Vacation tatting

We had a little change in scenery last week - a whole week in the Colorado mountains. I took advantage of the beautiful weather to tat outside last Tatting Tea Tuesday. Here I'm enjoying a glass of grape/peach juice while tatting on the porch of the cabin we lived in for a week at Rainbow Lake Resort, a few miles west of Buena Vista, Colorado, on the road to Cottonwood Pass. The cabins over look a lake surrounded by mountains covered in pine and aspen. The trees were turning while we were there, every day bringing new fall color to our temporary home.

I was pretty busy enjoying the novelty of being in the mountains but still managed to tat a bit. The white piece was actually made while my husband drove us out here. It's made with Lizbeth size 10 in 602 Natural (almost white) with red glass beads. It was just to be tatting as I was too busy thinking about where we were going to have much thought of what I was tatting. The other piece is Lizbeth size 20 in 122 Caribbean and 658 Ocean Turquoise Light with red glass beads. I was practicing looped tatted rings through the beads, which I think I have the hang of, at least for now.

But most of the time we were busy enjoying the change of scenery. This is my husband and I enjoying the view on our way up to Saint Elmo.

This is an easy part of Lost Canyon Road. We rented a Jeep to go up this road, which got a bit rougher higher up.

These beautiful trees are a short walk up the creek from our cabin. I took this about 7:00 AM on my morning walk while everyone else in the cabin was still sleeping.

Looking west over Rainbow Lake at sunset. We had a whole week of this.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I'm enjoying a cup of Country Peach tea and looking over pictures from last week, trying to decide which pictures to share - there are so many! It was very hard to come home! The weather was great, and the company was better. We shared a cabin with some old friends of ours and had the most wonderful time. We're all looking forward to another vacation together.

"If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation."

Seen at the fair

I thought I'd show you the other tatting that was entered into the fair. These all competed against each other (and me!) as there was only one tatting category.

The snowman won first and the larger snowflake won second. My doily (from last week's post) won third. The Christmas-colored doily that hung below mine didn't win anything, but it was make by the same person who made the snowman, and you can only win one ribbon per category.

I thought this was a lovely display. Isn't this a great idea for showing off your tatting?

This was actually entered as Heirloom Embroidery, not tatting, but check out how she added joined the panels together. Wow!

This is a Bobbin Lace bookmark, made by a woman that also entered tatting. Isn't it beautiful? The other one is machine embroidery, and looks great, too. I don't know how the judges make their decisions!

This is a Halloween quilt that took second place in that category. I didn't compete against these, but I thought they were wonderful. My pictures don't do them justice.

This one took champion in the holiday quilt category. It certainly is spectacular.

Congratulations to all the people to enter their pieces at the fair. Keep up the great work.

And to all the people out there who tat - think about entering something next year! I know you're out there. We've got to keep the category alive!

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."

Sven Goran Eriksson

Fair Results

I made it to the fair yesterday, but by the time I got home I was just too tired to do much but go to bed. So the pictures had to wait until today.

This is what I came up with for a Christmas decoration. I didn't expect it to win anything and it didn't. I wanted to enter as much tatting as possible, and that I had time to make. It's not quite what I planned to do, but it's what got done. You can see the picture that won champion in the same class, Christmas decoration.

As you can see, my doily took third place. When it was shown at the Harvey County fair it was laying down, so the way I mounted it was fine. At the state fair they hung it on the wall and the center sagged a bit. I've learned a lesson for next year! Below my doily is a red, white and green doily. It's hard to tell with it mounted that way, but it looked pretty good to me.

These are the entries that competed with my spider and web. This was Holiday decoration, and you could enter one per holiday. It looks like all holidays compete against each other, not each holiday by itself.

And, yes, it got a blue ribbon! I was pleasantly surprised. I knew it would be competing against a variety of media, and didn't know if the judges would like the tatting or not.

Next week I'll show some of the other tatting that was entered.

"If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything."

Win Borden

Going to the fair

I plan on going to the state fair tonight after work, where I will see how my entries have done. I hope to get pictures, get back to the house and post before I have to go to bed. This week has been nothing like normal so if you don't hear more from me today, look for a post tomorrow.

Getting Ready For the State Fair

This is the mess on my table after trying to get things finished for the Kansas State Fair. No actual tatting done, but at least I got a cup of tea in (Country Peach Passion - yum!)

I've been busy with getting things made and put together for several weeks now. I haven't been on the Internet much, I've been too busy tatting. And planning. There is only one class for tatting at the state fair but I wanted to get a few more items of tatting there if I could. Looking through the options I found they have a category for Christmas decorations and one for holiday decoration, one per holiday. So that makes three categories I thought I could enter.

I entered my antique motif doily (of course!). This is at a higher level than the county fair but I think it has a chance to do well. Then I had an idea for a Christmas decoration using those snowflakes I've been working on. I just couldn't get my plan to work out but entered them anyway. They still look nice but nothing spectacular. And I forgot to take a picture of it before I dropped it off.

I chose a Halloween decoration for the other entry. I had this idea of a spider on a web using one of Jane Eborall's patterns. But I just couldn't get those floating chains! *head hangs in shame* I worked on it for half a day, but running out of time I had to do something else. I did come up with a spider, making the legs out of split rings similar to the way Jane made the legs on her stork. The body has a few issues but still looks pretty good. I added a black bead for the body and glass beads for head and eyes. I had planned a black spider but felt it would not be seen well on the black background I had in mind, so it's made of gold Cebelia size 30, color 437. This actually worked better than the size 20 black that was planned, because being a smaller thread the legs worked better. The web is made of size 70 Lizbeth color 602 natural (not-quite white) and a strand of metallic coats thread, a Nylon and Polyester blend. I started once, then realized I made a bit of a mistake so had to start over. I got soooo tired of doing this. The last round is made of chains, each of 35 double stitches. Not very stimulating, and a lot of chance of mis-counting. But I'm very happy with the result.

I hope the judges at the fair like it, too. I'm going to call this #22 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. This was very much a challenge!

I might know by next week how my entries did at the fair. I've told several people who have plans to go to let me know the results if they get there before I do. The fair lasts ten days but I'm not sure what day I'll get to go. There is a lot to see and do at the fair - I'm really looking forward to it.

"Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all possible circumstances."

Orison Swett Marden