Sunday, February 28, 2010

Heart and Names

Bonnie tatted Susan K. Fuller's Heart's Desire pattern using Tatskool's size 20 ChocoRaspberry.



Ellen has been busy tatting names for leaving colleagues.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Doilies, Earrings, Bookmarks, Snowflakes and Motifs

Dale Marie joins the challenge and she is currently working on an Iris Niebach doily covered with hearts as an Anniversary gift for her mother.
Tattips has posted a picture of a pair of earrings. She used Lizbeth size 20 in Butterfly Breeze colour for these experimental earrings. I wish my experiments came out this nice.

NancyD is ready for spring. 'The Rose and Leaf' is a pattern by Lisa C. Trumble 1992 and the other one is by Julie Patterson 'Spring Flowers Bookmark'.

Wendy has a new Pop-A-Bobbin Shuttle that she has been trying out along with a new way of tatting. Can you tell which butterfly was done which way? No? Neither can she.

Jeanie has tatted Anne's Minor Norwegian Dragon which she says is cute and fun to tat.
Cindy has discovered that the 25 Motif Challenge is as addicting as we told her it would be. Here is the Flowers bookmark by Jill Hanna from the book Tatted Bookmarks from Handy Hands in her favorite Lizbeth color "Carribbean", size 40. She then used the same pattern to experiment with other threads. As you can see in the picture she tatted it in Perle Cotton, Size 12, and of course there was Lizbeth 'Carribean' which was size 40, Krystledawne's 'Be Mine' in Cebelia Size 30 and Blue Variegated Crochet Cotton, Size 20. That's a great way to see the difference in thread sizes and the impact of variegated threads on a design. If you want a better look, Cindy also posted up close shots of the threads with a dime for perspective.
Katherinne's newest book is Vida Sunderman's Tatted Snowflakes, so she has been tatting a flurry of them. She's practicing climbing out of centre rings using a split ring on these. The "Ribbon-Floss Snowflake" and the "Tiny Snowflake" were tatted in size 20 Lizbeth thread in the color "Victorian Red". Royal crochet thread in "Bridal Blue" size 10 was used for "Trefoil" and "Ribbon-Floss". The "Flower Snowflake" isn't wanting to lie flat, Maybe it needs some serious 'time out' on the blocking board to make it behave. Katherinne has also joined the ranks of people offering HDT. She is having a giveaway of HDT so if you want yours you better speak up quick.
Diane has just finished round 7 on the Hostess Set Doily from Tatting Patterns by Mary Konior using Oren Bayan size 50, #066 and it's almost done. She has received lots of goodies in the mail including some of Marilee's Purple Punch HDT, and a beautiful stained glass pendant. In addition she has a new Cherry wood Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle to play with. That will keep you out of trouble for a while.
Fox has to do 10 of these adorable rosettes for the border of the bonnet, but she's counting all of them as 1 of 25.
M tatted Milky Way from the book Tatted Snowflakes Collection by Jon Yusoff in Lizbeth 20, col 624, raspberry medium.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

500th post

I don't usually pay attention to these things, but I noticed as I started today's update, that it's the 500th post. I guess that means that there has been a lot of tatting going on. Which is a really good thing!

Tattips started with Vida Sunderman's Little Ring Snowflake and modified it doubling the stitch count because she was using a finer thread. It was worked in Lizbeth size 20, Butterfly Breeze and came out beautiful. Agasunset has remade the Victorian Collar Necklace based on her sister's wedding necklace.
Alan has learned how to make earring findings, jump rings and clasps and used his new skills to turn a 7mm cultured pearl into a dangle on this motif from Patti Duff's "Mini Tats" for these earrings. Bev has a new Pop a Bobbin shuttle and used it to start this bookmark in size 10 Celery HDT.

Heather was tired but still tatting which isn't always a good combination and she ended up with a broken thread. Why is it that this always seems to happen when you're near the end of a piece? Here are some pieces that didn't suffer the same fate. M has tatted 'Heart's Desire' by Susan K Fuller in Lizbeth 20, col 601, white and col 613, golden yellow medium. but now that it's done she's not sure she likes the colours together.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Earrings, Hearts and Siamese Elephants

Agasunset's silver Peacock Eye earrings are made from an element of a doily. Liyarra discovered yet another source of HDT and while the colour is lovely the thread isn't as crisp, but it looks like there are some negotiations in the works to do the colours in a good 6 cord thread. Brigitte tatted the Scalloped Heart from Tat's Amore by Martha Ess with vintage Size 30 Star 6-cord thread and put it into a glass heart with some Ferrero Rocher chocolates for a Valentine's Day exchange at her Lace Guild Meeting.
Bonnie was challenged to tat a pair of Siamese elephants. She started with Jane Eborall's design and tweaked it so that the 2 elephants could be joined together at the trunk. To add to the challenge she wanted to tat everything front side so it meant reversing everything for the second elephant, but in the end she triumphed.
Diane began Beatrice by Iris Niebach in size 20 Raspberry Sorbet from Tatskool and then ran out of the lovely HDT and had to wait for more to arrive. After several ups and downs the doily is finally completed and ready to be sent to Diane's friend.

Fox has soldiered on with her bonnet and reached the round where she can switch to something more colourful and she's hoping that it will all work out because the pattern seems to be not quite right. Her TAT program is on track and she has taken a page from Vinnie's book and tatted a motif to hang in her car.
Kelly has had a stellar week. She received Sherry's latest book and with it came some HDT. In addition she was able to tat a doily called "Loop-di-Loop" by Hartmut Hass in DMC size 30.
Marty got 2 designs instead of one out of this pattern. She had intended on doing the same design as a mirror image but it was too big, so she is using the 2 sections as the tops and doing 2 different bottoms. Sherry shows us another of her Hope butterflies along with some new hook pens in size 13 with some size 14 to come.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Earrings, Necklaces, Hearts, Butterflies, Edgings and Motifs

Tattips adapted a Mary Konior pattern from "Tatting with Visual Patterns" to make these bell like earrings in Lizbeth size 20 Sherbet Delight. Masquerade, also by Mary Konior, has been tatted in Lizbeth size 20 in Sherbet Delight and Raspberry Pink light. Agasunset shares the story of how her aunt taught her to tat, how she was inspired to turn a half finished doily into a bridal necklace in white and pearls and how she re-did the design recently in black and genuine Amethyst as a gift for her aunt. She's also thrilled that a magazine wants to feature her earrings in their summer issue. Liyarra shares with us a new source of HDT that tats up very nicely as you can see on the motif here.
NancyD has tatted 2 more Rose Cross bookmarks, one in red and white and the other in yellow and white.
IsDihara has been itching to show TatsKool's new transition thread called Flame Lantana. Here it is in all it's glory tatted into Betsy Evans' Rainbow Heart Bookmark and a partially completed motif from an Iris Nieback doily. Gorgeous thread that looks so scrumptious you could eat it with a spoon. Ancolie is tatting a baby bonnet that she had to modify to get the right dimensions. She's not sure it will work out properly, but if it doesn't she'll turn it into a holdall.

M has tatted Alladin from the book Tatted Snowflakes Collection by Jon Yusoff in Lizbeth 20, col 655, Wedgwood light and col 691, mocha brown medium and comments that she doesn't often think of putting these colours together, but if the shades are right, they work.
Nita is working on a hens and chicks edging in black with red beads which she will use to trim the neckline of a red T-shirt. There have been some comments on the tatting lists about not knowing what to do with a black edging and this is a perfect answer. Sherry has posted the pattern for her HOPE butterfly in PDF format.