Double Cross

The first Tatting Tea Tuesday of summer started out with me sipping an iced green tea Nojito.  I make my own mint syrup, adding several splashes of lime to the green tea plus a fresh sprig or two of mint.  YUM!  Feel free to add rum if you prefer a Mojito-tea concoction.

Two Jane's Bookmark Crosses
Designed by Grace Tan/Jane McLellan
Tatted by IsDihara 2013

This week I completed a second Jane's Bookmark Cross. One for each of Sapling's Kindergarten teachers. These turned out great! Both are lovely and were a joy to tat. Sapling's last day of school is June 13, 2013, so I even completed them before deadline.  Perhaps the most amazing part!

This second cross is tatted in Lizbeth® 20 #149 Peacock Blues. It measures three (3) inches in length (7.62 cm) and two (2) inches wide (5.08 cm).

Hats off again to Grace Tan who cleverly adapted Jane McClelland's bookmark pattern into a cross.  And gratitude also to Jane McLellan who adapted her bookmark from a braid that appeared in the May 1984 Anna Burda magazine.  Such amazing talent from these two tatting ladies.

Jane's Bookmark Cross pattern PDF may be downloaded from the Tatting Class Homework page: New Pattern from Grace Tan

Ramblings and a Sneak Peek

To kick off summer tatting season I had wanted to tat another Celtic Strawberry Heart by Birgit Phelps or one of Martha Ess' charming Split Ring Ladybugs (pattern available on Palmetto Tat Days 2009 Pattern CD).  Alas, with the stitching I am doing I wasn't able to start either project.

It seems the Piedmont Palm Frond group was the lone sponsor of a decorated wall hanging this year. We had been keeping mum about our theme but I see no reason to keep it under wraps any longer. Here's a sneak peek at our whimsical blue-eyed penguins:

Playful penguins wall hanging for
2013 Tat Days fund-raising auction.

There will be more to discover about these capricious penguins at Palmetto Tat Days in September.  The wall hanging will have hand-stitched applique, couching and some bead work as well as tatting and bobbin lace. My hope is that such fun-loving sea-birds will be in demand on auction night.

Tat Days 2011 Loot

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.”
~ Walt Disney

And there is more treasure at Tat Days than a Disney dreamer can imagine. It comes in many forms and guises.

Crazy Mom shared photos of her uber swag haul from Tat Days 2011, including the large tote bag, size 20 Omega thread and a clear bag jam-packed with nifty trinkets of every size and description.

I took the liberty of spreading mine out for a more detailed view. It is just one of the many ways Palmetto staff attend to every little detail for their guests. They excel at this.

Snack Room Treasure
Feeling peckish between classes? Need a late night snack? No problem. The snack room is filled to overflowing with every imaginable treat and refreshment. Another example of how Palmetto staffers attend to every little detail for their guests.

Finding Chocolate Strawberry tea in the snack room was a delightful surprise. I was so busy squealing with glee I forgot to snap a photo for the blog. Crazy Mom came to my rescue with this link - Chocolate Tea. Thanks, Crazy Mom!

Tat Days 2011 Spoils

Vending Room Treasure
Having experienced wicked, hedonistic shopping impulses in 2010, I came prepared with a shopping list. For the most part I stuck to it, only splurging on the Rosemarie Peel pattern book.

Two copies of Martha Ess' Playing with Picots and Tat Days 2011 Pattern CD were purchased. One copy of each item now lives in the Piedmont Lace Guild of Virginia's library.

Aren't you all impressed with my willpower?

Shuttle Lab Trends was a new vendor (for me) whose wares I am eager to try.

In 2009 I had seen photos of gorgeous, drool-worthy HDTs from this vendor, and lace made from them, show up on other blogs, but none were available in 2010.

Imagine me hovering vulture-like over the display of threads, beautifully blinged shuttles, etc., deciding what to take home. I bought four fabulous HDTs.

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Beanile Treasure
The loot I am most thrilled about are Nina Libin's beanile lace kits.

Winter Solstice © 2011 Nina Libin

Did you see my first completed earring in the above photo? No? Here is a close up.

