Silver tatted pendant and "Stonehill Wine" hand dyed thread

 For this pendant, I combined tatting with a metal frame that I made myself from argentium silver wire. I chose argentium silver because it is tarnish resistant, and I like how it looks with the blue colors in this free-form tatting of hand dyed thread. The tatting is simple: random Josephine rings and normal tatted rings, with the "stem" made using encapsulation technique. I wire wrapped the tatting and a few beads onto the frame after the tatting was done.

New batch of "Stonehill Wine" hand dyed thread is now listed in my Etsy shop!

Next class coming up: I'll be teaching more beginners how to tat at Shake Rag Alley on May 7. It's a pretty and relaxing place to visit! For planning ahead, at the same location I'll teach an Intermediate Tatting class later this year.

Tatting pattern "Fantasy Flower" now in my Etsy shop

 This is the pattern that I taught at Finger Lakes, but upgraded to 3 pages. At Finger Lakes it had only 2 pages with less photos. I realized while teaching, that more in-progress photos were needed to show the process, since people buying the pattern online wouldn't have me there to demonstrate how it was done.

The pattern is for sale in my Etsy shop, as well as my Craftsy pattern store.

It's a one shuttle and ball thread pattern. 3 colors of size 10 are what I used, but someone in my class at Finger Lakes used size 20 for a daintier flower. A needle tatter successfully followed the pattern there, too.

Wonderful trip to Finger Lakes tatting conference

Tatting classes in session! There were a lot of people there, and the hall was filled! I was thrilled to meet so many tatters. Some faces I recognized from other tatting events.

There were tatting vendors lining 3 walls with tatting treasures! This photo only shows some of the products displayed by one of them.

An entrepreneurial genius, Sharon, brought her swift and ball winder and offered a winding service for hand dyed thread. Several vendors, including me, sold our hand dyed in between classes.

The food was all home cooked, and absolutely delicious! We also had brownies and ice cream!

My classes were the largest I've ever taught, about 15 students each. The project of a 3D flower wasn't finished in class, but the photo above shows one partially done.

The Finger Lakes area has a lot of natural beauty. This is one of the breath-taking waterfalls.

After the Tatting Conference, my husband Jan and I visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. A fabulous vacation all around!

Jan in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Me at Mickey Mantle's locker.