraisals and giving out the certificates.
Forgot to mention that Mark was also presented with several Bat/Tatman items by Erin at the banquet. There was a 'sort of' bingo game held too which was great fun on Saturday evening.
Heck, I'll just add things as I think of them!!!!
If anybody wants a copy of the Palmetto Tat Days pattern CD then do get in touch with them. It's well worth the money and has all the patterns - plus Sid on it!

Saturday

Another glorious day dawned at White Oaks and I knew that this was going to be a full day!!!
First part was a conference call with Mimi. This is a great opportunity for anybody who isn't in class to 'grab' a teacher for individual help or advice. Actually I've found that this is also a good opportunity for the teacher to learn too!!!
Next was my watering can/wheelbarrow class which I thought wouldn't be too hard to teach. I'd managed to hook up with one student a couple of times before class to teach her the SCMR so everything went swimmingly as far as I could tell! Poor Bonnie who was my assistant in this class didn't manage to come along as she was too busy (she's one of the Palmetto 'gals').
After lunch was the dreaded Red Eyed Tree Frog - double time of three hours. Now I say dreaded as this was the one pattern/lesson I was really worried about! It had taken a long time to design and there were several complications (as I thought) along the way!!!! There was a blackboard in the classroom (actually it was brown!) and chalk which proved useful for this lesson and I will be forever grateful to Katie Verna who was my assistant and who had made two frogs during the previous month or so to test the instructions. Now Katie's two previous attempts at home were great but somehow she 'lost the plot' which resulted in a frog with a front leg which bent downwards - limp wristed! Many giggles resulted from poor Katie's frog. I was extremely pleased to find that several people not only managed the pattern but also completed their frogs. Pheeewwwwwww.
Saturday evening after dinner a lot of us met up for more fun and games. This was huge fun with lots of giggles and some 'cheating' too. Well, I would think that as our team didn't win a thing!!!
There were a few farewells as people headed for home too.