Motif 5: ENCHANTER-Inspired Heart

ENCHANTER-Inspired Heart (original design © 2010 Jon Yusoff)

This beautiful little heart flew off my shuttles today. It measures 1 5/8-inches wide by 1 3/8-inches tall (4.5 cm by 3.5 cm) and is tatted in Lizbeth® 20 Boysenberry Dark #644 and Flora 20 #238.

It was inspired by Jon Yusoff's ENCHANTER heart that was offered as a Valentine gift to the tatting community in February 2010.

As I emptied two shuttles of leftover thread (as tatters do) Jon Yusoff's "Enchanter" came to mind. Two minor modifications have been made to tweak the heart shape.

Profuse thanks to the versatile and talented Jon Yusoff whose elegant style and generous spirit have inspired us all since her tatting debut.

Her designs are unquestionable in their elegance and grace, and always a joy to tat. This design is no exception.  The modifications arose from playing around with starting points.  (...'if I start from HERE on the diagram, what would I have to do to climb out to round two?')

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A Trio of Tatted Crosses

In May I tatted three cross bookmarks from the marvelous pattern by Grace Tran: Jane's Bookmark Cross © 2013 Grace Tran

The first one, admittedly my favorite of the three, was gifted to Sister Mary Seton whose favorite color is purple. Tatted using Flora 20 #64 -- I just love how the dark purple falls at each end of the horizontal bars and the whites seem to stripe down the center.

Jane's Bookmark Cross
Tatted by IsDihara 2015

The cross measures three (3) inches in length (7.62 cm) and two (2) inches wide (5.08 cm). Grace Tan cleverly adapted Jane McClelland's bookmark pattern into a cross, which itself was adapted by Jane from a braid that appeared in the May 1984 Anna Burda magazine.

Isn't teamwork wonderful? The evolution story of this cross is quite good too. Without the Internet bringing these people together would this cross have been created?

Jane's Bookmark Cross

Tatted by IsDihara 2015

Crosses two and three (from top to bottom) were gifted to Sapling's Teacher Assistant and his Reading Resource Teacher.  Top one is tatted using Lizbeth® 20  Caribbean #122
and the bottom cross is tatted using Lizbeth® 20 Summer Fun #104.

So, I have been tatting, even though I haven't been blogging.  Keep the faith!

Organza Bag - Peacock

Organza Bag with tatted peacock
Decoration by Wendy, who authors the blog UminTsuru

I received this lovely organza bag from a tatter in Singapore back in late November/early December 2014 and am just now scanning it in. Such lovely tatting!

Here is a link to the UminTsuru blog post:http://umintsuru.blogspot.sg/2014/…/organza-bag-peacock.html

Motif 4: Christmas Berry Wreath

It is finished with 20 minutes to spare before the last day of school let out.  Talk about getting a gift in under the wire!

It started out like this, with weeks to spare (as it usually does).

And here is the finished wreath.

Christmas Berry Wreath © 1997 LaRae Mikulecky

Christmas Berry Wreath © 1997 LaRae Mikulecky   [Title is a click-able link.]
Remember that this pattern is only available through the wonderful Wayback Machine.  I encourage you to grab it, print it out and store it in your Tatting Pattern Library before it no longer can be recovered.

This will count as Motif #4 in my 25 Motif Challenge.  Hurray!

FIG HDT by Yarn Player

Squeee!  Yarn Player dyed a custom colorway based upon paint chips I sent her.

Paint Chip Palette - Fig

"Fig" HDT by Yarnplayer

She did such a fabulous job. I am more excited than Sapling at Christmas (with a hedgehog)!

This colorway is not reserved exclusively for me. No, no!  Go get some and tat gorgeous, amazing things with it. And if you would be so kind, share your photo(s) with Yarnplayer and me?

I will be singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as I await the figgy goodness to arrive via post.

♪ ♪...bring us some figgy pudding...and bring it right here...♪ ♪

Christmas Berry Wreath & RIP Bobbie Demmer

On this the day after Thanksgiving 2014, I have decided to do a little sewing, a little holiday decorating and a little holiday tatting.

But before I settle in, I have some sad news to share.

RIP Bobbie Demmer

Tatting mentor Roberta "Bobbie" Demmer, 88, of Thompson Falls, Montana, passed away on November 20, 2014.  This news was shared with me on Thanksgiving day via Facebook message.  I have been told that Bobbie Demmer used to write the Tatting editorial in the IOLI Bullentin, for all you IOLI members.

Debbie Arnold shared the following:  Bobbie's sister asked that her death not be announced publicly until this past Tuesday, November 25, so that she could have a bit of time and privacy.

TopTatCat said this about Bobbie Demmer:

"Tatters Across Time is Bobbie's Legacy. Her vision was to have a program that would encourage and allow individual tatters, wherever they were, to improve the looks of their tatting and increase their knowledge. Everyone participating on the TAT Team is committed to carrying on her dream."         

Bobbie Demmer

Teri "TATBiT" Dusenbury posted this image of Bobbie Demmer on her tatting blog, TATtle TALES Tatting Patterns, in a post memorializing Monica Hahn. You can read this post from August 2014 here:  A Knack for Tatting - Monica Hahn - A Christmas Angel

The October 2013 newsletter from M.E.O.W. [Machine Embroiderers of Oregon and Washington] noted that in September 2013 Bobbie Demmer had taught her 50th tatting workshop. Let's all give a posthumous round of applause for her wonderful achievement.

