So close, and yet so far

6 measly stitches from the end of an all chain row and I've run out of chain thread. The only remedy is to back up to the last join and finish it using a very long split chain. And for all of that, I'm not even sure I like the design or that it's going to lay flat. Two or three more pieces to finish, photograph and diagram and the new book's ready.

New Design-Tat course starting next week

As mentioned in an earlier post, I started teaching a basic course on how to design your own tatting patterns in March. I was overwhelmed by the response to the course which has recently been completed. I planned it as a proper course with lessons and homework and people jumped in and started creating their own unique designs. It's amazing how a group of people can take the same basic design elements and create totally different laces.

Some people found out about it too late to join in, so I am running the course again. The lessons are posted to the Design-Tat blog, but the follow up is all done in the Yahoo Group. To take advantage of the course you need to belong to the Yahoo group which is by invitation only. I made it invitation only not to exclude any interested tatters, but to keep out trolls and spammers. If you are interested in joining the course which will start next week, please send me an email at sharon#gagechek.com change # to @ and you will be sent an invitation.

My Tatting Corner

KrystleDawn posted a challenge for tatters to show pictures of their tatting corners. I have to admit I'm a poster child for "tatting in my pocket". I tat anywhere and everywhere, I tat at the computer and I draw tatting patterns at the computer. The current tatting clutter on my computer desk is mostly comprised of the test tatting of the pieces from the Design-Tat course. The 3 balls of thread are for a bookmark I'm designing.

Most of my tatting supplies are stored in a 6 foot by 3 foot cabinet and in 3 drawer filing cabinet wedged in beside it. The filing cabinet holds the size 10 threads, that I don't use very often. People keep giving me bags full of size 10 thread and this is just the coloured threads. I have a garbage bag full of white balls stored in the closet. As you can see the tall cabinet holds several smaller containers with drawers for different sizes of thread, my small collection of tatting books , the blue chest in the middle holds embroidery threads and the boxes beside it hold miscellaneous tatting supplies like beads, bangles, findings, hankys and other things to put tatting in or add tatting to. It also houses the binding machine and supplies for book publishing.

The dresser is an in between station where pieces get dropped while I think about how to proceed with a pattern or where they sit until I can mount them on my 3 foot square blocking board which is stored behind the cabinet. Small things can be blocked on the ironing board, but larger items, like doilies, hang off the edges so they need a bigger area. The bed makes a large surface at just the right height for holding the blocking board while I pin things out. So finished tatting often sits on the dresser until I have the time to block it. It gets thrown back on the corner of the dresser until it can be scanned or photographed and again until the pattern gets drawn out if I haven't done that first. It gets put back on the corner when it's done until I either give it away or find some place to store it. That's what this mixed stack of stuff is doing here.

The corner where I do most of my tatting is here, on the love seat. The light is appalling, but I tat as much by feel as by sight, so it isn't a big issue unless I'm using size 80 an a dark colour. I mostly only need to see to do joins. I have 2 projects sitting there at the moment, a motif I'm working on in pale yellow where things have gotten to the point where it needs my undivided attention and the bookmark that requires less attention in pink. The white and green threads will get added later, they're still upstairs by the computer.

When the weather is nice I grab the parrot and go sit on the bench outside to tat so that both of us get a bit of fresh air, so I guess you could say that my tatting corner is really all over the house.

