Off to Tat Days!

On Tuesday we will set out for Anderson, Indiana, for Tatting Corner’s Tat Days 2024. We’re stopping for a bit of sightseeing on the way as the classes don’t start until Thursday. This year I will be teaching two new patterns of mine. The theme is “Games Tatters Play” and my patterns are of the Great Race of the Hare and the Tortoise.

The Tortoise and the Hare

The tortoise is a stuffed 3D pattern. It is similar to the Sea Turtle I taught on the cruise in November, with a lot of changes. For one, Sea Turtles have fins, the Tortoise has legs and toes!

His opponent in the Race is the Hare. This hare is 2D instead of 3D, and plans on winning! It looks simple, but jumps around a lot, with a lot of reverse work and switching shuttles.

Tat Days are July 11, 12, & 13. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, and meeting new ones!

The Hare and Tortoise patterns will be available after Tat Days.

Who will win? The fast, or the the slow and steady?

Aesop Fable “The Hare and the Tortoise”

Happy Independence Day!

Independence Day is tomorrow, July 4, but we spent yesterday evening celebrating early with our church family. We had an enjoyable evening with a potluck and fireworks. It was a lot of fun. We watched other people set off fireworks while we sat and watched.

Most years I come up with a little something done in patriotic colors. Instead, this year I’m sharing a pattern I made a few years ago. In July 2019 I decorated a white button for the 4th of July with red and blue threads. A few days ago I was asked for the pattern and realized I hadn’t written it out yet. I finally did.

Patriotic button

It’s funny, I’m not sure what I did with the original button, but I made a new one and started a second one. One suggestion about making it: don’t do it while talking to people in a doctor’s office. This pattern uses four shuttles at a time, which can tangle if you’re not paying attention!

Patriotic Button using four shuttles

I was talking about tatting to several interested people in the office waiting area and tangled the threads several times. I should have chosen something a bit simpler to take with me.

If anyone is interested in the Patriotic Button pattern it is on My Patterns page.

I wish you all a safe 4th of July!

“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” – William Faulkner