Flowers, Bats, Ladybugs and Hand Dyed Threads

Riet has added beautiful tatted flower and leaves to a glass name tag holder.
BJ ponders block tatting and gives an artists perspective on it's use in tatting.

Mrs John has done some reading on chemistry and did another batch of thread. This time the colours are exactly what she wanted.

Joy tatted the Flying Ladybug from be-stitched.com and borrowed Jeff's idea of using magnetic beads which she found challenging to work with.

Mary has been playing with her new double bobbin shuttle and finds that it makes rugged and sturdy tatting that will stand the test of time.
Carol has been experimenting with doing 3 colour swirls on her tatted peppermint candies for the gingerbread house. The effect takes working with 3 shuttles and is a bit of a challenge. Challenge is OK when the results are worth it. Carol thinks she may use this one for a window on the gingerbread house.
Ruth has been working on a new book with her great niece, Sarah Kelly and it with include this celtic bat along with Sarah's Cross of Faith (the pattern she is teaching at Hector), a Slaver's bracelet with a Celtic Star Rose, Dragon Tears Necklace, Dragon's Eye Pendant, 3D Celtic Rose, a Dragon, and maybe Mr. Clank, and the Celtic Phoenix. It sounds wonderful.
Arlene is working on a new podcast, but it won't upload for some reason.

Clyde tatted the start of a doily from The Tatter's Treasure Chest edited by Carolyn Waldrep, in Marilee's Tourmaline, size 50. Clyde likes this thread so much he decided to use a pattern as he didn't want to waste it.
Jon decided to tat some bookmarks the first is a simple clover with a twist using Hakelgarn Online size 20. The second is a heart breaker. So close…and yet so far. One split ring and short chain from the end, and Jon ran out of thread.
Snowy did the same motif the Mrs John did a few days ago in Valdani size 50 Precious Pansies.
Marilee is doing her Visions necklace in hand dyed thread. Between the beads and the colour of the HDT it's definitely bright. Part way through working it Marilee realized that she had size 10, the size called for in the pattern on one shuttle and size 20 on the other. It doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.
Laura tatted Sue's block tatting heart and now that she knows how to do it she might tat it again in HDT. Her next project is done in Marilee's Rhubarb Crisp and she needs to draw it out before she embellishes it.
Melissa has tatted some clouds for a Spring CQ block.
Sherry is tatting the same doily in her hand dyed Fuchsia. This one is size 20.

Angel, Gingerbread House, Cat, Frog and Flowers

Just a quick note on an unrelated subject. All of the participants in the round robin were sent their partners some time ago and for the doily group and both beginners groups the deadline for the first mailing was Feb 24. The first mailing for the Hearts group is March 2nd and for the International Project group it is March 3rd. Some people have either not responded or not received the original mailing with the partner information which is why I am cross posting the information here. The Round Robin blog is located Here.

Riet posts a picture of the motif from Jane's most recent challenge done by one of the Dutch guild members. Riet tatted Jane's zipper pull that's fun and quick to do. The little angel is Riet"s own design that uses the skirt of the Sun Bonnet Sue motif in the Big Book of Tatting and the flower is from Helma Siepmann. Elizabeth is longing for spring and tatting necklaces with flowers and butterflies. This design was time consuming and took a bit of planning but it's in her favourite colours.Anne has tatted Tiri’s doily and it's number 18 of the 25 motif challenge. Now she has an idea that involves the dragon she tatted earlier and a small storm of snowflakes. Dragons and snowflakes? Curious. Sapna tatted the bookmark from Sherry's blog in two tone blue and coasters in Marilee's Tiger Eye colour. Clyde's new doily design is a perfect match for these. Sapna has fallen victim to HDT syndrome. Norma has been testing out some pieces on her food fight block.These tatted pumpkins will go on "pumpkin pie" block. The tatted edging done in variegated purple machine embroidery thread will go on the seam of another block. A lady in one of her groups has asked her to make some butterflies and these are some of the threads Norma experimented with. The Bible verse block has been embellished with tatted clouds.