Dazzling, eh? When the second earring is finished I will block them together. Then on to the exquisite necklace and pendant. This could be the beginning of a beautiful beanile relationship.

The second kit is an icy, crystalline enchantment called "The Snow Queen - I." It will be a snow day tat later this winter. Nina gifted Crazy Mom with the Snow Queen - I earrings she tatted. You can see them here.

Can you believe I'm not finished? (Almost.) Crazy Mom was so generous, she let me pick out this custom mix of gemstone beads. They're so pretty!

And last but not least, Georgia Seitz handed me this creative button sample on the final day. Her online tatting class page gives lots of inspiration for embellishing them. I'm looking forward to playing around with these to see what I can come up with. Thanks, Georgia!

Here is what they look like when you find them in their commercial packaging.

Whew! My fingers are tired! I hope you enjoyed this loot post. Back to tatting for me!

Flower Power from Postie

Lookie what postie brought yesterday in the mail.

Those lovely lasses and lads from the Palmetto Tatters Guild wrote to thank me for sending a donation to the scholarship fund in 2010. You don't see too many hand-written notes these days (more's the pity) and the one I received was especially nice!

As if the thank you letter wasn't enough, tucked inside was this magnificent tatted Autumn posy. I just love this!

If you were the tatter, please know that I can't stop smiling at receiving this very pretty piece of tatting.

Thank you for creating it from one giddy recipient!

More on Shuttles, Treat Mints and a Teapot

Remember this photo from two weeks ago? I started a holiday recap only to abandon it after the blogging attempt stretched long into the day and night.

Santa's goodies included two decorated shuttles: one from La Cosette with holly, berries and snowflakes.

And the other a Clover shuttle blinged out with pretty pink posies from Lace-lovin Librarian Diane. See it peeking out from the red satin bag? That same bag was tantalizingly displayed in Diane's post, The Big 500. She celebrated her 500th blog post with a giveaway and I was one of the lucky five winners. The prizes were a mystery and I have to say the suspense was palpable. But I couldn't be happier with the prize!

That darling red satin pouch held a treasure trove of goodies: the pink posy shuttle (hand-decorated by Diane), a ball of vintage white tatting cotton, a 12-yard sample of Sulky thread (color 4025), an EZ-Bob for winding thread, and a charm clip. Such nice goodies. Thank you, Diane!

To see a nice photo of all the items together, check out Martha Ess' blog post. Her belated thank you says it all, so much better than I have.

Tathogen^® Treat Mints

To the ladies in my lace guild, who have been nervous about thread-eating microbes ever since I returned from Palmetto Tat Days, I gave out holiday samples of Treat Mints. Everyone seemed to like them and it afforded some peace of mind (particularly to the bobbin lacers who couldn't tat a Thyme leaf cure).

If you haven't heard about the thread-eating microbe, read about it in this Tatting Tea Tuesday post from August 31, 2010.

And on that note I kindly thank you for reading all the way to the bottom, and leave you until anon.

Motif #14 - Mary Fitch's Poplar Leaf

Mary Fitch's Poplar Leaf
Karey Solomon © 2010

Sharing my first Tat Days finished piece -- the Poplar Leaf from Karey Solomon's Early Bird class on Saturday, August 28, 2010.

Now, I did not attend the early bird class since I was staying off-site (17 miles away). But the nice Tat Days staffers graciously gave me a copy of the pattern.

This leaf is more along the lines of what I imagine is a manageable pattern for Tat Days. And isn't it just a darling little leaf?

Motif #14

This counts as motif #14 for my 25 motif challenge. It is tatted in Lizbeth 40 #138 Leafy Greens and measures a petite 1 by 1 1/4 inches (2.5 cm by 3.2 cm).

The pattern is Karey Solomon's re-envisioning/adaptation of a 1916 pattern by Mary Fitch. This leaf is in her "Tree of Life" book.

Karey says tatting this leaf is a great way to use up partial thread on your shuttle. It is a single shuttle pattern and only takes about 3 yards of thread.

Karey, you've done it again. Thank you for enchanting us with this petite leaf and offering up a mini-tat to use up left-over threads.