A Little of This and A Little of That

I have been tatting, not that you would know it from reading here. Some days I feel busier than a one armed paperhanger with so many things on the go that require my attention it's hard to prioritize.Days always go better when I'm up before hubby because it gives me some quiet time to read my Bible and talk things over with the Lord before the busy of life gets in the way. We take time to read the Word and pray together daily, but I still need the personal time with God and really notice when I don't have it.
The 25 Motif Challenge can take up a lot of my time if it's not handled regularly. I thank God for the many volunteers who have stepped in to help. As the interest in the challenge has grown, keeping up with it went from a pleasure to a pain and without the wonderful folks who volunteer their time it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. We have recently added some new volunteers and that takes a bit of extra time sending them out the information they need and answering questions they have. The Challenge has clearly kept people tatting and created another point of contact for the tatting community.
The Tatting Round Robins have been popular and you'd think that once everyone has their partner information, that my involvement would be over, and most of the time that would be true. The very first group of round robins I co-ordinated ran into all kinds of hiccups. Some of them went off without a hitch and others experienced all manner of road blocks, some of which are still being sorted out 2 years later. Many of these little speed bumps have been related to unexpected accidents and illness that have hampered people from completing their obligations.

If you are someone like my sister who checks email once every week or two, sorting things out can take a very long time. In the interim I can get 5 messages from other participant who are online every day. Last year the individual groups had leaders that collected the pictures for posting on the blogs and helped herd everyone toward the finish line. The most recent groups have been plagued with not only illness but also technical problems due to crashed computers.
This year I started the Design-Tat group to help people create their own designs. I'm not an expert, but there are some things I've learned from doing it wrong the first time, that may encourage other people to spread their wings. I had though of doing it as a paid class because of the time involvement, but I didn't because A- I didn't think I had all that much to teach, and B- I didn't think that there would be that many people interested. I had anticipated that 2 or 3 people might want to know what I know and I had to cut the group off at 60 because there was no way I could personally answer the design challenges of that many people. Really, I think a lot of the folks that joined, just did so out of curiosity, but I have another dozen people that have emailed since asking if they could join. So I'll be doing another course soon.

On the work front, hubby has completed some new software and I helped out with Beta testing and writing the help manual which required setting the software up in a logical manner for doing screen shots that could be incorporated into the manual and the web pages. These had to be done twice. The first were done in a small size for the manual and the second set were done larger and created with transparent backgrounds for use on the web site. We have been fortunate to already have several users promote the software, so we are very encouraged by that.

Things have been especially challenging over the last few weeks as our high speed connection was out and a lot of my "normal" activities are very graphic and require that high speed connection.
In the in between minutes I have been doing some tatting that will go into an upcoming book. I have the designs done and I'm tatting up some additional samples for filming. That's one of the reasons that there haven't been any pictures, as it's all a surprise.

Garden bouquet

Yesterday we had this beautiful tall delphinium just coming into full flower. The top of the fence you can see here is just about the height of my nose. My sweetie took the pictures and I was hoping he'd get a full shot of the entire plant instead of just a close up of the flower. It's a vivid splash of colour that comes back year after year. I got smarter last year and supported the bottom half of the plant in a tomato cage because in full flower it's very top heavy.

Last night we had a thunder shower that blew it over. We tried tying it up to a stake, but what kind of a stake do you use for a pant that's nearly 7 foot tall? We got it tied up and I turned my back for a minute and it broke in half and fell over again. So today I have this gorgeous bouquet on my table. I'm hoping the rest of the buds will open. I don't mind whether the flowers are in the garden or on the table, just as long as I can get to enjoy them.

Anniversary Present

Lest you think that I haven't really been tatting recently, I thought I'd show you this little heart which measures not quite 2 inches across. I thought it would work well for an anniversary project but I wanted to do it in gold thread.


When I did it in DMC gold it came out 1.25 inches across which was just a bit small. So I had to re-do it again larger.


Here is the larger version entwined with a second heart and some gold embroidery on a satin backing and mounted in a 5x7 frame. We had a 40th wedding celebration for my sister Flo and her husband Allan, yesterday. I wasn't present when it was unwrapped so I have not idea whether they liked it or not. They probably did. My siblings are all wonderfully supportive.

