I’m still working on my daughter’s runner but I don’t have anything to show today. I’ve got the idea, and the material, and gotten started on the additional tatting, but not enough to share. I’m pretty excited about how I think it will turn out. Maybe next week I’ll have a better update on it.
While I was picking up things in the living room this week I started collecting several of my tatted pieces to either move or put away when I noticed something. Two of the pieces looked pretty cool together.
Arches and points
I had left the 12-point medallion out from when I took pictures of it but decided to put it away. When I moved it I had laid it on top of the Arches Over Arches doily that was on the buffett. Then I noticed it would sort of fit in the center of the doily and played with the arrangement a bit. And look what happened!
I might have to try putting these two patterns together intentionally. What do you think?
“The more I draw and write, the more I realise that accidents are a necessary part of any creative act, much more so than logic or wisdom. Sometimes a mistake is the only way of arriving at an original concept, and the history of successful inventions is full of mishaps, serendipity and unintended results.“
It wasn’t intentional, really. I was making a thread sample for a friend to take with her to look for material and ended up with some of the thread left on the shuttle. On a whim, I decided to do another small motif and ended up with points again.
Another 12 point medallion
I made the center and thought it was too small so did the next round. It was okay but I still had thread left so I played with different ideas for another round. Several were cut off as I didn’t like them before this one.
If this was blocked with pins instead of just dampened and laid flat the outside round would look more even. As this was just for fun I haven’t done that yet. If ever. I like the look the way it looks just as it is.
I have gone from having no real plans on what to tat next to having several. This is a good thing, as I’ve been a bit in limbo on what I want to work on. One of these days I may take my own advice and make a list of things I want to make so I don’t forget. Then I’d always have an idea for the next project. Right?
This year at Palmetto Tat Days they had a costume contest during the Friday evening banquet. Once I knew I was going to Tat Days the contest sounded like fun. But what to dress up as? A lot of thoughts later – and a lot of time later – an idea came to mind that I thought I could handle. My sister agreed to help me with the major sewing parts which would get done a lot faster than I could do it. If I did it I might, maybe, have been ready in a year or two. Then the tatted parts had to be designed and placement figured out.
I didn’t know I was going until about June, not much time to get a costume together. With vacations and normal life in the way, I was tatting every chance I got. My sister ran into sewing machine issues and her time was taken up by things beyond our control so the costume was a lot different than originally envisioned. My Tat Day roommate, Diane, helped me put it all together for the first time when I dressed for the banquet.
Tatterlady and Princess Peach at Palmetto Tat Days
Neither Princess Peach, aka Kayleigh Osborn, nor I won the contest, (isn’t her outfit amazing?? She sewed it herself!) but we all had a lot of fun.
I know it doesn’t look like I have all that much tatting on my outfit, but I kept changing my mind! There were quite a few motifs of different colors tatted that I did not use. There were also a few things tatted that just didn’t work out.
Tatterlady’s tatted jewelry
Most of the medallions/motifs that I ended up using were in Lizbeth #657 Ocean Turquoise Dark in size 10. The earrings were in #657 as well but in size 20. The other colors were #641 Lilac Dark and #638 Christmas Green.
Tatterlady’s fascinator
It was a blast coming up with a fascinator. All three colors of the medallions were originally going to be used in the entire outfit. Due to unforeseen problems with the costume, this was the only place I used all three colors in medallions. The scissors are not real but an accent piece I found at JoAnn’s (I think). The shuttle is one side of a Susan Bates shuttle that came apart. An elastic headband did an excellent job holding it in place.
Tatterlady’s cuffs
I thought the cuffs came out great! The hardest part (other than the sewing!) was positioning the frogs in the right places. Notice the optical illusion?
Tatterlady’s cuffs turned around
These are the same cuffs with one cuff turned around.
Tatterlady’s spats
I made spats* instead of wearing boots. They are more like leg warmers, but spats sounds better 🙂
One day, soon I hope, Palmettos will have their pictures up from this year’s Tat Days. I didn’t get many pictures of others in costume but I’m sure they have some. I saw some of them before the end of the weekend, there were some marvelous ones.
It was awesome to be able to go this year but it went by so fast! I only finished one project while there and haven’t had time to finish anything here at home yet. I plan on getting them done before Tat Days next year!
“Playing dress-up begins at age five and never truly ends.” Kate Spade brainyquotes.com
Here is my TIAS day 11. This has been a lot of fun making a really cute goat. There is only one more day left to finish off the goat, then we’ll have to wait until next year for another one. Another TIAS, not another goat. I think this goat will be really cute to make for the grandsons. I already have several ideas in mind. It’s been a lot of fun seeing everybody’s goats, where they are from, the really cute ways some of them have been displayed, and all the different comments people have made while doing this. If you haven’t been over to check it out, it’s well worth your time even if you aren’t tatting it.
I’ve been doing a little bit of tatting lately, other than the TIAS. Some has come out like I planned, some not so much. I made a four point motif that I thought looked pretty cool, and then thought that putting it together with others would look even better. The motif is not all that hard, and joining them shouldn’t have been hard, either, but it didn’t always come out that way. And then it would help if I made them all the same way. I had this all together and was pinning it out when I noticed that one – just one – had different stitch counts than the others. If it had been in the center it wouldn’t have looked quite so odd. But, no, it’s on one of the corners. It’s a bit obscured by the shuttles (purposely!). I felt pretty stupid that I hadn’t noticed it sooner. Can’t cut it off and try again because I’m pretty sure it’s not the last one joined. But I thought is still looked pretty good so I’m sharing it anyway.
You might also have noticed that I missed posting on Tuesday. I had time to do day 11 on the TIAS and that was all that I had time for. I didn’t even have time for tea! I’m hoping to do a little better next week.
“Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.”
