Pardon the Dust...and a Blog Award!

What a surprise! Carol Lawecki honored me with this Bella Sinclair Award for Art Inspiration, Friendship Sisterhood, Sharing, and Caring. Carol is an uber- talented tatter with a very caring soul. Thanks for making me feel special.

Congratulations to Laura, Tatskool, and Aileen who ARE special and inspire us with their contributions every day!

Just re-arranging and tidying up a bit

I had a lovely note last week from Nancy in Dallas who asked if I could make the site larger. She could only see a small area and she said it was too hard for her to see.

Blogger controls the bandwidth and storage space for this blog, but I suspect Nancy didn't mean that. In the event that she is having trouble reading the print because it is small on her monitor I can do two things.

First, I can enlarge the font size to make the words easier to read. I have done this. I used to have the settings locked for a larger font, but somehow they reverted back to the template default. Please do let me know if the larger font makes it easier for you to read.

Second, I can attempt to instruct Nancy how to change the display resolution for her monitor. I do not know what operating system she is running or what the aspect ratio is for her monitor. But those thing may not be relevent if she just wants to see the full blog width. 1024 x 768 is a pretty good place to start.

According to Wikipedia, "As of July 2002^[update], 1024×768 Extended Graphics Array was the most common display resolution."

My display resolution is 1152 x 864. My hubby prefers 1280 x 1024. I can't read the tiny print on his laptop and bristle when he offers to "fix" my desktop. Does this happen at your house?

As a general rule of thumb, the larger the first number in the ratio, the smaller the words (font or type size) on your display. So Nancy should check her display resolution to see if lowering it might help.

You may notice some changes while I tweak settings in an effort to make the blog width viewable to the widest audience. I am no expert and am basically shooting arrows in the dark.

Please accept my apologies in advance for any inconvenience this may cause!

End of Summer Blues?

Image reprinted with permission
Copyright © 2009 Carol Gillott
We all hate to see the lazy days of summer come to an end, don't we? I'm no exception. As August heat gives way to cooler breezes and geese trek across the skies, it is getting harder to ignore the unavoidable truth - Autumn is around the corner.

But before Fall's dazzling foliage, pumpkins and hayrides take over the landscape, I want to bask in the illusion of Indian summer.

Tatting Tea Tuesday pays tribute to everyone who, like me, is in denial about the end of summer. All hail its glorious last days!

Basic Strawberry Heart © 2003 Birgit Phelps
(Celtic-style Top to come later)
As I settle in with a cup of strawberry herbal tea, I pull out some Coats & Clarks "boilfast" size 70 tatting cotton in a perfectly ripe, juicy red.

Another of my flea market finds, it came in a 12-inch metal tin that was filled with partial spools of vintage tatting thread. Apparently they had been stashed away for a rainy day, then sold at auction.

What better way to honor summer's last hurrah than with a symbol of its bounty? My freezer is filled with juicy strawberries fresh-picked in May so we can
enjoy mouthfuls of sunshine all winter long.

I'm making two of these strawberry hearts for a special Teapot Tuesday project I have been keeping mum about for awhile now. More on that later.

This bitty berry project would be done except that the only green cotton I have is either size 80 in a pale, mint green or size 20 Manuela in a dark, Hunter green.

So I await the arrival of a size 80 Christmas green from Handy Hands. It should arrive by parcel post later in the week.

Once the Celtic-style tops are done I will post again and share the surprise that Mothermark over at This is My Story has in store. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to share it with you!

But my part in this project has had to simmer on a back burner while I focus on the lessons for the Design-Tat class. Mothermark waits patiently, but I figured I had better send her something before summer was well and gone.

You, however, won't have to wait longer than Halloween (October 30th) for news of our awesome little collaborative tea project.

In the meantime, revel in the glorious pseudo-summer days that remain and prepare for Autumn's splendor.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Win a Year of Lace

Re-Tweeting @yearoflace: As an aspiring tatting lace designer who dabbles in knitted lace, I would love to win a subscription to the 2010 Year of Lace! Sign me up!

Click on the "Sign me up" link above to go to the website.

If you Twitter, don't go sign up or you'll make it harder for me to win. Just kidding and good luck!

Source: @yearoflace: Have you entered the contest yet for a free 2010 subscription? Tweet why you love the Year of Lace and use the hashtag #yearoflace.

Insider (Germ) Trading & Motif #4 of 25 Motif Challenge

School is back in session and the first wave of germ-trading has begun. The Sprout is not even enrolled in preschool. Three days into the school term he got sick and developed an ear infection.

So Tatting Tea Tuesday finds me blogging from bed, cuddled close to an alternately teary and talkative boy. He has been watching cartoons (Toy Story, Little Einsteins, Dinosaur Train or Pinky & The Brain). We have also read several books and even made up a few stories to break up the monotony.

Tatting under these conditions is not easy, but I have managed to finish this little something. It is tatted in Manuela size 20.

Tiara ~ Motif #4 for 25 Motif Challenge

Tiara is my latest experiment with stabilizing chains. I worked rings after short series of chains and used a split ring-chain combo to add more strength. The design ended up being wavy and square.

