My goodness, 3 posts in less than a month. That must be a record for me.

I had another request. This time to see my shawl in progress, as you can tell by the turned over edges and the hanging threads. I was thinking it was small enough to scan, but apparently I've made more progress than that. It is sitting on the cushion of my couch.

I figure that 20 motifs to a side is my finished goal. Figuring on a good day it takes me 30 minutes to make a petal, and there are 6 petals to a motif... I don't want to do the math and find out, I may stop .

The main time that I work on it is during my lunch break walk, much to the amazement of my coworkers. They wonder how I can walk, tat, and listen to my MP3 all at the same time. I sometimes have to stop walking to make a join. And before you get concerned, my walking course is the inside upper balcony of where I work. I wouldn't think of doing this outside on the sidewalk. This is also the piece I grab when I have to wait anywhere (you know the drill) or when I'm doing demonstrations or listening to a concert in the park.

The base motif is from Jan Stawasz's tatting book. I see by his webpage that is currently out of print. He used it to make a vest and hat, but I have more of a need for a shawl than a vest, so that is what I am making.

The thread that I am using is Valdani Pearl Cotton, color JP 10 and I get it from DS9Designs. While the colors of the Valdani thread are just wonderful, it is far from my favorite thread to tat with. It is extremely soft and sometimes isn't very uniform. I had to stop, cut, and add a thread last week because I encountered a poorly done splice that I just couldn't tat through. As a shawl, though, the thread is just perfect.

I probably should post this, since it came up on the tatting lists. This is Black Beauty. He won "Best of Show" at the Los Angeles County Fair last summer. He is the third horse I have made, the first two being Silver and Mr. Ed. I would post them too except I don't seem to have any pictures of them at the moment. Once I do you would be able to see the evolution between Silver (the first on I made) to Black Beauty (the last and best so far). I need to do 3 more to complete the set.

The base pattern is from Ineke Kuiperij's "Nostalgie" (carousel) book. I just had to embellish it a bit though. When I got the pattern, I couldn't understand why the tail and mane weren't tatted, so I designed my own. After seeing a European carousel, I now understand why. They use horsehair tails on their horses, duh. I also added a flower to the rear as both a decorative element and a stabilizing element. I some redesigning on the head to make it a bit longer. That gave me a bit more room to play with decorative bridals and reigns. And after a bit of creative thinking, I managed to get colored hoofs in there too.

I think I'm on a roll. Let's see how long I can keep this up. Hopefully I will get caught up with my backlog.

This thread is Excella Embroidery Silk. I used all the strands. The pattern is from the March 1962 Workbasket. The thread was sent to me by Nivedita Sen of Kolkata India.



I got this thread from Lily Morales of Yucaipa, CA. It is Anchor Cordonet Size 20. The pattern is the November 1954 Workbasket.







This next motif is actually an edging pattern from the January 1952 Workbasket. It started really curving on me, so I just let it keep going until it met itself back at the beginning. The thread came from Roberta Lawson of Queensland Australia. It is Cebelia Size 20, color 814.




Shirley Burger of Iowa City, Iowa gave me both the thread and the pattern for this heart. The pattern is designed by Marcella Alcantara and the thread is DMC Size 80 color 55





Yes, this thread is as thick as it looks. It is a size perle cotton made by Royal Coats and Clark. The color is 0006. The pattern is from the January 1961 Workbasket. It was given to me by Deborah Craig of Bernville Pennsylvania.


This is the last thread sent to me by Nivedita Sen. It is Modi Thread Size 40. The pattern is from the January 1966 Workbasket.

Well that catches me up with everything I scanned last August :-O! I have a few more scans to do to catch me up to date. Hopefully I can get them posted before next January.

I guess it is time for my yearly update of my blog.

This thread was given to me by Nivedita Sen of Kolkata India. It is Excella Metalic. The metalic thread was rather difficult to tat with so I kept the pattern as free of rings as I could. The pattern is from the March 1962 Workbasket.


