Tatting Tea Tuesday - Petal Progress

Two sample lily petals,
Beads added to petal - lower left

For a long time I have wanted to create a 3D Stargazer lily. (Or several lilies for a stem, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.) So I decided to use the pattern for a single petal as the April tatting social at my LYS. I started tatting petals and taught others to tat them too.Win - win!

Three petals complete

Six petals are needed for a 3D lily. I have made three so far. Hurray! Half-way to first flower.
Edit:  This free PDF pattern is available from Linda Davies' site: Tattyhead

Stargazer Lilies in my front yard (July, 2008)

See the gorgeous dark flecks in the petals? I tried adding cranberry-colored seed beads to mimic them. (See top image) My size 15 Miyuki beads are a bit too small, but the color is perfect!

Stargazer Lilies in my front yard (July, 2008)

Stargazer (as are most) lilies are uplifting and majestic -- a perfect choice for Tatting Tea Tuesday. Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Spirits Lifting, Thanks to YOU

Thank you, THANK YOU, tatting friends! I awoke to find a great wealth of supportive comments waiting for me (as well as a lovely Google Talk message from a tatter) and my spirit is rejuvenated by your kindnesses.  Wishing I could reach out to hug you all!

Thank you, Tatting Friends

Thank you, tatting friends, for being such an ever-present source of tatting friendship and feel-good energy.  I needed it today.

Lately every time I walk into my LYS I walk out feeling utterly demoralized.  I do not like this feeling, so I have spent less and less time in the shop.

Today I came home after being treated very poorly as a customer as well as rather brusquely as an independent contractor.

Now I consider myself to be approachable, friendly, accommodating and, yes, overly sensitive. I also am guilty of analyzing a situation to death. That is why I have tried hard to ignore these feelings of demoralization each time they have occurred in the past.

But there comes a point when one cannot brush bad feelings under the rug any longer.

Why don't I cut ties with this shop? I honestly do not know, except that I was responsible for getting tatting materials stocked in and for getting tatting lessons started in the shop.

When I leave my greatest fear is that the shop owner will become the tatting "expert." Or worse, force the needle tatting teacher into a dual roll.  Most of all, I do not want the shop owner telling people that I am a bad teacher or that I "didn't meet her standards" when patrons ask why I am not teaching there anymore.

Hey, for all I know, she does think I am a bad teacher.  Quite frankly, I do not care if she thinks this, because I know how many people I have successfully taught and will continue to teach. If a person comes to me who wants to learn to tat, I will teach them.

But I also cannot tolerate these demoralizing feelings. (Every time this happens I repeat, over and over, "no one can make you feel bad unless you let them.")

Do I need therapy? Is it a simple matter of leaving the shop behind? Or is there another solution somewhere in between?

I am sorry to post about my pain, tatting friends. Misery is such a strange bedfellow in Tat Land.

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." ~ Shakespeare, The Tempest (2:2)