The show's approaching - only time for one more batch

Just one more week to prepare for the Discovery World Artisans and Entrepreneurs Holiday Market! I am beginning to get nervous about it - my biggest fear is that my booth will look sparse and pitiful compared to the other booths. So I will be dyeing one more large batch ("Pansy") this week, but that one will not go into my Etsy shop until after the show. I am also working on a couple of necklaces I hope to get done, and as many earrings as possible! In the harvest art fair I did last summer, the earrings were what sold. I'll be demonstrating tatting, and I'll have a sign-up sheet for people who may be interested in tatting lessons.

The very next day I am playing my cello in the MFSO "Messiah" concert! So Dec. 6-7 will be a very busy weekend!

My article in "Belle Armoire Jewelry"!

Another "too good to be true" moment!

A whole article, by me, (4 pages!) in Belle Armoire Jewelry Winter 2009!

To top it off, my article appears first, right after the table of contents! The photos were taken by their own professional photographer, and are absolutely glorious!

A dream come true! I encourage you to check out the submission guidelines for this and other magazines, and submit your own original designs - the next article could be by you!

"Tigereye" and student work

Someone - actually several people - had requested "Tigereye" HDT quite some time ago, and I have finally got around to it (a round tuit, LOL!) This batch is a bit more intense than my previous attempts at this colorway.

The tatting in the above photo is the work of my tatting student, done on her own in about 3 weeks time, after only one lesson! This lady is amazing! I've never had anyone pick it up so quickly. Last night she learned about sewing in ends, tatting over ends, and working with 2 shuttles. She will be returning for a lesson in split rings soon. This tatting student found out about me when I had a display at the Bead Needs bead shop, which sadly has gone out of business. So I've been teaching her at home. I'll try to find another shop or other public venue that would be interested in having me teach tatting classes.

White necklace with red beads - done!

"Toccata" is the title I gave to this one. A musical term, "toccata" means a composition in free style. Well, the name fits, I think. Anyway, it was fun - even though these beads gave me a little trouble. The holes seemed a little smaller than some beads I've worked with. Glad I had a "floss threader" handy to deal with them!

Necklace center, and art fair approaching

The center part of the necklace - not too bad. But, it could use more stability, so for next time I will add more joining picots, and make other adjustments. Seeing possibilities brings out more ideas. Now, the sides - the easy part, yeah!

The big news - I'm going to be a vendor in an art fair! Hopefully the poster will get bigger if you click on it. I will be bringing the contents of my etsy shop and my books, and I will demonstrate tatting! The plan is to have a sign-up sheet for people to put their contact info on if they are interested in tatting classes.

Tatting in "Needlework News"!

Hey, knock me over with a feather...what an honor! I'm in the Nov. 12 "Needlework News", edited by Denise Felton at "Craft Gossip". How cool is that?!!

LadyShuttleMaker, you're included in one of the related links as well - mentioned by TattingChic!
Lighthouse Lacers got a promo too! Woo- hooo!!!

"Lava" Hand dyed, and some newer books collected

Well, I kicked around several names for this unruly, "mind-of-its-own" batch. The reddish part couldn't decide if it was burgundy or rust, and the darker area didn't know if it wanted to be brown or gray. Finally, I decided the colors were similar to the rocky ground cover sold at the garden center as "lava rock", so "Lava" is what this batch came to be called. The earrings in the photo were tatted from this new HDT, and are from a pattern that is in my "Boutique Tatting" book.

Speaking of books, here are some newer ones that I have acquired during the last few months. The 3 in the back row are by Iris Niebach, the one with Daisy Picot Patterns is by Riet Surtel-Smeulders, the center one is one of Linda S. Davies' tatted flower books, and the Ornament Tatting 1 is by Heather Johnston. All lovely designs! Of these, the book best suited to beginning tatters (IMHO) would be the one by Heather.

Stubborn little beads

Some seed beads just don't want to fit onto the picot. In that case, I have resorted to using a "floss threader" and a helper thread to get them on. More about that technique here.


There has been a little progress on this necklace design. I like the interlocking beaded picots at the center, but I have discovered that my original plan for the large picots with beads dangling won't work. So my next idea is to add some more tatting at the lower edge to connect these dangling picots to.
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I took my "Boutique Tatting" book to show the office ladies at the dentist! (Well, I had been telling them about it while I was still working on it, and they said they wanted to see it when finished!) The dentist himself was so impressed, he took a photo of me with it to put in his newsletter! Even a patient still in an exam chair asked to see it! Such excitement, it almost made the dental bills seem not so bad...almost, LOL.