Shirley Burger gave me this Handy Hands Lizbeth thread. It is size 20 color number 121. The pattern is from the November 1960 Workbasket.







This is a March 1964 Workbasket pattern tatted with Optima Size 10, color 110. The thread was given to me by Lisa Sweeny of Kettington, Ohio.




This is a very delicate antique thread from Lily Morales of Yucaipa, CA. I have included a scan of the thread tag. The tag says Hilanderia Planas Barcelona Algodon Perle Size 12. The pattern is from the May 1959 Workbasket and I selected it because it is exclusively chains. That was the best way I could think of using this thread without breaking it.




This is DMC Babylon Size 30 made in France. I got it from Wally Sosa from Rome, Georgia. The pattern is the January 1959 Workbasket.




Elizabeth Zipay not only gave me the Oliver Twist thread that I tatted this pretty bookmark with, she also designed and gave me the pattern for it.
At the moment I don't remember where Elizabeth is from, I'm going to have to look it up. The thread and pattern came to me not from a thread exchange but from a secret santa exchange.

For some reason, every time I try to update this blog something comes up and I have to log off. Maybe this time I can get some things posted.

This thread is YLI Machine Quilting Thread. The color is 04V (mango). Stacey Houston of Everett, WA sent it to me. The pattern is from the August 1967 Workbasket.






The next thread is from Dorcas Newkirk of Evansville, IN. The thread is Flora size 20 color number 53. The pattern is from the October 1974 Workbasket.






This is DMC traditions Crochet Cotton. It is size 10 color number 5109. The pattern is from the December 1972 Workbasket and it is one of the many threads that I have received from Deborah Craig.







Jeanette Hasseman of Canton, OH gave me this thread. It is DMC Cordonette Size 40, Color number 320. The pattern is from the August 1978 Workbasket.





Finally, I decided to do Janes 2010 Tat It and See with an exchange thread. Since I was using an exchange thread, I didn't try to go digging though my collection to find other threads in the same size, so my rooster doesn't have any color changes. When I sent him to Jane, I called him an exotic rooster because he turned out to be all green. He kind of looked like a bird of paradise to me as well. The thread is size 16 Finca from Lily Morales.

Summer Vacation Part 3

Bob Shotten of Wrexham, North Wales gave me the next two threads. I worked on this one shortly after boarding the train for the return trip. I started it near Mendota, Illinois and finished before coming into La Junta, Colorado. The thread is Rubi Size 10. The pattern is from the April 1963 Workbasket. The pattern called for a tie and cut between each element. I tried to rework it so I wouldn't have to do that, but my first attempt didn't come out quite right as you can see. My second attempt did a little better, but it involved doing a lot of split chain work over several lengths between isolated rings. I finally gave up and called it good.

This piece was started after a brief stop in La Junta, Colorado and finished near Lamy, New Mexico. The thread is Oren Bayen Size 20 The pattern is from the February 1963 Workbasket.


This is one of my older threads. I got it from Georgia Seitz during the 2008 IOLI in Rockford, Illinois and finally got around to using it. It is Lizbeth Size 20 Color 120. The pattern is from the May 1982 Workbasket and I tatted it from Lamy, New Mexico to Gallup, New Mexico.

In contrast to our trip east on the train, the trip back west was running about 3 1/2 hours behind schedule. Just outside of Kansas City, Missouri, one of the coach cars developed an overheated bearing and had to be dropped off. I didn't really mind too much. Rather than waking up at a really early hour to get off the train in Fullerton at 6:00 am, John and I were able to eat a leisurely breakfast before detraining.

Would we take the train again? If time is not an issue - absolutely. It was very relaxing, we saw a lot of the countryside, and there was no security to deal with. There were a few downsides, though. The shower only stays on for 2 seconds after you push the button, so the water never got warm. Also, during the night, they crank the speed up to close to 90MPH, so you feel every bump and rattle from the tracks. I finally had to knock myself out with some antihistamine to get some sleep. Otherwise the bunks were very comfortable. The food in the dining car would compare favorably with what you’d get at a chain restaurant. The food wasn't the same quality that you would get on a cruise ship, but it was better than you could get at a Denny’s and the deserts were great.

