Trees and Holly, Mats and Doilies

Sorry I haven't posted lately. My internet connection has been sporadic lately and I haven't been able to check out all of the blogs to update the challenge page.

Clyde has finished his interpretation of the Jasmine doily from The Tatter's Treasure Chest by Mary Carolyn Waldrep. He used Altin Basak size 50 in colours 336 and 360. It looks beautiful.

Mark has been busy planning wedding decorations, helping out with a community theatre production and he almost forgot to enter anything in the fair. He has a number of tatted and bobbin lace pieces to enter.
Sharon has done a thread comparison using a 3D flower motif in 7 different threads. It's amazing that threads labelled size 8, 20, 40 and 50 all produce the same size lace.Donna has been immersed in knitting dish clothes and she's involved in a dishcloth knitting race. Her invitation to Ravelry has given her lots of opportunity to ponder all things knitting related.

Azie has posted a tribute to her pet cat that was hit by a car. Pets become such a big part of our lives, it's hard to say goodbye to them.

Carol created a holly mat inspired by her grapevine doily. She's thinking of giving them as Christmas gifts. She also created a Halloween jester cat, but she thinks it would look better with beads in the eyes.

Marilee has been experimenting with making pendants. Sh tried one starting the same as the swallowtail pendant, but it didn't work with larger beads so she created another variation. Designing is such fun when you can take an idea and bend it in another direction. Another pendant was created using some hand dyed thread in subtle earth tones she calls Weathered Stone. They're all beautiful.

Laura has finished her Pyramid mat for now, but she finds the motif addictive and may add more to it or do another so that she has a pair. She's also been working on her tatted jeans bag for the Tatting Treasures From Trash challenge. She has used all of the trial pieces she did for the tatted hanky as well as some flowers and butterflies. It looks marvelous.

Sylvia's blog is back up and running. She posts a tatted motif by Jennifer Williams done with a variegated Manuela thread received in an exchange.

Sherry made a barrette with 3D flowers on it to go with a dress she bought for her vacation to visit her hubby. She also managed to design a new butterfly on the flight over but she'll share pictures of that later.

Wendy is on a yo-yo binge, working on both large and mini yo-yos. In between she has shown us a lovely needlepoint piano bench cover.

Anne has added the 5th clue to the mystery stole and since she almost ran out of knitting projects she picked up her tatting again and did 4 more motives. These are patterns from old magazines and the patterns are posted on Anne's web site.

Laurie has been working again from Lindsay Rogers' book Tatting Collage to create more fabric art post cards. Those tress are so creative.

Sarah has been experimenting with hairpin lace, and trying several different types of fringes

Flowers, Butterflies and Edgings

Eva participated in a Christmas in July exchange and shows the items she received.

Clyde almost has his doily finished. As soon as it's done he'll be able to post a picture.

Sharon posted a picture of some wedding tatting she did a while ago. Happy Anniversary to me!

With some coaching from Jeanne, Emma is now a Certified Therapy Dog. Congratulations to both of you.

Laura has finally unveiled the hanky she made for her daughter. It's just gorgeous.

Melissa tatted this Hens and Chicks pattern with DMC Cordonnet Special in Ecru size 70 to fancy up her collar. The short pieces for the sides worked up quickly and now she needs to do the longer piece to go around the back. At least she can wear it now with the 2 sides done.

Sherry did Jeanne Lugert's 3-D Rose Pattern with beads in pink although pink is not her favourite colour. What colour would you make a rose? They're either white, yellow, pink or red. She picked up the beads from a store with an amazon mascot and apparently Sherry speaks fluent bird because the avian seems to have fallen in love with her.

Wendy has posted the Mini Aprons for the MJF Mini Apron swap. The aprons are reversible and have been made with antique tatting, crochet and bias tape.

While waiting for the next installment of the mystery stole and the latest Harry Potter book Anne has made a pair of wrist warmers.

Laurie tatted this butterfly in between picking raspberries and reading Harry Potter. The butterfly is from the July 19th entry for the Tatting Pattern calendar and has been cropped so as not to distract you with mouthwatering raspberries and the cover of HP.

Sarah completed one edging in a variegated orange in the Hens and Chicks pattern and started Wendy's antique edging is size 20 variegated blue. She's also been playing with a new hairpin lace tool.

Tatting is alive and well - here's the lace to prove it

I apologize for the sparse posting, but household maintenance has eaten up most of my available time this week.


