A few words from an admirer

Organizing and updating

I spent the weekend getting ready for my trip to Lodi for the Finger Lakes Tatting Seminar on April 4,5 and 6th.  There were a few things that I needed to get ready.   There's kits for the class I'm teaching so they needed to be finished and every year I bring a pattern and kit to donate to the fundraiser.  So I worked on getting that together.  Audrey sells them for $1 and the kits come with everything but a shuttle. 

This year I was inspired by surplus Easter eggs and DMC thread to make an Easter Egg Kit.  Its a lot of fun to decorate these eggs and I kinda became addicted.  I made a bunch before I had to stop.  The motifs I used for the eggs are generic rings and chains but they look pretty when laced on to the egg.  The more colorful they were the better they looked!  Hopefully people will be interested in trying out the project.

The biggest thing I did to prep was make an inventory of my threads and books.  I have enough Lizbeth thread that I'm afraid I'll buy duplicates.  In fact, I found out that I have 2 balls of dark fudge!  I also found out that I have 73 tatting books, which I think is a lot.  I think I'm done purchasing books for awhile unless its a book out of circulation  or a silent auction win...or really cool.

Finally, I've been working on Renulek's Spring Doily 2014. I haven't made a lot of progress because I've been working on the kits but its gradually growing.   I wish that I had made this round a turquoise instead of orange.  You can't tell but according to the Lizbeth color chart the white color is actually Country Turquoise Light.  I think it would be pretty to add a few rounds of solid turquoise.

Joining the crowd

I've joined the group of tatters making the 2014 spring napkin by Renulek.  (Renulek .blogspot.ca). I'm on round 4 but I keep trying to skip ahead of myself and join to the wrong places.  I've also been inspired by others tatting the doily to go bright.  I'm using rounds 4,5,6 to ground it with black after doing the first 3 rounds in orange and purple.

Doily Delights

I'm still working on the doily (Swirly from Doily Delights by Karey Solomon) I showed you in the November post.  I finished that round but can't figure out what color to make the last round.  I am thinking either a gold or green.   In the meantime I've made a few other things.  One is the doily below using Karey Solomon's hand dyed thread and her doily from Doily Delights.  The doily is called sweet summer.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture that shows off the colors of the thread.

I asked my nephew (Jack, 5 years old) if he wanted the doily (you never know with kids) and he took it right away to put it under his sailboat night light.   He was really quick about it.   I think he knew what to do with it because his sister (Julia)  got a doily for Christmas.  I gave Julia the Beatrice doily (picture below) from Iris Neibach's book Tatted Doilies.

Thanks to Monica!

I got a slip from the post office today to pick up a package.  It was my secret shuttle exchange from Monica in Argentina!  

I waited until I got home to open the package although it was tempting to rip it open as soon as it was in my hands.  There was lots of goodies and Minica was very generous!  Monica sent a LaCossette shuttle and 2 celtic wire shuttles her brother makes.  The care that LaCossette takes to cover her shuttles is amazing.  Anytime I decoupage a shuttle it stays sticky but LaCossette's is perfect.

Monica also sent some thread she dyed herself.  The colors are quite lovely.  Finally there was a Jane Eborall motif tatted by Monica.  The yellow boxes in the first picture is Dulce de leche bars.  Of course I ate the right away!

Working away at things

I find that there is always a round in any doily pattern that seems to take forever.  That's this round on Karey Solomon's Swirly Doily.  I've been working away at it for about 2 weeks.  Its a very dense round and the sections almost overlap.  Since it was this aspect that attracted me I guess I can't whine too much.  I can't wait to be in the next round.

Between bouts of the swirly I've been making earrings.  My sister gets me to make something for her co-workers every year.  This year I thought earrings would be fun.  The metal doodads I purchased from Ginny Weathers during the Fringe Seminar.  I've used size 40 thread and seeds beads for this style.  It gets boring after awhile so I've changed the pattern a little for each pair.  I've already lost a pair but I have 7 pairs with 8 more to make.

Cinnamon Cruller

I had some people ask about the motif in the last post.  It's called Small Motif 2007 by Jane Eborall.  If you click on the name it will directly open to Jane's pattern.  I did it with 2 colors but otherwise followed Jane's pattern exactly.  

Today I spent the afternoon cooking and tatting while things cooked.  I finished a doily by Karey Solomon called Cinnamon Cruller.  Its from her book Sweet Knottings.  Karey made her sample using size 40 thread but I used size 20.  The variegated thread is Karey's, I think it was called playground?  I loved making the center although I wasn't sure it was going to work.  I kept double checking the pattern to make sure I was doing it

correctly.  The center doesn't look right until the very end of the first round.  All the half stitches in the third round were tedious.  I enjoyed tatting the pattern and will tat it again in the future.  There's a doily called Swirly in Karey's most recent book of doilies I want to do first.