County Fair -- And the Ribbons Go To...

If you've read any of my previous year's entries regarding the county fair, you may recall that the submission quality is high, but the quantity is low.  Usually only three entries per year.

Today I went to my county fair to view the tatting category and see which pieces won top honors.  What a treat to find six (6) tatted entries!

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that a tatted reticule bag won Best of Show in the Needle Arts category this year.  (Squeee!)

2012 Blue Ribbon and 

Best in Show, Needle Arts

Congratulations to (name not published) for tatting this treasure in mignonette stitch and roses.

The second place entry was equally eye-popping.  A charming, white christening gown made in the longer length of bygone days.

2012 Red Ribbon winner
From the tatted cap sleeves through the front lace panel to the hem finished with a trio of pink rosettes, this entry is a dress surely to be handed down for generations.

Congratulations to Sw4nkyL4c3r for creating this darling, tatted christening gown.

The third place entry was a set of dainty earrings tatted in white with clear beads.

2012 White Ribbon winner

Fine and exquisitely accented for just a hint of sparkle. Elegant earrings anyone would cherish.

Congratulations to (name not published) for tatting such pretty lace jewelry.

What about my entries? I submitted two pieces you have seen on this blog before.

Regal Snowflake, design by La Cossette Tatted by IsDihara

Old Fashioned Heart, design by Etha Schuette Tatted by IsDihara  
"They didn't think much of them in Old Paris"
Jack Dawson's comment to Rose DeWitt Bukater in the 1997 film Titanic seems fitting here.
No ribbons were awarded for either of these beauties.  Not even an honorable mention or participatory nod.

It would be a lie to say I am not disappointed.  I am.  But we can't all be winners. It is a triumph to see the category grow.  Tatting was chosen over all other Needle Art entries for Best of Show! Submission quality remains high and I am still peacock-proud of my pieces.
[*grumbles* Even if the judges didn't favor them.]

Perhaps it was karmic backlash for breaking the rules. Participants may only enter one item per category and I entered two. (To get around the rule, I used my niece's name and my neighbor's address.) Neither piece was disqualified, so maybe karma evened the score.

Or maybe my entries lacked the air of something saved from the past. Who knows?

What?  That's only five, you say?
But of course!  I almost forgot the sixth tatted entry!  *drumroll*

Decorated Egg with tatting!  Awarded a second place ribbon. Isn't it pretty? Congratulations to Sw4nkyL4c3r for garnering a second red ribbon for her beautiful work.

Huge, heartfelt congratulations again to all the winners. Now I will go eat chocolate and play World of Warcraft  (a computer game) to forget judges who don't know what tatting IS, only what it WAS.

Crafty Tatting - Pop Top Can

Looking for a new way to surprise a friend with a blinged shuttle? Or a giveaway prize? Try sending it in a decorated pop-top can.

I saw this tutorial on a few blog sites and wanted to share. Any pop-top can will work, big or small. Plus, the cans can be embellished with tatting!

Christmas Goodie Pop Top Cans

Video: How to Turn Your Pop Top Can Into A Favor Box

Tatting Tea Tuesday Collages

Recently I have noticed a variety of photo collages popping up on Facebook. I wanted to create one for Tatters, but found it difficult to craft six (6) scenarios along the lines of the ones included above. So I went the Tea Lovers route.

If you have trouble seeing the photos, here are some descriptions.

Pirate:  A white-gloved tea lover is spiking the cuppa with Barbados Rum
Celebrity:  Tea Leoni
Gamers: Scrabble tiles floating in a tea cup
Dogs: Tea cup is shaped like a toilet (need I say more?)
Sports:  Tea pot resembles a golf ball with lid covered in golf tees
Browncoats:  Pint glasses with Firefly-class spaceship Serenity and "Serenity Sake"
Tatters: Lovely cuppa with a teapot cookie on the side
Coffee: Fish tank full of filthy, algae-filled water

Here is a similar collage for quilters bouncing around Facebook and Pinterest:

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So I put it out for you, dear readers.  Do non-tatters see us pretty much the same way as quilters?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Vacation Tatting & Motif 16

Last week me and mine traveled to the great state of Maine for a summer holiday with Big Daddy's family. We left precisely as the heat wave hit and so missed the 7 to 10 days of over-100-degree F (37C) heat and power outages.

Thank goodness the hounds were boarded.  They "enjoyed"  (because they hate boarding) cool, generator-powered AC and light during the worst of the power outages.

It was cool up north, but there was precious little to do for a biting fly and mosquito magnet (such as I am) while "da boyz" bonded with family. So, I tatted.

The long drive was perfect for making "strings of rings" that Georgia Seitz needs for her Palmetto Tat Days scholarship quilt project.  Here is my first string in progress.  The photo was taken in the Danbury, CT, hotel where we stopped overnight after the first day's travel.

