On Tuesday we will set out for Anderson, Indiana, for Tatting Corner’s Tat Days 2024. We’re stopping for a bit of sightseeing on the way as the classes don’t start until Thursday. This year I will be teaching two new patterns of mine. The theme is “Games Tatters Play” and my patterns are of the Great Race of the Hare and the Tortoise.
The Tortoise and the Hare
The tortoise is a stuffed 3D pattern. It is similar to the Sea Turtle I taught on the cruise in November, with a lot of changes. For one, Sea Turtles have fins, the Tortoise has legs and toes!
His opponent in the Race is the Hare. This hare is 2D instead of 3D, and plans on winning! It looks simple, but jumps around a lot, with a lot of reverse work and switching shuttles.
Tat Days are July 11, 12, & 13. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, and meeting new ones!
The Hare and Tortoise patterns will be available after Tat Days.
Who will win? The fast, or the the slow and steady?
Independence Day is tomorrow, July 4, but we spent yesterday evening celebrating early with our church family. We had an enjoyable evening with a potluck and fireworks. It was a lot of fun. We watched other people set off fireworks while we sat and watched.
Most years I come up with a little something done in patriotic colors. Instead, this year I’m sharing a pattern I made a few years ago. In July 2019 I decorated a white button for the 4th of July with red and blue threads. A few days ago I was asked for the pattern and realized I hadn’t written it out yet. I finally did.
Patriotic button
It’s funny, I’m not sure what I did with the original button, but I made a new one and started a second one. One suggestion about making it: don’t do it while talking to people in a doctor’s office. This pattern uses four shuttles at a time, which can tangle if you’re not paying attention!
Patriotic Button using four shuttles
I was talking about tatting to several interested people in the office waiting area and tangled the threads several times. I should have chosen something a bit simpler to take with me.
If anyone is interested in the Patriotic Button pattern it is on My Patterns page.
I wish you all a safe 4th of July!
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”– William Faulkner
My wonderful husband, Jack, has enabled my shuttle addiction over the years. He has bought me shuttles, gone hunting for shuttles at flea markets, ordered them for me online, and made them for me. He’s at it again, making more shuttles.
Shuttles by Jack June 2024
The three shuttles on the left are made from a branch that fell out of our Red Bud tree a few months ago. The branch was already dead, it was blown out of the tree before we cut it out. I told Jack I thought it would be cool to have a shuttle from it, and he did, too. I didn’t know the wood would be so pretty! The shuttle on the right is cherry wood.
Jack has one of my plastic Clover shuttles that he uses as a pattern for size and general shape. He cuts out the shape with a band saw and then uses a sander to finish the rest of it. Then he glues a post in the middle. Each one is slightly different in shape and height, making them one-of-a-kind. He is getting better and better, each one surpassing the previous one. When he’s done, he brings them to me to verify they work as expected, keeping the thread from unwinding when dropped to unwind the twist in the thread, and being smooth to wind and unwind. He’s having fun while improving the process.
He currently has three in process in the garage, and plans on making more. For all that I like them all, he is taking some with him to Tatting Corner’s Tat Days in July, to see what other tatters think of them. If you see him there, ask about them. He’d love to show them to you.
“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning… Every day I find something creative to do with my life.”Miles Davis
I’m still on a bookmark kick. They are quick and easy to make and are great to have on hand for a last-minute gift. And a not-so-last-minute gift.
More paperclip bookmarks
These bookmarks are also great to do while traveling. Since I have no set pattern for any of these it’s easy to do in the car or a hotel room. And we happened to take an impromptu trip last week to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sunday, on the way home from church, my husband asked if I wanted to go. We left early Monday morning for a week in New Mexico.
We didn’t have any plans of things to do while in Santa Fe, but we found plenty to do, a couple of hikes, and several wonderful places for food and beverages.
La Cieneguilla petroglyphs
Not too far outside of Santa Fe are the La Cieneguilla petroglyphs. It is a short hike, about a half mile, but some of it’s uphill over rocks. We hadn’t thought to bring our hiking boots, so we wore our tennis shoes. We made it, but next time…! It was worth the climb. I understand there are many more petroglyphs than what we saw, but we saw enough to appreciate them.
View on the road up to Ski Santa Fe
We did take a much easier trip up to Ski Santa Fe ski area. No hiking is required, it’s just a beautiful drive with a few lovely views.
