Earrings, Hankies and Valentine Hearts

Bev is working on lots of hearts for a Valentine's exchange and as decoration for a denim bag. Lots of little red hearts are being tatting as the bag needs 32 of them for the bag straps. Bev is working on the TIAS challenge and she thinks she knows what it is, but she's not telling.

Aileen is working on heart for an exchange but she doesn't want to show any pictures until it's complete. The thread broke on the TIAS piece she was working on and it's very distressing. Cheer up, it's also an opportunity to learn how to fix a break, un-tat a few rings and chains, add in some new thread. Lots of things you can try. Not knowing what it is, you have the consolation that it isn't a piece that you planned to give away or to use in a project and there was no deadline you were working toward. It could be sooo much worse.

Joyce received earrings that Valerie tatted for her in blue thread with silver beads that really sparkle. The hanky was made for the tatted hanky exchange using a variegated #12 perle cotton. The heart is Birgit Phelps Li’l Heart. The edging is a series of split rings and Joyce used 3 7/7 rings between joins to the hanky but says it would have to be adjusted to fit each handkerchief.

Arlene has another podcast ready which should be up tomorrow. Pictures of her heart exchanges have to wait until the partners receive them.

Clyde's doily has found a permanent position under a large piece of calcite. They appear to be made for each other their colours blend well and the textures are a perfect contrast.

This is my display hanky, not because it's particularly pretty or impressive, but for what you can't see.

Earrings, Flowers, 3D shapes, Doily and Butterflies

Elizabeth admits she finally had to use a magnifying glass to see the fine black thread these earrings are made in. The thread is an Anchor thread labelled 80 but it seems more like 90-100. It seems to me that all of the Anchor threads are a touch finer than the DMC counterparts.The first pair is Rosemarie Peel's "Celtic Motif" and the second is based on a pattern called "beaded teardrop" by Betty Goetgeluck.
Sylvia tatted this little flower from an Ecru Hakelgarn no. 20 crochet thread sent to her by Jon in a thread exchange and it's a lovely thread to work with. Betsy Evans sent her Altin Basak thread in a variegated pink, white and blue along with a pattern called Small Tatted Heart that she designed in 1998.
Tami did Jane's Celtic Motif and she's still working on TIAS. C4G has made her shuttles and spent time browsing through one of the books from the antique pattern library. She's working on the "waist set" for a hurricane lamp and she has learned how to do split rings. Gina has 3 more motives done. The first one was done with a fine variegated thread that she thinks she must have dyed because it bled when she blocked it and a picot broke when she was hiding ends. The thread on the second one also broke, but the 3rd done in white remained intact. Ruth has tatted a Celtic Rosebud, Heart, and vines as a doodle for now. The cube and triangle are something she created with what she calls a "BDS or Balanced Double Stitch". Look, a new term for a new technique.
Clyde's doily has reached the size he wants without the last 7 rows and he thinks it will be 24 inches across if he does them. The doily is gorgeous as it is.

I haven't been able to access Mark's web site for several days, but I know he has posted some new patterns on his project page so make sure you take a look at them.

Marilee's sweetheart earrings are a sweetheart of a design. Simple and elegant.
Laura finally caught up with the TIAS challenge.

Marty has posted the visual pattern for another of her wonderful butterflies. The drawing looks perfect to me.
Melissa has added some embellishment to the tatted fan she made. Then she tatted a cross from Mark's site in size 80 thread for CQ friend. Sherry plans on being at the Shuttlebirds tatting convention and she's been busy dyeing threads to take with her so that she'll have a good selection of threads and shuttles for sale.

Wally's latest flower made with variegated Valdani thread and and cram Miquita. Wally plans on posting the pattern for it later and needs help with naming it.

Hearts, Swan, Snowflakes and more What is it?

Administration Note. As more people have joined the challenge, it becomes increasingly challenging for me to keep up with it. I know that a lot of tatters are hitting this blog, just to stay in touch and see what's going on. It's part of the reason I continue to include people who have finished the challenge, that, and the fact that some people, (I'm not mentioning Laura's name LOL), but some people, are well and truly addicted to tatting motives and keep joining up for the second, third, and fourth time. So, I'm going to discontinue mentioning things here if it isn't about tatting, or at least I'm going to try. Some things are just plain fun and interesting and ought to get mentioned. So if you blog about stuff and it doesn't get mentioned here, you'll know why.

Eva is working on the TIAS challenge and thinks it might be a pig.

Eliz has been busy with school but she did get some down time to tat at Christmas. This is the last of the animal bookmarks she completed and she modifies it a little to use 2 colours, the trailing water is Caron Wildflowers

Anne has just finished knitting a pair of wrist warmers for her mother with musical notes on them.

Tami tatted a snowflake with metallic silver thread that she found difficult to work with. She too has been working on the TIAS challenge. She thinks her tatted camel came out looking more like a horse.

Norma has been working on several CQ round robins. She tatted a pretty bookmark using Marilee's hand dyed thread. She plans to do some embroidery with it as well. Norma has also picked up a couple of new students to teach how to tat, an 11 year old girl and her grandmother. She has been tatting some cloud shapes for CQ and one is from a new tatting book. Weren't there some clouds in the Tatting Pattern Calendar? (I just checked, there are.) The green edging and motives are designs that she did some time ago as is the doily and the collar that are done in size 30 DMC. The collar includes a band of crochet.

Shay has posted an interesting essay on her local neighborhood and a recipe for Oatmeal bread. It sounds yummy. I modified a recipe for oatmeal bread from a Mennonite cookbook so that I could make it in my bread machine. Not quite as yummy, but a lot less work.

