Fall

One of my favorite things about living in Pennsylvania is fall.  Cooler temperatures, beautiful leaves, Steeler's football, apples, cider, pumpkins, mums - I just love the season.  So when September comes around, I pull out all my orange and other fall-friendly threads and my tatting takes on a distinctly fall flavor.

This is Rosemarie Peel's small Celtic motif from "Tatting for Pleasure." I love this design - especially with beads.  I've been wearing this one myself to celebrate fall's arrival.

Next - my pumpkin earrings, slightly updated this year based on the fact I've discovered some different findings and decided I liked the tatted pearl better turned upside-down. (There really isn't a right way up I just had decided in my own head which side was the top and now I've changed my mind - at least for the pumpkins.) :-)

 

I've also been playing with Yarnplayer's new "Small Maple Leaf" pattern.  Love, love, LOVE this clever little pattern!  The pattern is written so well, it works up relatively quickly, and it looks just like a maple leaf.  Yarnplayer is a very talented designer.

That's all the tatting for this past week - I've been studying for the first section of the CPA exam which I will be taking this coming Saturday.  Say a prayer for me!

Blessings,

Bead Embroidery

For the last six months or so I've been playing around with what I'll call "bead embroidery."  It involves sewing beads onto the tatting after the tatted piece has already been made.  Sometimes the tatted pieces already have some beads incorporated in them (as I was tatting them the beads were added) and I'm just embellishing the piece with more beads, and sometimes I just take a plain tatted piece and sew all of beads directly onto it. 

 

It's mostly pins I make this way since they already have some kind of a filigree on the back in order to hide and attach the pin.  You'll see below one pair of earrings I made this way as well.

 

I enjoy the process - not as much as the tatting itself, of course - but it is a lot more fun than making the little roses I used for many years to decorate these miniature little doilies.  I've pretty much discontinued that line of my jewelry (although I still use the cameos for a little more of a Victorian flair) and was trying to figure out how I could decorate and keep brooches as part of my inventory.

  

 

I've certainly got plenty of beads and had quite a few piece of plain, undecorated tatting I had originally planned on decorating with the roses, so I started experimenting and my bead embroidery was born.  Right now I'm still in the developmental stages; I have a few techniques and designs I like to use often but I'm always working on coming up with something different.

New Display

I will once again be teaching an "intro to tatting" class on September 10th at somethings looming in Reading, PA.  Just go to their website where you will find all the information you need to sign up if you are interested (click on "Saturday Samplers" right on the front page). 

I don't have any new tatting pictures to share - just haven't had time to take any.  I did get a new display system this year for my art/craft shows, which I absolutely love.  It's Pro Panels, which are quite pricey, but quite worth the price in my opinion.  Amazingly lightweight, easy to set up and very professional looking.  I've been wanting a display system like this for many years.  At the end of the show season last year my husband accidentally left all my Velcro boards behind at my final show and they got thrown away (admittedly, they were in such poor shape I'm not surprised someone thought they were supposed to be trash).  So this year I had to to something about getting a new display. 

Actually I did away with the table in this picture and instead used more shelves on the other side for the second show of the season.  I just love it! 

I've been working on a few special orders so I may be posting some new tatting soon as I'll have to take the time to take some pictures.   Hopefully :)

Drawing Patterns

Hi all!  Long time, no hear from me.  I will hopefully be sitting for at least part of the CPA exam in November, so studying is in high gear.  Still working full time, still doing art shows, and now teaching tatting as well - in other words, still biting off more than I can chew.  This is the story of my life. 

I have been taking Sharon's "Design Tat" class, although I generally don't post there either and just work on things on my own when I can.  I recommend the class highly (although I'm not sure when the next one is starting); it's very informative and the tutorials on writing patterns with drawing software are extremely helpful.  I've been playing around today with the software and in the attempt, completed a new written pattern for my "Tigereye Earrings" and then came up with a diagram for my mini-cross (the written pattern was originally posted as Motif 24 on my blog here: Mini-Cross).

Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

And that's all the time I have to share today - must get back to studying.  I do have some "Intro to Tatting" classes coming up in the near future - watch for posts about that in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Class Available

I will be teaching an "intro to tatting" class on February 5th at somethings looming in Reading, PA.  Just go to their website where you will find all the information you need to sign up if you are interested (click on "Saturday Samplers" right on the front page).  I'm busy getting the kits together so come join us!

Apologies to my faithful readers and followers - once again life, or more specifically school and work, have taken over and I literally have no time for blogging, e-mailing, reading other blogs, etc.  I know I fall off the face of the earth for months at a time.  I'm still here but not doing much tatting.

I promised some customers I would post when I would be teaching a class, however, so here I am popping in just for a second.