Beautiful, Wonderful, Gorgeous Tatting

One of the drawbacks of tatting is that it is time consuming and one of the benefits of this challenge is that it encourages people to keep tatting. Many of the folks who started thinking 25 was an enormous amount of tatting, have finished 25 motives and started 25 more. Along the way their skills have developed, as has their exposure to other peoples tatting and their introduction to new patterns, threads, and techniques. Several of the participants have been encouraged not only to tat, but to create their own thread colours and design their own patterns. Now we are seeing some of these tatters go on to produce their own tatting books. Isn't it amazing how much we can encourage one another just by participating in something as simple as this challenge?

Elizabeth has noticed a growing trend at the craft shows she attends of people who no longer associate tatting with something their elder relatives used to do. Anne has been travelling without her computer so she hasn't pictures to post although she has completed a tatted doily. She's wondering why packages keep appearing on her doorstep…..I'll bet we can guess.

Sapna has been tatting bookmarks. A LOT of bookmarks. She used Kersti's pattern and worked them all in beautiful Hand Dyed Threads. Iris Neibach's doily, Stella Alpina from her book "Fantasia" was tatted in a single day.
Iris' new book "Just for Fun" is now available from Lacis.
Bob has his next round robin project done and he shares the pattern for this split ring RicRac bookmark. Jeff tatted Mary Konior's Tatted Filet in Tatting With Visual Patterns using HDT and it appears to be another pattern where HDT isn't a good choice. Aileen is working on her mystery motif. It's still a mystery, at least to me. Joy discovered that the first 2 rounds of Mom's Pink Doily from Bestitched.com done in size 30 thread fits perfectly into an acrylic coaster. That's handy to know.I don't know how I missed it, especially since I thought it was so wonderfully clever, but I omitted Ellen's tatted apple in the last update. Maybe it had something to do with trying to do the updates at 3:00 AM when I'm not at my brightest. Barney is sure to be a favourite with the younger crowd. Now he needs a matching Baby Bop to keep him company. This tatted cross from Joy Botchlet's book Tatting Dimpled Rings, was a parting gift for a co-worker. Ais tatted Mary Konior's Anniversary pattern in Coats Chain Mercer Crochet No. 20. She's learning new things from these patterns and plans to tat some more of Mary's designs. Zarina joined the challenge on April 10th when I was in the midst of an "I don't have enough hours in the day" crisis so I missed adding her to the links list and consequently missed adding her her my regular run down. In the intervening 20 days she has tatted 14 motives. Just call her the lady with the smoking shuttles. Here's a run down of her tatting progress and I'm back tracking to February so you can see it all, beginning with some early pieces and some practice makes perfect pieces before going into some luscious HDT pieces.

Diane
Pamela
Jon has just printed her first book "Snowflakes Collection". There is ordering information on her blog.
Marilee
Laura
Marty
Melissa
Martha -Pics from Hector
Gina -Lots of pics from Hector

Angel, Butterfly, Flowers and Hearts

Administration Note: Well ladies and gentlemen, it has finally happened. I have to admit that keeping up with all the lace being made, is something that takes more hours in the day than I have. I am going to continue to post the information the same as I have in the past, but only for the people actively involved in the challenge. In other words, if you joined the challenge and you are working toward your 25th motif I will post the information here. If you finished your 25 motives and you are still tatting and blogging I will only post your name with a link to your page not a brief synopsis of what's new since the last time I checked. I know a lot of people are hitting this blog just to keep up with what's going on with everyone else, so this is one way to make the job of keeping up with it easier and therefore more frequent and still give you a quick tatting fix.

Lynda has been quiet, but that's because she was tatting a wonderful hanky border and motif for an exchange.

Terry is back from Spokane and shows us how she took and old doily and turned it into a beautiful angel.

Elizabeth is another of the tatters that worked on the antique pattern posted by Shay. It is both pretty and unusual and Elizabeth plans to turn it into a pin/pendant combination. The butterfly from from Ruth's book, "Tatted Butterfly Garden" is tatted in Marilee's Watermelon Tourmaline thread and it's just gorgeous. The vintage book DMC Library: Tatting includes some interesting and different tatting ideas including some designs that incorporate a technique that thanks to the Shuttle Brothers, we now call a Self Closing Mock Ring or SCMR. Here is the design incorporated into a pin.
Meme shares the pictures of the hearts from the round robin.