Aileen used Marilee's snowflake pattern to make earrings for the January exchange and added large tatting covered beads to the top. Really pretty and I suspect that the large bead besides giving it an interesting little twist also makes it a little less wispy in the weight department.

C4G added the tatted flower she did to the top of a box. She has plans to maybe add an edging to the box as well. Then she did a sweet pair of earrings in size 10 classic crochet thread with swarovski crystals. She has discovered Beetons book and downloaded it. Antique tatting books can give you a case of tatting overload when you from nothing to a glut of patterns. C4G thinks it might be possible to make her own tatting shuttles and she has some in the works. The proof is in the tatting.

Bonnie has tatted Irene Woo's Heart of the Butterfly pattern first in white, and then in Marilee's hand dyed thread. Gorgeous aren't they?

Gina has wanted to join the challenge for a while and when she noticed that this book has 25 motives it was a perfect opportunity to tat the designs in a languishing book and join the challenge. For the un-informed Gina has been blogging about tatting for years and is a prolific tatter. Due to time constraints I have asked Gina if it would be all right with her if I only blog about the things on her page that pertain to the challenge. Otherwise I'd need to almost duplicate her blog every day. Her link is in the side bar so you can check it out for yourself and as always each time I post I will link back to the original page. Gina's first entry is a poorly written design with apparent mistakes in it. The first sample made a nice hat for a ball of size 70 thread, so she re-did it. The thread she used is some that she hand dyed herself a few years ago. I don't know Gina I kind of like it like a hat, add another little ruffle around the edge and it would make a perfect mob cap for a tiny teddy bear.

Pamela has day 7 of TIAS done and she's tatting it again in a different colour to make it look more realistic, as she thinks she knows what it is. Jon has 5 new snowflakes designs tatted and none of them written out, but she's on a roll and feels that if she stops she'll lose her train of thought. The problem with that of course, is that the sooner you write it down the easier it is to remember. When you don't remember you have to stop and count. Doesn't Jon come up with some amazing designs? I had a lovely surprise sent to me, a beautiful tatted cross and an English Aero. I'm in heaven.
Marty has finally had a chance to catch up on the TIAS challenge and she remarks hers looks like it's in a windstorm. You may remember that Melissa had a vintage tatted doily find and was tatting another from the original. When she got half way it looked like a fan so she decided to add it to a CQ block with some SRE roses and swarovski crystals. It's really pretty with a vintage jewellery finding.

Snowflakes, Polar Bears, Butterflies and Coasters

Wendy shows how a wrist bag is used to hold the ball of thread so that you can carry it on your wrist as you work. She has found some crocheted hex shaped motives that she has made into girls' shirts and she's wondering if she should leave them as shirts or crochet skirts to go with them. I want to know hat the dimensions of the hexes are as I'm wondering how long it would take to do in tatting.

Sapna is enthusiastic about a new tatting pupil. Way to go Sapna.

Margaret was at the dentist's and the receptionist plans to come and learn tatting from her. Margaret had a chance to see some of her earlier work along side a later piece and she's surprised at how her work has improved.

Shay has posted her weekly cat picture and a story "gotcha" story of a lawyer who couldn't get away with it.

Barbara has come back to tatting after an absence and has discovered some new techniques. She joins the challenge with a couple of motives. The first one is from "Easy Tatting" and is done in Opera size 20 thread. The second motif is from "Tatted Easter Eggs" also done in Opera size 20 but this one is a light cream colour.

C4G has her first tatted snowflake done and being blocked. It's looking good. On Monday Mortaine taught herself how to needle tat AND shuttle tat (boy, is this lady good). She tatted 2 feet of ring and chain edging, did a motif for a swap and a whisper of lace to go on a fabric postcard. She came to the 25 Motif Challenge by way of Jane's TIAS where she had to learn split rings and split chains to work on the project. She's a natural I tell you, her first pieces don't even look like first pieces. Glad you found us Mortaine. Diane has been browsing through A Treasury of Design for Artists and Craftsmen by Gregory Mirow and sees lots of things that could be turned into tatting. The cover makes me want to see what's on the inside.

Pamela tatted Mark Myer's polar bear and here she shows him in his icy habitat. The thread is size 10 Coates Mercer Anchor. It's making me colder just looking at him.

Carol got tired of working on the gingerbread house, as awesome as it is, row after row of the same colour, same pattern, gets boring. So she took a look at the crochet flowers made from pull tabs that we saw on Wendy's blog earlier and did a version in tatting that could be used as a coaster. Clever.Clyde really is addicted to hand dyed threads. As soon as Marilee has a new batch, Clyde HAS to have it. Yup, he's addicted.

Marilee's latest colour "Tourmaline" also comes in a batch with slow colour changes. Quick colour changes are great on small projects but they can look choppy on larger projects. Slow colour changes let you enjoy the variegated threads without losing the design.

Laura did a variation of Mark's chocolate cherry cake only she used French Vanilla cake and cherry pie filling with cream cheese icing. These blogs are getting more fattening by the day. She started another snowflake working with the same rose centre as found in Denise Munoz' book but she decided to try her own outer rows. I love the look of it and one of the best ways to start designing your own patterns is to begin modifying an existing pattern. You obviously can't publish anything based on someone else's work, but you sure can learn how to design your own by "reverse engineering" theirs.

Charlene is still busy with cross stitching.

Marty has finished and tacked down a lovely butterfly edging and butterfly embellishment on a pink tie dyed onsie. Isn't it just adorable? Marty has also been persuaded to put her butterfly patterns down on paper and she shares one of them of her blog. It's brilliantly designed and looks like it would be easy to tat.

Melissa is continuing her tutorial on how to make a crazy quilt block.

Wally is working on the TIAS challenge. I thought it was looking like a hippopotamus until the latest edition.