This is a diagram in the making for the bookmark Melanie is sharing while filling in for Georgia in today's online tatting class.

Here is a pattern I have with beads in the base of Rings.

This is from my book "A Potpourri of Tatted Patterns" which I still don't have totally redone.

I am again working on it though!

We had a wonderful turnout at our sessions yesterday; it’s hard to believe we had so many tatters when it was just late on Monday that I decided to form this class! I couldn’t have done it so quickly so without the help from Cynthia Stevenson, who hosts the Beginners classes on Thursdays, and Georgia!

All are welcome including new tatters, aspiring tatting designers, etc. - we can all learn from those of all levels whatever the topic! We are not using any specific program/software; there are many to choose from and even free ones. We discussed many of them in yesterday’s class. Join our TattingDesigners group to read the logs and find out who uses which ones and why.

We also talk about creativity and design, which can be learned!, as well as computer aided design.

Also Cynthia set up a new yahoo group for us called TattingDesigners, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TattingDesigners/, that she and I will both be moderating, and all our logs will be posted there- in fact yesterday’s are already up in the files section! You can go there to join.

So, Please come join us if you can!

Well it's been a very very long time again since I last posted because of family and stress at work and that I'm not very good at multitasking. I tend to get focused on 1 or 2 things in life and the rest totally falls off my radar.

I was able to completely retire this summer and now my focus is on tatting.

I'm still working on redoing my book and instead of the simple redo the whole project has taken on a life of its own. Besides just reorganizing and updating such as adding a split chain in place of a cut & tie and making pattern diagrams I started diagramming a technique in one section, then I kept thinking that if I drew this one I should do this other and of course the next too for consistency and so on & on &on.

It was only 49 half size pages and now is 57 full 8.5 x 11 pages.

I'm taking on a new challenge too; in Georgia's online class yesterday the subject of designing and diagramming came up and I'm going to host a class on "Tatting Design and Drawing software Lessons." It's going to begin today with a meet and greet 3PM and 8:30PM ET (New York time). All are welcome, experienced tatters and newbies alike. Please stop in if you can.

This is something I've been wanting to do for quite a while so since it came up now I figured the time must be right for it.

Now I'm off to get ready for this afternoon's class!
Happy Tatting All!

I'm back with a closeup of what is now named SnowFlower and will eventually become the SnowFlowerFlake.

These show some of the joins close up. The CWJ, Catherine's wheel which does not work for Round Two (do you know why? I'll answer that later) and needs to be replaced with a shuttle join—the specific kind and instructions can be found with the SnowFlower directions at http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2007/sfullerjoins.html

I'm finally tatting again. Joined the 25 motif challenge in August. Then needed to take 2 intense college courses, one an ENG 303 Essay class, the other an EDU 263 Teaching and Learning Online Class, to strengthen my job security (at least hopefully this will!). By the time these were done, the Holidays were here. It was just too much for me to multi-task so much so the tatting got left behind for awhile.

Here's the portion of a motif I began designing this month for the Tatter's Calendar but never made it! I'm putting it on now so because we've been talking about "joins" on the "Here-Be-Tatters" list. The arrows point to shuttle joins where I think I had to count the join as part of the next ds chain (I usually don't when making shuttle joins to a chain below) but because the join tilted to slant upward when joined to the long picot below I had to count it. I'm going to work some sample pieces of joins of heavier thread to compare, and see exactly what I did. Unfortunately I was working fast, didn't write everything down that I did and should have know I'd forget the details. Have to go to work soon so can't get these samples made today!

I was intrigued and loved the the "double daisy picot" pattern by Riet the B-engel from Holland on the Tatting Calendar, I had never seen or heard of this before. So I went to her site and followed her directions to make the one at left.

I love it and tried to put it on one point of the snowflake, but ran out of thread-you can see the broken spot in it at the upper right of the photo. I think it's too heavy of a design anyway for this flake, and I want to study it's construction compared to using a mock ring with rings on it and also I think the other clover style point at the left is better for the snowflake. This snowflake will not make it for the January calendar, but I will be using it as a "Process of Design" sample in. I was out of the tatting world so long that I'm not familiar with all the designs out now so please let me know if this resembles someone else's snowflake!

Bye for now,

Sue F (Susan K Fuller)

Put this post up then checked and realized none of the links I made worked! I had just hand pasted them into the code and they all disappeared when I published eeeuuw. So I went back and then noticed the link icon, edited and reposted - This version works YEA.

Found my tatting notebooks this morning in the 5th box unearthed from my closet! Now if I can just find my shuttles and thread I'll be on my way.

I'm really inspired by all the motifs for the 25 motif challenge: Wally's beaded motif - it's beautiful, and also Ruth's Celtic motifs -Wow is she fast! Then there's Gail's TAT artisan celtic motif and also her beaded motif from Wally's tat along pattern (see Wally's blog at http://tat-along.blogspot.com/ ) and Cyamese Tats' gorgeous motif. I see Werner also has a motif for the tat along that combines crochet & tatting- I like this idea of combining two techniques. I can see I need to get going fast since I now also want to work on a version of the tat along pattern too. I've got to try a combination of tatting with needle lace in the center of the motif!

All of this will be a huge challence for me since next Thursday we leave to take our 10 year old grandson back home to California. A very quick 5 day trip since and then the day after we get back, I'll need to go back to work. I plan to tat my whole way there and back and hopefully get lot's of motifs done for the 25 motif challenge. Then I'll need to get going on my tatting website to make my deadline.

Here's two more of my starting paisley pieces:

I think the challenge with this piece on the left will be to work it down to 1 or 2 continuous rounds so it qualifies as a "motif" and is easier to tat.

And this last one below right really needs help -better shaping cause it looks awfully blobby shaped now!

Happy tatted threads to you all,