Overall, I am pleased with the results even though it turned out to be a bit more ornate than I expected. Stability and negative space are both good. It makes a nice motif #4 for the 25 Motif Challenge.

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** UPDATE **

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Thank you, one and all, for your lovely well-wishes! I am happy to report that The Sprout has rebounded with new-found toddler energy and gumption after completing his course of antibiotics. We head to the pediatricians on Tuesday, 9/22/09, to verify that the ear infection is, indeed, gone. If so, they plan to administer a flu shot. So more teary, out-of-sorts tantrums and cartoon marathons may be in store for the days ahead.

Where Does Inspiration Come From?

Image Source: Dan Blake's Blog

Where does inspiration come from when an artist picks up a shuttle?

It is everywhere and can come from anywhere. Would this fabric sample make a lovely lace pattern? Seven Islands Floral Note: There are two screen prints to choose from.

How about this blog showing how one creative bride turned an image of a glorious Arizona sunset into a breathtaking Autumn table top: Fall Table Inspiration

For a completely different example of design inspiration, CraftStylish (one of my favorite creative blogs) has this answer: Our Higher Nature

As unbelievable as it sounds, I have found inspiration in a potted plant sitting in my neighbor's living room. And we all know my fondness for teapots. I often find inspiration there. But I have also found tatting inspiration in architecture, nature and an unusual door knocker!

Do you have a tale of design inspiration? Please share it. I'd love to hear.

Coffee, Tea or ...Diet Coke n' Chocolate?

Late night blog crawling on a Wednesday night found me at the lovely Krystal Dawn Tats page. Where I saw her early August post about Tatting Coffee Thursday.

Oh, ha, ha, ha! I love all the comments about tatting with a different drink of choice for each day of the week! You guys rock!

Whether it's coffee Thursdays, Diet Coke n' Chocolate Saturdays or whatever else trips your fancy, it's all good!

If you do another tatting coffee Thursday, Krystle, please let me know so I can join in. That goes for Diet Coke n' Chocolate Saturdays too, TattingChic! Although I'd have to make mine a caffeine-free Diet Coke and add a splash of lime.

See, we all put our personal spins on things. And Ladytats, you are absolutely right about one thing -- as long as you include some chocolate, no one cares if it is tea or coffee or Irish coffee or Irish hot chocolate or Diet Coke or . . . martinis?

Image reprinted with permission
Copyright © 2009 Karen Sloan

Anyone up for Tatting Martini Mondays? (See it there, on the end table, next to that comfy chair?)

Why yes, there is a story that goes along with this wild and crazy idea.

Last October a bunch o' the gals got together to decorate haunted gingerbread houses and we broke out the martini glasses. Hoo-boy! Did we ever get silly! And sweet mercy, the hangover I had the next day. Ouch! I would have suggested chocolate martinis, but we don't have a day of the week with a CH sound in it. More's the pity.

Since I have strayed into Halloween-ish territory with my martini tangent, I wanted to leave you with battatter's fiendishly clever 3D haunted house. But I can't seem to find a link to a photo anywhere online. Blarg and bother! I know I have seen it.

UPDATE: Thank you, batatter, for sending over the image.

FYI--for anyone who is still reading, if you want to see more photos of this awesome 3D tatted haunted house, go to batatter's blog and type either "haunted house" or "boo" in the search field.

As for Martini Mondays, even I have to admit martinis are a bit hardcore. Just imagine all the wonky knots that would result from a "3-martini tat!"

Sweet Enough to Eat —Raspberry Ripple with Real Vanilla HDT

Ooh, this motif looks so scrumptious in Tatskool's HDT. The creamy vanilla...the warm raspberry ripple...it looks sweet enough to eat.

Tatting with this thread is an irresistible treat. Rings hold their shape and chains don't go all floppy like three-plies sometimes can. This is a six-cord thread and yessirree, is it ever smmooooooth.

But it is a bit hard to see on a light-colored background, so here it on some purple silk.

Isn't it just lovely stuff? Tatting with it gives me the sweetest taboo. (Apologies to Sade Adu for using her song title.)

Now on to more murky technique analysis. If you're not in the mood, you may want to stop reading now.

From the start I suspected this round might not lie flat. Sure enough, the final repeat is ³⁄₁₆ -inch too narrow to complete the pattern. So close! Would blocking fix it? Dunno, really.

A few days ago I received the instructor's critique on this motif. It was a thorough and thoughtful review, and I'm grateful for her suggestions. It's just that my design wasn't constructed very well. It was pretty and a nice design effort, but unstable.

Here is what I have learned: chains are a good means of traveling up and out, but they need built-in structure to avoid "wet spaghetti syndrome." Rings are great stabilizers, but can devour precious negative space.

Another thing I learned is that retrofitting stability into a motif is like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Looks like I have a long way to go to whip this doily-size wet noodle into shape. It makes my heart ache because I pored my creative soul into the lesson. But the class isn't even half done, so there are many, many more things to learn and lots of room to grow.

Witness the genesis of a design. Who knows? Maybe even a designer.

That wince? It's nothing. Just shrugging off a growing pain and getting down to business.