Stars and Butterflies Encore!

Ruth has been tatting more stars again. First of all she has created a purple and white celtic star with a twisted cord tassel. That's a quick way to finish off a bookmark. She's also done another celtic butterfly, and this one has 3 beads at the tips of the wings which makes it look even more like a butterfly.

Gail has posted a picture of an orchid she has had for 2 years waiting to finally get this awesome flower.

Arlene lost some stuff when she revamped her blog. SO now she has to do a little re-organizing. She's still working on doilies but tatted nativity scenes and tatted towns have captured her attention.

Mark is leaving for 2 weeks of fresh mountain air, but he'll be taking his camera and his tatting shuttles with him.

Jon received a gift of a lovely bourse (purse) and she has filled it with her shuttles and current WIP. She has photographed it sitting on the crocheted tablecloth that is also a WIP. Gorgeous stuff, all of it.

EeKoon has updated her wish list, is it my imagination or does this list just keep getting longer?

Marilee has posted some more pictures of the wonderful "Encore" earrings she designed. Not only do we get to see this beautiful eye candy, we get to make our own earrings. Marilee has generously posted the pattern for them on her web site. Thank you Marilee, I'm sure there will be lots of encores for this one.

Charlene has tatted the spider web from Mark's web site. She wants the centre filled in more, but filling in the centre made it bowl. This is a practice piece, so she's going to try it again and she how the next one works out. You could always leave the centre as it and tat a spider to fit in it.

Stars, Butterflies, Snowflakes and Doilies

Ruth found a little bag and she has added some stars and stripes to it. Continuing on with the star designs Ruth made a simple celtic star with beads and then another celtic star with more complex weaving in it.

Clyde used Hand Dyed Hues thread Perle10, colour 1202 to make this adaptation on the pattern Lacy Medallion Luncheon Set from the book The Tatters Treasure chest by Mary Carolyn Waldrep. Now it's back to working on the tablecloth. There are a lot of large ongoing projects turning up lately. Clyde and Jon are working on tablecloths and another tatter mentioned on the Here-Be-Tatters list that she is working on a set of curtains.



Laura tatted the snowflake from Nancy Tracy's newsletter. The pattern is available from the Be-stitched website. Laura's sample is done in size 30 DMC Cebelia.The thread arrived for her mat project and now she's not sure if she wants to stop at four motives or continue on and tat more of them.












Melissa continues to work on her CQ block. It's getting prettier all the time.

Sherry has added her grape edging to the pocket on her jeans bag for the Tatting Treasures from Trash challenge and she's going to leave it at that, for now. She was going to use the edging for some linen hankies, but she decided to use a pattern from Mary Konior's, Tatting with Visual Patterns called "Eternity Rings" instead. At least she started with the pattern, but she has modified it a little.

Doilies Edgings, Scarves, Bags, and CQ

Look at all the different things done with tatting.
Arlene is fascinated by the doilies in Iris Niebach's book and who could blame her, they are all so lovely! This one is called Francesca and she's working on it using some wonderful shuttles from the Shuttleshop. Nice shuttles make the process just that much more enjoyable.

Jon created a square motif and when she was looking for something to show a class she tatted some more and joined them together. I just love the pattern within pattern effect that you get when you join motives together. This one is gorgeous. The bookmark she created was to show students 2 shuttle work. Simple brilliant Jon, you have some really marvelous ideas.

EeKoon has been busy knitting and quilting.

Laura posted a picture of embroidered pillowcases she received as a birthday gift.

Marty is showing us some of the pieces that she plans to use to decorate her denim bag in the Tatted Treasures from Trash Challenge. One of the pieces will decorate the edge of a pocket. The other is a mystery piece. Do the chains look like ripples?

Melissa has been working on a CQ block and used some of the tatted flower designs she learned to embellish it.

Sherry has tatted some more lace to use on her denim bag. Now she has some matching tatting on the back of her bag and she's already taken the bag out for a test run. She admits that sewing the tatting onto the bag was a real challenge. We all know what that's like, but once it's attached and every little picot sewn down it won't come off no matter what you do to the bag. The scrapes and bruises from the dog attack are healing but Sherry is missing a large chunk of skin off her hand. I can see why she hasn't been able to work on her pottery. You sure wouldn't want dirt collecting in that kind of wound.