Bobbie was known for her "bauble" technique.  Here is a link to a PDF file that Jane Eborall shares on her free pattern pages:  Tatted Chain Bauble © 1996 Bobbie Demmer

Randy Houtz taught a class on the basics of Bobbie Demmer's "bauble-bobble" technique at the 2014 Palmetto Tat Days (of which I was in attendance) and I can say that this technique was very popular. Thank you, Randy, for carrying on this technique and adding your own personal touch to it!




Glad News - Giveaway Winner

On a happier note, I was the lucky winner of Umi & Tsuru's Organza Peacock Bag giveaway. Yippee!

Thank you so much for hosting this giveaway, Umi &Tsuru. The post simply cannot get here fast enough to contain my enthusiasm!

Christmas Berry Wreath © 1997 LaRae Mikulecky

Ready for a little holiday tatting?  Christmas Berry Wreath © 1997 LaRae Mikulecky.

This pattern is only available through the wonderful Wayback Machine.  For a while it was listed on Allcrafts.com but that link is currently broken. I encourage you to grab it, print it out and store it in your Tatting Pattern Library before it no longer can be recovered.

What happened with the Cluny Experiment?
For those who may be wondering what happened with the Cluny experiment, I am still muddling through with little progress.

Let me assure you that the tatting is not brain-straining or overly difficult.  Rather, I keep repeating the same mistake and starting over. This is (I presume) what happens when one doesn't write down their corrections after making a mistake. Easily correctable with the proper attidude -- *laughs*

But I carry on and will share when I have a sample of Pumpkins on a Vine by Heidi Sunday (with Clunies) to show.

The Makings of a Monk and More

I just had to share this cuteness from Sapling. On Oct. 29, 2014, he gives a presentation in front of his class on a saint, St. Anthony of Padua (1195 - 1231).  (Remember, he's in 2nd grade.)

This photo was taken last evening after I had finished sewing his robe and hood. We are working on "accessorizing" his costume today instead of tatting.

UPDATE: Sapling scored 76 out of 85 points on his Saint Anthony of Padua presentation. That's  89.4%.  His costume earned 5:5 points (pats on back for mom) and he earned 45:50 on his poster.  His oral presentation was rated 26:30.  Well done, Sapling!

Anyone wish to take a stab at a fractured song lyric with me?  I have the tune to the Disney song from Mulan, "I'll Make a Man Out of You," stuck in my head....how about: I'll  Make a Monk Out of You?

Maybe I should stick to Knot-Tea fun.

The Makings of a Monk

Can you believe I finally learned how to make Cluny leaves?  Hanging Clunies too.  This is just a snippet I tatted to empty shuttles in preparation for an experiment -- tatting Pumpkins on a Vine by Heidi Sunday with Clunies.  I hope to have something to show you next week.

Emptying shuttles and playing with Cluny leaves

Our new pet, a sweet little female hedgehog named Miss Elsa Prickles, is growing bigger and cuter by the day. Here she is exploring an empty lemonade container.

Look how cute she is, fresh from her bath.

A clean hedgie is a happy hedgie.

My naughty dog Ginger is contemplating jumping into the hedgehog playpen. She looks like a dangerous predator, either a fox or a jackal, to Elsa.

Naughty Ginger

Life is bustling at Silly Hat Central and I am not getting as much time to tat as I would like, but that's the good thing about tatting, you can pick it up for 5 minutes and put it down.

As for Tatting Tea Tuesday, I am sipping a lovely fig-infused cuppa while I type. I have had Fig-related things on my mind and even e-mailed Yarnplayer to ask if she could dye me a custom colorway. Oooh!  Let's hope she can. 

An Extraordinary Age

Carl Sagan once said, “We live in an extraordinary age."

Sunday morning as I was sipping my tea and skimming Facebook posts, I noticed a comment that made me stop and think about the extraordinary tatting age we live in.

The comment was this:

"Is there a tatter who is willing to teach a beginner? ...Sometimes it only takes a few visits and then they [beginning tatters] can go on their own. Do you know other tatters in your area? Do you attend any tatting conventions?"

Ponder these questions for a moment. In this tatting age it is commonplace to ask such questions. Who else thinks this is extraordinary?

I learned to tat in more primitive times. Pattern books were a rare commodity.  No classes were offered.  All there was to go on was one or two paragraphs in a Coats & Clark mini-booklet.

The Internet as we know it did not yet exist, It was in its infancy.

Those primitive times were the 1980's in a region known as the Pennsylvania Wilds. "The Wilds" were a cradle of sorts for tatting. Myrtle Hamilton lived there.  Georgia Seitz spoke of Myrtle Hamilton as a caretaker of tatting in her 2007 Tat Days banquet speech.  Please read it, the whole speech is lovely.

In the extraordinary age we live in, many tatting conventions are available to attend in North America. (This is not a complete list, just the events I was able to confirm before Tatting Tea Tuesday.)

Shuttlebirds Tatting Days began in 1997

Tatting Seminars in Hector, NY (now known as Tatting Seminars in the Fingerlakes) began in 1999

The Thread Corner began hosting a Tatting Day in 2000

Palmetto Tatting Guild hosted its first tatting convention in 2003

Fringe Element Tatters [EDIT] hosted its first Tat Day in 2005

Sunshine Tatters will host their first Tatting Day in 2015

[EDIT]  Contact Ruth Perry for more information about Sunshine Tatters.


Take this extraordinary opportunity to learn, share and grow among fellow tatters,  Find one in your area and plan to attend in 2015.  You'll be glad you did.