The Fair! Shuttles! Motifs 3-7!

Hi!

Well, I have had a fun last couple of weeks! I was in Des Moines for the Iowa State Fair and Valentine, Nebraska for my little brother's wedding!

The Fair was AMAZING, as always, and especially fun this year because I received TWO ribbons on my tatting entries. Yay!

Last year I only received one Honorable Mention, so this was definitely an upgrade! :) I had five other entries, including these three snowflakes, motifs 3-7!

These are all three from "Festive Snowflakes & Ornaments For Needle and Shuttle Tatting" edited by Barbara Foster

While at the State Fair I re-visited all my favorite places, including the blacksmith shop at Pioneer Hall which is where I was re-introduced to tatting in 2009.

The wife of the blacksmith tats while he works and sells her tatting to anyone who passes by. In 2009 she was also nice enough to direct me to the Internet and the plethora of tatting sites awaiting me there...

Since I spent so many hours at the Fair this year I decided to take the time to learn something new: I took a class and learned something I have been wanting to know for a long time...Shuttle Tatting!!

This was from the first class (notice I am holding the shuttle all wrong!)

Yep, I finally figured it out! It only took two 2-hour tatting classes given by a tatting expert at the Fair, but I can finally run a shuttle!

 So, in honor of my finally learning this new skill, I give you motif #7, my first shuttle-tatted motif!

You will notice that the picots are VERY uneven and the tension is a little funky (especially on the picot at 3:00) but still, it's a full motif, shuttle tatted, by me! :) Hooray!

We found out what I was doing wrong when I was trying to shuttle tat before...I was trying to tat with my right hand...silly me, to assume that I should shuttle tat with my right hand since I am hopelessly right handed, but it is true, I need to tat with my left hand. Once I got that figured out, I was flying! :)

I also want to point out something to all of you in honor of my awesome mom...I made the tatted crown above, blocked and starched it, but my mom decided it needed something more than just to be set on a shelf, so she took it upon herself to cut, twist, sew and glue this beautiful holder for it:

 What a great mom I have!! :)

I also bought something before I left that was delivered while I was gone that will further help my needle and shuttle tatting habit, a lovely light to save my eyes in the dark winters of Russia. :)

I also picked up my "ribbons" form the other fair I entered my tatting in...

So that's what I've been doing the past few weeks...hopefully now that I am back in DCland I will be able to settle down and needle or shuttle tat something new and exciting...

KF

Motif #2...Plus We Play: What is it?

Howdy!

I'm slowly getting myself back into the tatting habit after taking a bit of a break after the "marathon tatting" I did to finish things for the fairs...I thought I'd do more tatting during the Olympics, but I just basically sit here with my mouth open in awe, and can't really do much else but stare in wonder.

So I haven't accomplished much tatting-wise, but here is my motif #2 for my second go-around at the 2012 25 Motif Challenge:

Hopefully you can tell that it's the letter "F"...my little brother liked my coasters so much he asked if I would make him and his soon-to-be wife a set of monogram coasters for their wedding gift...and since their wedding is in two weeks, I thought I'd better get to work! You can look for more "F's" in the future...

--

And now it's time to play a game: WHAT IS IT?!
I took a trip to a local craft chain store this weekend and picked up the supplies I need to make something out of all those ecru motifs I made earlier...

I bought:
-Clear thread
-Flower wire
-Measuring Tape
-Needle-nose wire cutters

My new project: What is it?

Go on, give it a guess...if you're the first person to get it right I'll send you something from Russia...not sure what yet, but it'll be something good, I promise. (You have until I finish it to guess!)

Happy guessing!
KF

Finishing for the Fair, 25th (and 1stB) Motifs, and a New Place to Tat

Howdy!

It has been a busy non-tatting time recently, mostly because we've been spending our time researching and bidding on the place we want to go next...

Well, on Tuesday we got that answer...sometime this winter we will be moving to Vladivostok, Russia!

For those of you who don't know (and don't feel bad, I didn't know until I looked it up), Vlad is on the far eastern side of Russia, nearer to the Koreas, China, and Japan than to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Click here for the Google map.

I am really looking forward to tatting in Russia, but I have a few months of Russian training and other fun things first.

I also have the Iowa State Fair, which starts next Thursday and which I will be at! :) I can't wait!

All my tatting was turned in last week and I'll know how I did next Wednesday. One of the things I like about the Iowa State Fair is that they have a preview the night before the Fair begins where anyone who entered things can go see everything set up with all the ribbons and such.

Another thing I like about the Fair is that each item comes back with comments, things the judge either liked or suggestions on how to make it better. They don't judge the items live, so it's really nice to read those comments. I had a lot of "needs blocking" comments last year, which obviously led to my blocking experiments a few weeks ago, and hopefully I won't have those comments again.

At any rate, as I was getting myself ready for the Fair I also finished my 25th Motif!!!

YAY! I did it!!

And even better, I started on my 2nd round with Motif #1B, both of which I put into coasters to join the others. I also made a trivet to go along with the set. It was kind of fun to make something that I will actually be able to use, rather than just something pretty...if I have an issue with my fun hobby is that I don't ever do anything with the results...

The yellow is #25, and the blue is #1B!

So, hurray, I finished what I started, and I have August-December to try to get 24 more motifs in...I think I can I think I can!

I'm going to start looking into tatting in Russia, see if I will find fellow tatters there or just have fun introducing the art to an entirely new country! :)

KF

PS: Just in case any of you who came over from the other blog, yes, we have changed the name...we are now "Vladi-What"!