A week after Tat Days

 As usual, Tat Days was a blast. My class Thursday night went pretty well (multiple people finished their version of Solar Flare). I repeated that I didn't care if they didn't do it the exact way I did, the pattern is flexible and as long as they were happy with it, then it's a success. 

But one tatter gave me such a compliment. She finished her Solar Flare on a jump ring, and said she's going to use it as the snowflake in her Christmas cards this year. 

Ridgecrest was nice but very confusing. We had a map of the conference center and we had maps of the individual buildings, but we didn't have maps showing us how buildings connected. For example, you could walk entirely around the dining building from the building with Tat Days to get to the building with our rooms, or you could go through a door at a dead end hall, go up half a flight of stairs, and be on the 2nd floor of the rooms. 

 

The scenery and weather were gorgeous. Saturday morning I even saw my breath (after the extreme heat this past summer, that was a blessing). 

For the first time, the webmistress of SomethingUnderTheBed was able to attend. I think she was a little surprised by her popularity. 

I wanted to take at least some of Randy's classes, but you can never take all the classes you want to take. I bought his latest book and Anitra took all of his classes, so she can help me.

I wasn't entirely certain about Bev Corder's Art Trading Card class. I was definitely intrigued but I wasn't certain how my end result was going to be, and if I would be happy with it. By the end of class, I had finished 4 cards and was thinking about more. Here are my cards.

Flower Garden Art Trading Card

Leaf Art Trading Card

Art Object Trading Card

Essence of Art Trading Card

  I also like my Posies for Nina class (Karey Solomon) and I got a second kit so I can do it again. Then I'll probably make my own 'kits' to make some more in different colors. 

Posies for Nina pendant

 I need to tat Jane Eborall's This Way and That Way Snowflake again. I'm not happy with my block tatting. She was showing another way to do it and my lines of tatting are kind of uneven.

block tatted snowflake

On the other hand, I'm very happy with my flower(s) from Heidi Nakayama's class. They're going to be earrings. I have 2 flowers done, but they don't quite match (one is dark purple and the other is Elderberry Jam, an ombre purple). 

WIP earrings

 Sharren Morgan's Lattice Edging is pretty easy. She also provided variations and a couple corner treatments in her pattern. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I realized it was perfect to trim the tote bag we got. I'm almost done, but I've said that for 2 days. 

Lattice edging

Palmetto Tat Days 2024 tote

I bought 2 stickers and put them on my journal. I should take pictures of my goodie bag and my purchases.  

Tatting advice sticker

My Superpower sticker, on my journal

The drive wasn't very long, even with the detour to get Martha, but I had to stop and get a 5-hour energy drink. Luckily, I only drink them about 4 times a year (maybe only 2), so I'm not greatly concerned with their effects. When caffeinated drinks alone are not enough, and I'm driving some distance, then I partake. Luckily, they also taste nasty, so I'm not tempted.

Have you ever heard of Yaupon Holly? It's a holly native to the SE part of North America. It's also related to yerba mate and it's a caffeine source. I bought some tea from a company in Wilmington, North Carolina. I got a variety similar to black tea, and it's tasty. To me it tastes more herbal than traditional teas.

They had muscadine grapes in the store the other day. I couldn't resist, so I bought some. I shared them with my co-workers and finished them off myself. They're tasty, but a little messy.

 

It's Snowing!

 Sort of. I have tatted Harmony of Hearts snowflake from A Veritable Tatted Blizzard. Due to not reading ahead, I ended up with 2 variations of the same flake. I did make 1 change, I used a split chain to go from round 1 to round 2. Note: I started with 4 yards on each shuttle, then ran short of thread on shuttle 2 (lots of chains, no surprise), SLT and still ended up with over a yard of thread on shuttle1. Next iteration, I'm going to use 3 yards on shuttle 1 and 5 yards on shuttle 2.

I'm working on my Solar Flare in silver and round out of thread. This wouldn't be horrible, but there are beads involved. 

I did get my teacher application for Palmetto Tat Days submitted. I'm not 100% happy with the diagrams, though.