A few places where we ate in Santa Fe were Herve’s Wine Bar for lunch and a cocktail, Rowley’s Farmhouse Ales for lunch and beverages, and The Flying Tortilla for several meals. The Flying Tortilla is close to the hotel we stayed at and we took advantage of their good food several times. All three of these restaurants have patios that allow dogs, which is great as we took our dog with us.
I do not get any compensation for mentioning any of these establishments.
Tsankawi Prehistorial site
We also hiked the Tsankawi Loop, which was probably not very smart. It’s 1.5 miles long with ladders. We went at 8:30 a.m. when it opened but it still got hot. We took plenty of water, but we aren’t in as good of shape as we should be for this. We made it, but we were feeling it before we finished. Our dog did great, even going up ladders, but going down was another matter altogether. My husband carried her down the one we didn’t go around. This is an amazing hike, but I’d not take her if we do something like this again. And be in better shape! We didn’t do much the rest of the day.
Wheat harvest started while we were gone. I’m somewhat disappointed that I missed them cutting the field in front of our house. Around the area we live wheat is a major part of most of the farms. Harvest means a lot of slow-moving vehicles as farmers move from one field to another, lots of trucks hauling wheat to the elevators, and lots of dust in the air. It’s good that it only lasts about three weeks.
Now that I’m home I’m gearing up for Tatting Corner’s Tat Days in July. Another trip, this one planned, that I’m looking forward to.
“Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.” Susan Sontag
I know it’s been over a month since I posted last, but it wasn’t supposed to be. I had made a post just after Mother’s Day, then went on being busy. Including taking a little trip. How awful of me not to notice that I did not make sure it went live! So, here it is! And I’ll continue to work on the next one!
A few weeks ago I thought it would be nice to give a little something to each of my daughters for Mother’s Day (they are great moms!) We were all going to my mother’s house to celebrate with her so I would be seeing them. And my nieces. And my sister. Maybe I’d need a little something for them as well. Something quick and easy. Lucky for me, they all like to read, so bookmarks would be perfect.
Mother’s Day bookmarks
I was trying something out with the purple bookmark. It didn’t come out as planned but I was not unhappy with it. The next one, in green Twirlz thread, started one way, and then I realized I hadn’t put enough thread on the shuttles to do the whole thing that way, so I changed it up a bit. After that, I decided to quit playing around and just get them finished. I like doing split rings, which work well for this type of bookmark, and they are quick. I missed taking a picture of the one I gave my sister.
After Mother’s Day, I was still playing around with bookmarks, trying different things. One of those ideas got away with me and became – not a bookmark. I was unhappy with how it looked, so I tried several other things, hoping to make it better.
Doodle on a button
I did not think to take pictures as I was making this. I did most of it while watching TV and without much of a plan. It started on a button. I thought there would be five or six arms, but it didn’t fit right, so I stopped at four. But it was quite ugly like that. The top eight layered rings were tatted in the manner of Ankars rings and then sewn to the button when done. It still looked bare, so I added the bead.
I like the ideas in this, but not the pattern of the bottom arms. I will ruminate on this and see if something more developes later.
I have several relatives graduating from high school and college that could use one of these bookmarks. And they fit well in cards. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few extras for when an unforeseen small gift is needed. I think I’ll make a few more.
“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” Roger Staubach
For all that I seem to be busy all the time, I have taken a few minutes here and there to get a little tatting in, and to see what others are tatting. I was intrigued by several different techniques I saw on the Internet, some of which I decided to try.
I saw a FaceBook post where muskaan talked about a Single Shuttle Beaded Braid. Oooh, I had to try that! She explains it in a blog post from April 2024. I found that it is not hard to do, but much harder to get it to look nice and even.
Single Shuttle Beaded Braid
I am happy with this technique, but I certainly need more practice! I see how it can be used. FYI, the shuttle is one I bought from The Knotted Vine last fall.
While playing with the idea of beads in rings like this I fiddled around with beaded split rings. These were even worse in not being even! Again, more practice is needed.
Beaded split ring practice
As I was in the mood to try new things, I looked up a technique I had wanted to learn for a long time. I have a book of patterns that use it but I could never follow the written directions on how to do it. The Internet is a wonderful place to learn new things if you can just frame the question correctly. After a bit of trial and error, I found what I was looking for. It is a Lock Join Picot. Tatman has a video of it.
