What? August!

It's hart to believe it's the end of November already -- I've been AWOL for 3 months!  I don't even have a really stellar reason.  It would be nice to say I won the lottery and have been on a world cruise and just too busy playing to blog.  Nope.  I didn't win anything; I've been right here at home; and I've been too busy working to blog.  Borrrrrrring!  On the good side of that my assignment at work has changed so that I just get to do the part I like -- all the rest of the stuff I used to do someone else is now doing.  Lovely.  Now I have to step into the Wayback Machine and show you what I've been doing for three months -- because I have done some tatting.  :)

How about the Fair, for starters?  I got some blue ribbons (1st), some red ribbons (2nd) and some pink ribbons (4th).  In ascending order then, I got a 4th place ribbon on my ankle bracelet and my hat (which for some reason shows as a pillowcase on my "premium statement" from the fair).  The ankle bracelet is the same one I entered in the county fair.  The hat is all new.  I made the initial just for the hat, but the top is decorated with one of Jon Yusoff's snowflakes.  Both are made in size 80 thread hand-dyed "Oh, Baby" by my sister.  The judges comments -- that I was hoping would be helpful -- just said "nice" and "precise tatting" for these.  *sigh*

The Heart's Desire bookmark is also the same one entered in the County Fair.  It got a second place ribbon at the State Fair.  I also entered my little crocheted Cthulhu toy which got a red ribbon.  The funny little guy has wings, arms and legs, but he's buried here in someone's quilt, so it looks like he's only a head.  He's being shipped off to the far reaches of the world, as soon as I find a spare minute to stand in line at the post office.







I got nice first place blue ribbons on the button doily, and the Easter and Christmas ornaments I also entered in the state fair.  The coaster I entered got a blue ribbon as well.  It's the square I designed in Sharon Briggs' Design Tat Class.  She teaches well!  I made it again in purple size 30 DMC Cebelia.  I've made four now so I have a small set of coasters, but I only entered one.

 

I was very pleased to have gotten a first place ribbon on the large centerpiece I adapted from a Jan Stawasz pattern.  I left out all the picots except the joining ones.  What made me so happy is that entry morning when I took it's picture, I noticed that I had missed a couple of joins -- there were the picots just hanging out there.  It's such a large piece that either the judges didn't see them or figured they'd cut me a little slack!  It's the same doily on which I reported not much progress last June. 

The first two pictures are those I took the morning we were taking things to the fair.  It did turn out really pretty, I think.  I was just upset that I had missed the joins.  I still haven't decided whether or not to try to fix it, or just figure, nobody's perfect and a man on a galloping horse won't notice anyway.  The second pictures are the ones I took at the fair,  after  I convinced the fair people to move it .  It was originally displayed draped over a white knitted something, and it completely disappeared -- not to mention I spent hours getting it blocked just right and they rumpled it all up.  I have no idea how the owner of the afghan they finally placed it on felt about having her work covered up.  *sigh*  I wish they had a bigger building!

The last thing I entered in the fair was over in the Creative Arts area.  It's a bit of Calligraphy in the Celtic style.  It got a blue ribbon, too. 

All together, it cost me $11.00 to enter this stuff in the fair, but I came home with $22.00.  Not too bad -- it bought me a nice lunch one day!

State Fair

Sharon mentioned that the entry categories for their local fair are pretty limited for tatting, and that the entrance fee is rather stiff.  Our state fair has seventeen categories for tatting.  It only costs $1 to enter something and the prizes range from $6 to ribbons.  Of course, to get into the $6 area you've got to tat a tablecloth or a framed picture.  Interesting that there's no size on the picture.  Hmmmm...that may be achievable one of these days! 
Last year I thought it would be a good thing to make something to enter in every category.  Keep all those tatting categories open so we don't disappear from the public eye.  After looking over the list, I decided it's not going to happen this year, probably not for years to come either.

I don't have an idea for a picture to make and frame.  I'm going to think about that one, though.

