Hearts, Swan, Snowflakes and more What is it?

Administration Note. As more people have joined the challenge, it becomes increasingly challenging for me to keep up with it. I know that a lot of tatters are hitting this blog, just to stay in touch and see what's going on. It's part of the reason I continue to include people who have finished the challenge, that, and the fact that some people, (I'm not mentioning Laura's name LOL), but some people, are well and truly addicted to tatting motives and keep joining up for the second, third, and fourth time. So, I'm going to discontinue mentioning things here if it isn't about tatting, or at least I'm going to try. Some things are just plain fun and interesting and ought to get mentioned. So if you blog about stuff and it doesn't get mentioned here, you'll know why.

Eva is working on the TIAS challenge and thinks it might be a pig.

Eliz has been busy with school but she did get some down time to tat at Christmas. This is the last of the animal bookmarks she completed and she modifies it a little to use 2 colours, the trailing water is Caron Wildflowers

Anne has just finished knitting a pair of wrist warmers for her mother with musical notes on them.

Tami tatted a snowflake with metallic silver thread that she found difficult to work with. She too has been working on the TIAS challenge. She thinks her tatted camel came out looking more like a horse.

Norma has been working on several CQ round robins. She tatted a pretty bookmark using Marilee's hand dyed thread. She plans to do some embroidery with it as well. Norma has also picked up a couple of new students to teach how to tat, an 11 year old girl and her grandmother. She has been tatting some cloud shapes for CQ and one is from a new tatting book. Weren't there some clouds in the Tatting Pattern Calendar? (I just checked, there are.) The green edging and motives are designs that she did some time ago as is the doily and the collar that are done in size 30 DMC. The collar includes a band of crochet.

Shay has posted an interesting essay on her local neighborhood and a recipe for Oatmeal bread. It sounds yummy. I modified a recipe for oatmeal bread from a Mennonite cookbook so that I could make it in my bread machine. Not quite as yummy, but a lot less work.

Aileen used Marilee's snowflake pattern to make earrings for the January exchange and added large tatting covered beads to the top. Really pretty and I suspect that the large bead besides giving it an interesting little twist also makes it a little less wispy in the weight department.

C4G added the tatted flower she did to the top of a box. She has plans to maybe add an edging to the box as well. Then she did a sweet pair of earrings in size 10 classic crochet thread with swarovski crystals. She has discovered Beetons book and downloaded it. Antique tatting books can give you a case of tatting overload when you from nothing to a glut of patterns. C4G thinks it might be possible to make her own tatting shuttles and she has some in the works. The proof is in the tatting.

Bonnie has tatted Irene Woo's Heart of the Butterfly pattern first in white, and then in Marilee's hand dyed thread. Gorgeous aren't they?

Gina has wanted to join the challenge for a while and when she noticed that this book has 25 motives it was a perfect opportunity to tat the designs in a languishing book and join the challenge. For the un-informed Gina has been blogging about tatting for years and is a prolific tatter. Due to time constraints I have asked Gina if it would be all right with her if I only blog about the things on her page that pertain to the challenge. Otherwise I'd need to almost duplicate her blog every day. Her link is in the side bar so you can check it out for yourself and as always each time I post I will link back to the original page. Gina's first entry is a poorly written design with apparent mistakes in it. The first sample made a nice hat for a ball of size 70 thread, so she re-did it. The thread she used is some that she hand dyed herself a few years ago. I don't know Gina I kind of like it like a hat, add another little ruffle around the edge and it would make a perfect mob cap for a tiny teddy bear.

Pamela has day 7 of TIAS done and she's tatting it again in a different colour to make it look more realistic, as she thinks she knows what it is. Jon has 5 new snowflakes designs tatted and none of them written out, but she's on a roll and feels that if she stops she'll lose her train of thought. The problem with that of course, is that the sooner you write it down the easier it is to remember. When you don't remember you have to stop and count. Doesn't Jon come up with some amazing designs? I had a lovely surprise sent to me, a beautiful tatted cross and an English Aero. I'm in heaven.
Marty has finally had a chance to catch up on the TIAS challenge and she remarks hers looks like it's in a windstorm. You may remember that Melissa had a vintage tatted doily find and was tatting another from the original. When she got half way it looked like a fan so she decided to add it to a CQ block with some SRE roses and swarovski crystals. It's really pretty with a vintage jewellery finding.