Demonstrating Tatting at The Handcart Days in Bountiful, Utah

Hello my bloggy friends! I guess it's been awhile, hasn't it? A lot has happened in my life since we last "spoke"... I guess I've got a lot of explain' to do, but before we get into all that let me share with you about what I did today! I went with someone from my local tatting group, "The Bonneville Tatters" to "The Handcart Days" in Bountiful, Utah and demonstrated tatting! It was really a nice day and we shared the lovely art of tatting with quite a few interested parties!

I even captured part of the day in some pics! Here, let me share them with you!

First, here is my partner in crime, Nannette.

She is tatting away diligently at something.
She even gave me permission to share her
pic on my blog! Wasn't that nice of her?

You can kind of get an idea of our table layout from this picture!
We had all kinds of tatted goodies we were displaying.

Of course as luck would have it the project I
was working on had a ring that wouldn't close
so I wasn't a very good "demonstrator"... LOL!


Here are some close ups of some of the tatted
goodies we were displaying...

...we had tatted lanyards and necklaces.

tatted brooches, snowflakes, earrings, doilies, bookmarks,
hearts, and of course, tatting shuttles!

This pictures shows a piece with some cluny work
that I haven't shown on my blog before and a pink
bookmark that Rozella Linden sent me once.
Yes, "THE" Rozella Linden...She has written books
on Celtic Tatting. Some of my tatting friends that are
involved in the online community may know her by her
real name "Ruth Perry". She also sent me a tatting shuttle...
...but that's a whole 'nother blog post! ;)

We were in an Art Center in Bountiful so there was a
bounty of beautiful artsy pieces to look at!
I snapped a few pics of things that caught my eye!

For instance this intriguing and beautiful necklace
was on display right behind us!
Isn't it gorgeous?
It looks like it was made out of all natural pieces.

Then in the center of the room and in front
of our table was this beautiful children's dress.
It was gorgeous!

Well, that was my Saturday! How was yours? Feel free to share what you think about our day at "The Handcart Days" in the comments! I've missed my bloggy friends but it's been hard to blog without a camera handy! I will share more in the near future now that I have a camera!... or well, actually...camera software!
(((huggles)))

♥

XOXO

Wanda's "Antique" Doily

If you haven't seen this doily yet I would encourage you to get over to Wanda's Knotty Thought's and check it out! Isn't it gorgeous? I certainly think so! She made this tatted doily up from tatted antique motif and she even shares the pattern! That's talent and generosity in one fell swoop!
Well, go on now! What are you still here for!?
;)


♥

XOXO

Jury Duty Tatting

Didn't I just say in a comment back to someone in my last post that it would be a dream to spend the day tatting and get paid for it? Well, it happened today! LOL! I had jury duty and didn't get called to serve on a jury so I spent the most of the entire 8 hour day tatting at the "Hall of Justice"! Woo Hoo! My work pays for it so that is awesome! I actually look forward to jury duty if I can remember to take my tatting along! I even got to share with a couple of interested gals who wanted to know more about what it was that I was doing! Very cool!!!

~*~

Here is the result of nearly six hours of tatting!

I am trying out the Finca brand thread

I recently bought. It's size 16 Perle Cotton.

I am using the pink and green thread from

the "Mardi Gras Sampler" pack.

Pink is C/2240 (T-491) and

Green is C/4350 (T-1115).

I am very impressed with how well Finca tats

for a perle cotton thread! It is very smooth

and strong and not nearly as "fuzzy" as many

other perle cottons!

I found Finca's size 16 to be similar to

size 40 or 50 in other cotton crochet threads.

The pattern I am working on is called

"Dahlia"

"Dahlia" is on pages 48-49 of Mary Konior's
"A Pattern Book of Tatting"

One of my new "toys"! Hee hee!

I got to take my new book out for a "spin"!
Thank YOU, Jury Duty! LOL!

~*~

I have to say that besides being able to tat it is a privilege to be able to do my "civic duty" and go do jury duty! I am very grateful to be an American Citizen and I do NOT take the blessing of that citizenship for granted! Our great country may be having a very challenging time right now, but it is a great place to live and I am grateful for the opportunities and blessings I have been given from being born here. I am grateful for the hardships my ancestors endured to make sure that their posterity would be born on American soil. Jury duty is a very small price to pay for that privilege and blessing!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my tatting and heartfelt feelings about civic duties with you! Hope you stop by again! Feel free to leave a comment and share with me what you think of my tatting (or jury duty, for that matter! LOL!).

OMGoodness! This is my 99th post! My next post will be my 100th! Shall I wait a WHOLE week and a half for my blogoversary so I can have them all in one BIG SHABANG!?! What to do. What to do.

Stay tuned...

TattingChic

xoxo

May I Have A WORD With You?

Few phrases strike more fear in my heart than this one! When someone utters this infamous phrase then one of two things goes through my mind. The first thing that I think of is, "Uh-oh!!! What did I do NOW?" the second thing that might go through my mind would be, "WHAT!?! What is it!?! WHAT!?!". Neither one of these thoughts are very pleasant nor are the feelings they evoke, *LOL!

