Package from God's Kid

I took a week off for some fun in the sun on one of Florida's beaches. It was a girls'-only trip with my mother, one of my sisters, and my two daughters. I didn't touch a computer for the entire trip. I spent lots of time enjoying the beautiful view.

Look what was waiting for me when I arrived home! God's Kid sent me beads, size 40 threads, and some lovely embellishments to play with. And look at the doily! The tatting looks perfect! Thank you so much, God's Kid.

Earring Jackets

I've finished two pairs of earring jackets and started another. The photos really don't do justice to the colors of the threads or the beads. The peach and royal blue pairs were inspired by Jennifer Williams' Two-Layered Flower. I used one of my favorite earring patterns and added that second layer using Jennifer's technique.

The one lone variegated earring jacket you see is made from Rachel Colvin Jackson's Simple Celtic Earrings. I left off the picot for attaching a wire and will wear them as earring jackets for post earrings. This one required I get out my tatting needles and refresh my rusty skills. I found it was rather like riding a bicycle. The movements came back to me very quickly. As I write this, I've only completed one piece. I look forward to playing with this one a bit more. 

My thanks to both Jennifer and Rachel. I've enjoyed playing with your techniques and see many possibilities for them.

New Earrings

I've been distracted from shuttle-tatted interlocking rings and cross patterns by the need for some new earrings. I looked through some of the patterns I've saved from other websites and blogs and found great inspiration. The pair pictured below are based on the Poinsettia Earrings designed by Rachel Colvin Jackson. I confess to taking a few liberties with Rachel's lovely pattern. I didn't want to sew in beads afterward so I made long beaded picots and I substituted double stitches for the half stitches Rachel uses in the outer round. I'm very happy with the result. Thank you, Rachel for sharing this pattern with us.

Tatting on the road

I apologize for the photo quality, but I thought a poor photo would be better than none at all.

My plans to rework my Celtic cross bookmark with the interlocking rings had to be put on hold. I've been on the road quite a bit lately for work. In fact, I'm out of town now. I chose a familiar pattern and grabbed several balls of Lizbeth variegated threads that I had not yet tried. This proved to be a great choice as I've enjoyed tatting on planes, in airports, in autos (I wasn't doing the driving), and in hotels. Loading one Aero shuttle completely and starting with shuttle and ball, I was able to make two bookmarks before reloading a shuttle.

I didn't completely unpack both suitcases after the previous trip before I started repacking one for this shorter trip. I think I must have left a couple of bookmarks in my other suitcase. By my calculations, I've tatted at least 9.

Happy tatting!

Tatted Teddy Bear progress

I finished the Teddy Bear in Inga Madsen's Tatted Animals. The thread is Lizbeth size 20, Purple Marble. He is now framed and proudly on display in my office at work.

It works!

A few posts back you saw my efforts with part 1 of Kathy's tutorial for interlocking rings with a shuttle. It took me two tries with part 2, but I'm very satisfied with the results. I had a little trouble closing that last ring satisfactorily, so I again removed the thread from the shuttle so I could pull it through to cinch the ring closed. Thank you very much, Kathy. I've place links to your tutorials on my techniques page.

I designed a cross pattern years ago that has interlocking rings in the center. I finger tatted the rings, but that was so fiddly that I've never worked the pattern again. I look forward to giving my design another tat using this method for the interlocking rings.

Tatted Elephant

I finished Inga Madsen's tatted elephant, pages 16 and 17 of Tatted Animals. The thread is Elizabeth size 20 in Seashell. I've started the Teddy Bear on pages 30 and 31. You'll see it a bit later. Inga's book contains a picture and a diagram for 12 different animals. The others are a bird, butterfly, sitting cat, dog, giraffe, horse, ladybird (ladybug), monkey, snail, and a squirrel. All of them are adorable. Inga used these designs for a quilted baby blanket and includes some instructions for doing the same. I'm tatting the animals just for fun, with no particular plans for how I'll use them. They are just fun to make.

Happy International Tatting Day!

We are just 3 minutes away by my time, but it has already begun in other parts of the world. I wanted to do something special for all of my tatting friends and promote the art of tatting at the same time, so I'm offering you a pattern today. It offers a chance to practice Catherine Wheel joins if you wish, along with half-stitches, split rings, and a little block tatting. The sample was tatted with one of Jess's beautiful threads available through her Etsy shop, Tatilicious. The pattern is available here. Please let me know if you have any problems with the pattern.

Shuttle-tatted Interlocking Rings

If you've been admiring the patterns with interlocking rings, but avoid them because you don't want to use needletatting or fingertatting, you really must visit Kathy Niklewicz's blog post where she has begun a tutorial for making them with the shuttle. I'm sure you can't see the problems in my efforts in the photo below as well as I can, but I'm getting close thanks to Kathy. While the variegated thread shows up better in the picture, the larger white thread has been a better choice for my practice. I'm going to devote my tatting time to working on this technique this morning.

