N. C. Mountain State Fair, 2026

It's been a very long time since I have had entries for the Mountain State Fair.  This past year has been sufficiently filled with tatting to have several entities.  It is hard to choose from the tatting that I have created over the past 18 months or so.  Nevertheless I found a few pieces that I am particularly proud of and placed them into the competition.

Basically any resident of the state can put an entry into any of the regional fairs.  The largest and most prestigeous is the State Fair in our state capitol, Raleigh, NC.  There are about 5 regional competitions that incorporate several counties in addition to the individual counties of which there are about 100.  Our region is served by the NC Mountain State Fair held in September in Asheville, NC, the largest town in our 16 county area.  Tatting is considered a Heritage Craft.  As such it is not as common as it once was - particularly in the years from about 1890 through 1950.   One of my collegues, who regularly volunteers at this event, urged me and anyone I know that is a tatter to enter the competition this year especially to keep this catagory viable for the future.  My entries included: 

3 copies of this tatted cardinal (our state bird) attached to a white, satin wrapped hanging ornament;

this tree-top angel from Tatsy tatting patterns, circa 1980;

and this pendant which is a creation of my own tatted with silver Lizbeth metallic thread, a crystal teardrop finding and some glass 11/0 black beads.  This one netted me a blue ribbon, the first I have ever won at a fair.  

But the biggest surprise was winning "Judge's Choice" for a Yule ornament that I almost did not enter.

The pattern is an adaptation of Frau Eleanor Endrucks' Pattern number 19 in her 1920 tatting pattern work written in German and the basis for the Endrucks 1920 Project in which I and others have been participating for several years.  The thread is Lizbeth gold metallic with gold bugle beads between the motifs and with a circular motif around the hanger and another one at the base that are threaded to the center tatting.  

My biggest take away from all this is that modern judges seem to be looking for more unusual applications for tatting and very likely any crafting presented.  "Out with the Old and In with the New!"

Moving to More Tatting

 I haven't created a post here in quite a while.  It has been quite a journey from late January to today.

The door on the art barn has been replaced thanks to our friend and HandiMan Alex.  The building is now secure and weather proof!

Meanwhile, I hit a problem in one of my tatting projects: it involved a pattern printed originally in Norwegian, I believe.  Once translated, there were some linguistic obsticals to overcome.  I am not sure if I made a mistake or if there was an error either in the pattern or in the translation, but something had to be re-arranged.  Sometimes, in cases like this, shifting emphasis to something else is beneficial.

One day I saw a Facebook post about a flower that had been created by Krystyna Mura based on a 1920 publication in German by Eleonor Endrucks.  Someone had suggested that the pattern might be suitable for a 3-D version.  Since that looked similar to other 3-D flower patterns I had tatted, noteably those of Linda S. Davies of England, I decided to divert my attention from that which was overwhelming me and give this a spin.  The resulting pattern is this one.  

The next several weeks were spent tatting the specimen, creating the pattern using Inskscape, testing and re-testing the written pattern and reaching the final outcome.

The project is known as Endrucks 1920 Project and is housed on Facebook.  It was begun in 2015 when Tatting Expert Georgia Seitz approached another Tatting Mentor known as Muskaan to tat one of the patterns pictured in the publication.

There is a particular twist on this story: Eleonore Endrucks' work is printed in an Old German Gothic font and rather than giving written patterns, the publication consists of mostly photographs of the works and a rather general description of the way she created each piece.  They are unique in their own right.  But with directions that are challenging to first read and then to carry out, the creation of each design is largely left up to anyone who can look at a photo and carry out the design.

The group was formed and was joined quickly by Ninetta Caruso, Martha Ess (who first scanned and donated the publication to the Antique Pattern Library, in the public domain), Vicky Clarke and many others.  Since that time, a wealth of patterns has sprung off the nimble fingers of many of the 2000 members.  To date, I have contributed several patterns or variations of patterns myself.  The most recent one being completed with the help of Muskaan during the past winter months.  It's titled "January Snowflake" and complete pattern can be found here.  

Since this pattern was completed, my husband and I have begun migrating our posessions to storage while we prepare to relocate nearer to our son and his family.  I do so miss my craft space which has been dismantled and tucked away for safe keeping.  But tatting is quite portable and I have good projects to keep my "crafter's urges" satisfied.