Tat Days 2009 loot

I was a bad girl at Tat Days vending. Last year I got lots of thread. This year, I got mostly the expensive stuff - books.

Here's what I came home with:



All the stuff in the top right corner plus the red Tat Days patch came in my goodie bag, a large reusable grocery bag which contained:

• Finca thread


• a magnifying glass


• beads


• a cute bag with circles on it to carry a current project in


• 2 great thread samples of Lizbeth thread


• a luggage tag with bug buttons


• a ladybug refrigerator note pad


• a metal box with magnets and small goodies, and a blue origami paper box

If you didn't know, the theme of this year's Tat Days was "I've been bitten by the Tatting Bug!" The bookmark was a freebie too.

On to my purchases. It's a good thing DH doesn't see my check book or my credit card statements.

I got:

• 2 balls of variegated Lizbeth thread, size 20. (Size 40 was there too.)


• 1 ball of Altin Basak variegated thread


• 4 plastic knitting bobbins, which I need to keep away from that bad cat Sylvia. She has ruined several of these. (They are the bomb for putting ball thread on.)


• 1 Skein of Yarnplayer's Vibrato HDT, size 20


• A darling decorated green Clover shuttle


• A CD of all the patterns at this Tat Days (not shown)

And I got books. This is where I was BAD. I got:

• Tatting Theory and Patterns by Jan Stawasz - this goes with my lovely gold shuttle he made!
  
• Tatted Fashion by Tieko Fujita


• Tatting by Pam Palmer


• DMC's color Tatting pamphlet


• An Italian Frivolite pamphlet


• And 2 books by Martha Ess - Tat's Amore and Tea is for Tatting. And I got Martha to sign each one!

Whew. Now I have to work to pay for my sins.

Back and forth from Mom's house

I didn't stay at the nice conference grounds for Tat Days - I stayed at Mom's house. And I brought her a little surcy.



This is a lovely watercolor ACEO I bought for Mom on Etsy.com from Victoria Usova. I love, love, love her work. I got a different ACEO for myself - amazingly, DH really likes it. (He's usually oblivious to such things.) ACEOs are a great way to have some nice art for a really reasonable price.

Mom's house has fun things in it. She has a great cat that I love, Honey. Honey is just as sweet as her name.

Mom is very politically active. We're all big Democrats, as you can tell by this on the side of her 'frig. And she lurves kitties.

Since Mom lives in NC apple country, I have to buy fresh apples while I'm there in the fall, some to share with friends, too. I bought a peck of Macintosh apples and a half bushel of Honey Crisp this time. MMMMM.

Saturday, I had to get up early to get to make the drive to Tat Days. Really early, since my first class started at 8:30, and Mom's place is a two hour drive away.

This is what the inside of Mom's house looks like at 5:30 in the morning. I wish I were joking - you can not see your hand in front of your face. This is what happens when you live out in the woods and there are no street lights. When I went out, it was very dark and misty. A lot of times, you driving through a cloud bank on the top of the mountain.

There was a lot of mist on the drive to Winnsboro, SC, where Tat Days is held. Winnsboro is way out there in God's country, way, way away from anything. Thirty miles down this winding road.

It was pretty on the drive, especially through the mist. Lots of hay had recently been baled.

Lots of farm lands. Gorgeous. I saw many critters, like cattle, goats, and horses. A doe ran across the road and flipped its white tail at me.

Some places had decorative gates. I saw one place (I wish I had a picture) with a table out under a big oak in front of the house, with containers sitting out on it. The hand lettered sign out front read "RED WORMS". Sometimes I wish I lived in the country, not in the 'burbs.

Country living has some real charms. But I'm a city girl. I drive a fuel-efficient hybrid instead of a pick-up, and I drive 30 miles one way to work.

My little car gets 42 miles to the gallon - and I have a lead foot!

I made it to Tat Days right on time......

more of Tat Days 2009

I took four classes at Tat Days.