You, however, can just relax! When I say "May I have a WORD with you", I mean just that! A WORD or two or three or maybe four or more! *LOL! We use a lot of words when we blog, don't we? Even if we mostly show pictures; there are words written and used in blogging. There's no denying it. I was inspired today when reading this blog post on April Showers' Blog! She posted a word cloud that Wordle.net put together for her by putting in her blog URL. Curiosity got the best of me and, of course, I had to try it out!

~*~

Here is the result!

It uses the words you use most as the largest words, *LOL!

You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Hmmm... "Tatting" and "giveaway" are the largest words on there.

Go figure!!!

Try it! You might learn a lot about your blog! *LOL!

~*~

So, what did I do with the rest of my day?

I started a new *WIP!

Wanna see?

It's the start of Lady Shuttle Maker's

Royal Diadem tatted doily design!

I also ordered some very special

custom silk *HDT to tat it in!

I have heard it said that when you are

tatting a large project for the

very first time it's wisest to tat it

in a less expensive thread.

Why, you ask?

The reason for that is just in case you make a mistake...

...you might have to do ghastly things to your project.

Like perform...

*****...GASP...*****

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn!!!

TATTING SURGERY!!!

(Insert woman's scream from horror movie here)

EEEEEEEEEK!!!!

Yes, it's true it happens and I have the photos to prove it...see?

It's all good, though because I'm practising in

the much less expensive

Valdani perle cotton threads!

See?

I bought these particular balls of Valdani thread

after viewing this post on Lace Lovin' Librarian's blog!

I had to run right over to Beadinmama's eBay shop and

see what all the fuss was about.

I wasn't disappointed!
She's even painted a custom gourd shuttle for me!
(More on that later...stay tuned!!!)

One thing I really like about

Lady Shuttle Maker's Royal Diadem

doily pattern book is that she put these

little babies right inside the front cover!

See? They are picot gauges;

custom made just for this pattern's design.

Isn't that cool!?

Now THAT's customer service!

~*~

Well, now that I've had a word with you I'd love for you to have a word with me, *LOL! It's all good, right!?! Comments are always welcome and I cherish each and every one of them! Thanks for letting me share my latest *WIP with you! I have a poll on the top right side bar of my blog and I'd love to have your input on that as well! I've been busy with *OWOH visitors and being a visitor myself so I'll get around to my regular blog visiting soon, I promise!

Be sure to stop by the giveaway post to enter by commenting on that post! You have until February 11, 2009 to sign up.

Love,

TattingChic

xoxo

*Acronyms:

WIP = Work In Progress

HDT = Hand Dyed Thread

OWOH = One World One Heart

LOL = Laughing Out Loud

I'm So Touched!

Currently, a wonderful event is taking place called One World~One Heart. It's a giveaway event where participating bloggers from all over the world each have a giveaway on their blogs. This is my first year particpating in this event. If you'd like to read more about this event and my giveaway please refer to the previous post here. Feel free to comment and enter on that blog post if you haven't already and if you would like to win some tatting supplies to learn how to tat, not to mention a hand tatted lace heart.

~*~

So, what's all this about being so touched?

I had no idea so many people were interested in learning to tat!

At the time of this post I've had 264 comments on

my blog as entries into the giveaway.

I'm so touched!

I'm honored!
Thank you!

So many of you have shared stories of a foremother

or relative who tatted and the story behind it.

Many of you yearn to learn how to tat.

So sweet, thank you.

I wish I had the funds to give all 264

(or more by now) of you

the supplies to learn how to tat!

One of the most touching stories has come from

Carolyn of Draffin Bears.

She told me of her Aunt Ruth who tatted.

Aunt Ruth had tatted her some beautiful pieces.

She cherishes them to this day.

She was kind enough to share some

photos with me of these pieces.

Here they are!!

This is a triangular piece of tatting by her Aunt Ruth.

Here's a hexagonal tatted piece by her Aunt Ruth.

Aren't they lovely??
If you would like to read more of
Carolyn's story click here.

Please stop by and pay her a visit!
It's also her 23rd Wedding Anniversary.
One of these pieces was given to her by
her Aunt Ruth for their wedding.
Isn't that precious!?

Thank you, for sharing this, Carolyn.
~*~

I hope you stop and say hello before you run over to Carolyn's to wish her a happy Anniversary and drool over her cherished vintage tatting! I'd love to hear what you think! I know this is corny, but I have tears welling up in my eyes as I type this. I just find it so sweet and serendipitous that Carolyn commented on my tatting giveaway TODAY and TODAY is her wedding anniversary and she received one of the pieces for her wedding! It's just all too sweet! Thank you for stopping by! I cherish my blog friendships so very much! :)

Sincerely,

TattingChic

((HUGS))

P.S. Dont forget to stop by the giveaway post (click here) if you would like a chance to win some hand tatted lace and tatting supplies.