February 23 update

I've been spending a lot of time at the computer getting my tatting patterns organized in there. The goal is to save storage space here at the house and so far I'm enjoying the changes I've made. My husband has been encouraged by the trashbags full of paper that have been going out of the house. I've even learned how to save a text file into my ipod (a Christmas present from my daughter) so I can carry some notes of a pattern with me for quick reference without worrying about losing the paper copy.

I've completed two bookmarks and almost finished a third in the past week. Not a tremendous amount of tatting, but loads more than this time last month. I've also been tatting Jan Stawasz flower. I found his diagram to be wonderfully easy to follow. It was very helpful for this tatter who rarely does directional tatting.

Motif #4: The white bookmark with the roses is an adaptation of the Rose Van Dyke Edge that I found in a sample Helping Hands Newsletter. This was a reprint from Boudoir Negligees by Adeline Cordet, Book 3. This project was a testimony to the need to concentrate! I got one motif facing up and the other facing down! Ugh!

Motif #5: In going through my paper patterns I've found quite a few that I've gathered with text but no images. The green and yellow bookmark is an adaption of one of those patterns. Dolly Hollander called it an "Ear of Corn Bookmark" when she shared it back in 2001. I changed the ends a bit to produce this one. I enjoyed the counts enough to start another adaption all in green.

UFOs: I got a few more UFOs pressed and put away. The ones that are original designs are in a notebook awaiting pattern writing. I'm not very prolific at creating original patterns that are worth writing down, but years of neglecting that part of the task has left me quite a pile to work through.

Well, I think I'll take a few minutes to check out some of your blogs to see what YOU have been up to lately.

Happy tatting!

My Tatting Basket

Rosemarie's Heart Pattern

My UFOs










I'm so excited about putting my tatting basket finally in use. It is a Singer sewing box that belonged to my husband's aunt and I'm SOOO thrilled to have it. All of my beads, rings, and other baubles fit nicely in the big bottom and the small "drawers" on each side have all of my other supplies including my favorite small threads. When you lift the small handles near the middle of the top of the basket you are lifting the lid on the two top compartments. Lifting more and pulling outward you expand the "drawers" outward so that every compartment is exposed in a sort of stacking V-shape.

Motif #3: The red heart is one of the patterns we covered in the Online Tatting Class on Monday. It makes up really well and is easy to do. Rosemarie suggested that connecting 2 back to back would make a nice little bag (sachet?) I hope to find time to do Mary Donahue's Heavenly Heart today, but Wednesday is a very busy day for me. It may have to go on the "to tat" list. I spent over an hour working on one of Jane Eborall's Tatbead family, but I had to give it up. I need another trip to the optomotrist before I'll be able to manage those lovely patterns successfully or I'll have to give in and buy larger beads and threads.

UFOs: Kersti of etatters challenged us to tackle those UFOs. So last night I pulled out a pile to work on while we watched some Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I tackled the smaller, easier UFOs first, but did some blocking on several projects while the iron was hot. I believe the yellow bookmark on the left is a pattern from Mary Konior's Visual Tatting Patterns and the white snowflake is from Vida Sunderman's book, Tatted Snowflakes. I'm sorry to say I can't remember anything about the source of the variegated blue flake. The green bookmark was inspired by a square motif from an antique camisole pattern. I've been playing with that little square for years. The remaining items are all my own. What do you think of my hat bookmark? I was just playing around with ball and shuttle one day when I wanted to tat but didn't have any particular project I wished to do.

New Blog Elements

I've added a few new elements to my blog today. Now I'm off to get some tatting done.

Scrap Bookmarks, Cats and Dogs

Now we shall all see whether I've managed to do this correctly!

I've been doing some tatting in front of the television. The bookmarks on the left are not made from a pattern. I was trying to empty some shuttles and renew my supply of bookmarks at the same time. I keep a pile of simple bookmarks on hand for use in library books, etc. I get to enjoy using my tatting as I read and if I lose one, someone somewhere gets a treat.

The cat is from Tatted Animals by Inga Madsen. There are a lot of projects in this book that I plan to do. I'm well into the dog right now, but my children want it to look more like a chihuahua so I'm editing as I go. I'll let you know how it comes out.

This snowflake is a variation of Vida Sunderman's Ruffle-Edged Snowflake (page 11 of Tatted Snowflakes). I changed the center so I could do it in two rounds instead of three. A complete double stitch after each picot on the ruffled round seems to help the picots lay better.

Getting this done has put me behind in reading my email, but it has been lots of fun. Thanks for the encouragement to do it, Jane!