Thread Exchange!

I've just got to say thanks to the wonderful gals who participated in the thread exchange! I sent off some of my favorite Flora, and I received some Purple Flora 10, that matches with some other thread I have, some light blue Altin Basak Simile with silver, some red Manuela which I've never tried, and some varigated light green Flora size 50. I'm so excited because I think the Simili AB might go well with the AB I got from Elizabeth. And it's cool to have a variety of things to try.

So, thanks a bunch to Debi, Bina, and Erin! Turns out that Bina is north of me, too far away for a casual visit, but close enough for a possible meet up sometime. This was way too fun, having little surprise envelopes show up in the mail. I hope we get to do it again sometime.

My little medallion

Yay I finished something!

I'm finding that I really need that sense of "Job well done" to keep me motivated sometimes, and this actually turned out better than I thought it would.

It's my take on this weeks lesson from the Online class, a motif from the Boucher book project that is in the works, the lesson can be found here. It was suggested in class that it would be easy to turn the original example into a square, but you lose the josephines in doing so, and I really like the josephine knots. Anyway, I was doing so well with the frontside/backside on this one, until I figured out that when I redid the second round I joined it on backwards (GO ME!)

And, if I did it again it could use a little adjusting. Most of the kinks got worked out in the convincing ..... er, I mean blocking process. :-) In the end, I think this one might find some use after all. I just happen to have an empty acrylic coaster that is crying out to be utilized. That shall have to wait a few days unfortuanately, I'm booked up through the weekend at this point.

Goodnight to you all, sweet dreams and happy tatting!

Lost in a sea of WIP

I haven't posted since last week, but I've been tatting during as much quiet time as I get :-) Nothing is finished yet, but I suppose I can give updates.

WIP 1. Iris Niebach Doiley from "Tatted Doileys". It's slow going on this one because I keep not paying attention to the diagram properly :-) The diagram is like a slice of pie, and the stitch count numbers are on the edge of the "slice" and I keep forgetting to do all the joins that should be there. I don't tat with the tot around anymore though........although she forced me to become adept at opening closed rings.......

WIP 2. Iris' TIAS. My handy hands order came yesterday! So I had thread to start the TIAS finally. The bummer is that I ordered some specific thread I wanted to use doing the one of the projects from the book "Tatting with Visual Patterns" that I had also ordered, but the book is on backorder, and I got the cotton hanky for Baby's bonnet, but the thread I ordered for that is backordered too.....so all my planned projects are waiting for now.

WIP 3. A take on one of the lessons from the online tatting class this week. I'm doing a small motif from one of the Boucher pages, turning it into a medallion on my own, and it's taken me a few tries. the second round got whacked off last night, and I'm not really 100 percent happy with how it is now, but I'm going to finish it anyway because I need to finish something!

That accounts for all of my shuttles at this time, and now that kiddo is napping and hubby is watching TV and the dishes are done and I'm just waiting for the dryer to beep............... I might go do some tatting YAY! After devotions I think.... Been real bad about that lately. God time first, then tatting.

#17. I guess I'm in a mood :-)

1. This is a fabulous little motif! Thanks to Jon for the pattern
2. Tatted with a new ball of Altin Basak, which is a much better color in person, I don't know why my scanner won't show the rich teal that it really is! It's my first try with this brand of thread, and it's so soft compared to my normal Flora! It feels fine and delicate.
3. It ended up about 2 1/2 inches done in the thread which I believe is US equivalent to about a 30.......
4. The Purple People Eater now sits in my driveway (insert horror movie music here)
5. This is number 17 for the 25 motif challenge.
   

Tatting and the twos.

That almost sounds like the start of a Dr Seuss Book!

Alas my dearest little munchkin will be turning two years old next week. I don't like to call them the "terrible two's", to me that's just excusing bad behavior. But- toddlers should come with a label that reads something like this:

Warning: Do not attempt to tat in the general proximity of this child, even if it is your intention to teach said child that the world does not revolve around her. Such activity will result in Retro-tatting a whole hours worth of tiny rings, and various amounts of chain work. Symptoms such as inaccurate joins, missed stitches, and inconsistent tension may occur.




Edited to include this update:

Don't try tatting by the bathtub either. Brilliant idea, right? She will be busily playing with her toys in her three inches of water, too busy to notice I'm accomplinshing anything!
Yeah, right. I think she poo-poo'd in the tub just to spite me.

