Jury duty tatting

I had jury duty today, and it was uneventful. I arrived at 8:30, went to lunch at 11:00, reported back at 1:30, and went home at 1:45. Luckily, I brought some tatting supplies along!

I almost completed a cross in size 80 Majestic. As you can see, I was undecided as to which color to use, so I took three with me. 

I visited with a very nice woman during the morning session, who asked about my progress a few times. She seemed interested, but not enough to learn how to tat. She told me that her passion is machine embroidery, something I did for a while, but I quickly lost interest.

Right before we were dismissed in the afternoon, two women asked me what I was doing, and I showed them my progress on the cross. I think that if we had stayed for another half hour, I just might have had two new tatting students!

Look what arrived in the mail today! My dear friend Beedeebabee read my post about The Workbasket cross, and she found this copy for me on eBay! Thank you, Paulette! As soon as I finish the two crosses I have in progress, I'm going to tat this one!

I thought it might be fun to find out how many tatted cross patterns were published in The Workbasket. I found this database online, and if I counted correctly, I found 14 tatted cross patterns published between 1951 and 1989. Wouldn't it be fun to find all of those patterns and tat them? Here are the issues I have listed...

March 1951

March 1953

January 1954

April 1955 (I have this one. Thanks, Patti!)

October 1957

December 1958 (I have this one. Thanks, Beedeebabee!)

June 1963

January 1972

February 1973

December 1977

November/December 1983

March 1986

February 1987

March 1989

Carol will be bringing some Workbasket cross patterns to Tollway Tatters on Saturday. They've been torn out of the original magazines, but maybe with a little detective work, we can figure out which issues they're from. 

Do you have any of these issues lying around? I'd love to see pictures of the various crosses!

Tollway Tatters Update

Tollway Tatters will be meeting Saturday, May 18. If you are in the Chicago area and would like to join us, please email me for details. We would love to have you join us!

Grabbing tiny bits of time

This is Dave's busy time selling blooming tropical plants. I don't have a head for business, but I can alphabetize invoices and record payments, so that's how I spent my evening... not much time for tatting!

This is a picture of the cross from the December 1958 issue of The Workbasket. I will be tatting this one soon! I kind of like the squared off arms, different from the crosses I usually decide to make.

Yesterday morning I found time to begin the last round of Doily VI from Tatted Treasures by Jan Stawasz. I think it will go fairly quickly... once I get some time to tat!

One of my nightly routines is to soak my feet in Epsom salts after dinner. I find it really relaxes me. Maybe that's because I'm rooted to a chair and I have 20 minutes to call mine! One of my Origami pouches was sitting right next to me, so I opened it up and found another pink cross that I started a couple of weeks ago. What's a girl to do? I worked on the cross, of course!

Lace-lovers to the rescue!

Thanks to some wonderful tatting friends and sleuths, I now have the pattern I've been looking for! I feel so lucky that I received so many responses regarding the cross pattern. I'm pretty sure that the original bookmark I received was from this issue of The Workbasket, because it was given to me in 1967 or 1968, too early for the Rebecca Jones book or the Becky Dempsey version.

Thank you, Patti! This is the April 1955 issue, and the pattern I've been looking for is right there on page 6!

Lucky me, I also have the December 1958 issue on its way to me! That's the issue I was originally looking for, but I have found that the cross in that issue is slightly different. I'm really going to have fun tatting both of these pretty patterns this summer. Now to get my tassel skills up to snuff!

Look, Jane... split rings!

I know, there are only three of them, and they're not integral to the cross pattern, but I did tat three split rings!

I was trying to use up what I thought was a little bit of thread on my shuttles. I wanted to empty them and refill them so that the last round of Doily VI by Jan Stawasz would have no extra thread joins. Silly, I know, but that's the way I want it. Guess what? I think I have enough thread left for another cross!

Did you notice the two shuttles? Rachel, who does fabulous nail art, decorated them for me. She actually painted those designs on! They're not paper or fabric that has been decoupaged. It's actual art work!

Isn't this zebra stripe awesome? This is an altered Starlit shuttle... no pick tip!

I told Rachel to feel free to do her thing... one side, both sides... whatever she was inspired to do. I'm glad that she only decorated one side. The decorated side is so smooth, I'm afraid the shuttles would fly right out of my fingers if both sides were decorated!

Josephina

This sweet little motif is "Josephina" from Happy Occhi by Petra Tornack-Zimmerman. I used size 20 Lizbeth, Pineapple Parfait #170.

This was the perfect pattern to tat while trying to learn the words to songs... always tough for me. Thank goodness we have the words printed out. Can you imagine my embarrassment if I belted out something like, "There's a bathroom on the right!" on stage?

One round to go!

I finished Round VII of Doily VI from Tatted Treasures by Jan Stawasz. I'm using size 20 Latte Foam, and it now measures 13" across. I can't believe I have only one round to go!