Anne finished the scarf, attached the motives and tatted a nice wide border for the ends of it. The border appears to be made with the same thread that the scarf was knitted from. The knitted scarf is green, but the border has some blue rings in it. You can see a close up of it on her blog. The thread doesn't appear to be variegated and the blue in the border is the exact same colour as the blue motives. It looks like Anne has carefully tatted tiny sections in blue and cleverly hidden the ends.It's cleverly constructed and simply beautiful.

Stars, Butterflies, Flowers and Dimpled Hearts

Ruth is back! After packing and moving and unpacking and being sick, Ruth is back with a whole lot of beautiful stars. Welcome back, Ruth we missed you.

Clyde has been outdoors planting his summer garden. What a lovely corner to relax in.

Mark had a wonderful time doing a lacemaking demo at Grande Levee where he met a blind woman and her daughter. He was able to share a memorable hands on experience with them that will be cherished forever. Check out the the display table in the picture and the cakes he did on his blog. Wow.

Sharon hasn't used a chatelaine before, but after she made this one to hold her tatting tools, she found it handy to have around. It clips on your belt rather than hanging around the neck and can be modified to hold more tools. The pattern for it is in the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection newsletter that you can order from her web site.

Snowy posted a design that reminded her of pyramid orchids and Laura fell in love with it. Here's Laura's adaptation of the design. We're not sure who the author is, it might be Cathy Bryant. Laura has done 3 of the motives using different colours for the rings and will do a fourth, as soon as the thread she ordered arrives. Laura also had a chance meeting in Michaels where she ran into a young lady who wanted to learn how to tat. So Laura showed her how.

Charlene has been practicing her dimpled rings and made a sweet little pink bookmark and another edging of dimpled rings. Lots of edgings can be made for seam treatments on CQ blocks with tatting.

In spite of the injuries she sustained from the dog attack Sherry has persisted and designed and tatted a butterfly and a flower to go on her tatted bag for the Tatting Treasures from Trash challenge. Aren't they gorgeous?

Anne just got a new origami book and she had to fold the dragon. He's a cutie. Now where is the tatted dragon ;-)

Scorpion, Necklace, Hearts, and Motives,

I managed to run through all of the blogs yesterday but was too pooped to post, so here it is a day late.
Diana has been using embroidery thread for her tatting recently, just so that she could take advantage of the wide variety of colours offered. She's done a doily and some bells, but hasn't had an opportunity to take pictures yet.

Barbara had tatted an oval medallion designed by Lisa Trumble in an Anchor variegated size 20. There's a minor error on the inner ring which won't show once it's attached to the shawl. Another Lisa Trumble design is the Knobby Bud medallion also done with a variegated Anchor 20. That's motif 21 so it won't be long now until Barbara can start attaching them to the shawl.









Sharon is wavering between making a bag from an old pair of jeans or adding tatting to one of 3 bags she already has for the Tatting Treasures from Trash challenge. Somebody's got to start putting some tatting on these bags soon. I'm getting tired of looking at naked bags.

Marilee has turned the polymer clay piece into the 3D centre of a necklace. The colour is rust, but it shows up as a deep red on my monitor.

Charlene learned how to make a dimpled ring at the Palmetto's meeting. Some things make more sense when you actually see someone doing it.

Pamela tells us all about her adventures in exotic places where she was bit by a scorpions, on.her. honeymoon. As an anniversary project she decided to tat a scorpion. Referring to the specimens from her honeymoon, she modified Jane Eborall's pattern to make it more realistic. I think she succeeded because I wouldn't want to find this little critter in my slippers in the morning.
Melissa had a request for one of the tatted heart designs from her Etsy shop and she has progressed so well with the shuttle that she did this one with the shuttle. She has received a quilt block to embellish in a round robin and she pulled a number of items out of her stash to be used on the block, and sketched a wee design to be sewn on. I'm sure it will look stunning when it's completed. Wendy continues to pack and move boxes. They're mostly moved in to the new house, but still don’t have internet service hooked up.

Sunshine, Grapes, Butterflies and Flowers

Blame it on the weather. I haven't updated recently simple because I've been outside having fun instead of inside on the computer.

Clyde posts a picture of a glass gazing ball he painted with a lovely Hibiscus flower.

Jon tatted this lovely sunshine yellow purse using size 20 Hakelgarn Online crochet thread and about 480 beads. The pattern is form the Japanese book A new Approach to Tatting by Yusai Shokoin. It was done for an exchange and Jon's partner thought it was like a bit of sunshine. What a beauty!