Okay, I'm back with a progress report. I carefully followed Kathy's pictures as I went. At photo 9, Kathy says to keep the shuttle thread behind the closing ring and the first ring as you close that second ring. I tried posting my shuttle through the second ring from front to back before closing the ring and it has made a tremendous difference in the appearance of my finished work. I'm going to go over to Kathy's blog to see if she does this routinely (I know some tatters do so). Below are images of my last effort from both sides.

Dragon Wing Doily

This is my second Dragon Wing Doily by Anne Bruvold. I tatted my first one in May 2011. My tension was rather tight this time which made the piece rather stiff and a little more fiddly to block than I expected. This is a tatter issue rather than a designer one. I did not notice this problem with my first effort.  The nice thing about the stiffness is that it would hang nicely as an ornament without stiffener. I'd like to try it again with deliberately lighter tension to see if the difference was in the thread I used or in my tatting. Anne's pattern is a lovely one and enjoyable to tat. You'll find it in English here.

Wanda's Graduation Cross

I used Wanda's Graduation Cross pattern for this little cross in one of the Lizbeth variegated threads. I got off to a bad start when I made the 3rd of the starting rings a split ring and didn't catch my mistake until I had worked my way around to start the 3rd leg. Oops! I resolved the issue by making a fourth ring for the center with a SCMR. It would have been less obvious in a solid thread, but I feel it was a decent compromise that kept this piece from the trash bin. My photograph doesn't do this thread justice.

Lost tatting bag & start of an elephant

I was on a tatting roll when last I posted. I finished a cross and got a good start on a Dragon Wing Doily before I got the great idea to take my tatting to work. After a couple of weeks of getting no tatting done during my lunch break, I decided it was best to bring it back home. The moment when I made that decision is the last time I can remember seeing my tatting bag. I have no clue what I did with it and that was well over a week ago!

When I got home last night the only thing I could think of that I wanted to do was to tat. I got out Inga Madsen's Tatted Animals and started Elephant in Elizabeth size 20 Seashell. It felt so good to have a shuttle in my hand again. One forgets how relaxing tatting can be when you don't make time for it for quite a while. So this is my progress so far. I'm going to post this picture and go back to playing with shuttle and thread as I drink my blackberry tea.

Happy tatting, everyone.

Heart earrings, but no pictures

I carried my tatting with me all week, but didn't get anything done until today. At my daughter's request I whipped up a quick pair of heart earrings for her to use as a prize later this week. No pictures, I'm afraid. I used TatfullyYours' Flower Heart, size 10 Nazli Gelin Garden in a dark red, and gold earring wires. My daughter thinks they'll be a big success.

Have a great week everyone. I hope to have something to post again next weekend.

Hearts in Lizbeth Watermelon size 20

I tatted these two hearts yesterday. The one on the right is Little Bit of My Heart by Dan the Tatman. The other one is Vicki Clarke's Ruffled Heart. I had a little trouble with the ruffled chains in Vicki's pattern. My stitches wanted to twist around rather than ruffle, especially on the 2nd chain.

Bad Combination

Complex pattern with no diagram + recovering from dental surgery + migraine headache = ERROR, ERROR! I did not arrange the chains symmetrically as I started down the other side. I decided that I'm really not well enough right now to work on anything that requires this much concentration, so I'm sitting this pattern aside for later. It is a beautiful design and I should make sure I can give it the attention it deserves. So today I'm going to go back to browsing my collection for simpler patterns that will allow me to enjoy tatting without so much concentration.

Happy Tatting

Beeton Cross

Since my first project was by chance a cross, I decided to work my way through some of my cross patterns. This one is super simple. It was inspired by an edging in Beeton's Book of Needlecraft. I don't have a pattern, just notes about ring and chain sizes. I think Georgia Seitz may have shared this idea through the Online Tatting Class at some point.

I'm already working on the next cross, but I've moved to a more complicated pattern. It is Gillian Buchanan's Sharon's Celtic Cross. It is worked with 2 colors and 4 shuttles.

Thanks for the welcome

Thanks so much for the welcome back. I found your blogs and webpages inspiring yesterday. I didn't even make it to the forums before deciding to find my shuttles. I knew better than to over think it. I could have spent days just deciding what to do. I had run across one of Roger Freedman's cross patterns as I was sorting a few papers earlier in the day. I grabbed the first filled shuttles I put my hands on and started tatting.

This one starts near the bottom. I had worked my way through one side and the top before I realized I had added too many rings to the first side arm. My first thought was to cut it off and start over. (Later, of course. I was easily discouraged, I'm afraid.) However, I talked myself into cutting out and salvaging the project. My choices were to cut out a small amount and lengthen all of the arms or go back to the spot where I added the first additional ring. I chose to do the latter and got it finished before I went to bed last night. It feels wonderful to have started and completed a project. I'm going to find some more shuttles that need emptying and start another.

Thanks for the welcome and the inspiration.

Checking in with the tatting community

Hello, all. I know I've been missing in action for months and I've missed all of you. Other things have had higher priorities so that the only tatting I've done was just before Christmas and I didn't take a single picture.

I'm home this week recovering from the removal of a wisdom tooth. I'm feeling more awake today, but still not up to doing much. It seemed like the perfect time to visit your blogs and webpages to see what you've been up to. Now I'm off to visit your sites.