I did buy a table to make a table cloth for, but didn't get it finished.  It doesn't say how big the table has to be -- I got one for a dollhouse.  That probably would be unacceptable. *sigh*

Everything else is achievable, but certainly not all at once, and not this year.  I've given away a lot of the stuff I made this year. 
I am managing to enter in categories:
58 (well, if I get the last round done and get it starched by the 31st!),
59 (the blue diamond button doily),
60 (maybe, I have to measure the piece I have in mind),
61 (the Hearts Honor by Wanda),
(I wonder what happened to category 62 and what it was?),
64 (the same ornament I entered in the County Fair), and
65 (again, the same ornament I entered in the County Fair). 

If I get the large centerpiece done early, I might have time to make something for category 68 -- I've got a hat to put it on! 
Let's see.  If I concentrate on the list and start in September, maybe I can enter something in every category NEXT year -- well, no, not the tablecloth.  Not doin' that!

Challenge No. 16

Wondering what happened to the little butterflies from a few posts before?  They got made into this Easter Egg Ornament.  I used those three and a bunch of smaller butterflies (some of which are adapted from Jane Eborall's great butterfly pattern).  I pinned them to the satin egg with little gold applique pins stuck through powder blue seed beads.  I'm counting this one as number 16 for the 25 Motif Challenge.  It's destined for a long trip half-way around the world as a gift for a good friend.

It's making a stop at the County Fair before being shipped away, though.  It's got a first place blue ribbon, a high blue (considered for Sweepstakes) and a Judge's Choice ribbon.  A big ribbon...greedy me, I like big ribbons.

Challenge No. 15

Number 15 for my 25 Motif Challenge (which I've missed by, oh...a good 9 or 10 months, and which I miscounted, but I still don't think I'm going to get 25 before the end of this year either *sigh*).

This one is a top and bottom copied from one of my old ornaments, so I have no idea of its origin.  I made the top and bottom to try lacing them together after a discussion with to MSquared.  This was not what I had in mind so I just dropped in my finished tatting drawer and moved on.  When it came time to enter the fair I scrabbled around in the drawer looking for something I've made within the last year (fair years run from August to August) and re-discovered this one.  I decided that the fastening thread made an interesting zig-zag after all then dropped it in with the stuff to go to the Fair.  Apparently, the judges liked the zig-zag lacing it together, as well, because it's got a blue first place ribbon, too.

I do wish I'd taken a picture of it before hauling it out to the fair -- because what ever that is on the shelf below the ornament looks ...um... somewhat inappropriate for a G rated blog.

Blue Diamond

Look closely -- squint if you need to.  Yup, this is the same pattern as the Pink Diamond Bookmark -- it just has a couple of small modifications so it will lay flat when fastened together.   It's also entered in the doily category.  It's made with two colors of blue Lizbeth size 20 thread and a bunch of little blue and white shirt buttons.  I made this one -- again -- thinking it would fit in the Fair theme.  But they didn't care because -- again -- it's NOT a quilt block.  It still got a first place blue ribbon, though, so I don't suppose they cared that it wasn't a quilt.  This was as big as I had time to make it before the fair entry day.  I'm thinking about adding to it for entering in the State Fair -- but that depends on how lazy I am.  I did manage to get a scan of this one before I entered it, but didn't take down its vital statistics.  The best I can say is it's about the size of my hand.  Of course, if you've not seen my hands, that's not going to help much, is it?

I just measured it.  It's 6 inches across (about 15.5 cm) at it's widest point.  I'm going to leave it as it is for entering in the State Fair.  Then the one I'm working on and this one won't have to be in the same category!

Something Blue

Jessica Spaulding taught classes at Shuttlebirds this year one of which included this bracelet.  She was kind enough to let me test tat from her pattern and this is what I came up with.  The bracelet is made from Lizbeth Caribbean colorway -- but I've forgotten if the size is 40 or 20, how's that for strange?  We stretched the categories at the county fair so this one made an appearance as a "wedding accessory" -- it's the something blue.  The ribbon it got was something blue as well.

Fairly Coasting

A couple of years ago I made a tiny doily from Iris Niebach's "Stella Alpina" pattern in her book Fantasia.  It sat around in my drawer until I got a wedding invitation this year.  It looked like at least a start on a set of coasters.  I still had some of the Sulky machine embroidery thread and white quilting cotton I used for that one, so I made a set of four.  I entered this one in the doily category at the fair (fortunately the wedding's not for a couple of weeks).

It has a nice second place red ribbon (I forgot to take a picture before I entered it).