There is something about squares

Here is the latest tatting kids! Click on the picture to find the pattern, it is Icela's Square Motif from her blog. Done in size 20 flora, it measures 3x3". Number 16 for my challenge.

Other than that, nothing much of interest to post unfortuanately. I have a WIP going that will probably take me a while to finish because I'm being super perfectionistic about the joins and the frontside/backside. It's from Iris Niebach's Tatted Doilies, one of the only patterns in the book that calls for oen shuttle and ball, and it is probably one of the simplest ones, but I really want to be able to work from her diagrams! Again for some reason I end up going in what seems to be the opposite direction somehow. Who knows. But It's going along nicely now after three re-starts!

I'm a spoiled girl, yes I am!

Darling Jim, my dearest, has allowed me to place my Handy Hands order! Yay! I'm not sure how soon it will ship, it is mostly comprised of the new Lizbeth thread. I'm also getting two books- Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior, and Tatting together by Iris Niebach. And I'm pretty sure I ordered a hanky for the new baby's bonnet. There are so many nice things on the way in the mail, I just can't sit still! I am taking part in a thread exchange, so three mystery envelopes will be here in the next few weeks, as well as a ball of my favorite color of a new thread. And like I said in a previous post, I would need new thread to soften the blow if the proposed minivan purchase went through-----and it did. My purple-people-eater of a van will be coming home this weekend. Lord, I know it's a blessing, but did it have to be purple???? I like the color in general, but not on my transportation!


I have no tatting to show today. I made several attempts at starting a project that we are working on in the online class, and it's just eating me and my thread for dinner! It's called Knot Garden, you can check it out on the class website. The pattern is just all over the place for me, and I can't seem to get it started heading in the right direction....I keep wanting to try it again but I think I'll wait because Georgia said there might be some diagrams being put together to help. Until then I keep peeking in to see if anyone has sent in pictures of successes :-) I hope I'm not the only one in a tangle.........that's awful of me, I know!

Vintage Square, number 15

I'm getting ready for today's online tatting class, so I had to finish this and empty my shuttles! It's a motif from a vintage tatting book. I don't remember which one, if you really want to know I can figure it out though no problem. Just too lazy right now.
It's worked in two rounds, the outer part first and then the inner bit to join the overlapping chains. I had to take some time with the pattern, the copy is so old some of the numbers are hard to read so I wrote it out to be easier to understand and was pretty happy with the result.

Anyway, I'm off to class!

UPDATE: the motif is from the book -LaCroix, Sophie T. Old and New Designs in Tatting, Book No. 11. and can be found by following the link on the right side of this blog to the Antique Pattern Library. Click on "catalog" and you will see it alphabetically under LaCroix.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm feeling all sentimental and lovey! Hubby kicked me out of the house today while he was doing a valentine's surprise, I came home to find that he had done a hand and footprint painting with my little daughter as a valentine's gift. It's so cute and special, and much mor nutritious than chocolate :-) I just love gifts that take thought and time. So, when I sat down to tat I couldn't think of anything better for motif #14, on the 14th of February! The design, Small tattted heart is by Betsy Evans. I missplaced a join in the beginning, so I just did the same thing on the other side to make it even. And there is a mistake in the pattern near the end about how many picots there are on one of the rings near the bottom clover, so keep an eye on the diagram if you work it. The ends are present so it can be hung. I do have a friend that I think might enjoy it, so this piece might escape the endless box of tatting bits that don't see daylight.

I also came up with a few things to add to the learning as I go list- I got an email from Georgia this morning about a broken link fixed on the Class website, and it was about doing a "down" join. It made mention about it being useful for frontside/backside working, and that it could be followed by a half double stitch or whatever depending on preference. So, when I sat down with this heart I had that in mind. And Voila! wouldn't you know that if you do a down join, followed by a snug second half of DS, it's almost invisible! And as far as wrongside, you do an up join followed by the first half of a double stitch. I'm so excited about this! I'm also sure I read it somewhere before, but it never clicked.

Sunny little snowflake, #13

The absolute coolest part about this one is how the colors went through the repeat in the pattern! I wish I could say I had planned that :-)

The pattern (Mardi-gras) belongs to Patti Dowden, who shared it on etatters. I did this one to work on my SSSR's. I learned how to do an sssr with that little Micro-dragon that has been flying all over the web, and I just love how the rings are smoothly transitioned in the color. Flora size 20. This color makes me feel cheery.