Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Lots and Lots of Tatting

It's been a while since I've had the time to do an update and consequently it's taken me 3 days to get through the list, so I know some of the blogs already have new entries, but I'll get to them the next time around. The good news is that my time was spent sending out all of the round robin partners and I've already had a couple of robin entries sent to me.

Eva finished Jane's hippo and now she is working on TIAS#2Elizabeth designed this elegant little heart and tatted it using a thread called Petite Very Velvet which isn't for the novice tatter but it sure has a nice effect. Elizabeth has been asked about doing a book but it's not something she plans on doing any time soon. Sylvia tatted the Two-fer bookmark by Carolyn Groves in quite a thick thread by Anchor sold in small twisted hanks. Her motif star it has 15 motifs on it so far and it's already too big to fit in the scanner. The pattern calls for these open spaces and Sylvia isn't sure if she's going to leave it that way or not. She'll finish it according to pattern and then decide. She bought a few balls of Aquarelle 100% mercerized cotton on eBay, and it wasn't hard to tat with, but it's very soft and"floppy" not at all suitable for the bookmark she intended it to be. She likes the colours though and may use it for hanky edgings. Anne has completed her 17th motif in the 25 motifs challenge and the pattern is her version of a pattern she found in her Grandmother's stash. The next motif she is working on is called Tiri’s doily and when she has that done she'll start working with her new bone shuttle.
Tami did some test tatting this week and she tatted Sue Fuller's beautiful heart. Jane's frog was tatter for her daughter. Hearts and frogs. That's a different combination. Connie finished her challenge with a sweet heart in pink and green. Then she did it again with beads and noticed almost at the end of working on it that she had made a mistake at the bottom and had to re-do it. The final heart was sent to her exchange partner along with the red heart with the white butterfly. Her exchange partner was Arlene who sent her these two hearts. Connie had so much fun doing the challenge that she started again and her first entry is a pattern by Anne Orr 'Large Round Medallion No. 15, using Rubi thread in colors Red and White. Then another pattern from Anne Orr, 'Round Medallion No. 24. done in Rubi variegated orange. Anne Orr's pattern, 'Pointed Tatted Medallion No. 21' was done using Rubi thread in Red and Grey. Followed by a 'Barrette' pattern Connie found from Christiane Eichler 1996 that she made using Rubi thread again, in black and grey. This doily is from 'Tatter's Treasure Chest' edited by Mary Carolyn Waldrep again in Rubi thread. Kate has posted the story of St Valentine along with this lovely heart.Margaret had to change blogs and she reposts the pictures of the dove, butterfly and snowmen from her earlier blog. The heart is a pattern she has just finished and she plans to add a pin back to it. Mrs John shares her thread dying experience. The colours she has blended look to me like soft pastel spring flower colours. She had trouble with another motif from the DMC Library of Tatting downloaded from the Antique Pattern Library. It is the first motif she did using two shuttles and it included rings made with one shuttle within a chain made with both shuttles. After struggling with it she appealed to Jon for help. Some old patterns can be real stinkers to follow and as usual Jon has made it simple. Mrs John's next pattern is the Dress Trimming from the Priscilla Tatting Book No. 1 done in her own hand dyed thread. She struggled with the block tatted heart from the online class but finally managed to get it done in her own unique way. The square motif is a design from Tatting Patterns And Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson done in her hand dyed coppery colour. Jeff tatted Nina Libin's Green Iris Pendant design using the three ply strand of DMC Metallic embroidery thread (A), but he wasn't happy with the results. He asked Nina about using DFN 6 strand metallic embroidery floss and she recommended trying 2 or 3 strands to see how it worked out. He tried it with 2 strands (B) then with 3 strands (C) and his favorite was C. What do your think? Aileen has been having trouble with her tension in doilies and has been practicing to see if she can improve it. The earrings came from her exchange partner and Aileen is trying to figure out the celtic knot centre. Dying is a popular activity these days and Aileen has some cold dyes to experiment with and see what colour combinations she can come up with. Like many of us Aileen has discovered