Tatters 1st Gathering

Few weeks back, I met up with Sheila, from England and Aileen, a local young lady for lunch at Crystal Jade. Sheila is a tatting 'guru' (teacher) and she's 75 years old this year. She was visiting her friends and students in Singapore. Aileen was one of her tatting students. I've known both of them from on-line tatting group called Shuttle & Needle.

Sheila showed her works and pattern books written by her friend, Pam. All of sudden, I wanna get my hands on the shuttle again... After lunch, we went to Spotlight to meet up with Jessica, who taught tatting in Spotlight. Jessica was Sheila's student and so coincedently, she is my friend, Huiz, tatting teacher. Huiz was the one who introduced me to this craft and taught me how to tat... Cool le...

Sheila taught in Spotlight before she went back to England few years back... However, she still teaches whenever she came to S'pore. Heard that, she's a very strict teacher and she would make sure that her students know how to tat..

Sheila and I

According to Sheila, in England, there are days of the year dedicated to craft.. E.g. Tatting day, craft weeks. During these days, crafters from all over England will gather together. They will exhibit their works, share about their crafts & even sell their masterpieces... :) How exciting... So, Sheila, encouraged us to do so too...

So, we had our first gathering at Ellen's mother's place the following Friday, organized by Aileen. Sheila was not able to join because she was invited to Taiwan to teach (AT the age of 75!!!)... Though, just the three of us, Aileen, Ellen and me, it's a good start... About Ellen, she was Sheila first batch of students (think more than 9 years ago)... Ellen is also one of the members from Shuttle & Needle group. So happen that Ellen is my cousin's neighbour... What a small world...

We had home-cooked food, cooked by Ellen's mother and I must say, she cooks very well... :) I like her simple dishes and remided me of my mom's cooking.

Sharing time: Ellen showed us her tatting works that kept neatly in two huge clear folder files. They were beautiful! Stunning! Then, she took out one container filled with shuttles that she's collected over the 9 years... Drooling... From big to small, some made of woods, some made of steels, some with beautiful engraving and some with striking paitings, some with two bobbins... Both Aileen and I were admiring her collections with our mouth wide open...

Aileen also showed her tatting works... She started tatting a year back during her Uni time. She tats fairly well... The most intersting thing that she did was this tiny pair of angel wings that I couldn't see the stiches at all... She told me she tats without looking... Take a look at this photo...

From left (1st row) Me, Kristine, Ellen & Joey

Back Row: Aileen

Me?? Well, I didn't have anything to show... I've not been tatting for quite sometimes. However, after these gatherings, I started to tat again... Currently, making a square bag... Took me awhile to understand the pattern. Thanks to Ellen & Aileen, I finally figured out how to do it...

This pattern requires two shuttles to complete

The outcome