Doilies,Edgings, Grapes and Flowers

We've had a couple more people finish their 25 goal. Isn't it nice to know that you can do it?

Arlene tatted this carnation with beads hoping for the effect of dew on the petals but it isn't quite what she was hoping for. She's going to try it again using white beads. Silver lined beads give the sparkling dew-y effect until the silver tarnishes, then it just looks awful. Arlene's not sure if she's finished her 25 motives yet so she's going to do a couple of Iris' doilies.
Clyde shows a picture of one of the 3D floral displays done for Parks and Recreation done by his partner. Pretty awesome, or awesomely pretty.

Mark has finished tatting a heart and matching edging for a hanky. Isn't is just gorgeous? So delicate looking.
Jon shows us some old tatting discovered when they had to clean out her MIL's house. She found the cloverleaf edging interesting and counted the stitches so that she could reproduce a section of the design. She remarked that one of the designs looks familiar. It is. I saw it in a public domain book this weekend, but I can't remember which one. She also found the little chair her MIL made to hold the egg given guests at the wedding reception. I can't imagine making all those little chairs.
Sharon shows us a picture of her macaw.

Snowy tatted a lovely design in a variegated thread. This makes her 25th motif and now she's wondering what to do with her blog. Keep showing picture of tatting of course!
Marilee has created some adorable earrings that have a lovely 3D effect. Aren't they wonderful?
Laura shows us a picture of her finished friendship doily. She took the picture again on a darker background that makes the lace stand out more. Light colours photograph better on a dark surface and dark colours are better on a light surface. When there is both light and dark in a doily it can be hard to find a background that makes both look good. That's always a good thing to keep in mind when you are selecting the colours to use in a doily, especially if you have a particular location in mind for it.
Charlene made it to the Palmettos gild meeting on Saturday and it sounds like they had a lot of fun. They worked an adorable 3D flower, then Charlene learned how to get a perfect onion ring and taught Hope how to needle tat. She managed to get some Opera size 20 thread and she worked up a sample to compare with some Rubi thread also size 20. What a difference in 2 size 20 threads.
Marty tatted "Milena" from Tatted Doilies by Iris Niebach in DMC size 80 red ombre thread. The doily was sent out in a doily exchange and couldn't be posted until her partner had received it.
Eliz has been doing some more work with the Valeire square. It will be a topic for the online class. Lots of things can be done with squares. Melissa has been working on some CQ blocks and embroidering a southern belle.

Patti has opened an Etsy store and has a lovely little purse decorated with black work for sale.

Sherry designed this sweet little grape edging. Then she got creative and daring and worked it in doing the grapes in alternating colours using 5 shuttles. Very clever.

Tiara, Heart and Bookmark

This is another post where several people have completed or nearly completed their 25 motives. Congratulations to everyone who has met their personal challenge.

Gail finished her knitting and laid it out on the floor to see how it looked. It seems the cats approve.

Clyde tatted the Astrid edging to be used by his daughter as a tiara for her prom. She'll look lovely in it. This finishes Clyde's 2nd set of 25 motives.

Mark finished tatting all of his hearts and framed them as gifts for Mother's day. He was asked to make a tatted heart in purple. This new design is done in pearl tatting and as Mark puts it, it's a positively purple pearl tatted heart done in Oliver Twist thread. He thinks this makes it 25.

Riet shows us pictures of Nora's birth announcement. Can you tell Riet is practicing to be a doting Grandma?

EeKoon has been stitching until it hurts-literally. The results were worth it as she has finished both a Mother's day gift and an exchange project. They are lovely pieces of work.

Azie completed the work for a scissors fob exchange.

Laura has posted pictures of her grandson taken on Mother's Day.

LaRae has posted a card catalog entry - think on these things.

Melissa has finished her spring challenge block and she plans on framing it. The block is covered with many reminders of her home in Georgia.

Patti has been tatting but doesn't have any pictures to show us yet. She does have a picture that was taken of her standing beside a Viking, complete with ship.

