Spring!

 At last spring is bursting out all over!
I'm really enjoying it after the bleak winter we had around here. Since I'm involved in church music (singing in the choir and playing the cello) last week was very, very busy! Saturday night the church looked especially lovely and I got into the photo with the flowers. I'm wearing pink "Grand Aura" tatted earrings, and below is a close-up of the earrings.The pattern is my own, found in the Up and Tat 'Em book.

For Sunday morning, I chose a pair of aqua tatted earrings, done in the Celtic knot pattern from Celtic Tatting Knots and Patterns by Rozella F. Linden. I started the earrings at what would have been the Greater Milwaukee Tatting Guild meeting on April 10, except the meeting was poorly attended due to weather conditions and people having other commitments. It's still fun to tat in public, anyway!

Adventurer and Khaki hand dyed

The difference between these 2 batches is that "Adventurer" has olive drab in it, "Khaki" does not. 

The reason that I did "Khaki" is that someone requested my original "Adventurer" from a few years back which didn't have olive drab in it at the time. I don't remember who it was and can't find the message (from several months ago), so I'm just putting this out there for anyone interested.

Video: Tatting a Mock Ring and Floating Ring With Beads

This 10 minute video shows me working with 2 shuttles, tatting a mock ring around a bead, bead picots, lock join, chain, tatting a floating ring thrown off a chain, putting a bead in the center of the floating ring, and you'll hear me talk about what I'm doing.

It's actually a demonstration of the start of my own Nouveau necklace pattern. I made this video in response to questions about the techniques used. I hope this helps!

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.

Tatting clunies on a snow day

 Around here we don't enjoy snow in mid-March. The Greater Milwaukee Tatting Guild meeting that was scheduled for today was cancelled.

 So, there is time to tat clunies! I'm working out the details for an earring design I came up with a while back, but could never quite figure out how to do it again or explain what I did. I am determined to finish writing up the pattern! Fair warning, there will be a lot of technical details besides the challenge of the clunies!

The shamrock and green heart

I still need to follow the illustration of the Celtic knot from Celtic Tatting Knots and Patterns by Rozella F. Linden every time I tat one of these shamrocks! Actually, I do it backwards from the illustration, using the paper clip end to weave the knot so that a Celtic shuttle isn't required. 
This particular shamrock pattern is mine, and you can find it here.

These green heart earrings are based on the "Sweetheart" pattern in Boutique Tatting, but I altered it. I'm always experimenting! Instead of 2 shuttles, I used 1 shuttle and ball, and when I reached the bottom, I lock joined, tatted the ring, and lock joined again. At the top, I substituted lock stitches for the Josephine chain.

After the tatting was finished, I wire wrapped an emerald green Swarovski teardrop, connecting it to the bottom ring while wrapping. I also made the earwires.

Not much tatting lately, since I've been busy with my cello music. Often choir music contains parts for several instruments in the score, but seldom for cello. The choir director gave me a trombone part, but after hearing it we both agreed that the cello is definitely NOT a trombone ☺ 

So, what I'm doing is transposing the "C" instrument part (usually intended for flute or violin) down an octave into bass clef for cello. I have music software, which helps, but I still have to do it note by note. Naturally, I'm putting my name in as "arranger" underneath the composer's name on my printed sheet music (I'm the only one who'll ever see those pages, anyway). ☺