Had a great time...

I had a great time in Hector. The week after was a little busy since I flew to Toronto on Tuesday, attended a Dinner on Wednesday and Thursday I don't remember...oh yes, did my taxes on Sunday. In Canada we get until the end of the month then the government demands their pay. Its a little scary to owe the gov money- they're very serious about it. A friend of mine (formerly an auditor for Revenue Canada) told me once that you want to pay your taxes (since that's what gives us nice roads, police, etc...) but not a penny more than your share.

So, finally I am getting a chance to review my Hector weekend. I missed the Friday night potluck dinner. I made rice crispy squares to for Friday night but brought them on Saturday instead. I kept a few at the hotel for breakfast and snacks which in retrospect was probably not the healthiest choice. It may have caused me to be a little wired...

All of the classes were great. In Ginny's class we made Christmas ornaments with beaded picots. I brought pink thread and blue beads for the project completely missing the whole Christmas theme. The red and white teapot beads clashed with the pink and blue. Fortunately someone loaned me some blue beads. I loved this project because it was very simple (except for the beaded picots) but looks fantastic.

Martha Ess taught her Maltese Teapot. I had never done a Maltese ring before and I loved the way it looks- kinda like a mouth. Maybe its the colors I chose, but if you took the handle and spout off the teapot would look like Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. The pattern was a lot of fun and I managed to finish it with only a few mistakes.

The class I took with Karey used a cabone ring as the center round. When the motif is done you sew it on a bag to create a ball holder. I love her patterns because they are very forgiving. Its not the end of the world if you mess up a little bit (see picture). She used some of her hand dyed thread for the project. I really like the colors and purchased a few skeins of size 30 thread. The thread used in the project is a very thick and heavy duty thread.

The last class I took was with Bina. She showed us a great way to hide threads on the 2nd half of the ring. It was definitely something I'm going to use in the future. She showed us the necklace that she made from Marilee's Rockley's Duchess pattern. It was beautiful, you can see a picture of it on Marilee's blog.

A little confession

The doily in the last post isn't really completed...or at least completed to the extent I originally intended. The doily is made up of connected squares that are made in 2 rounds. I made a bunch of centers and then did the second round.
Things were progressing smoothly until-----
I ran out of thread. I went to the store and picked up a new ball, tatted away and then discovered to my horror that Opera has more than one color of ecru. This was not actually a dye lot issue, they truly have more than one shade of ecru. After some debating I decided I would stain it with a teabag or coffee afterwards to hide the different tones. I continued to make blocks and it grew larger.
BUT in a frenzy of what I can only now described as stupidity and obsessive compulsive craziness I cut out all the pieces that were the lighter color of ecru. So it went from 5x5 to 4x4. This all happened a few years ago and its been sitting in a drawer ever since.
Its stupid for it to sit in a drawer, that's why I've declared it finished.

How pretty is this?

After all the work isn't it nice to get the chance to enjoy it?

Easter's gone...now it's time to pack!

In just a few short days I'll be heading down south to the balmy Finger Lakes region for the Hector Tatting Seminar. I've got my shuttles ready and my fingers limber for a weekend of tatting! Of course, on the way I've got to do a little shopping and there's a boarder to cross so it may take more than the regular 4 hours to drive.

I have to stop at Bath and Body works to pick up some pretty smelling soap and of course I can't drive past the Waterloo Outlet Mall without a peek! Taxes are due shortly so I'm on a strict budget so it'll be a quick look. There's a winery next door to the fire station (where the classes are held) and some time over the weekend I need to go next door. I think a bottle of wine would be nice to sip over the weekend.

However, I have a strict list of things I need to buy once the seminar starts. (need is such a relative term) There's a few patterns I'm looking for. I really enjoyed making Karey's dragon last year so I've got her book Here-be-Dragons on my list. I'm also looking for Martha Ess's new book Tea is for Tatting and a few others. I regretted not buying her books last year.

I must eat shuttles in my sleep because I can never find any empty shuttles but I keep buying them. I'm damn sure that there are 30 shuttles either somewhere in my house or my intestines! So clover shuttles are on the list.

There's always a few goodies to be found in the grab bag and I'm looking forward to seeing what the Hector crew have up their sleeves. We got surgical clamps last year in the grab bag. It was something I had never used before and it took me awhile to start but once I did I loved it. Its handy when the ball thread is running out to hold the thread tight. Its definitely a tool that I'm happy to have in my tatting kit.

Last year I made the mistake of driving down early Saturday morning. That meant I was up at 4 am. I'm definitely not an early morning person so by the time I arrived I was ready for a nap. Sue Hanson showed me a quicker method of pearl tatting and I thought I understood but now I don't...too tired to even realise what she was showing me. No more early morning drives. This year I'm leaving Friday morning so I can take my time, make a few stops and arrive in plenty of time.

If you are coming, I'm the wide awake and alert red head (other than Karey, she has red hair too), please come and say Hi!

Yay!

In a previous post I mentioned working on an entry for the Palmetto Guild's Tat Days 2009 logo contest. This year the theme is "I've been bitten by the Tatting Bug" so I thought about it for awhile and sent in my entry which I call "the Culprit". Guess what? My design was chosen! Yay! I'm so happy!
You can check it out on their website at: http://www.palmettotatters.org/.

Cursed! Cursed!

The strangest thing happens whenever I make something for my friend Sal...it ALWAYS breaks! She has a thing with jewelry that curses any jewelry that I make her to break. So far, nothing I have tatted her has broken but pretty much everything else does. I could do the crappiest job on a necklace for someone else and it will last for years but anything for Sal breaks. To fight this curse I spend lots of extra time on construction and still things go wrong!

This week I made her a necklace similar to one I had made myself. Mine is hastily made with cheap clasps and it has lasted months...hers lovingly made with good quality clasps didn't even make 5 minutes! The clasp broke pretty much the minute she touched it.

This has happened many, many, many times over the years. You'd think I'd stop trying but I'm still plotting. One day I'll break the curse!

Flower power

Since the weather has been warmer I've begun to yearn for spring. I think flowers are the best part of spring because the colors break you out of the winter blahs.

A couple months ago Sharon Briggs posted a challenge on her blog to make something out of the basic rosette pattern. I've mentioned before I love the rosette and often use it as a base for other patterns. So with her challenge in mind, I came up with this flower one weekend. I wanted to see what I could do if I only added one more round. That weekend I made a crap load of flowers for bookmarks. No fancy thread, just some coats size 8 my sister picked up at a yard sale.