June flew by

Tollway Tatters - June 23, 2018

 Tollway Tatters is always a good time with good friends. The Hinsdale Oasis on the Illinois Tollway is sort of a centrally located gathering place. Follow Lace-Lovin' Librarian's blog for up-to-date info about the next meeting. Tie-dyed t-shirts are optional! Everyone was working on impressive projects at this meeting, while I brought along a new pattern that I had purchased from JTatter on Etsy, the Tetrahedron earrings. I puzzled over it for the entire time there! Later, at home, I was able to understand it, and the finished earrings are shown at the end of this post.

My fresh paint and wallpaper home improvement project completed

 The stairway in my home had been the "gallery" of my children's drawings and school projects for many years. Since my "kids" have all been fully grown up for quite some time now, I finally decided it was time to take the faded, dusty, peeling papers down, paint the wall a new color, and bring a calming view to a windowless wall with a wallpaper frieze from Bradbury & Bradbury.

That's me trying the Lunar Module landing simulator at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio

 The family vacation destinations included the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio (hometown of Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon). Lots to see, very educational and great fun!

View of Cincinnati, Ohio

 We then continued to Cincinnati, Ohio to see a lot of the sights there, including watching our own Milwaukee Brewers play baseball in the ballpark of the Cincinnati Reds.

A beautiful sundae! Maybe the inspiration for new hand dyed thread.

 This sundae from Dairy Queen looked so pretty I took a picture of it! I'm getting a color idea for more hand dyed thread. By the way, my Etsy shop is digital only mode (vacation mode for me) just a bit longer, then I will have new plans for it.

Tetrahedron earrings, tatted from JTatter's pattern.

 I've finished a pair of Tetrahedron earrings from JTatter's pattern! For these I used size 20 hand dyed thread (Solar Flare) with size 3mm Swarovski iridescent pearl beads in Light Blue, and wire wrapped the niobium ear wires myself. 

JTatter's tetrahedron pattern in my own hand dyed thread and hand formed ear wires.

Pictures from Tollway Tatters at the Hinsdale Oasis in Illinois

Rita and Denise tatting together! Did you know that Rita makes beautiful tatting shuttles? She sells them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/shuttlebydesign/

Diane working on her doily project.

Photo montage showing Diane, Sue Anna, me, and Denise

Examples of shuttles that Rita has decorated.

Julie and Diane

More shuttles designed by Rita

Tatting in progress!

A collection of Diane's Ice Drops!

Diane taught me how to do an Ice Drop. She's a great teacher! These Ice Drops really are fun to make.

Tollway Tatters

Five of us were able to come to the Hinsdale Oasis on the Illinois Tollway for a day of visiting and tatting! From left to right, Sue Anna, Marilee, Diane, Sue, and Doris.

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~Diane showing off her impressive stack of doilies, all made this year! Most of them were the "Spinning Wheel" pattern by Mary Konior, but there were other patterns, too. Robin Perfetti designed the one that's on her hand in the picture.

Diane's colorful doilies, aka glass mats.

Beautiful handmade shuttles! The website where the artist sells them is shown on the cover of the box.

Sue is making so much progress on the Renulek Spring Doily for 2016! It's in size 80 thread, incredibly dainty.

Doris, a new tatter, successfully completed her first flowers!

Sue Anna finished test tatting my "Cool Circles" design in "Pansy" hand dyed thread. It's a new pattern that I'll be teaching at the I.O.L.I. convention later this month. Didn't she do a beautiful job?

Tollway Tatters Starting the New Year!

Diane in front, Sue Anna and Marilee standing, at the Hinsdale Oasis on the Illinois Tollway

Jane Eborall joined us via the Internet! We could see and hear each other using the FaceTime feature on Sue Anna's iPad. 

Barbara enjoying the visit with Jane, and Diane snapping a photo.

Sue Anna and Diane working on their tatting projects.

Barbara tatting a new snowflake.

"Celery" greens

 It has been a busy week, having fun with friends at guild meetings, trying to design a tatted connector for a friend's wire jewelry collaboration project (no success yet on that), and helping dear husband Jan set up his own Etsy shop. He's just getting started with selling digital photos at his Etsy shop. So, if you have time, do browse through what he's got so far, and favorite the pictures that you like.

I hand dyed a new batch of "Celery" thread, which people have been asking for. It's quite a bright shaded green, like leaves in sunshine. Now listed in my Etsy shop.

Have you seen the new Tatting Central website? It's nicely organized with links to guilds, suppliers, patterns, tutorials, and designers. So far, the designer section features Jane Eborall, Linda Davies, Tat-ology, TotusMel, and me!

Lace-lovin' Librarian - Diane with Carol at Tollway Tatters

Tatting Police

Yes, there really are tatting police. 

An Illinois State Police sergeant stopped by our table at Tollway Tatters last Saturday in the Hinsdale Oasis to see what we were up to, and was cheerfully given a tatting lesson, shuttles, and hand dyed thread! Now we have one of Illinois' finest hooked on tatting!

I want to mention a side note, before I continue posting about the fun times at the Tollway, that I'm feeling sad about the many copyright violations that have occurred recently. The pages of entire books, my own and those of other current tatting pattern designers, have been discovered posted on Google+. Every person who downloads one of these illegally posted copies is depriving the artist/designer of a sale. This is the same as defrauding a laborer of their just wages. This, combined with the shock that a magazine copied my designs without asking permission or acknowledgement (more about that on Corina Meyfeldt's post) has got me feeling a bit down about doing any more designing, but will hang in there.

On to the fun times!

Tatting shuttles were in abundance at the Tollway Tatters! There were Moonlit, Sunlit, Shuttle Brothers, and others, I can't remember them all. Lace-lovin' Librarian - Diane even got me to like the "Bad Boye" shuttles, with the way she cleaned them up, improved their "manners", and "dressed" them properly :)

More pictures of the fun below.

And, coming up, May 31, I'm teaching a beginning tatting workshop at Shake Rag Alley. Diane shared lots of her excellent teaching ideas with me, so I'll be able to get the new tatters off to a quick start.

3 generations of crafters!

Julie

Barbara looking for more patterns

Sue Anna and Lelia

Some of Lelia's tatting. The smallest hearts are Grace Tan's pattern.

Beautiful shopping bags from Lelia!

Handmade project bags by Lelia!

Tollway Tatters Summer Fun

The Tollway Tatters get-together at Hinsdale included special guests Tatting Marie and Lace-lovin' Librarian Diane's mother and sister.

Sue Anna can be seen on the left corner of our table laden with tatting goodies, Barbara Gordon on the right.

A doily in progress, tatting by Barbara

Tatting in progress by Sue Anna

Some of Diane's thread collection

Beautiful tatted bag by Marie

More of Marie's amazing work

Some of Diane's pretty doilies. The white cotton center was purchased from Handy Hands.

Lovely handmade gifts from Marie!

The time passes so quickly with tatting friends! I was sorry when it was time to go. But, on Monday, August 12, there will be a meeting of the Greater Milwaukee Tatting Guild, so more fun with friends to come!