Sherry tatted the Marchanne Bookmark by Judi Banashek in size 80 thread in a lovely minty green, or at least that's how it appears on my screen. Her latest endeavor is a bunch of tatted grapes. How cool.

Bees, Butterflies, Hearts and doilys

Achoo! sniff, sniff. Achooo! If you've wondered why no updates, now you know.

Gail has solved her problem with the block tatted doily and now it's progressing nicely. The outer round of motives really does make it pop.

Sharol has done another card. This one uses a motif from Patti Duff's Mini Tats using another exchange thread.

Mark is working on Mother's Day hearts. He did 2 using a split ring ground and another rose heart using Oliver Twist thread.

Sharon hasn't posted any tatting but she has given us a sneak peek at the PDF indexing software her hubby is working on. This should help sort out all those tatting patterns we have in PDFs.

Snowy has done Iris Niebach's cactus pattern in a beautiful variegated thread.

Donna has finished knitting a scarf she started in January. Its' definitely not scarf weather any more.

Azie shares the scissors fobs given and received in an exchange.

Marilee shares a tribute to her Mom, who passed away in May.

LaRae has added 3 new motives to her blog. Two of them are original designs and the other is from a book she can't remember the name of. They are all pretty and that makes yet another person who has finished 25 motives.

Pamela has added a swarm - well not a swarm - just 3 bees to her collection of critters. Theses have been done in size 10 and 20 Flora. The pattern is from Martha Ess' book New Critters on the block.
Melissa has learned to do split rings and made split ring bracelets for the kids. Alece finished embroidering her T-shirt and got to model it.
Sherry made a sulu skirt and covered it with tatted butterflies and a tatted edging (15 feet of edging in size 80 thread). She decided that Mother's Day was a good day to wear it.

Administration Note

Just a short note to let everyone know that I have updated the links at the right. Those that I know have completed the challenge have been marked. It isn't possible for me to know that you are done unless you post the information in your blog. During the challenge some have numbered their pieces, but many have just posted them as they were completed. Even if I went through each blog and counted up the pictures shown I might not get it right, as sometimes we share previously done tatting to show a technique or thread or for some other reason. So if you are done and I haven't marked it, let me know.

Some people joined the challenge and for various reasons haven't been able to keep up with it. Those who haven't posted for a long time or whose blogs are no longer available I have moved to the bottom of the list. I don't have everyone's email address so I haven't been able to contact people to see what their plans are. For the moment I am assuming that they still want to participate. If you are at the bottom of the list and have discovered that there just isn't any tatting time available to you to complete the challenge, please let me know.

NOTE: The 25 Motif Challenge isn't over. The challenge was to tat 25 motives in a year and some people just started a couple of months ago. But what is the point of a challenge if we don't keep track so that we can congratulate you when you succeed?

Tatting for notecards, earrings and bags

I began today's update this morning and here the day is almost over and I'm just getting around to posting. Where does the time go?

Gail tatted Camilla one of the patterns from Tatted Bookmarks by Lene Bjorn. Gail likes these bookmarks because they all have fancy tassels.

Sharol's Red Hat chapter made cards. Hers is sporting a lovely wee butterfly done in a thread Sharol received in an exchange.

Sharon has tatted 25 motives, but they've all been multiples of the same thing, which wasn't what she had planned. There are 25 of them and they are done, so she thinks she'll move onto the denim bag challenge.

Jeanne has done a pair of earrings from a Snowgoose publication using 2 strands of Sulky thread. I love the colour.

Carol has been busy with yard work and her basket isn't progressing very fast. So in lieu of tatting she has posted an updated picture of her growing puppy.

Laura did one of the Tatted Rose Garden motives from the Big Book of Tatting using Flora thread. The yellow she had was too bright so she use DMC Cebelia instead.

