A week and a half ago, I was at The Tatting Corner Tatting Workshop and snapped a couple of photos while there.   This photo is of the wall of the shop that houses the all the thread choices of one kind of thread–LizBeth by Handy Hands.  I thought I knew that there were ALOT of choices in color and size but when I saw ALL the choices in one spot I was amazed!

LizBeth thread is made in 5 different sizes:  3, 10, 20, 40 & 80

There are 96 solid colors and 83 multi (variegated) color in 4 of the sizes (all but Size 3) for a total of 189 color—-only 90 colors in Size 3

189 x 4 =  756

756 + 90 =  846

Thus there are 846 color/size thread choices in this one thread source!!!! 

Can you imagine keeping that kind of inventory?!?!?

I love going to tatting workshops!   You learn soooooo much.  Actually I haven’t been able to go to many tatting workshops in the last few years because I had kids still at home and needed to be there (mostly to protect the house from teenagers).  So going to The Tatting Corner Tatting Workshop in Indiana was quite a treat.

While there, one of the things that I learned 1. Made my heart skip a beat and then 2. gave me a sick feeling in my stomach for awhile.  What was this, you may ask????  Well,  as I was showing a group of tatters at the workshop my ‘Quilt-Inspired Split Ring Tatting’ designs, somone said “Oh, there is a new book just out on that”.  I learned that the concept for a series of new tatting designs that I have been formulating for over and year and have been physically designing furiously for the last several months had JUST BEEN PUBLISHED!!!  By this I mean that Handy Hands had just published a 16 oage booklet that featured 4-5 different “Quilt” designs in tatting designed by a tatter named Billie Heisler.  This publication was quite the hit at the workshop.  From what I could hear, there were 4 copies to be had, and they were all in hot demand.  I quickly contemplated my designs/books fate…..and decided that no matter what the other book designs looked like, ‘my’ designs were ‘my’ designs and that I had come up with them and had the right to publish them too since I had come up with them totally on my own.  I did get a chance to take a peek at the ‘other’ quilt-tatting book and realized that my approach to combining quilting and tatting was different!  YEAH!!!!  I am soooooo glad about that my work is so different.  I would hate to have people think that I copied/plaguerized  another person’s work.

I have about 4-5 different approaches to tatting designs and techniques of working that are inspired by quilt patterns!!!    In upcoming blog posts, I will attempt to introduce these variations to you.

Right now I am busy creating illustrated patterns for my “Patchwork Series”.  I am also tatting up a few of them, so that they are ready for viewing on the IOLI website in the coming new year.

My timeline for my Quilt-Inspired Tatting Book is because I will be teaching a course/class on it at the 2015 IOLI Convention in Iowa City, Iowa–in August.   So my goal is to have the book(s) ready/published by then.  I have to mentions book(s)–plural, because is looks like I may have enough material to fill 3 books at this time.  I have been having soo much fun studying quilt historical  blocks and then designing them into tatting–split ring tatting to be precise.

I will fill you in more on my Quilt-Inspired Tatting Book as I go along.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending two days in Tatting Paradise, this time in Indiana.

It was worth the two 9-hour (600+ miles one-way) days of driving (in a car–yuck!) that was needed to get there and back.  On the positive side, my tatting buddy and book editor, Jennifer Bartling, went with me and thus the drive seemed short since we talked the whole way there and back.  It was great to spend such quality time with a lovely friend.

The Two Days of Tatting Paradise was at The Tatting Corner shop in Greenfield, IN, just 25 miles east of Indianapolis, IN.  Although I learned that this tatting workshop had been going on for 14 years, this was the first time that I had heard about it.  I had ‘found’ The Tatting Corner a couple of years ago when I was trying to find colors of Size 20 Anchor Cordonnet.  This thread used to be available 20+ years ago but isn’t imported into the US for quite some time.  Someone told me that Jennifer Titus,  the owner of the shop carried it and since then  I have spent a small fortune on this wonderful thread.  I can use a ball from my old stash of thread with the new threads and they match in size, no matter what colors I use!  I officially met (face-to-face)  Jennifer and her husband Jerry at  Palmetto Tat Days in GA in September and it was there that I learned about her Tatting Workshop.  Since motorcycling was out of the question (too darn cold in November!) as a mode of transportation to the workshop and flying was too expensive, I decided to drive.  Since I was driving I invited my tatting friend, Jennifer Bartling along.  I usually hate ‘driving’ but having Jennifer as ‘shotgun’ made the 9 hour drive each way seem like a blink of the eye—we talked the whole way there and back!  It was sooo nice to catch up with her and the local lacemaking world that she is still a major part of.

I got to meet Kaye Judt, a tatting designer/book author & publisher.  In conversing with her, I learned that she used to own/operate and shop called The Heirloom Corner years ago which specialized in smocking and other heirloom sewing techniques.   When my kids were tiny (20+ years ago–darn, I’m giving away my age that way!)  I used to order patterns, fabric and supplies from her to sew and smock special clothes for my babies/toddlers.  Kaye was teaching three very darling projects:  a Strawberry vine edging, a strawberry basket, and the most beautiful red cardinal, designed very well to show wonderful detail.

Marilee Rockley was also a teacher and had a table full of her lovely hand-dyed threads.  I took a couple of pictures of her threads as I thought it made an artistic photo.

More pictures and comments about the tatting workshop in next blog post!

I have just made up my mind that I AM GOING to the Tatting Corner Tatting Workshop in the Indianapolis, IN area.  The weather looks like it should behave itself and allow for OK driving conditions.  My good tatting friend, Jennifer Bartling has agreed to accompany me, so that will be fun!  The workshop is next Thursday, November 6 thru 8th.  So we will leave on Wednesday for the 9+ hour drive.