Carol took an old crochet doily idea and reproduced it in tatting. It's a cluster of grapes and leaves and it looks yummy.

Marilee did a variation of Sherry Pence's Continuous Tatted Butterfly using Size 20 Flora for the black, and the colored thread is her own hand dyed DMC Cordonnet Special. She's also playing around with some polymer clay that didn't turn out quite right to see what she can create with it. So far it looks interesting and it would make a nice lapel pin.

Charlene was at the Palmetto's June meeting where she met Melissa and her husband. The day's lesson was Tatted Flowers led by Marie Smith. These are some of the flower samples Charlene has done from the class. She'll soon have a whole bouquet to use on her quilt blocks.

Pamela took a break from tatting critters to work on a doily.The pattern is Emily from Janet Carroll's book 'Elegant Tatting Patterns'.Tatted in Size 20 Coats Anchor and Flora threads the doilies measure about 8 inches. She had a lot of time to tat and she's done the doily in several variations and they're all beautiful.

Melissa and her hubby attended the Palmetto's June meeting and met Charlene. They worked on Marie Smith's flowers and hubby got in on the act and tatted a fern for Melissa to use in her crazy quilting. Melissa learned how to do a folded join and a new technique for a dimpled ring which is much easier to do. She's had a lot of requests from her Etsy shop for small tatted items that can be used in CQ. She's been so busy making these lovelies that it finished up her 25 Motif Challenge and now she has to decide if she wants to start over again.Sherry has had a terrible time. She was riding her bike with her dog when another dog attacked them and Sherry went skidding down the road. No pottery or tatting for a while until she heals up. Fortunately she had already finished tatting her big project. Here's her creation, a wonderful doily with her grape edging gracing the border. What an interesting and innovative design.Anne has her scarf knitted and an assortment of motives tatted for it. All she has to do now is arrange and sew the motives on and tat a border for the ends. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished scarf. It should be gorgeous.

Daisy, Cat and Owl

The Hedgehog Lacers invited Ruth to teach a class on celtic tatting and since Ruth had some time to sight see, Kathy took her out to Catalina Island. They found a few minutes to relax and tat and Ruth showed Kathy another way of putting a bead in the middle of a ring. This resulted in an owl and a pussy cat design. Aren't the cute!

Laura tatted the gerbera daisy from Sharon's Tatted Lace Pattern Collection in a luscious lemon yellow colour using DMC Cebelia 20. Now she needs to do some more flowers to decorate a hat.

Melissa entered her CQ block in the Spring Challenge hosted by Carolyn Cibik and she won first prize, a $50 gift certificate. Congratulations Melissa on your beautiful block.

Sherry's been working on a big project and decided to take a break today and visit the zoo to watch the animals film some butterflies and smell some roses. I wish computers could convey the scent as well as the picture.

Wendy has not been having fun packing for the move, but in honour of her blogiversary, she's having a giveaway. Check her blog for details and don't forget to post a comment. After all the heavy work of hauling things out of the attic, Wendy took a break to enjoy some flowers. What a feast of colour.

How to Tat pictures, Black Lace, and Bookmark

Mark has been tatting some more miniatures, but these are in black. It always looks dramatic, but it is very hard on the eyes. In addition to a miniature framed floral motif Mark has done some more tiny jewellery pieces.

Jon has added some How-to-Tat pictures to her blog. We can never have too many web sites that show how to tat. Different people tat in different ways and sometimes the little differences can make it easier for some people to learn.

Sharon showed us a corner of this tatted amulet bag earlier. Here's a picture of the whole bag created for the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection newsletter. Sharon's looking for more ideas of things to create.

After several requests Marty has put together a pattern for her square bookmark with buttons which she is offering on her blog.

Melissa created a lovely card with tatting information on it that she can give out to interested parties. Sometimes you don't have enough time to show someone how to tat, but they are interested and a little card will keep them connected to people that can show them how. Melissa has included her lovely Victorian roses and a tatted edging as a background for the information so that it's pretty and informative.

Wendy is planning a move and she's stocking up on lots of large plastic tubs. They cost more than sturdy cardboard but they don't end up in landfill, they're re-usable and after the move some things can just stay in them. A great idea if you have the room to store them when they are empty.

Anne has tatted some blue motives that she will use on her scarf. She wasn't following a pattern, just making it up as she went along. The white motif she will be adding to her web site. It's from a Norwegian magazine, Hjemmet no 10, 1983 a design originally made for needle tatting.