In case the reflective thread makes it hard to read, across the top it says Faith Hope Love



with their names across the bottom Allan Florrie

DMC gold embroidery thread is the pits to work with especially on slippery satin. I tried working with 6 strands which just threatened to pull holes through the fabric so I switched to 3 strands. That still didn't work so I resorted to the spooled metallic gold that I used for the tatting. It worked better but I could only do 4 or 5 letters before the thread unwound and became impossible to work with.

In comparison, Gale Marshall at Tat's All carries a gold thread that's a dream to work with for many applications.

Catching up

Judging by the lack of posting here you'd think that my life has been utterly boring with nothing at all blog worthy for months and months, but you'd be mistaken. In March I launched into an online design course for the 4 or 5 people who might have thought I had something useful to teach. It turns out lots of people want some coaching on how to make their own designs. Who knew? I spent quite a bit of time creating a tutorial on using drawing software for producing tatting patterns. Then I spent even more time helping people refine the designs they created. Helping people be creative is harder than I thought. It's one thing to invent a design yourself, but quite another thing to help someone else do it.

I started several more rounds of round robins with group leaders so that I could manage insane amounts of hand holding and group nudging. 2 of my group leaders ran into lots of LIFE happening so I had to fill in where I could. Turns out I don't do well at "fill in". I'm still playing catch up and the round robins are done, I think, but I could be wrong.

The 25 Motif Challenge is still attracting a lot of attention and keeping tatters motivated. Thank God for volunteers who keep it moving. It has gone far beyond my ability to keep it current. Thank you again to Clyde, Laura, Aileen, Jeff, and Clyde, and Clyde who has almost single handedly kept things going. I received an email recently telling me he isn't well and I hope all the extra work he's put in keeping things up to date hasn't been responsible for his ill health.

We have been in and out of court this year. First as a result of an incident last summer where my hubby was assaulted. His assailant was one of our neighbours who had been drinking to much and wasn't thinking clearly. We didn't want to see him charged but when the police became aware of the bruising hubby sustained, it was out of our hands and we ended up in court as witnesses. He got a wake up call, and we were pleased that he didn't end up with a criminal conviction for one stupid action.

Then there are the ice cream trucks. I'm all for free enterprise and kiddies enjoying the delights of summer, but when you live in a neighbourhood full of young families you are a magnet for ice cream trucks. According to the city by-laws they are not permitted in residential areas but that doesn't stop them. All summer long truck after truck parades down the street stopping every few houses to peddle their wares playing their Pied Piper music until you are ready to pull your hair out and run into the street yelling stop, stop, no more, I can't take it. Of course it doesn't help that we work from home and get to hear it all. day. long.

Turns out that the offending trucks aren't licenced so they aren't afraid of being stopped by the by-laws officers. You can't pull a licence if they don't have one and apparently the province has liens on the trucks so you can't impound them..... By-laws can charge them with infractions but usually the fine is only $500. For that they don't even appear in court, they just pay the fine and keep on going. Unless of course you do all the paperwork and take the time to go to court and make the fines stick.

One company was a repeat offender and was under probation from 2007 when the by-law officer asked them for their licence. Instead of giving the officer the information the driver got into the truck and took off at a high rate of speed. The officer, not having a siren in the car was unwilling to pursue them in a high speed car chase through traffic. This information along with a picture taken of this same employee blocking our driveway while dispensing ice cream with the shot of the no parking fire route sign, right behind it, didn't hurt our case any. Pictures and documentation with all of the details right down to the minute the offenses took place were irrefutable. The judge wanted to send a clear message, so the driver was fined $10,000.00 and the business was fined $60,000.00. Score one for the good guys.

The next court case for a different vendor, didn't get that far. They met with the city prosecutor and agreed to whatever terms the city wanted to impose. All last summer the guy kept taunting us "Take me to court." So we did. Score 2 for the good guys. Of course all of this paper work, and preparation has taken a chunk of our time over and above the days we have spent in court.