Ruth made an adorable flower pendant and she's used the same design to make earrings. As a tatting giveaway she makes Snippette the tatted celtic knot snail. The pattern for Snippette is shared in the Tatting Pattern Calendar.
Kathy has finished the tatting for her fair entries and now she can get back to tatting for the challenge. She has 2 more entries, a May 1992 Workbasket motif done in Cebelia size 30 and an edging from a 1972 Workbasket, tatted in what she thinks is Oliver Twist quilting thread.
Carol's post for wordless Wednesday is a picture of a pretty blue bird.

Marilee has created a beautiful Swallowtail Pendant which is a mirror image design. She received a shipment of display materials and she has been sorting things out for her Etsy shop. It feels like you've done a lot of items until you try to fill a display table and then you lot at the mostly empty space and realize just how much inventory it takes. Rhubarb Crisp is the name of her latest hand dyed thread colour.

Laura has wanted a Dancing Lady Orchid for a long time and now she has one in full bloom. She started another round on her Pyramid Orchid Mat, but she's gone with a darker background colour for this one. Charlene is another crazy quilter that loves Laurie's basket design and she's tatted up a bunch to fill with flowers on her crazy quilts.Marty has rescued a bunch of crocheted doilies that had been stained and mistreated and rejuvenated them by tie dying them. Really interesting effects.

Melissa has done a lot of embroidered pillowcases, but this pair of His and Hers, she's keeping. The last tatting meeting she attended, one of the ladies discovered a mistake she couldn't live with and cut off the outer round of her project. Melissa salvaged the cut off pieces and will use them in a crazy quilt. She found a UFO while packing up for her move across country that just needed lots of split stitch border done on it and she decided to pull it out and work on it. so now it's a Finished Object.

Sherry writes about her designing adventures, where she gets inspiration from and how she perfects her designs. She shows a design that didn't work and the final result of what she was trying for. Also posted are some new mugs with tatting designs on them fresh from the kiln.

Wendy is using some vintage Star tatting cotton for one of her edgings in a lovely variegated yellow colour. She has already completed a number of butterflies for the curtain in her daughter's room and she's now looking to do a shadow box of tatted butterflies and bugs to mimic a bug display box. Her daughter is going to name the bugs that will hang on her wall. If you'd like to help out with the Butterfly/Bug collection Wendy would be happy to hear from you. For the quilters, Wendy has posted a tutorial for making a pinwheel block and instructions for anyone who wants to participate in a block exchange.
Anne has been doing a lot of knitting lately and has finished off her knitted tablecloth. It's gorgeous, but I'd be afraid to use it. There's a huge amount of work in it and it looks absolutely stunning. The mystery stole is progressing nicely and as she hasn't got the next clue yet, she's thinking she might do some tatting.

Laurie has taken some of the designs from Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage book and turned them into a fabric postcard for a postcard swap she has joined.

Sarah has joined the challenge and she's been experimenting with a few things while she remembers how to tat. She began a rings only insertion and planned to tat until the shuttle ran out of thread. Here's her finished edging. Sarah has also been dabbling in a little smocking and mentions one of the goodies available in her cafepress shop are knitting needle size chart postcards.

Phoenix, Poppies and Earwig Earrings

Ruth has tatted a Phoenix in honour of the latest Harry Potter book. How wonderfully imaginative.

Sharol has completed her 25 motives with a butterfly for her jeans purse and a hanky edging. Way to go Sharol.Arlene has gone back to knitting socks and she's wondering if we could do some inspirational tatting podcasts to keep people entertained. Hmmm, we'll have to think about that.

Mark is back from his holidays and he's discovered some lacy leaves while gardening. I agree, God makes some amazing stuff, if we'll only take the time to look for it.

Jon has created a lovely rosette doily from a motif she designed. She has also posted the pattern for her diamond square motif.

Everything seems to be going wrong for Snowy. She has a new David Reed Smith shuttle and some new threads to work with but the tatting just isn't coming out right. Sounds to me like an over tired tatter, at least that's my problem when all my tatting seems to go crazy. That's when it's time to take a page from Ann Wilson's book, and count twice, close once.Marilee has created a wonderful pendant with mock rings using her "rhubarb pie" thread.Laura is planning another gecko with sparkly beads to wear on her shoulder.

Eliz's tatting time has been hampered by her need to do some college courses and home projects. She'll get back into the swing of things when her routine gets back to normal.

Melissa has been working on another CQ block incorporating some tatting. At the Palmetto Tatters Meeting she learned how to make Jane Eborall's earwig earrings and turned hers into a pendant.

Sherry received the DMC book of charted design and had to dive right into it. The teaser pattern she showed us earlier turned out to be a triangular motif. The colours remind me of Victorian lace. The first design tatted from her new book is a cross, but after it was done Sherry decided to add another round using some of Marilee's hand dyed size 80 thread. It looks wonderful. Wendy is showing the yo-yos from a swap, some new baby items for the store, and some quilt blocks she's working with.

