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