During this time hubby's brother lost his wife to cancer. She had been suffering for quite some time and it was devastating to him to be planning her funeral while she was still alive. He's feeling lost and totally alone. He spent years being a loner alienating himself from people and only now realizes that he really does need other people. It's heartbreaking to know what he's going through and it's difficult to help him when he's 350 kilometers away.

Just for a change of pace, the brakes went on the car the other day. Hubby went out to the bank and when he stopped at the light he nearly slammed into the car ahead. Quick thinking and quicker reflexes let him grab the emergency brake and avert an accident. Fortunately traffic was light and he wasn't far from home. He limped back and put the car in the garage. It turned out to be a leak in the brake line which he was determined to fix himself. OK honey, I'll stand in front of the car here and direct you up onto the ramps, just give her a bit of gas... Not a good idea when you don't have brakes. They don't call him Mr Fix It for nothing. It's all repaired and working again.

Meanwhile back at the ranch work has been going ahead on beta testing the new software, creating the help manual with all of the attendant screen shots and setting up dummy files to show how it might be used in a number of scenarios. This part took about 7 tries to get it done mostly because hubby and I see things differently. I did the whole thing as a PDF file with full size pictures. Hubby wanted it done in HTML, then he wanted it in hlp, which I have never done before. I'm not too keen on HTML either mostly because while I can speak geek, I don't DO geek. It got done again. In HTML. Then it got re-written again and compiled in both .hlp and .chm. Then it got done again just for fun....please can we stop this merry go round so that I can get off?

Other stuff has been happening too. The garden is growing including several new vines I put in last year. I wasn't too sure about this scrawny thing I put in last summer the flowers were scarce and just a smidgen bigger than the Jackmanii that covers our front wall with small deep purple flowers. This new pink clematis is called Dr Rupple. For perspective, that large piece of timber is a to the right of the flower is almost 5 inches across which is about the same size as a fully opened flower. This itty bitty vine currently has 2 large clumps of flowers like this. I can't wait to see what it will look like when it's had a few years to grow. The other vine is an orange honeysuckle that makes up for in colour what it lacks in scent. Sadly the Chicago Pink Peace rose that I planted last year, didn't take and what came up in it's place is a wild rose bush that bloomed this year in tiny, lightly scented flowers. It's getting dug up later today to make way for a real rose bush.

We've had a visitor take up residence on our wall recently. He must like the location because he hasn't moved from this spot for days. Yesterday he was joined by a friend. Is there romance in the air? These guys are kind of pretty so I'm tolerating them, but if their offspring think they are going to munch on my garden, be warned I have bug spray and I'm not afraid to use it.

Lest you think that there has been a tatting drought here are a couple of things I have been playing around with. I am working on some designs for a book and a lot of tatting is going on that I can't talk about just yet.

Cluny surround

Would you believe it's a cluny leaf gone mad? Two evenings of tatting a record length cluny, just to discover what doesn't work. I thought it might be an interesting way to frame a piece, specifically this heart. I ran out of thread half way around and had to start again. I can't make up my mind whether to finish it to see how it looks, to do it over again all in red, or just cut it off and forget about it. So here it sits, incomplete until I can make up my mind. I need more hours in my day.

Join in the How to Design discussion

Have you ever wanted a tatting pattern and just couldn't find one that suited your needs? Do you like tatting, but you'd like to take it to another level? Have you tried to create something on your own but just gave up in disgust and threw it away? Do you ever feel like tatting designers must have some special ability that you just don't have?

Well it looks like you're not the only one because a few people are interested in a designing course so I'm pulling together some ideas for some 2 way conversation and I have set up the Yahoo Group Design-Tat for discussion. The Group has been set up for access by invitation only so if you are interested let me know so that you can join.

Edited to add:

If you want to join, send an email to sharon#gagechek.com replacing the # with @ as I can't invite you without your email address.

Designing Course Anyone?

