Back from IOLI 2016 Convention

That's me wearing a vintage Tat Days shirt, showing a tatting technique in one of the classes I taught at IOLI convention 2016.

Koala from Australia

 When a lot of lacemakers get together, it's guaranteed to be an interesting week! In one of the tatting classes that I taught, I met a lovely lady from Australia who gave everyone in the class a soft toy koala! The cuddly critter can grab onto things, so in the photo at left he's clutching my scissors.

Sue Anna winding lace bobbins

Sue Anna provided the transportation for the 2 of us all the way to the convention in Indianapolis and back home again. She took a bobbin lace class in Bedfordshire lace. She had a lot of bobbins to wind, so shopped in the vendor area for a bobbin winder. She bought one that she liked, then happily wound the rest of her bobbins and was all prepared for class!

Sue Anna's tatted "Amoeba"

 Sue Anna also took my "Amoeba" tatting class. I really like the orange and purple contrasting colors that she chose for her motif. This design provides a lot of opportunity to practice Catherine Wheel Joins! Comments that students made during class gave me ideas on how to make the pattern a bit easier to understand, so I'll add those improvements before I put the pattern into my Etsy shop.

I wore my Planetary Society shirt one day, and boy, am I glad that I did! It attracted the attention of a woman who actually used to work with Carl Sagan! In case you haven't heard of Carl Sagan, he wrote and hosted the TV Series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. A short biography and video featuring his "Pale Blue Dot" quote can be seen at this link.

Me with Jules

Prize package with knitting by Lelia

 There were many raffle prizes given away. I was lucky to win this beautiful prize package containing a hand knit "bottle dress" including a bottle of dishwashing liquid, a hand knit dishcloth, a blue and white ceramic mug, and pretty notepaper.

The vendor room, stocked with lacemaking supplies!

 The dinners at the convention, as well as restaurants nearby, offered yummy choices! I only took one food photo, of the luscious chocolate cake dessert at one of the convention dinners. I wish I had taken a photo of the incredible rhubarb pie that I was served at Shapiro's Deli in the mall nearby. It was so good!

Being around so many people doing bobbin lace, I couldn't resist buying a beginner's bobbin lace kit and a book of bobbin lace jewelry patterns. I kept telling myself that I don't have time for yet another craft, but well, if you're a creative person you know we just have to find time to play with new toys :)

Off to Indianapolis for International Organization of Lace Convention

Since I'm going to be in Indianapolis all next week, only digital patterns are in my Etsy shop. That's because I won't be home to ship anything.

I am teaching 3 classes at the International Organization of Lace Convention. You can see more about the convention on the I.O.L.I. website.

I'm going with Sue Anna, and she's doing the driving, bless her!

Behind the scenes: I am frantically trying to finish another "Cool Circles" necklace to show my class. I had to send the original to Annie's publishing because it's going to be in a book. And, wouldn't you know, I discovered that I had miscounted the seed beads in part of it. I hope the corrections will get into the book before it's printed! I'll have to hand write the corrections on the pattern sheets that I'm giving to the class at I.O.L.I.

I don't have a hat for Hat Day but I will wear a grouping of my tatted flower hair clips as a fascinator. Gotta go finish that necklace!

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?

New hand dyed thread "Raspberry Sorbet"

A new dye batch just added to my Etsy shop has bright raspberry and other red to pink shades in it. I wanted something almost as intense as some flowers I've noticed recently, such as these shrub roses. I like the results, and I think it's a keeper! 

Dye being hand painted onto the thread.

Dyed and cured thread in the rinse bath.

Being Different at the Bead&Button Show

 My favorite remark that someone said to me at the Bead&Button Show "Meet the Teachers" event was "I've been looking all around and seeing similar things over and over, but at your table I'm finally seeing something different! Marvelous!"

 Well, encouraging comments like that are what keep me going! Bead&Button Show is a very, VERY big gathering, and sometimes being someone who does something different from the mainstream can feel a bit lonely. The few other "fiber" people there voiced similar laments. But, hey, my tatted jewelry drew "oohs and ahhs", curious questions, and stories of long ago relatives. People did love the hand dyed thread and bought some even though they weren't sure what they would do with it :)

 Some people who bought my hand dyed thread last year stopped at my table to show what they had made with it! A bead crochet necklace using clear crystal beads that allowed the hand dyed colors to show through, and a bead crochet bracelet with some areas without beads to feature the thread.

 The show and classes take up the Wisconsin Center convention facility in downtown Milwaukee, as well as 2 hotels plus some classrooms at the Milwaukee Technical College. The event lasts 10 days.

One of the students in the tatting classes that I taught, proudly showing off her very first tatted earrings!

It's not done yet! Friday, June 10 I'm going back to do some shopping :)

Another "Garden Afternoon"

The thread dyed well, although some of the size 10 in this batch didn't get much of the yellow. The dye colors do tend to run together while they are wet, but serendipity is something I consider part of the charm of hand dyed thread.

My tatting basics class at the Bead&Button Show has 2 people signed up - both of them from overseas; one is coming from the other side of the planet, literally. Golly, I sure hope they didn't travel all the way to Milwaukee just to take my tatting class! Seriously, I'm hoping that it's just one of the many engaging activities they will be enjoying at the event. I live only 6 miles from the convention center hosting the show, so that's why I applied to teach there. 3 people have signed up for the advanced class.

Pendant is my original design, shuttle is from Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane

So, of course I had to practice the project for the advanced class in order to be ready to teach it. I gave it a try in red, white, and blue, and I like the result. So much so, that I don't think I'll show the students this version! They'd complain that I didn't put those colors in the kits! Well, unless they read my blog or look at my Etsy shop they won't see it. People who sign up for live classes are usually not online followers.

I'll list the pendant on Etsy when I finish some earrings to match. Oh, and the pattern for this pendant will be included in a new book that should be out later this year. The pattern uses curled rings, folded rings, and tatting a ring around a bead.