Looks to be a good time.  Last time I talked to Jennifer Titus (yesterday) she said it looks there will be 50 tatters there.  Woo hoo!  Now were talking a good time!

Check it out at:  www.tattingcorner.com

I forgot that had these shuttles.  I almost missed out on finding them a ‘home’ for the fall season.

If you are interested in purchasing them, email me and state your intention.  I will send you a PayPal invoice.  Postage is free to the US.

Email:  k.bovard@yahoo.com

I also have two ‘summer’ leaf shuttles:

I mentioned in my last post, that I was TRYING to finish my latest tatting book titled Block Alphabets in Split Ring Tatting but the truth is, I’m not that inspired to go the final stretch right now.  The problem is that the ‘fun’ part is is done—the designing and tatting, and what is left to be done is the computer work.   Plus, in the meantime I have been given the ‘excuse’ to go in a totally new tatting direction….one that I really have been having fun with!!!! 

The new design concept is Quilt-Inspired Split Ring Tatting. 

This (& another tatting technique concept that I will introduce at a later point in time) is what I will be working on for the next year because I have been contracted to teach at the 2015 IOLI Convention in Iowa!!!  I am soooooo excited!!!  I have been having soo much fun turning quilt-inspired designs into tatting in the last couple of weeks.  Now I am starting to tat them up.

The photo in this post is ‘a work in progress’.  I have one motif to go and thread ends to finish but I decided to post it anyway.  I seem to never have tatted pieces in the right (finished) stage to include in my blog posts, so I decided to just post what I have, where I’m at in the process.

This design is based upon diamonds, a common ‘block’ in quilted designs.  I have a whole bunch of designs created in my ‘Diamonds’ category.  This is just one.

Right now, I have 4 different ‘styles’ of Quilt-Inspired Split Ring Tatting designs worked up (many still on paper).  In the next couple of weeks, I will be striving to tat up at least one example of each style for inclusion in the IOLI website advertising the classes for next August’s convention.  Unless I get criticism from the IOLI Convention Committee, I will give you peeks at what I’m doing here on this blog.

In the meantime, I’m having alot of fun designing and tatting up my new creations.   I love order in my life and the repetition of tatting and of quilt blocks has been very soothing to me.

A note about my work-in-progress:  I have one more motif to tat.  You can see thread ends woven through the finished motifs and exiting out of the the left side of the piece….my working ‘strategy’ is to work a row (in this case top to bottom) and then finish threads ends either at the end of a row or when the piece is completely finished.  To keep the ends from annoying me all the time while tatting the piece, I ‘weave’ the ends through the body towards a side away from where I am still working.

I HAVE been busy with Tatting related stuff…honestly, even though I haven’t been posting here.  Sometimes I get bogged-down thinking that I ‘have’ to have a photo of something to be able to post to my blog.  That thinking is what constrains me from posting.  It’s not always easy to have a picture of something available to go along with a post concept.

Since I got back from Palmetto Tat Days (over a month ago) I have been busy trying to get my third tatting book ready to go to print.  The title is:  Block Alphabets in Split Ring Tatting.  It features 2 alphabets and their corresponding letters in different ‘fonts’.  There are also ‘frame’ patterns to go around the letters/numbers.  I am trying to keep the number of pages down in this book to make it cheaper to purchase.  I’m shooting for the $15 range.  I have all the patterns illustrated and have several designs tatted up to show how the letters and numbers can be used.  However, my hold-up is writing the guide to my illustratrated pattern-writing style….the how-to of reading and using my illustrated patterns.  I am confident that once the tatter understands how to read and use my patterns they will come to appreciate how much information is there to guide them easily through what looks like an intricate pattern.  I pack alot on information into my illustrated patterns:  which shuttle to use to tat various rings and parts of the ring, which part of a split ring to tat first/last to be able to effectively use regular joins and create Take-Off Rings, how to work your way through a patterns in one round without ‘tatting yourself into a corner’.

However, I get easily side-tracked from completing this book because I have so much fun creating new designs and physically creating a piece by tatting them into thread.

New post, I will tell you about my direction for my next tatting book:  Quilt-Inspired Split Ring Tatting Designs!!!

This is my latest ‘impulse buy’ from Ebay.  I also study, make, and teach Teneriffe/Sol/Nanduti Lace.  This kit was sold under the name of Polka Spider Web Lace but it creates Teneriffe/Sol Lace.  I have two books by the same title and this was the kit to create the lace.

In Teneriffe Lace, individual motifs are created and then sewn together to make a bigger piece.

The brown, round things are the ‘forms’ upon which the lace was made.  How the forms were ‘laced up’  allowed you to either make round (the big circle) or square motifs (seen on the little form).  The cool part about having the books and now the forms is that there are patterns to follow to create pieces easily–no math involved.

The other interesting thing about owning these forms is that they came with Teneriffe Lace piece completed and motifs in progress.  I learned that two motifs can be completed at the same time…one on the front of the form and one on the back at the same time.  When both pieces are completed (stitched) the lacing threads are cut, allowing the lace motif to disingage from the form and be a free-standing piece of lace.  The lacing threads are the darker threads seen on the edges of the big, round form.  The small form uses white lacing threads to form the base for the square motif.

The pattern can be found on my homepage menu under “Free Patterns”

I have published another historical, Anne Orr Split Ring Tatting Pattern that I have illustrated in modern form.

See it in my website pages under:  Anne Orr Historical Split Ring Tatting Patterns

Then click on:  The ShuttleSmith Illustrated Historical SRT Patterns

The pattern is in PDF format.

Enjoy.