Summer Vacation Part 2

We arrived in Naperville, Illinois, Monday afternoon. The motel we were staying at was great. They sent a van the train station for us, then took us back to the station Tuesday morning so we could take a trip into Chicago and see the sights.

Our first stop in Chicago was the Field Museum. Actually, it was our only stop; we spent the whole day there and probably saw less than half of it. We're planning to go back some day and finish up. We did have a bit of a misadventure on our return trip to Naperville; we got on the wrong express train (right line, it just didn't stop in Naperville) so we had to get off at Lisle (the stop before Naperville) and wait a bit for a milk run commuter train to take us the rest of the way. Come to find out later from our hotel shuttle driver that he could have picked us up at the Lisle station just as easily.

Wednesday was the beginning of the Windjammers Summer Meet. Each day from Wednesday to Friday we attended six hour rehearsals and recording sessions in the motel ballroom (with a good break for lunch). I discovered at the end of the day that I really shouldn't have forgotten my glucosamine. The fingers of my left hand (the French horn is a left handed instrument) were pretty stiff. Surprisingly, while my lips had a pleasant tingle, they didn’t feel like jelly.

The music consisted of a variety of different pieces that were used through golden era of the circus. Some were the obvious circus classics, others were more obscure pieces that had been written by the great circus composers.. The publishing dates ranged from the late 1800's to the 1940's. What I didn’t know was that often the circus band would play what was called "The Center Ring Concert" before the show actually started. These pieces consisted of the popular music of the day or common dance tunes. In all, we played 80 pieces during those three days.

On Thursday evening, we drove downtown to hear the a concert by the Naperville Municipal Band. This also gave us a look at where we would be playing on Saturday. The concert facility was wonderful. The city built a dual-purpose rehearsal hall/concert pavilion at the edge of the central park. The whole side of the rehearsal hall opens upward to form a stage that fronts an open air ampitheater. The acousitcs of the stage are fantastic. On the stage, you can hear from one side of the band to the other, and from the audience, you can hear everything, with minimal amplification.

This is a picture of the facility.
The mural you see is actually
the big door for the stage.

Friday evening was a banquet at the local vets hall. A small Dixieland combo made up of Windjammer members provided the after dinner entertainment.

We had some free time Saturday after a morning rehearsal, so John and I decided to see what the DuPage County Fair was like. It was a very small fair, about the size of the Imperial County Fair in California. There were the usual things you'd find at a fair; the one thing we'd never seen before were the duck races (we've seen turkeys race, but not ducks). I didn't find any tatting or bobbin lace in the crafts, just the usual crochet and knitting.

The big concert Saturday night was almost cancelled. A band of rain came through right when we were supposed to start playing. The organizer said that we would wait about five minutes and see how things went. At the end of five minutes, the rain had passed so they opened up the wall/door. The people of Naperville are a resilient bunch when it comes to summer rain (after all, it's just part of life in the midwest). Quite a few just settled under their umbrellas and others retreated to their cars and waited for the rain to pass. By the end of the concert, we had a pretty good crowd listening to us.

The concert went well. We even had a ringmaster, all dressed up and in full cry. One bad thing about the great acoustics… his whistle was ear-splitting.

Sunday was a day to say goodbye to everyone over breakfast, then back on to the train for the trip home.

I do need to say something about the hotel we were in. It was the Holiday Inn in Naperville, and the staff was just wonderful. We had the doors of the ballroom open while we rehearsed and I think they enjoyed listening to us from the lobby. Aside from running John and me back and forth to the train depot several times, they also provided transportation to and from the concerts and the banquet. One of the evenings a small combo of Windjammers set up in the hotel bar, and the staff brought out extra chairs for the rest of us who were hanging around listening to them. If we go back to the Chicago area, we would probably make this hotel a home base for our stay.