Busy Shuttles

Doily Progress: My doily design is in a folder for another time. My daughter decided she'd really like one made with repeated motifs instead of in rounds. Not feeling like designing a square at the moment, I let her choose between Cherie Wheeler's Cecelia Doily (square on left) and Roger aka Freedman's square (on right). We agreed upon Cherie's doily and I'm eager to get it started. The X's work up quickly and easily in one round each.

Mini Cross Variations: This cross makes a nice little bookmark all by itself, but I also want to use it on the end of the "tail" of other bookmarks. It turns even a little strip of edging into a nice cross bookmark when you tat a tail and put the cross on the end. And since I need a lot of them in a hurry, I thought I'd simplify the pattern while rewriting it to climb out of either end. The result is 3 variations on the same basic stitch counts making the pattern much more versatile for me.

More Flowers: Dancers need an appreciative audience so meet the "Applause Flower" sitting on the sidelines with lots of enthusiasm. And lastly, there is "Justa Flower" whose leaves were formed by making a double picot and then "turning" them in opposite directions.

More Dancing Flowers

I'm still currently fascinated with Dancing Flowers. Reproducing the same pattern over and over again rarely appeals to me, but so far interest is still holding. I've experimented with joining the blooms at different picots, trying a different color. The pile of flowers is growing nicely though I haven't bothered to count them. I'll quit when I'm tired of them and move on to something else.

Ruth is going to put the pattern in the Tat Calendar soon. Irfanview proved perfect for creating a visual pattern for you and she has the written instructions as well. Until someone else tats a pattern, it is hard to anticipate the problems. I'm counting on you tatters to alert me to any problems you find in the instructions.

Happy Tatting!

Dancing Flowers

Mini tats were on my "to do" list for yesterday's waiting time--some things to drop in cards of encouragement. Grabbing some thread and my shuttle bag, I dashed out the door to pick up and deliver my family members. When I pulled out my supplies at the hospital, I had everything I needed except the little set of patterns I had put on small cards the night before. A tatter with a shuttle and thread is never fully defeated though. We know how to make rings and chains and connect them together. Right? So I decided to try a flower on a stem. Jan's beautiful flowers (previous post) were my inspiration, but my goal was something much simpler and quicker. I want to make a lot of them fairly quickly. After a few starts and stops and a small pile of wasted thread, I managed to produce two flowers. A thorough search of my car, my purse, my tatting bag, my pockets, etc. couldn't produce those two flowers last night. These three were the results of trying to recreate them from memory. It was my oldest daughter who described them as looking like they are dancing. Tatting over ends and leaving the tails to form their little dancing legs means no ends to finish!