Iris had an amazing time in Denmark. Be sure to go to her blog and read all about it. Norma tatted Ann's Cherub Doily so that she could help a student understand it better. It's done in #20 Anchor crochet cotton in an antique rose color. The butterflies are done in a machine embroidery thread, Pearl Crown Rayon from YLI. Tricky to tat with, but in all the right colours for the project. Bev ordered Martha's new book, Holidays on the Block and as she was enjoying going through each page, she came to Spring, Martha had cleverly attached a tatted umbrella to the page with the pattern as a delightful surprise for her. The bookmark is a gift for Dee, a friend who belongs to tractor Clubs and restores Farmall tractors. Margaret is one of those in the round Robin and this is the snowman for Bob. Mrs John is delighted with a tatting find from a local antique shop. Jeff tatted Martha Ess's Maltese Ring bookmark from Tat Days 2007 in Marilee's Deep Ocean in size 30, and Cebelia size 30 in colour # 797. Aileen has started a mystery project but no clues as to what it is. OK, I'll guess. It's the beginnings of a background for an under water sea scape. No? The first one came out too big in turquoise in 20 Omega so it's now variegated white and blue in 40 coats.Bonnie has some new ceramic shuttles from Sherry, and they are matched up with the bookmarks she made with them. Irene Woo's Heart of the Butterfly done with Marilee's size 30 Peace HDT is paired with. the shuttle named "Honeysuckle Pond". The other shuttle named "Patchwork Fields" shown with the Floral bookmark pattern by Kersti done in Marilee's size 30 Deep Ocean HDT. Stephanie tatted a lion or kitty cat bookmark as well as a butterfly and flower bookmark in red and blue for Connie and the Cherub doily and another butterfly and flower bookmark in variegated threads for Bonnie. The One Shuttle Scalloped Edging by Mark Myers was done some time ago Joy has finished the Duet Doily from The Tatter's Treasure Chest by Mary Carolyn Waldrep made in size 30 thread it measures about 9 inches across. The artistic use of colour adds so much to this simple design. A plain piece of linen with a pained bird and a hens and chicks edging in size 8 perle cotton makes a stunning tea towel. Carol L. found some patterns on the internet she hadn't seen in a while and it prompted her to find a lunchbox decorated with tatting that she had done. Which led to showing a framed parrot design. The beaded earrings are Jane Eborall's pattern again, this time done in peach, turquoise, cream and brown, again using Coats & Clark Button Craft thread. The heart is a workbasket pattern that reminds her of spring. Carol and her Mom demonstrated tatting with Kathy Nicklewicz at Old Economy Village. Take a look at the display of Kathy's tatting. WOW!

Ellen tatted the periwinkle bookmark again to make sure she had one to write the design from. This time it's shown with a ruler so you can see the size of it. She also shares the bookmark she received in the round robin from Hanna. It's a seahorse designed by Mark Myer found in Dianna Stevens' book and is tatted with Gutermann Sulky No. 12. The little butterflies on the paperclip make adorable little markers and they'd be great as quick little give aways. Ellen shares the pattern as well as the picture.

Like a lot of us Ais got introduced to tatting and then felt the pain of a new skill and not very many patterns that she could practice it on, So she has been scouring the web looking for tatting and she has come across some gorgeous pieces on a Chinese (?) web site with nothing to say whether the patterns are from a book or original designs. If we have anyone who speaks the language who can inform us I'm sure we'd all like to know. Ais is not really ready to share the pieces she has done, feeling that she needs to perfect her skills before displaying the work. Don't bother waiting, show us know. We like to see it warts and all. We all have pieces that would look better swept under the carpet, if you don't think so, check out my blog. I have lots of mistakes to show you, but those of us who design have learned to tell the rest of the world that our "mistakes" are really planned artistic statements. Hey, penicillin was an accident, why can't designs be also. The other thrilling discovery was a bunch of vintage books on Picasa web. Have you discovered the antique pattern Library yet?

Diane
Joyce
Pamela
Carol
Clyde
Jon
Sharon
Marilee
Laura
Dawn
Marty
Melissa
Sherry
Wally
Martha
Connie
Gina