UNC winter blood drive was today. I successfully donated. Since I didn't manage to sign up for a volunteer shift I helped with set up last night. The person who usually helps set up the canteen wasn't available so we went off our best memories of the set up (folks who do usually work that station had a good idea how it's supposed to be). So once we were done, I took pictures so we'll have them next year. 

I lost Whamageddon, though.

I ordered maps for Rosemary. She had bought them but needed them printed out. And it's much easier and faster to get them printed on big paper by a print shop than print them on 8.5x11 and then tape them together.

Hanukkah starts at sunset. May your life be filled with light. Yes, I know what's happening in Gaza. What Hamas did was horrible. And Israel's leadership has done some US level horrific actions (Japanese internment camp and Native American Reservation level of horrible), so they don't have clean hands. It's too much to hope that children should be able to be safe, warm, and fed, I guess.

And the so-called Republican leadership in Congress is just embarrassing. They're so busy bickering and yelling things for the social media engagement that they aren't leading. Never mind paying attention to what would actually help their constituents and the nation, that never seems to cross their mind. The closest I've seen is an attitude of 'this is what I want so it must be what everyone wants.'

Oh if you want an idea about the reliability and/or bias of a news source, here's a handy dandy chart.

Tat Days! Or What I Did that Weekend

 Palmetto Tat Days was August 18-20 and was in Lake Junaluska, in the Lambuth Inn. Still pretty.

I only took 4 of the scheduled classes. Two were strictly technique; tatting with wire and one on picots (from Kelli Slack's How Well Do You Know Your Picots?). Two were part project and part technique. Karey Solomon's Beaded Celtic Constitutional uses a lot of onion rings and Celtic shuttles, both of which I need to practice. Richard Embry's Pearl Tatting with Graduated Picots Bookmark is lots of pearl tatting plus using a picot comb. I need the pearl tatting practice and I just learned how to use the comb in the picot class.

There was also a notecard class Thursday night. She had kits with the metallic floss already threaded. She brought the pre-printed (she printed them) and pierced cards and all we had to do was sew around the edges, color the flowers, etc if we wanted do and then add flowers and beads with glue. She does them all the time and here's the examples she brought.

(I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the card I made)

I might send the card I made to Lucille. I think she's appreciate it.

Karey had a tatting class at the same time, involving floating chains. I'm going to have to try the patterns. 

I need to tighten my wire tatting a little bit. It's never going to be as tight as thread of course, but mine is quite loose. I went ahead and bought a pack of assorted wire. I might add a flower or two to a card.

My first attempt at the Celtic piece turned out tight enough Karey said not to bother with the 2nd round. I'm tatting a second one, but with 6 points (in Evergreen size 20 again) to see if that makes a difference because I like the looks of the 2nd round.

Melanie Cervi gave a presentation on vintage tatting/ textiles for the early bird class.She had some lovely examples. 

Alas, I didn't get a picture of it. I only got 1 picture of a slide from her presentation.

I also consulted with Sharren Morgan about her bottle holder. I've gotten to the strap part and couldn't figure out what to do next (and couldn't find my pattern). I just need to end the strap I have in progress, then start a strap from one of the two remaining attachment points, join it to the strap already made, and continue to join to the last attachment point. I'm low on thread though. I might have to substitute some of the size 10 I bought for the bookmark class.

The picot class blew my mind. I learned about 3 I had never heard of, a false picot, and learned the name of one I'd done before. I got Kelli's book (of the same name), plus her book in rings, chains, and joins. She also taught us how to use a picot comb. I'd watched her video on it but I really needed to see someone do it.

Richard's bookmark I did not complete until after I got home. I got to the 1st wing (and messed it up) but did a better job on the 2nd one. It looks like a serpentine dragon to me so I added a breath weapon.

So many pretty tatted things. Here's the show off table. I don't know who made what (though I bet the Wizard of Oz group is by Martha Ess, she just came out with a new book).

Oh, and look at these 3d printed accessories (available for purchase)

 

Look at the pretty shuttle I was unable to resist.