Lock join picot practice
I know this looks a bit odd, but I was just trying the technique in threads that were already on shuttles. I can hardly believe how simple it turned out to be! Now I need to find the book and give those patterns a try.
I had two shuttles wound with thread from a recent project that I wanted to empty. Instead of unwinding them, I made another “Life is Bliss Butterfly”, an Endrucks #32 derivative by Antonia Lia, from the PicotMeEndrucks April game. This is the first one done in size 10 thread instead of size 20.
Life is Bliss Butterfly
I changed the stitch count in several places but did the lock join picots as I did on the previous butterfly. While I’m typing this I noticed that one of the bottom lobes of the butterfly seems to be missing a picot. It’s there, I did a poor job of laying it out before taking the picture.
Did you have a good Mother’s Day? I had a wonderful weekend, including Sunday spent with my mother, our daughters, their families (and my husband!), my sister and her family.
Friday night we watched something I had never seen before, and certainly never expected to see in Kansas – the aurora borealis!
Aurora borealis
We did not see the waves of light that are usually shown when they are seen farther north. When we first went out to look, we didn’t realize we were seeing them. The sky seemed bright, with what we took as a cloudy sky to the north, but nothing we recognized as the northern lights. Our daughter came by with her family a few minutes later and showed us how to take pictures of them. By then the sky was pink to the naked eye, though not as spectacular as the pictures show. What we thought were clouds were the northern lights! We stood outside marveling at the sight for a long time. We live in Kansas, and to see them is quite rare. What an experience!
Have you tried anything new lately? How did it come out?
“You don’t have to get it right the first time.” Barbara Sher
I usually take my tatting with me in my purse. Usually, I have some idea of what I have to tat with in my tatting bag. Last Sunday morning we had to leave for church early and pick up the grandkids on the way. I had almost an hour before Bible study started, time I could spend tatting. What did I have in my tatting bag? Several partially wound shuttles of miscellaneous threads and no plan.
I had been trying out a few ideas the evening before, nothing of which I wanted to continue. I had a copy of the April Endrucks game of Picot Me Endrucks “Life is Bliss Butterfly” and wound shuttles, so I worked on that during my wait.
Life is Bliss Butterfly in random threads
One thread is white, the other in some shade of turquoise, both Lizbeth size 20. I wasn’t sure I would be happy with this pattern in these colors, but I think it came out great! There were a few distractions so I wasn’t very imaginative with the picots. I did add a few extra stitches on the chains of the top part of the wings so the picots stayed more distinctive. After I was done, I noticed I wasn’t mindful of the picot sizes. It still came out well. I like it!
One of my granddaughters was confirmed at church last Sunday. Confirmation is not a sacrament or a divine order but is a step on the confirmand’s faith journey with study and understanding. Each confirmand wears a white robe as a symbol of the Christian’s holiness and purity in the sight of their Creator. They may also wear a corsage or boutonniere from their families. Fancy hair accessories are optional. We got her a corsage, and I also gave her a decorated comb. Of course, I didn’t start it until a week before.
I had an idea of the tatting attached to a barrette to be worn in front of her ponytail. I had the opportunity to try it on her hair the Wednesday before the event. I temporarily attached the tatting to a short hair comb to see how it would look.
Temporary hair piece
I thought a few tatted tails hanging down the back might look good.
Back view of the comb
The idea didn’t make it past this test. I didn’t restart quite from scratch…
Changed my mind
I didn’t know where I was going with this at the beginning, so I didn’t think about putting beads on, or where to put them, to begin with, so the beads at the center were sewn on after instead of being incorporated in the tatting from the start. I added the rest of the beads as I tatted.
The finished comb
My granddaughter and her mother both were happy with the finished comb. Instead of the short comb or a barrette, I sewed the tatting onto a larger, metal comb. I’m glad I did, as one of the first things my granddaughter said was there was one tooth poking her in the head. I bent up the offending tooth and the problem was solved.
Hair comb fallen forward
I did not put anything in the tatting to hold it down on her hair in the back, not considering that she is twelve and doesn’t sit still all that much. Over the day the tatting fell forward frequently onto her head instead of staying nicely over her hair. If you didn’t know better, maybe you would think it was supposed to be that way.
I thought I had taken at least one good picture of her wearing the comb that showed her and it off, but I was wrong. Maybe she’ll wear it again soon and I’ll get a better picture. When there aren’t so many things going on.