Lest you think I've given up on square motifs, here are some of my latest trials that have been done in size 20 thread. I posted a challenge in January based on a rose motif and since I don't like to ask people to design something when I haven't given it a try myself, I did this one and since I also am on a "make it square" kick I just had to turn the rose into a square motif. None of these have been finished or blocked, mostly because there are mistakes that need to be cut off and re-worked.Gina posted a picture of a crocheted rose and I had to give it a try in tatting. It needs work, but I'm on a roll so it will have to wait until I can re-visit it. The rose shape would look better if the layers were done in different colours possibly with another layer on top. Notice the extra ring in the middle of one side. I started out with one idea and forgot by the time I was on the second side. By the time I noticed, I was on the last side so I just finished it. The white round is going to get cut off anyway, so I'm not too worried about it. I think it would be easier to see the 3D effect if it were in a lighter colour, and if anyone would like to do it and send me a picture, I'll send you the pattern. without the mistakes of course :-)

The next rose is surrounded with clunies which took forever to do, and now that it's done I'm not sure if it's something I want to repeat or not. I kind of like the way it looks although the corners need to be re-done. I think it might make a very pretty x4 to see what the intersecting corners look like. I'd do it, but I'm on a roll and I don't want to stop just yet

Same basic idea, but all very different. I have been kicking around the idea of doing an on-line course on designing tatting, except that, it sounds rather conceited, because what, after all do I have to teach? Maybe a zillion ways of not doing things.

Sometimes a design comes by trial and error. If you do a thing often enough you have to eventually get it right. Sometimes it's sheer dumb luck. You make a mistake and see that your mistake actually looks good, so you repeat the mistake. Then sometimes you design with purpose setting out a sketch or a mental idea and you follow the plan until you come out the other side.

I'm not sure if there would be any interest in a designing course, or if anyone thinks I have anything of value to teach, but if there is, let me know and I'll pull my ideas into a more coherent form.

My Etsy Shop

I finally came to a decision to add some of the finished pieces I have to an Etsy shop and I'll add more things as they are completed. The gothic choker that everyone seemed to like is in the shop. As are these other items.

Gothic Choker


The choker is about 15 inches in length with a barrel clasp closure but it could easily be made shorter by changing it to a lobster claw closure.


Celtic Braid Bracelet

Some time ago I experimented with a celtic design that I call a celtic braid. It makes a really nice design although it isn't lacy looking. I added beads to this one. It's dark burgundy red thread with light pink beads and light pink thread with dark red beads. It's hard to see the difference in the thread colour once it's tatted. I was going to add either a heart or a flower to the bracelet, but adding them to it didn't improve the bracelet, so I've just left it. It measures about 7.5 inches and has a lobster claw closure. The design has a bit of stretch to it so that it can be slipped over the hand.


Valentine Earrings


These Valentine hearts are about one inch across and have fish hook earrings.


Amulet Bag


This black and turquoise amulet bag necklace is just over 1.5 inches square with an inch of beaded trim and a 24 inch strap matching beaded strap. The folded opening is held down with a transparent dome fastener. It's just the right size to wear as an accessory or hold your favourite tiny treasure.

Here's the link to the Etsy Shop so that you can go check it out for yourself.
It suddenly occurred to me that although I'm in Canada, Etsy is American and I ought to have adjusted prices to reflect that. Well I have done now, so the priices have been lowered to something more sensible.

A golden thank you

Another surprise in the mail today. You may have seen this gold beauty on Jeff's blog. I'm the lucky recipient of this treasure. Trust me, the picture really doesn't do this snowflake justice. It looks flat and lifeless in the picture whereas in reality it sparkles and shines from every angle, with the picots at the tips flashing golden sparks. The Oren Bayan Metallic gold thread seems so much finer and more golden that the DMC gold thread that I am used to, and the work is exquisite. I am truly blessed with such unexpected treasures as the snowflake received last week from Maria and this one from Jeff. Both snowflakes were received with thank you notes for arranging the round robins.