Travel day 2 saw the completion of the first string of Josephine rings and the start of a second. For those who like to know, these rings are tatted in Lizbeth^® 40 #167 Jungle Greens.

Two UFOs were completed in Maine:  Maus' Old Fashioned Heart © 2000 Etha Schuette (January, 2000) and Regal Snowflake © 2011 La Cossette.

Round 1 of Old Fashioned Heart was done before the trip. Undecided as to what color beads to use for (what I will call) the pin-stripe joins, I went on a bead-buying spree. After several trials and much tribulation, I used size 11 light green seed beads.

Just had to share this point of progress. It reminds me of a ballerina's tutu.

Et voilà -- all finished (unblocked).  My mother-in-law asked if she could keep this, she liked it so much. She agreed to let me enter it in the county fair and mail her the heart after judging.

Thank you again, Maus, for sharing this pattern.  No matter how many times or ways I tat this heart, it steals my heart with it's old-fashioned charm and perfect shape.  It's a keeper!

I also tatted a few Washington, DC Cherry Blossoms © 2012 Anita Barry. My mother-in-law asked if she could keep these too.  Tatting was the only home art she never taught herself from a book.  Recently she learned that her mother tatted and shared this photo with me.

It is her mother, Jenny (Hall) Young, who died at the age of 39 from spinal meningitis. This photo was taken around 1911 or so when she was in her 20s.  Her collar edging is tatted.  I love the fabric-covered buttons and other hand-made details in her dress!


But I digress.

A second, elegant (as yet unblocked) Regal Snowflake © 2011 La Cossette was completed as I lounged in an overstuffed chair (my MIL referred to it as the "fat boy" chair) watching a charm of hummingbirds zip and flit around two hummingbird feeders.

Tatting while hummingbird watching is as enjoyable as taking tea while tatting. You can bet your sweet bippy I will be hanging a hummingbird feeder outside my window for future Tatting Tea Tuesdays!

Tatting Tea Tuesday - Contemplating Hot Wire

In 2011 Kreinik began marketing a new thread called Hot-Wire^™. The pitch was that it would make quilters and stitchers sit up and take notice. I wondered, can you tat with it?

The Kreinik Thread blog describes Hot-Wire^™ as a wired metallic braid. Robin at Needlepoint Study Hall shows it alongside embroidery floss in this photo.

A second blog post shows how well it adds dimensional embellishments to needlepoint art.  Details

It is probably too big for shuttle tatting. Can needle tatters work with it?

But as a trimming like ric-rac or coronation cord or braids were used in the early part of the 20th century? Hmmm.....


Pat Winter of Pat Winter Gatherings blog shares her dimensional dragon fly with sheer wings -- which is adorable -- but check out the tatted edging in her blog background.  I ask you, hand or machine-made?  (Got distracted there for a moment....)

On this blog, the Faux-Stumpwork dragonfly appears directly above Jane Eborall's tatted dragonfly! (See, I knew this Hot Wire thing would cycle back to tatting...)

The Kreinik web site says All of the Hot-Wire^™ colors have a matching Kreinik metallic thread color. So if Hot-Wire^™ works as an embellishment in tatting the filament can be added to the lace.

Hot-Wire^™ looks to be similar to DMC Memory Thread, which is sold on 3-meter "shuttles" instead of spools. DMC Memory Thread only comes in 3-yard bits. The Kreinik is available in 3-meter spools.

Both are thick threads. But imagine the possibilities.

I have watched my thread shops for a year, hoping to try some. Haven't seen it yet in my corner of Tat Land. Please share your thoughts if you have already tried this for tatting!  

Boldly Going: Star Trek Tatting

The following excerpt from a 1958 White House document titled, "Introduction to Outer Space" sums it up:

“…the compelling urge...to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before.”

If you are a Star Trek fan, the last line may sound familiar. It was the source for what could arguably be the most famous opening television monologue ever:

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Okay, enough geekery. (Well, almost.)

Did you know that Battatter has patterned a Tatted Enterprise from the TV show Star Trek?

Ha, ha!  My hubby will love it when I tat him one of these!

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Feeling in the mood for something a bit avant-garde? A tad tribble-like? How about this?

The Erotic Object: Surrealist Sculpture from the Collection: the fur-lined tea cup, 1936

Let's have a cup of virtual tea together and share what brings us joy. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Bronze Shuttle Sin

Forgive me tatters, for I have sinned.  I have coveted my neighbor's shuttle.

At the end of May, Marie Antoinette (real name Mauricio), who writes Boudoir Tatting blog, posted about his bronze acquisition. That is when my sinning began. 

His new project, "sombrero tatting," caught my attention. I hope he is able to share photos of his progress so that I may ooh, aah, and be distracted from the lovely bronze treasure.

But until then, my covetous thoughts continue. Can you blame me?