Shhh…. Can you keep a secret? If you can, keep reading, and you’ll find a heartful shawl down a bit in this entry. First – be kind to me – I gave birth this past week. The newest book, “Wandering Wheels,” came back from the printers and was introduced at the Finger Lakes Tatting Group’s Tatting Seminars in Lodi, New York. Handy Hands has it now, as do I and I’ll have the booklet with me in Spokane next week.
I’m excited about the design possibilities in continuous Catherine Wheels in tatting and I can’t wait to see what other folks do with it!






I taught two classes at this year's Finger Lakes Tatting Group conference in Lodi this past weekend – the Rose Garden Pincushion, which uses floating chains, and the Pick o’the Bunch grapes class using the wandering wheels technique. If you weren’t there, it’s hard to explain how wonderful the weekend is – even for its organizers! There’s a lot of learning and sharing going on, a great chance to catch up with friends and make new ones, amazing food, eye-candy every direction you look, treats of all descriptions. Once again, Bunny Baker surpassed herself in the culinary arts department… and Bunny herself is such a sweetie that people tend to naturally gravitate toward the kitchen. We had a talented wood-turner who made our commemorative shuttles – she calls herself the Naked Woodworker but she does, actually, wear clothes. I wish I’d taken photos, but luckily, I didn’t have to – Sheryl Coleman did, and describes the event beautifully in her own blog http://www.crunchybanana.com/2011/04/finger-lakes-tatting-conference-2011.html As for me, after I came home from taking Nina to the airport… I went to sleep. Until yesterday, I fell asleep at any time I wasn’t actually in motion.


Here’s the secret part. I’m whispering.
Today, feeling slightly more human, I finished sewing tatted heart motifs on a shawl I’d proposed for Kay Foster, sister-in-law of Barbara Foster of Handy Hands. There were 39 or so motifs, from many different states and I think four different countries, many of them with millions of picots. The hearts, I mean, not the countries. Believing as I do in sewing down every picot, that was more hand-sewing than I’d budgeted time for before the conference. (Doesn’t that sound amazingly professional? Like I actually budget my time? Yeah, right.) But today was the day to sit down and finish sewing-on the latest arrivals. I hung the shawl out in the drizzle to freshen it; tomorrow I’ll put it in the dryer on low to fluff it out and hopefully get off some of the surface fuzzies… and then off it goes. That’s why it’s a secret… Kay doesn’t know yet. Many, many thanks to all those who contributed one or more hearts!