Jeff was one of the participants in the recent snowflake round robin and was actually the group leader who kept things in the group moving forward collected the pictures and information on the snowflakes and posted it to the round robin blog. One of the difficulties with organizing tatting related things like the 25 Motif Challenge, The Tatting Round Robins and more recently the Tatting Books blog, is that I don't have a lot of spare time to participate in exchanges and round robins myself. That's why I really like being able to enjoy them vicariously, only this time, I have some snowflakes of my own to cherish.

What'll I do?

I have just had a rummage through my tatting stuff and realized that I have a bunch of tatting I don't quite know what to do with. I'm a designer and almost everything that comes off my shuttles is an original one of a kind something or other. Sometimes I design things because I'm making a gift for someone. Sometimes I'm just trying ideas out to see how they'd look. After looking at the crocheted tablecloth whose pattern reminded me of rings I tried to duplicate part of the design in tatting and produced a doily which was given to my sister in law. I had to re-tat this one in order to create the pattern for the newsletter.

This Gothic choker just kind of made itself. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with Gothic tastes to gift it to.

Then there was this 38 inch edging of hearts that I thought I'd add on to a pillowcase, but it needed a foundation row to make it straight along the top edge. I got bored with it and never made the second edging.

I had this bag of bright sparkly red beads that turned into this romantic necklace, but I don't know anyone who would wear it.

Then there was the time I was playing with celtic tatting and did this interwoven design for any eye glass case. I wear glasses, but being nearsighted, I never take them off and have no use for an eye glasses case.

This necklace is an excuse to play with bugle beads.

I don't like the way the op of the heart pattern worked out so I re-designed it.

Then there is my recent experiment with sequins.

So I have these and other pieces languishing in my supply box and I'm wondering what to do with them. It seems a shame that no one gets to enjoy them. Maybe I ought to start an Etsy shop just to clear out my supply cabinet. What do you think? Are these pieces people would be interested in or would handling an Etsy shop just mean more work and time taken away from tatting?

Books, Design Challenge and Mail Call

Look what the mailman brought! It's a lovely card from Maria who is one of the participants in the 25 Motif Challenge and in the recently completed Snowflake Round Robin. The card shows sightseeing trolley in her home of Portugal. Included with the card is a beautiful snowflake she tatted and put in in a bright red bag. The pattern is based on a design in the Burda magazine. Isn't it wonderful?

I have been tatting but I haven't posted much recently because I've been tied up with some other projects. There are some new round robins about to start. I just need people to tell me what they would like to be making. If you haven't had a chance to look at the round robin blog, go look now, but make sure you take tissue with you so you can wipe the drool off your keyboard.

Another project that I'm trying to get under way is the Tatting Books blog for all of our wonderful tatting authors. It's a blog where they can post pictures of their books and information on where to get them. So many of our talented folks have started producing books and a lot of them are self published and not available in stores. Sometimes we just don't know what books there are or where to get them, so I am hoping that if each person enters their own book data that it will help them to be more visible and it will help tatters to find all these terrific publications. The blog is in it's infancy and the only way people can add their information is if I send out an invitation from the blog. So if anyone has a book and hasn't been sent an invitation, please email me so that I can get you added. If I missed anyone, I promise, it isn't intentional, I'm trying to reach as many book authors as I can find. I have been linking to the Tatting Books blog on all of the blogs I manage, but for some reason my personal blog here doesn't seem to have the same format.

On to the next project. I have uploaded an new entry for the Design Challenge. This challenge is to take a basic rose and make something with it. You have probably seen the rose centred snowflake collection by Denise Munoz and that's one thing you can do with a rose. You could make it the centre of a round motif or a square motif, or make it into a bookmark or a heart or whatever else you can dream up. So there's the challenge. So let's see what you can come up with that has a rose as it's base.