The competition in the doily category was pretty stiff this year.  One large doily made in cream and brown of a bazillion little motifs won the sweepstakes ribbon.  The variegated brown looks very striking with the cream used for most of the doily.

We picked up all out fair entries today and I read through all the judge's comments attached.  Both judges disliked the thread color.  They said it detracted from the pattern and my "nice, even stitches," which it why it got a red ribbon.  One also said that the addition of the white thread caused it to look fuzzy and out of focus. Rats.  I liked the effect -- it looked tweedy to me.  Now I wonder if I should get something else for a wedding present!

More from the Fair

Back in April I made a bookmark from my own button decoration pattern with a long perle-tatted tail.  I called it a Pink Diamond bookmark because this year's fair theme was "Diamond Days, Country Ways".  It didn't matter, though.  The only "theme" brownie points being given were for quilt blocks.  *sigh*  Fairs seem to have a love affair with quilts.

I did get a nice first place ribbon on it, and a "high blue" which means it was considered for sweepstakes -- even without the brownie points.

It's also made of size 20 Lizbeth pink thread -- but it's a pink variegate.

County Fair

Last Sunday we took the long trek out to the county fair grounds and entered our ...er... stuff (can't think of a more elegant word).  We had a dozen things which meant we could purchase a parking pass for all four nights of the fair for the price of parking for one night of the fair.  That was good. We used it tonight -- just to see how we did.  Though we looked through the whole fair building we did not venture outside except to go home.  We'll save the animals, food vendors and carnival for the weekend.  There were some pretty interesting things at the fair, and some really strange ones.  I liked the little beings and bugs made out of vegetables. 

All the tatting is in the glass display cases, so my pictures aren't very good.  That's why I made scans or took pictures before entering the stuff in the fair.  In the category "other" (so descriptive!) I entered this pink Heart's Desire bookmark designed by Wanda.  She did such a good job, I got a blue ribbon.  Now, that's a mark of a great design!  Anyway, here it is as displayed in the case (under somebody's ID card) and the scan before it was entered.  I made it with pink Lizbeth size 20.  It needed minimal blocking -- another mark of a good pattern for me.  Thanks, Wanda!

Little Butterflies

Making butterflies out of Sulky thread was sometimes an exercise in frustration.  Trying to get six stitch rings to close nearly made me nuts -- my fingernails kept getting in the way!  I've got three butterflies done that I'm going to use on an ornament.  The rest of the space on the ornament will be filed in with smaller butterflies of one sort or another.

This one is "Celine" from Tatted Butterflies by Adelheid Dangela.  It needs to be blocked to get the body to be straight and the lower wings the right shape.  It wouldn't hurt to get the antennae straightened out either.  They're clipped at the end because I wrapped the thread around the picot two more times on one than the other, that meant to make them even I had to trim the ends.  It measures 1.25 inches (about 4.5 cm) wide wingtip to wingtip, and one inch (about 2.5 cm) tall without measuring the antennae.

"Jade" is from Sherry Pence's The Exquisite collection of Tatted Butterflies II.  It would have been prettier if I'd followed the pattern.  There would have been a more defined point at the bottom of the wings and a nice picot there, too.  I was talking while tatting and didn't count twice -- close once.  As a matter of fact, I didn't count or look at the pattern until after I'd closed.  After looking at it for a dismayed minute or two, I decided there was no way I was even going to attempt to open that little tiny split ring!  I just made the other wing to match.  This one measures 1.25 inches (4.5 cm) wide and 1.5 inches (just under 4 cm) at its tallest point.

Finally, I made "Curly Q" -- another little treasure from Sherry Pence's book.  All those tiny rings in this fine thread gave me a lot of "aaaarrrrrgghhhhh" moments.  It's such a pretty little butterfly, though, so I kept at it.  It measures about 1-3/8 inch (3.6 cm) at it's widest point and about 7/8 inch (2.3 cm) tall  It also needs some blocking.  I'll take care of all that before I stick them on the ornament.
 
Depending on how it looks once I get them placed,  I might even make one more larger butterfly -- probably "Lily" from Sherry's book.  If I do that, I'm going to consider placement of magic threads very carefully.  This Sulky is too fine for me to weave the threads in with a needle.  I don't own a needle thin enough