Tatting

Another quick post after a busy day.  I had planned to spend the morning painting, but the builder called and told me he wants to come over tomorrow morning to measure and remove the molding from around all the windows he is going to replace.  That meant that I had to clear furniture away from at least half of the windows in the house.  It may not seem like much, but the furniture pieces in front of windows have things on them so I had to find places to put those things.  Since I also have some things from the basement that had to be kept out of the way of furnace and generator men, there are more things than usual around and about.  Sigh.  Ah well, I didn't take the curtains down as that can be done easily tomorrow morning, and D helped with the bulky/heavy furniture when he returned from his a.m. appointment and errands.

By that time I had only enough time to eat a quick lunch and head out to run my errands before going to a class at Trumpet Hill, the knitting shop.  Because I was curious, a year or two ago I took a class in tatting at that shop.  I practiced at home until I really "got" it and was able to make nice looking rounds with picots - good enough to even make a fish or two.  Then, I didn't know what else to do with my new found skill.  The wonderful old books on tatting covered making tatted edges for hankies (with impossibly fine thread that would take forever), doilies, tablecloths, and bedspreads.  No thank you!  I was curious but not obsessed.

So I put my shuttle and thread away until one day when I saw a book at JoAnn's called Tatting Collage by Lindsay Rogers.  It is full of wonderful motifs that would be perfect used in a crazy quilt.  I bought the book, and took out my shuttle again.  Well, I couldn't remember even how to begin!  I know there are YouTube videos for everything, but I really felt I needed the class time.  So I signed up and today was the day.

Again, it will take me several days before my hands remember how to handle the shuttle and the two threads, but it will come back.  Then I'll start with a few of the simpler motifs and work myself up until I can do a bonsai tree.  Yes, a bonsai tree.  

My hope is to be able to include some tatted motifs on my crazy quilt which is a homage to the women in my family who inspired my love of needle craft.  Maybe I'll even be able to make a motif or two with the shuttles that came to me from either my grandmother or my great-grandmother.  

Wouldn't that be grand?