A friend suggested it would make a beautiful part of a wedding veil someday. I think it would, but hopefully, that’s a few years in the future!
The pattern is not complicated, even with the beads on it. I’m hoping soon to write out the pattern. It has been added to the list of patterns I need to write out.
“Life is too short to have boring hair” found on Southern Living
I have a thing about using up all the thread on a shuttle, even when only a little bit is left. So I make little flowers and birds or try new techniques, doing anything to make me feel like I’ve not wasted more of the thread than I have to. This leaves me with lots of little flowers and birds and such. Now, what am I supposed to do with all of them?
While checking out videos on YouTube I saw one about slow stitching, which is embroidery. But I liked the result and thought that using tatting instead would also look good. Here is my first try.
Safety pin brooch
To make the back I did have to do some stitching with needle and thread. Following the directions, I didn’t worry about hiding any of the stitches, letting them be part of the overall look. I have a package of coil-less safety pins, so I have a lot of opportunity to do more of these.
The butterfly is another try at the Picot Me Endrucks’ Life is Bliss Butterfly, this month’s challenge of the Endrucks 1920 Project. For this butterfly, I made longer picots on the top chain and then added a chain back over them.
The brooch on my coat
My black coat is a wonderful background for the brooch. It’s getting warm now so this coat probably won’t be worn much more until fall. I guess I’ll have to find something else to put the brooch on for the summer.
I have two grandchildren in track this spring. Yesterday both of them had track meets in towns miles away from each other. The parents, my husband, and I divided ourselves so both kids had family in attendance. I went to the one that was an hour away and lasted six hours. Not much else gets done on days like this. And on Thursday there is one that starts at 10 a.m.! At least it’s only 30 minutes away instead of an hour!
Today I don’t have any track meets or other obligations. Except to work on something special for my granddaughter’s hair for her confirmation. This coming Sunday. I need to get to work on it!
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Unknown
Is it Friday already? The week has gone by so fast! It has been an extremely busy week. Last weekend we took a trip to Missouris and I feel we’ve been running ever since.
My husband and I traveled to Springfield, Missouri last weekend to meet up with a few tatting friends. Kristina Fry arranged for a room at The Library Center where we could tat and catch up. It was a great location for us to spread out, share what we’ve been doing, and do a bit of tatting together.
Tatting with Kristina, Kay, and Peggy
Kristina Fry, Kay Pettyjohn, Peggy Rogan, and I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of tatting. We all met at tatting events put on by Tatting Corner and went on the Tatting Cruise last year. Our time together went by so fast! My husband left us to our threads to go to Bass Pro Shop, where he enjoyed himself much more than if he had stayed with us.
Tatting and chatting
Thanks to Kristina for taking a few other pictures than the one I took. I was so busy doing I didn’t even think about pictures.
Ladies, I’ll see you in Anderson, Indiana in July for the next Tat Days.
From Springfield, Jack and I went on to Branson, Missouri. The only plan we had there was to see the Titanic museum. We’d seen the outside before but had never gone through it. It is amazing!
Titanic Museum, Branson, MO
It takes about two hours to go through and you must purchase tickets before showing up. There is limited space inside so they restrict how many people can be inside at one time. We spent a bit over two hours inside, there was so much to see and hear. It is self-guided, but they give you a device with audio descriptions. I highly recommend this place!
Presidential suite on the Titanic
This is a recreation of one of the largest accommodations on the Titanic, one of the two presidential cabins. The portrait is of the couple who were in this one on the fateful voyage.
All of the people working in the museum dressed as they would have if they were actual crew members.
Musicians of the Titanic
This gentleman’s name is Tommy, who explained how the musicians from the Titanic were paid and lived, and then sat down at the beautiful piano and played for those of us in the room.
If you’ve never been to Branson, MO. before, it has lots of things to do and see. Just driving around is fun (at least for us!). Here is a couple of pictures I took (of the many I took).
Wax Museum of Branson, MO
This is the outside of the Wax Museum at night. King Kong can be seen from a long distance, especially at night.
Aquarium in Branson, MO
The outside of the Branson Aquarium. The water is a show all by itself. We stopped in the parking lot to watch it.
There are a lot of shows in Branson and many choices for places to eat. If you don’t mind the crowds, it can be a lot of fun. It’s a fun place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Martin Buber
I have no affiliation with anyone linked in this post and earn nothing for mentioning them.
