Showing posts with label Transitions in Tatting from Flat to Floral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transitions in Tatting from Flat to Floral. Show all posts

Saturday, February 25, 2012

I'm thrilled to bits

My tatting web page is an off shoot of our company web site which is maintained by my wonderful sweetheart. Consequently he prefers that he does all of the maintenance on the pages. That's OK, he's the programmer, I'm not. At this stage, he's probably forgotten more programming than I'll ever learn. Unfortunately Meniere's makes him periodically deaf in one ear and gives him sudden violent dizziness of the kind that drops him to the floor. I guess that's why they call them drop attacks. One minute he's whistling and working happily away and the next he's on the floor. Really not fun if you happen to be up a ladder! At the same time he gets violent eye rotation of the kind observed in REM sleep, except that his eyes are wide open.

Have you ever seen a lizard rotate it's eyes in opposite directions? Ever wondered what things would look like if people saw 2 different images simultaneously? Don't bother trying to imagine it. We have 2 eyes focuses forward because our brains are equipped to process a single panoramic view. It's very disorienting to have multiple images flashed on our brains. Sadly, that's what my hubby has to deal with when he gets a Meniere's attack. Sounds and images are suddenly distorted, there is internal pressure from the swelling in his inner ear, his eyes won't focus on anything with each one doing an independent jig, all attended with violent dizziness and nausea.

So for a long time now he has worked on modifications to my web page, but since it wasn't urgent progress has been very slow, just because it was't a priority. Of principle interest to me, was a simple way to add a new book onto the web site without having to re-design the home page. When there was only one or two items he had blended graphics into the home page image and that worked out quite well, but then as new books were done there was no space to add them in. So he started developing a secondary page that could be added to easily. He not only created the page to display current books, but he programmed in functions so that new books could be added with multiple mouse over images and the page automatically handles the input for PayPal transactions. The web site calculates the pricing including shipping and handling, by picking up the data from the location information input from the order form and then passes it through to PayPal when the form is submitted. He built in a printing function so that people can  print a copy of the order before submitting it, so they know what they ordered.



Everything was working perfectly in Internet Explorer, but then we tested it in Chrome and FireFox and some of the functions didn't work properly, so he re wrote it to cover those little oddities as well. Finally, after years of working on it, in fits and starts it's done. YAYYYYY!!!!!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Transitions in Tatting from Flat to Floral


The Transitions in Tatting from Flat to Floral book is printed and the order form is up on the web site now. Click here for more information and the link to the order form.
The cost of the book including shipping is:
if using Pay Pal:
Canada $32.65 Canadian
US $36.40 Canadian
International $42.80 Canadian
If paying by cheque/check
Canada $32.65 Canadian
US $37.55 US or $36.40 International Money order in Canadian funds
International $42.80 International Money Order in Canadian funds.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Taking orders for Transitions in Tatting Book

I have decided to reprint my book Transitions in Tatting. It's something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but it seemed like a monumental task. The very old computer I used to write the book on had very little memory and when the book was done it kept losing the pictures and diagrams of the patterns so I often found pages with text but where the pictures and patterns ought to be there was nothing but big gray markers the shape of the missing graphics. When I rebooted the computer and loaded up the book with nothing else in memory, it was fine, but anything else running on the computer and pictures started to disappear. If that weren't bad enough I didn't like a number of the pictures. The scanned images were fine but not having a digital camera at the time, the pictures of the 3D objects like the flowers weren't as good as I would have liked.





Since I wrote the book I have gone through several computer changes. A new computer, several changes of operating system, a couple of hard drive changes and some software changes. Some things I used to create the book, don't exist anymore, like some of the software and some of the lace. The idea of fixing things so that I could reprint the book just seems daunting, almost like starting from scratch. The other day I came across some backup disks and discovered that my sweetheart husband is brilliant. Well, I knew he was, brilliant already, I just discovered one more reason to think that way. Right after I printed the book, he took all of the files, zipped them and burned them to CD. What I discovered the other day, were the CDs with the zipped files of the finished book. I can't change the things I don't like, like the photographs I'm not happy with, but I can print these files. I not only can print them, but I have printed them.

So the question is, how many of you would like to buy a new tatting book? I called the book Transitions in Tatting because it starts at the beginning with basic traditional patterns done in 3 different notations, long, short and visual and then progresses into some modern designs like a couple of hearts, a couple of critters, and a beaded choker which are flat, then it progresses into 3D tatting. A small wrist bag big enough to hold a small ball of crochet cotton, and a beaded bridal bag, followed by a 3D treetop angel and several life size flowers including a daisy, delphinium, tulip, daffodil, star gazer lily, and orchid. I also included some leaf patterns to go along with these.The book is 76, 8.5 x 11 pages, but in my opinion, roughly the first third of the book wouldn't interest an accomplished tatter as it just contains a lot of traditional stuff like hens and chicks edging. I included the basic patterns in 3 notations at the beginning just to show people who are not comfortable with visual, drawn patterns how to follow them. If you are already comfortable with drawn patterns this section is kind of boring. That still leaves you with 50 pages of fun stuff.

Here's a list of the Table of Contents:

Flower Bookmark

Butterfly Bookmark
Daisy Bookmark

Heart Bookmark

Shamrock Bookmark

Split Ring Cross Bookmark
These are patterns I often use to teach beginners as each one is a simple motif with a long zigzag chain and tassel. Not a lot of work in each one so they are small beginner projects suitable for learning how to tat.

Traditional type patterns for just the basics:

Edgings
Insertions

Motif Patterns

Original patterns that become increasingly more difficult as you progress through the book and everything from here on has been worked with size 20 Opera thread:

Simple Heart

Floral Heart

Bunny

Turtle
Beaded Choker

Wrist Bag

Beaded Bridal Bag

3D Angel

Daisy

Rose and leaf - pictured above. Not life size , it's only about an inch across, but it makes a really great lapel pin.

Delphinium

Tulip and Tulip Leaf

Daffodil and Daffodil Leaf - these are shown in the gallery on my web site

Carnation - shown above. I noticed when I used the carnation from the Tatter's Treasure Chest that the perky flower ball was small and after a while it flattened out in the middle. My carnation design is more the size of a real carnation and it doesn't flatten out.



English Ivy



Stargazer Lily



Orchid


The book will probably cost somewhere in the range of $30 and I'm taking advance orders. I'll even sign them, which I didn't do with the first printing unless requested. Somehow writing in someone's new book seems wrong, but way back then I simply didn't think of myself as an author. So if you'd like to send me an email at sharon at gagechek dot com or leave a comment on the blog, I'll be taking advance orders.

The book has been reprinted and the cost is $30.00 Canadian plus shipping (to the US $6.40 and International air mail $12.80). Payment can be made through PayPal, just email me at sharon at gagechek dot com or tatdlace at gagechek dot com giving me your full mailing address and your PayPal email address and I'll send you an invoice for it.