The IOLI Convention are calling for Tatters

This 56th Annual Convention will be held on July 25th to August 1st this year in Los Angeles California. You can read all about the convention from the Freeway Lace Guild site, who are the host this year.

No, I am not attending this convention, though I wish I could. But I will be there, not in body but in spirit.

This years theme is Golden Nuggets of Lace. And to celebrate this theme, the Convention needs flowers, lots of flowers. And they wil be using the August Birthday Flower of the Month from the 2008 year's fundraiser, Flowers of Lace Put a Smile on Your Face.

And guess who designed the August Birthday Flower .... Me!



Please go to the online tatting class site to read more about it and to get the pattern of the flower. There is also a link there if you want to order the book, Flowers of Lace Put a Smile on Your Face. There are many other lovely flower patterns in there for each month of the year.

All Blocked-Out

The on-going topic in the Online Tatting Class is on block tatting. It is a technique that I have not used before in my designs but I have tried it, learning through tutorials online.

I am so eager to learn more, so much so that I worked on the pattern even before the class meets. The pattern in the Block Tatted Heart by Sue Hanson.

The pattern was written in the traditional style for making blocks where you have to turn it after each row. Trying to be clever, I tatted the block in a way similar to Jane Eborall's method, but not quite the same, where I don't have to turn the block when making the next row of the block. Why did I say not quite the same as Jane's - I didn't feel like logging-in to the internet to actually look at Jane's method though I have an inkling of how it was done. So I made it up as I go along, but it was close.

And that is where the confusion starts.

At the second block, I have no idea which is the front side and which is the back side. I had to skip an SLT somewhere while doing the third part of the design.

By the time I reached block 4, I found my shuttles are swapped. I was using Shuttle 2 when the pattern says shuttle 1. It took a while to figure out block 4, had to undo a couple of times. Finally figured out that I need to do the double-stitches unflipped to start on block 4. That was not what the pattern says. And I missed a few mock picots in the blocks and had to really poke the crochet hook in to join the chains in the outer round.

Next time I should wait for the teacher to explain before starting, :-). Now, I have to attend class and see where I went wrong. Anyway..... at the end of it all, ta... daaaa......

Happy Valentine to you.

p/s Don't look too closely, you'd see the mistakes that I made, ;-)

Online Class Homework

Have not updated the pages here for a while but I am still tatting. The pictures here are the homework from the Online Tatting Class

This is Mary Maynard's butterfly pattern #3.


And this one is Nellie H Youngburg's butterfly made from the pattern re-written by Wally Soosa.


The third one is a bracelet using the pattern provided by Debbie Strickland. I used a size 10 thread with rose beads. The length is about 16cm (6.5 in), which can comfortably fit round a girl's wrist.

The patterns for the above are available at the site for the Online Tatting Class 2007 Lessons Index. You need to solve a puzzle first to get to the pattern for Mary Maynard's butterfly. Click on the Nov 27 Special Event Puzzle to get there. It is worth a visit.

I was also tatting more of the snowflakes shown earlier, this time in pastel shade of pink.