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!