The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

I recently got to attend the annual reenactment of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. I had wanted to do this for a long time, but it never seemed to be convenient before. Since we moved last year, it is now very close to home, hooray!

Though these men (and women) are wearing red coats, they are Americans. They explained that in the 1st Maryland regiment, the fife and drum corps wore the opposite uniform colors so that the officers could find them in a hurry. They were used to give signals during battle as well as for music.

Walking up the road through the park, I came across this company of soldiers on their way to the battle site. They soon left the road and melted into the woods. I heard someone say they were Hessians, so though they are wearing blue, they are the enemy. During the battle, the cavalry of both sides were dressed in green. It's not always obvious who's who.

Traditional British red coats, in .... red coats!

It's a two day event, and I went on Sunday, only to discover that day they were performing the smaller, southern section of the battle. If I had gone on Saturday, I would have seen the main battle with more soldiers and cannons. It was still fun, and I know to go on Saturday next year. Besides the battle itself, there were several army camps, craftsmen and suttlers, plenty to see all day.

Sorry, no tatting today!

Tischband

Here is my completed Tischband motif for Umi&Tsuru's Tat Along. Several of the other participants said they had trouble getting the pieces to fit together. I had wondered if the way they were joining the flower chains to the round below instead of to the base of the center rings altered the size of the flowers and threw off the proportions, but no, that wasn't it. I hoped to have better luck with the way I had made my joins, but as I added in the leaves, my motif also was too crowded. (It looks better now after blocking and ironing.) The flowers might have fit better if I had joined to the picots next to the middle ones instead. I looked back at the book's photograph to see if I had misunderstood where to join. My conclusion? Though the pattern for "Blute 1" has 6 rounds, in this design, the photo seems to show flowers of only 5 rounds! Will someone else look at their book to check if I am imagining this? No wonder the pieces won't fit.

Anyway, I've admired the Scharf leaf motif for years, and I'm glad I've finally worked some. I think I will claim the leaves as another motif for my 25 Motif Challenge. This books still calls to me to make some of the doilies some day.

Heart Nouveau- Motif # 8

I actually made a motif from one of those unused books on the shelf! How did that happen? Probably because I have lots of other things I am supposed to be working on :)

This is "Heart Nouveau" from Karey's Hearts Belong to Tatting, and make in some of Karey's hand painted thread. I thought this pattern was interesting because of the way the long rings just below the center are made to curve.

Catching up on Tat-Alongs (Challenge Motif 7)

A few weeks ago, Umi&Tsuru issued a challenge to tat a design from Ruth Scharf's book, Occhi. Since this is one of those books I have been meaning to take off the shelf and use for a long time, this seemed just the thing for my current motif challenge. I decided to go for a very traditional approach and chose this ecru thread. I regretted that at times, when I saw the wide variety of colors shown by other bloggers accepting the challenge. I also decided to make all the lock joins down into the base of the rings as in the original pattern. I think it's a very interesting effect, though it was a bit tricky getting the tension just right.

If you don't have the book, you can still join in, because she had permission to post the flower and leaf patterns.



Also, we recently had Jane's Tat It and See surprise pattern, which turned out to be a goat!

Palmetto Tat Days Coming Up

It's time to start thinking about Palmetto Tat Days, to be held September 7 & 8. Actually, it's past time for me. Usually, I am much further along with class proposals by now, but I've been putting most of my free time into my tatting history project. Luckily, in honor of their 10th anniversary, they are allowing teachers to repeat one lesson from the past. Which one should I choose?

The deadline for applying to teach is April 12. If you are interested, you can get all the information to apply on the Palmetto Tatters Homepage.

In Loving Memory of Gina

Gina was very special to me. I am glad that I got to meet her in person a few times, as well as through the internet. There are only 2 blogs that I visit every single day and hers was one of those. Her range of interests was amazing. On any given day she might show tatting, some other needlecraft, painting, or some other type of art. I learned about Romanian Point Lace from her. Two little pieces she made for me are shown above. In the same envelope I found two teabags she sent at the same time. I was going to save them for some time special and forgot about them. I will drink them in her honor now.

We shared a love of antique patterns. I remember one of my early encounters with her was to swap duplicate copies of old Needlecraft Magazines. Her study of the Therese de Dillmont patterns is just the sort of thing I love.

I was fortunate to have Gina as a test tatter for several of my books. She was always very helpful. When I was wondering why the Mrs. Mee picots didn't always twist, she was the one who figured it out. She was instrumental in completing the instructions for that technique.

The tatting community has suffered a great loss. I will miss her very much.

My Class for Finger Lakes

This is the pattern I will be teaching at the Finger Lakes Tatting Convention (or "The Convention Formerly Known as Hector"). It has lots of split rings and lots of beads used in different ways. If you are coming, you can buy the optional kit or string your own beads, whichever you prefer. I'll also show how to make and use a bead spinner.

Click here to go to Vicki's blog to see her class project. If I spot any more class posts, I'll let you know.

And for something really beautiful, click here to go to Ginny's blog to see the quilt that will be auctioned.

I'm really looking forward to going. I hope to see a lot of you there.