More Fun with Sequins

OK so if I'm working on designing a square motif that can be used to make a shawl, why am I still playing with sequins? I don't know, but if someone figures it out can you clue me in? I tatted the medallion again just because it looked like it would fit in a bangle. It does, sort of. I could add another row or change the last row to make it fit better, but I've already fallen out of love with this design. I might do it again adding matching beads to the outer round to make it more sparkly.
Maybe my lack of enthusiasm is because I've already done it a few times. I re-did it in red and black, which I thought might look really dramatic and it might have with different sequins. These particular red sequins are transparent and they don't have enough colour value to stand out against the deep dark black thread. I may try some other thread and sequin colour combinations some time because I think it might have possibilities. I suppose what puts me off a little is just the idea of lace mixed with plastic. I made the necklace in the last post and I don't know anyone who would wear it. It's too... chintzy.

Sequin Necklace

I was doodling with sequins and look what happened. Now that I've made this, I'm not sure what to do with it.

Mystery revealed

With square motifs I always want to do 4 so that I can see what the connecting corners look like, so is it any surprise that if I work on a six sided motif that I want to see what their connecting corners look like? The mystery bit that I was working on has evolved into this. Did you guess what it was? I'm not sure if I like it or not. I mean I like how it looks, but it needed some serious blocking to lay flat. I pulled it off the shuttles, cut off about 30 already hidden ends from adding in new thread, sewed in 14 finishing ends and dry pinned it to my blocking board at about 5 last night. Er... make that about 5 AM this morning. Once I got the last bit done I was determined to see how it looked finished and I just kept going until my curiosity was satisfied.
Now that it's done to this point I'm wondering if I should just leave it as is or add a finishing row. I'm not crazy about designs with rings on the outer edge. They may look good but the rings often twist and turn every time the lace is moved so my usual preference is to add a row to nail them in place, although the extra row may actually detract from the overall design on this one.

For the stats, it's worked in size 8 perle cotton and it took less that 2 balls of thread and it's produced a doily about 10 inches across. There are 7-three row motifs in it and a motif can be completed in a single evening. So one week's worth of tatting can produce a respectable size doily with lots of interest. I joined only the larger central ring at the points, but now that it's completed I am wondering if it would look as good, or better if the smaller side rings were joined too, or would that make it pucker. I suppose I'll never know because now that the mystery of how it looks is solved I'm done with this design. I've done the same thing nearly 9 times once as the first trial, once to see if a slight adjustment to the central ring was sufficient to straighten it out and 7 more to see what it looks like. Now it's time to move on to something else.

....unless I add a row...

So now I am at that place I hate to be. In between design ideas. Once I start an idea I can happily march on tatting furiously day after day as I search for the finished design. Often new designs are at work in my head as my hands are working so that I can't wait for this project to be finished so that I can start the next. But sometimes I finish a project and there is a complete blank. Oh there are things I could do, just nothing that really intrigues me, nothing that grabs my attention and says "Create me!"

Maybe I need to doodle with adding a row and see if in the middle inspiration hits. Then again maybe I need to play with some of the images in my drawing file and see about turning them into something interesting. Maybe I should go back to square motifs and see what I can come up with that works well for a shawl. Maybe take a break from bigger stuff and work on earrings and necklaces for a bit. Maybe I should play around with some button designs. Maybe I should work on a tatted bag design. Maybe a pillow would be nice. Maybe a baby outfit. Maybe.........

I wonder what it is

Well we finally found a deadlock that would fit the door. The lock has been replaced and the door and frame touched up where the repairs damaged it. Yesterday was spent travelling around with hubby while we tried to get parts for some other repair job. It never ceases to amaze me that little jobs the other half is doing always seem to require my time. Not that I'm useful for doing any of the actual repair work, but I always seem to be needed to just hold stuff. You know the kind of thing I mean, "Honey can you hold the light." or "Could you get my screwdriver?" or "Hold these pieces for me." or "Hold this part steady while I work on it." Not that I'm complaining. Some of the escapades of other people that I have read recently leave me everlastingly grateful that I have a talented hubby that can fix almost anything. My only objection is that while I am standing around holding things, I'm not tatting.