Jeff has been tatting flowers. The "Stargazer Lily" by Linda S Davies was tatted in Flora thread #205 & #225. Nancy Tracy's Magnolia tatted in an unknown variegated pink and Coats Opera thread in white both size 30. Jeff treated himself to some new shuttles and while he prefers bobbin shuttles, all of these are post style shuttles.
Aileen has tatted Witchery the Cat by Inga Madsen for her round robin. She has embellished a cosmetics pouch for a friend by adding tatted initials and some tatted flowers were added to hair clips. She picked up some Dylon cold dyes and tried her hand at dying threads. The initial dying looked pretty good but a lot of the colour came out in the rinse. Aileen's friend brought her some lovely shuttles even one with her name inscribed. Here latest tatting is a frog by Jane Eborall.
Gina has finished the last motif in the book and now she's thinking she should have done them all in the same colour. What's she supposed to do with 25 mismatched motives?
Joy enters the challenge with the thistle bookmark by J. N. Faeih done in size 20 thread and the green for the stem is size 30 Cebelia (DMC). Joy has been working on a doily a "serious" project and finished on time to gift it, is a dresser scarf with a tatted hens and chicks border.
Carol is still working on her gingerbread house. It needs more stiffening and more candy.
Jon is working from a tatted motif from Tatting with Anne Orr and she's working with DMC Dentelles 80, colour code 109 trying to see how big she can make it repeating each segment continuously without having to cut the thread. Laura sent her some hand dyed thread to try out and included a rose snowflake and a celtic snail.
Marty has been working her way through Iris Neibach's Fantasia and she did "Trifoglio" in pastel Coats hand-quilting thread. The tatting is a little tight and the colour doesn't really show the hearts or negative spaces. "Stella alpina" was worked in Coats variegated "southwest" colored machine quilting thread. Since she's working these in such fine thread she could easily seal them inside a clear coaster.
Sherry has created a doily in her Baby Shower colour. She has a new batch of Fuschia colour and proposes to do custom colours. Do you have a colour you'd like to see created?

Butterflies, Flowers, Hearts and Slippers

BJ's happy hippo had a fling with a Texan in a circus and Miss Pearl is the delightful results with a yellow collar and blue ears. Tatted in Pizzaz size 30 and Finca thread in blue and yellow. The rose cross from Sharon Briggs was tatted in red and white size 20 thread and came out 6 inches high. It will be framed and given to BJs friend for her birthday. Sue Hanson's Block Tatted Heart was done in Pizzazz a hand-dyed DMC cordonet 6 ply thread. Teresa's Ombre Block Heart done in size 10 lavender thread is BJs first piece of block tatting and she's not satisfied with it. C'mon BJ if you were perfect first try you'd put the rest of us to shame.
Mrs John spent the day dying threads with proper fabric dye. She used white and ecru as her base thread and is pleased with the results. She has the idea of tatting a doily for herself, her Mom and her sisters in law but 4 doilies may be a bit much especially with the busy season coming. The threads are from top right a size 10 HDT Mrs John got from ebay, the bottom thread her own HDT in size 10 and the top left thread #20 stained with the artist's colors/food coloring. Shay has taken a one shuttle edging from Beeton's book and mirror imaged it to make a lovely bookmark. Gina wanted to tat a heart for her daughter in law to be and started with Sue Fuller's heart but she didn't have the instructions at the time for the second half of it so she worked a second heart in variegated thread added a zigzag tail and a dimpled ring to the end. She started a vintage edging using up thread on the shuttle and only got a couple of repeats done. Gina is celebrating 5 years of blogging. Here are 4 more motives from the book Tatting for the Beginner. There didn't seem to be any errors in these motives and Gina wonders if the designs were written up by more than one tatter. Pamela has tatted 2 more geckos. These are done with Marilee's HDT Forest and have Swarovski crystals running along his back bone and bronze pearl eyes. This second one is her favorite, with an extra ring in his tail as most geckos have tails the same length as their body and the body is longer to accommodate the new bead idea. Carol is still working on her gingerbread house, but she needs more candy. No not a sugar fix. She needs more candy decorations. Carol has joined the round robins and her group is doing hearts. This is her first heart for the Round Robin. Ruth is having butterfly dreams. Did you notice the lower edge of this gem is made with block tatting? I love this butterfly!Clyde's new doily Sunlite is made with Marilee's hand dyed Tiger Eye thread size 80 and measures 6 inches across. Isn't it adorable? Jon has finally finished the doily she started almost a year ago. It measures about 13 inches across done in size 30 thread and Jon thinks it will be along time until she starts another project this large. A long time… is that like, two weeks. (I'm ducking and running for cover).

I received a wonderful surprise package in the mail and get to share with you Kathy Niklewicz' tatting. Marilee has a new colour 'Purple" I think I'm going to have to get me some of that. It looks too scrumptious to pass up. Lola the butterfly looks ready to take flight. Time for a fanfare, Marilee's "Vision" necklace that has already won an award, will now be shown in the magazine March/April issue of "Belle Armoire". Lost art indeed. Found art is more like it. Congratulations Marilee!Dame Margo has been hiding out in Laura's closet when she should have been practicing her pirouette. Another bell ringer event, Laura has designed her first tatted heart. Following the concept of Martha's heart in her book Tat's Amore, Laura created an outline and filled it with flowers. Isn't it wonderful? Marty tatted "Apatura Iris" from Iris Neibach's book in DMC size 80 in a purple and green variegated colour. It's measures 2.75 x 3 inches including the antennae and it is adorable. Marty has also tatted a square motif from the same book but lost her magic threads and had to resort to a dot of fabric glue. She'd like to tat one of the doilies or mats from the book one of these days.. Sherry provides a sneak peak for something she is working on. It's in her new Baby Shower colour.