Saturday, May 28, 2016

Doilies, Motifs, Snowflakes, Crosses, Star, Edging, Butterflies and Techniques

Mistene finished round 5 of Renulek's Spring 2016 Doily, but she has to catch up as round 9 is already out.


Jane tatted motif 22 and had to keep her wits about her with onion rings and rings on chains, but taking it step by step she was fine. The inner round makes a pretty, small motif all on it's own. Motif 23 is possibly the most complicated pattern she's ever tatted. This one may look pretty, but her first attempt is destined for the scrap bin. It's clever how the designer has changed the shape from a circle to oval in the final round of Motif 24. This next motif is small but not absolutely straight forward as you have to tat the little outer flowers separately first and then join them to the main motif as you go and it would be pretty sewn onto something.






Sharon tatted the Alice snowflake a number of ways and they all look lovely.

Pop Maria tatted Cristina from the book Tatted Bookmarks-cross shaped by Lene Bjorn using her own hand dyed thread in the bright colours of pink, orange and yellow.

Marthanne finished  Renulek's Spring 2014 doily, but it isn't blocked yet and it looks a bit wrinkly.  The Butterfly Doily from Tatting from Burda was begun back in 2014, but it sat on hold as she tried to figure out how to do the butterflies a different colour. Since she couldn't come up with a good idea she's settled on just doing the whole row a different colour. Of course that can't happen until she fixes this error made due to inattention.




Eliz is starting her grandkids off right, Her grandson learned to tat by Eliz working the left hand while he worked the right hand and made his first ring. His little sister got in on the action playing with a shuttle and some thread. Her grandson put in a special request for a snake bookmark after seeing the wonderful collection in Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks, A Tatted Zoo, choosing size 20 Lizbeth colour #100, Falling Leaves and Eliz used Lizbeth colour #694 Harvest Orange for the head. Making the Konior Spinning Wheel Glass Mat 5 times larger, looks ridiculous and at this point it resembles a horseshoe more that a doily. She has already finished her 25 Motifs, and she's starting in on another set.




Sarah found Small Star by Birgit Phelps is both cute and a quick tat.

Diane is working on her yellow Spinning Wheel Glass Mat and she's going to have to hustle to have it done in time. Whew! She finished her sunny yellow Spinning Wheel in the other Fiore thread from Slovakia. Like the pink, it's very tightly twisted and she had to drop her shuttle frequently to untwist it.


Fox recently had a problem where she had to wait for her thread to arrive from the other side of the world and it looks like history is about to repeat itself as she has run out of thread again. In the interim she gets to play with some lovely silk thread Suneeti sent her. She ordered 2 balls of a new #80 Lizbeth colourway that's rather like the thread colour of the last hankie border, but with more pink, which she's using on a Norma Benporath pattern to tat around a doily centre.



Margaret finished Sue Hanson's Celtic motif, adding a ring at the top for a ring so that she can put it on a chain. She added small seed beads around the outside; a single bead alternated with three beads.

Marie tatted this cross by Roger from the Needle Tatting Forum. Two stands of metallic gold and one strand of purple sewing thread, were used for the front of this butterfly and  the back is 3 strands of purple. The Split Ring Cross, by Wanda was a lot of fun to tat. She has tatted Camilla by Lene Bjorn so often she has the pattern memorized.




Muskaan has doubled the repeats in the original Spinning Wheel Glass Mat pattern by Mary Konior in order to use it as a snood or hair bun holder. She's working through Renulek's Spring 2016 doily and posting her results as she works. She's back to playing around with Ikuta's Picots on a Chain. Annie Sukanto from Indonesia is just getting started in tatting and shared her progress with Muskaan. Muskaan shared some tips and created a tutorial which of course lead to doing something more cohesive.














Sue's  work on Renulek's 2016 Spring Doily hasn't progressed as far as she hoped. Elaine P. Gan's Justification Cross is made with rings tatted in size 40 Lizbeth Pineapple Parfait and chains tatted in size 40 Lizbeth Butterfly Breeze. Round 8 of Renulek's Spring 2016 doily is done but she can't get it to lay straight.



Monday, May 23, 2016

Motifs, Snowflakes, Doilies, Lady, Edging, Crosses, Techniques and Cuffs

Jane can't tell whether it's a difference in tension or picot size that makes her motif different from the picture in the book. She tatted motif 21 in different colourways in an attempt to show the structure off better. She liked the orange colour blips in the second motif, but avoided them in the outer round by using Catherine Wheel Joins.



Sharon took a short break from the 2016 Spring doily to tat Yakut snowflake from Jon Yusoff's book Elegant Tatting Gems and she loves patterns that are just one round.

Eliz is pleased that her Concentric Rectangles Doily is turning out better that she expected as she hasn't really liked how the variegated thread looked before, but it's lovely paired up with matching solid colours.

Elsa has added more tatting to her picture. The dress is embroidered with viscose ribbon hand dyed by Stef Francis. The grounds are made in tatting cotton pearl DMC 12 fixed on the canvas with satin acrylic varnish using a series of motifs and traditional patterns.



Diane hit the 2/3 mark on her Spinning Wheel Glass Mat. Here is the Mat finished. The next one is already started in the yellow Fiore thread. She's half way around the final row of her Concentric Rectangles Doily. Despite the busy time at the end of her last year, she has made some progress on the Rectangles Doily, as well as a bit more on the Spinning Wheel Glass Mat.






Fox is delighted that her jinxed doily finally arrived at it's destination and she's already moved on to row 8 of the Renulek doily. She had enough #50 HDT thread to get around the hankie, because it was such a simple pattern.



Marie luceted the chain and tatted around a doo-dad, she found at Walmart. This design by Dee Powell, called Heritage Cross is from the book called Tatted Bookmarks.


Sue is a little obsessed with wanting a good Broomstick Lace Butterfly. After three tries she thinks she's finally on the right track.


Wanda put tatted buttons on denim with a little lace and made cuffs for her daughters for Mother's Day. She started with a little denim, different button motifs, some scraps of lace and a few fabric leaves. They turned out wonderful.