Laurie has already finished 8 motives for the challenge and she thinks that she'll be making a lot of needlebooks and bookmarks to give as gifts. One of the nice things about this challenge is that there are a lot of people who keep checking in on you and keep you motivated to complete.

Butterflies Watering Cans and Edgings

I started to update the challenge blog and in the middle of it DH decided that my already supersonic computer needed to be tweaked to make it better and faster. So 2 days later I'm ready to finish the update. There may have been additional postings to your blog since I started this, so if you don't see your most recent entries, don't worry I'll get them on the next round.

Ruth has been tatting all kinds of new designs. The little dragonfly on her blog is just adorable. The butterflies are fabulous and the 7 ring butterfly pattern is shared on the Tatting Pattern Calendar.

Arlene had the misfortune of breaking one of her special David Reed Smith shuttles and she's hoping he can repair it. She must be surviving the trauma though, because she has a couple of beautiful Iris Niebach's doilies to show, done in DMC 80 thread.

Clyde has been tatting away working on a doily that will be about 16 or 18 inches across. No pictures yet, but we can wait.

Jon participated in an exchange and she shows us the wonderful quilted needle case and little beaded bad that she received. What wonderful gifts.

Meme posted a picture of a drawstring bag and the pattern used to make it. The design is very intricate and it's easy to lose your place if you're not watching. The numbers have been written on the pattern to show the direction of work. So simple and at the same time so complex.

Laura has joined the ranks of the gecko tatters with 2 lovely samples of the little creature. The first was done in Sulky #12 thread and the second was tatted in DMC Cebelia size 10. The pattern for it is on Jane Eborall's page.

Martha has been making 3D watering cans and flower pots for the Palmetto Tat Day's garden theme. She has used DMC Cebelia size 10 and Caron Wildflowers thread to make these watering cans. The tan coloured thread is vintage size 20. They certainly do count as motives.

Bhavani wanted something simple yet challenging so she did a basic ring and chain edging with a celtic twist to make this bookmark. She has also been working from the book called "Old and New designs in Tatting - Book 11" which she downloaded from the Antique Pattern Library to create this lovely hanky edging. I love the colour, but I'm really interested to see what kind of a corner treatment you use.

Sylvia's blog is temporarily out of commission, but she'll be back next month.

Melissa is moving soon so she's clearing out her Etsy shop for the move. Lots of stash building items for CQers and custom made jewellery items available. She's been doing some little bits to add to here CQ blocks including Laurie's basket. Then she experimented with turning a clover into a heart, then she joined the ends of an edging to make a circular motif that she can add silk ribbon embroidery to. Don't you love how tatting spills over into all the other crafts we love doing?

Sherry has started a Tatters Who Blog ring for anyone whose blog is mostly tatting related. She's been working with some software to diagram patterns but she still wants to do some tweaking. She's also started a blog just for ceramics and she posted a teaser to keep us guessing. Wendy has been busy posting lots of pictures of weather watching and quilts. She's tatted over 4 yards of edging for her next "motif". Anne has been knitting the mystery stole and a tablecloth. Those are big projects and it's easy to see that they won't be completed quickly.

Laurie is experimenting with adding tatting to fabric postcards. The little tatted butterfly is mounted on a netting cutout. She has such creative and beautiful ideas.

Flowers, Baskets, Butterflies and More

Ruth has created a flower that conveniently morphs into a butterfly. Two of our favourite things, flowers and butterflies.

Eva created a variation on one of Kersti Anear's bookmarks.

Barbara has finished her 25th motif. This tatted heart will be a gift for a friend.

Carol picked up her fair entries and has had an opportunity to scan the finished grape doily that won a blue ribbon at the fair.
Marilee has used one yard of several different thread sizes and tatted the familiar Hens and Chicks pattern with it. It's easy to see the effect of the thread size when you can see things side by side like this.

Sherry picked up a pair of baby's overalls for the Tatting Treasures from Trash challenge and then decided not to use them, instead she has appliqued a butterfly to the bib and she needs to find a wee baby to fit them. Maybe they'll go in her Etsy store.

Wendy has embroidered another butterfly for her daughter's curtain and she's showing the swap items that were exchanged for July.

Laurie has decided to join the challenge. She has been needle tatting for 3 whole weeks and there's nothing extraordinary about that, except that as a beginner she's not only learned how to tat, she's designed her first pattern AND submitted it to the Tatting Pattern Calendar. Bravo! It looks like we have another addicted tatter.