Post Canada Day Fun

I met up with Kelly Dunn on July 2nd to go to the Cobourg Waterfront Festival.  They have a huge artisan market there every year.  I don't remember how many years that Kelly and I have been going but its always fun.  This year we took the opportunity to pop into Artisanthropy now that it has a storefront.
I bought another clover bobbin shuttle and a shuttle case.  The sew mates fit into the clover shuttle cases so it will be filled pretty quick.  I have a lot of sew mates since I swapped my clover post shuttles for sew mates.
I also purchased some amazing hand dyed wool.  I officially off of buying any craft related stuff until the Fringe Element Seminar!

Happy 150th Canada!

In celebration of Canada's 150th I have a Maple Leaf pattern to share with you.  It is a Maple leaf made out of a series of triangle motifs.  I've give a couple different options for making it.  It is based of the Centennial Leaf and is originally a multicoloured leaf.  I will show a picture of the multicoloured leaf soon.  Hope you enjoy tatting it!

Happy Canada Day!

Instead if doing what needs to be done...

I should mow my lawn.

1st Rules....

Okay so the 1st rule of tatting with bobbins has to be: put the right bobbin with the right amount of thread on the shuttle.  Lesson learned...

Broke down

I broke down and purchased the new clover bobbin shuttle and the case that goes with it.  I blame the online tatting class and their review of the shuttle.  They made me do it.
I purchased my shuttle and case  online from Artisanthropy which has both an online store and a store front located in Cobourg, On.  They were one of the vendors at the Fringe Element Tatting Seminar last year and I love their colour palette.  Hopefully they will cary Lizbeth thread in the future.  I was surprised to find that they not only have the Clover bobbin shuttles but have free shipping on orders over $40 before tax.  Although there are great tatting stores online they are mostly in the US and its painful to get a package over the border and timing is unpredictable.  It took less than a week to for the order to arrive at my house and it was delivered to my door.  

I really like the idea of the tatting case with the slots for the different items.  It helps to keep things from tangling and the crochet hooks can't puncture the case.  It is lighter and thinner than the plastic pencil cases from the dollar store.   The shuttle itself feels like the traditional clover shuttle but a little bit bigger.  I have over used the post clover shuttle and now have issues gripping the clover post shuttle.  I didn't have that issue with the bobbin shuttle.  The bobbins are easy to use and they pop in and out with no issues.  I like the pic on the tip of the shuttle.  The design is overall a win and fits in with what you would expect from a clover shuttle.  I have to say that I find them pricey compared to other plastic shuttles.   Even though a bobbin shuttle allows you to change out bobbins so you can use one shuttle to do several projects the bobbins themselves are pricey compared to other bobbin plastic shuttles.  Overall its a good middle of the road type shuttle where you aren't spending a fortune but you get a really nice shuttle.  
  

If you're in Ottawa on Sunday

If you are in Ottawa this weekend and would like to see some lace the 29th Annual Lace Day is occuring on Sunday (and not Saturday like I keep telling people).  They have vendors and displays at the RA Center.  Its a great opportunity to get some tatting supplies.
Unfortunately they seem to coincide with the Finger Lakes Seminar every year so I miss it.  I will be in sunny Lodi this weekend for loads of tatting fun.  I've brought my favorite chocolates to celebrate International Tatting Day.  If you are heading there this weekend come over and say Hi!...I'll have mint chocolates from Laura Secord to share assuming I don't eat them all on the drive down.

Cheers!

Not as smart as I thought I was...

I joined to the wrong spot.  If you look at the picture you can see I skipped a chain and joined to the next one.  Unfortunately I'd already made the next ring so it was painful to think of undoing everything...
So I thought I'll use split chain technique in reverse to get to the join, redo the join and then use split chain technique to finish the chain.
Which works except...
How do you undo the join?  Couldn't figure that out so I ended up cutting the ball thread to undo the join and join to the right place.  I finished the chain using split chain technique.  Not quite the way I thought it would happen but I didn't need to retro tat the ring... So I was kinda SMRT