that once you get over the "throw the shuttles across the room in frustration" of learning how to tat, it becomes an integral part of your sanity. Tatting doesn't work if you aren't relaxed and forcing yourself to relax is a good thing in a stressful world. Bonnie figured out split rings without any trouble, but SCMRs were really hard to figure out until she realized they weren't rings at all, just chains masquerading as rings. She's not sure what this pattern is. Does anyone know its source? Mortaine tatted this choker and ran a ribbon through the centre of it for a swap.She made another one for herself in blue, but it's about half an inch too big.The nice things about making something for yourself is that you can always adjust it. Gina is already getting bored with tatting the patterns from this book. Many of the designs are very similar and she's continuing to find little oversights in the patterns where joins are obvious from the pictures but not mentioned in the pattern. She is modifying the designs slightly so that they can be done without cutting the thread. Joyce has tatted Jane's hippo. Pamela tatted another gecko with hand dyed thread and noticed how beautifully matched the colour came out. Unfortunately a little tatting accident placed one leg in the wrong position so she tatted it again using a discontinued Flora colour. Clyde has finished the doily made with Marilee's hand dyed Tiger Eye thread. He has named his doily Waves. Beautiful job Clyde and I can't wait to see the next one.Jon started on the block tatted heart from the online class and worked it in her own way. It might have been done differently than the instructions given, but the finished heart looks the same. She has re-worked her snowflake making the long picots shorter and joining the small rings that form the centre. It made the picots stand out more so that it looks like a daisy in the middle. Once she had that design taken care of Jon worked on another pattern using SCMRs with a ring thrown off the top of each one. Snowy has been suffering through boring days and stressful studying that seems to have affected her tatting. She keeps making mistakes and the lace is currently in time out while she thinks of what to do about it. The two motives she completed from one of Mary Konior's patterns, and she remarks that her first attempt to tat the motif was a disaster. She has been looking through the book "A Tatters Workbook" and the use of colour is very intriguing, but the patterns are puzzling. Marilee created another lovely earring design but she has been tweaking it so that it ends at the top and she can hide the ends more easily. She managed one, but it needed a split chain. A slight rethinking of the pattern and now it can be done with one shuttle and no split chain. Laura has been hard at work on her Rhubarb Crisp doily and I haven't had time to show you the progress of it, but here it is in all its finished glory. Isn't it just awesome! I can see why she wants to re-decorate around it. As if this wasn't enough to keep her busy Laura has also made another snowflake rose with a crocheted 3D rose center. She used DMC 80 and crocheted the centre much tighter and the leaves were tatted with Sulky #12. Laura doesn't mention the final size but I think it would look gorgeous displayed in an appropriatetly sized brandy snifter that has been half filled with clear or opalescent marbles so that it looks like a rose floating on water.Marty has been on a roll tatting lots of Sherry's butterflies. The Prima butterfly was tatted with Coats pastel variegated hand-quilting thread. The Flower patch butterfly was made with a variegated grape purple DMC 80 thread and the body in a variegated purple/green and look, the knots on the antennae match! The Adonis butterfly was working out really well until she was forced to comply with the strict head, thorax, and abdomen restriction. The antennae knots are still even!! Aphrodite is made in Coats hand quilting thread and it took two tries to get the thread spacing between the rings to work right, but isn't it beautiful?Sherry made the block tatted heart from the online class and has a lot of questions about it that didn't get answered because she couldn't get into the classroom. Buttercup yellow, Baby Shower and Tie Dye Purple/Lime are Sherry's newest colours. Wally's latest flower is a pattern from Bella Online that uses split rings. She modified it to have only 7 petals and she added beads to the picots on the flower and the split rings. Such a sweet flower. Martha has tatted Jane's Tat-It-And-See Hippo in Altin Basak thread. Jane's web site is overrun with over 100 hippos, no wonder they call them a bloat of hippos.

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