This little snippet is a piece that I'm working on which should take another 3 or 4 days to finish. I have been planing a lot of "quick" designs but they keep taking longer than anticipated because I keep making them bigger. It's like the square motifs. One is nice but questions like, "how does it look as a grouping?" keeps me busy on designs that are basically finished.

Any guesses as to what this one is?

Locked IN

We had just finished supper tonight when hubby went to check outside. The problem was, he couldn't get the door to unlock. The knob turned but the latch didn't move. There are worse things that can happen, we could have been locked OUT by a broken lock, but it's definitely one of those things that's in the "need to fix immediately" category.

Now some guys are at a loss as to what to do in this kind of a situation, but I'm fortunate to be married to my own Mr Fix It. He's not the Tim Allen kind of guy who immediately looks for an excuse to get out the power tools and sends saner people running for cover. He's the genuine article. If it's broke and he can't fix it, it can't be fixed, or it just isn't worth the man hours involved.

So how do you get to a lock that's broken inside the door? You hacksaw through the deadbolt using the blade of a hacksaw without the frame. The blade would pass between the door and the frame, but nothing else would. Now remember, the door is closed and on the other side of the deadbolt is the framing for the door that stops drafts and deadbolts are meant to keep people out so they are made of hardened steel. So after removing the blade from the saw, he proceeded in tiny motions to cut through the deadbolt. Forward half an inch, hit the frame and back half an inch. Little by little the steel bolt was cut through and the door opened.

The joy of freedom at last, was soon replaced by the knowledge that now we needed to replace the hacksawed deadbolt. The lock when it was removed revealed a sheered off section which pulled on the bolt to retract it into the door. The part had broken and fallen down inside the mechanism in such a way that the only way to get it out was to turn it upside down. Easy to do with it removed from the door, but impossible while still installed.

We made an emergency run to Home Depot and got a replacement lock. Unfortunately, the new round deadbolt doesn't fit in the old rectangular hole. He can make the hole round, but we're thinking that maybe there is a model available that won't require alterations to the door to fit. So tomorrow we'll be on the hunt for a new lock.

Time for a new tatting community challenge

We started the 25 Motif Challenge in August 2006 when Gina and Wally were talking about tatting a whole bunch of motifs in a set period of time. Then the discussion crossed over to several other lists and a lot of people expressed interest. Some people have a lot of tatting time and others only have an hour or so a day so after kicking the idea around for a while we decided on 25 motifs in a year. Almost 3 years later people are still joining the challenge.

Of course some people joined, finished and that was the end of it. Those people need a new challenge, something different, that like the 25 Motif Challenge people can work on their own projects at their own pace. So I've been pondering what new challenge everyone would like to be involved in. Something fun, something a little challenging, something that most tatters can do. There's no point in having a project that only designers can participate in because that excludes a big chunk of the tatting community.

Since a lot of people had tatted 25 somethings I thought of maybe a multi motif project like a tatted mat, or a teddy bear jacket or something that would incorporate a couple dozen motifs. Of course I realize that the motifs that some people had done were things like earrings so they couldn't be incorporated into anything else.

Then I thought maybe a group project like tatted bits to go on a quilt that could be auctioned off and the proceeds sent to some universal charitable organization like the Red Cross.

Or tatted hearts or something to be sent to a local women's shelter along the lines of the comfort dolls.

Or a challenge to create something extraordinary in tatting like a model space ship, Eiffel tower, bikini, or whatever your imagination can come up with.

Or a quarterly competition to make the most interesting, bracelet or necklace, or bookmark or, pincushion decorated with tatting or hair comb or other types of things.

How about some other ideas? Is there something you can think of that a lot of other people would like to try too? Suggestions anyone?