The first class was with Martha. She is soooo sweet - and talented! (I'm sorry for the bad picture, Martha!) She's good at explaining things. We worked on an amulet bag shaped like a bee.

I didn't finish mine in class (no one did). I hadn't brought a size 16 crochet hook to add beads to the long picots, so I was behind. I bought one in vending. I'll finish this later - the bag is really cute.

The next class was with Sharren. She knows my uncle! We worked on a cute pattern to make a tatted edging for a frame. She also showed us how to use a mirror to create our own corners in patterns we design. Georgia was also in this class. If you've never met Georgia in person before, you're really missing something. She's so warm and loving, just a gem. And she drives a car with AKTATTER on the license plate!

Then I had a class with Jane. (Look in the bottom left corner of her picture - her purse is covered in tatting!) We made cute little critters using 3 shuttles, a new technique for me. I learned how to make Celtic picots too. Jane is such fun. At lunch, I sat at the table with Jane and another teacher, Vicki. We laughed a lot. Jane told us about winning at Corn Hole. One of the items that Jane was wearing on her name tag was a gift from Martha. Martha had tatted her a brain cell to replace her missing 3rd one. It looked like a large synapse and was beaded - hee!

After lunch, I took a class with Nina. I took one of her classes last year, and loved it, but I had a harder time with her techniques. Now I'm better and I came closer to finishing the project in class. We were making a heavily beaded necklace - oh so beautiful. I may wear it to my brother's wedding.

Nina liked one of my shuttles (the gold one here) very much, saying how good it was for her kind of tatting. This shuttle is one I got last year and is made by Jan Stawasz. Nina's work is simply incredible, looks just like fabulous stuff made of gems and gold when finished.

There were lots of things available in Vending which we looked at between classes. Many books, TONS of thread, and almost anything a tatter could want. Except extra time - and money! I spent way too much here....

More later...

A quickie on Tat Days

I had a good time.

I worked on one project.


And another.

Queen Jane was there.

So was Georgia.

And lots of things were available to buy. So much thread.

I didn't spend the night there, so I missed the banquet and some other things.

Instead, I stayed with Mom. Because she's my Mom. And I need to spend time with her.

As a bonus, she has this view. Do you blame me for going?

More to come....

Prepping for Tat Days

I'm getting ready for Palmetto Tat Days. I went last year and had a great time. I won't be staying there - will be staying up the hill with Mom. Plus Friday is my birthday, and there's nothing like Mom's cooking as a birthday present. The Stooges will be staying home with DH. Woo-hoo! Freedom!

A bit of what I've done recently - I tatted this Mary Konior cross and gave it to my neighbor, who is very ill. Martha just tatted this in white. Her cross is gorgeous. The outside of my cross is Lizbeth Navy, size 20. The inside is done in HDT, LadyShuttleMaker's Fuschia, size 20.


And speaking of LadyShuttleMaker - check out her giveaway! Worth a look - you might win. I want to win! I'm addicted to HDT.

So I'm prepping for Palmetto Tat Days, and I've gotta work too. Last night I was dialed into my office, hunched over an ugly report and some spreadsheets - my favorite! (Not.) But I made sure I took time out to watch Glee! Larry and I chortled the whole hour. For this old musical theater buff, it was so much fun! Plus, it's hilarious and sarcastic. Jane Lynch plays this wonderfully horrible character, the obsessed cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Here are my favorite quotes from last night:

Sue, giving bad advice to Will Schuester about his glee club (she hates the glee club)," You do with your depressing little group of kids what I did to my wealthy elderly mother: euthanize it."

Later - Quinn the cheerleader tells her Celibacy Club, while they practice intimacy with a balloon between couples, “Now remember: if the balloon pops, the noise makes the angels cry.”

OMG OMG too funny. Watch it online if you missed it.

Soooo.....

I've got to get packing! Can't wait for Tat Days! But first, a look at what I got last year in Tat Days vending. (It's a good thing DH and I have separate checking accounts.)

Hope to see you there!