Dawn has finished her 2nd batch of 25 motives with the derby hat from the Tatting Pattern Calendar. She has plans to do an edging for daughter's T-shirt that she made. She has also worked on a cross that was in the calendar, doing it from memory in size 8 perle cotton. Her latest project is a little flower using pearl tatting and daisy picot. Her long term project is an edging for a tablecloth. It's nice to have something lined up for when you have a spare minute or two.

Melissa has joined the Tatting Treasures from Trash denim bag challenge and shows us how she is making the bag. She doesn't have a lot of tatting to add to it yet but she's working on it. The kids are making amazing progress on their embroidery and Melissa just has a little more tweaking to do on her CQ block.

Sherry has been playing around with all the new techniques that she is learning and came up with this cute design worked with 3 shuttles. The kiln has been put into good use lately too and Sherry has some new items with tatting designs on them available in her Etsy shop.

Doilies and Necklaces, Ice Cream and Fleas, Kokopelli and Cuties.

Such an amazing lot of tatting and more of our participants are finishing their challenge. The link for the new Tatting Treasures from Trash challenge is listed in the sidebar. Anyone interested in joining please send your email to me here so that I can add you to the list of contributors.

Arlene has added 2 more doilies to her blog and she thinks that makes 25. She needs to count them out and put them all on Flicker. While she's been busy tatting her hubby crafted Super Mario out of florist's foam for the prom.You have to see this for yourself.
EeKoon finished off one of her stitching projects and picked up her tatting again. She did a little motif in size 10 thread and she's decided she doesn't like thick thread because it springs the points of the shuttle. She started the Beatrice doily from Iris Niebach's book and had to quit because she ran out of the variegated Anchor thread. So she started the Cornelia doily from the same book in Cebelia. She likes working with Cebelia because it's smooth and not stiff.

Marilee tried working with 2 strands of size 30 thread wound on the shuttle, one variegated and the other solid. Interesting effect and not as thick as the size 10 thread.

Martha was looking for a quick little motif to try out a new thread, DMC Quick Finish Senso Harlequin, so she used Debbie Flork's Kokopelli. The motif was a success, but the colour of the thread clashed with the garment. Pamela's place has been infested with fleas and she's looking to find something that will eat them. Pattern compliments of Jane Eborall.

Eliz has took the Valeire Square and made it into a yummy looking ice cream cone. The design offers a variety of challenges to the on-line tatting class. She wasn't able to join the class today as a flat tire delayed her arrival home. The time was put to good use working out another design idea and she'll post pictures of it later.

Melissa has been practicing shuttle tatting and she did these rosettes in size 10 Flora thread and turned them into necklaces for the girls. Simple and pretty. Melissa also posts the round robin blocks that she has back. Sherry's pamphlet has been a success and all of the Moms that received their tatted earrings really loved them. Now if she can just teach this little guy to tat...

Flags and Stars and more challenge Fun!

Diana has been tatting flags in different sizes of thread. She wants to make one into a pin but can't figure out how to add the pin to the back and not show through. Any ideas?

Clyde is working on a doily from the pattern Distinctive Luncheon Set that he is adapting from the book Tatting Doilies& Edgings By Rita Weiss.He is using a beautiful thread from New Zealand called Hand Died Hues colour 1202 size 10 but notes it tats up more like size 40-50.

Sharon has issued another challenge. A lot of people have completed their first 25 motives and started over again so we are getting to the point where some people are looking for a new project.On several of the tatting lists people have been asking about what kinds of things can you add tatting to so that it's more visible. Still others have asked the question, what do I do with all my tatting bits, especially the bits that have mistakes, or had coffee splashed on them or the dog chewed a corner of it, or whatever. So here's the challenge. Take an old pair of denim jeans, cut off the legs and sew across the bottom part to make a bag. Add a strap to make it into a bag or backpack and decorate it with tatting. It can be old tatting or new tatting, you can add a little or add a lot. If you are interested in joining the new challenge let Sharon know by adding a comment to her blog or sending her an e-mail. This challenge will have it's own blog page and you will be able to add your own updates to the challenge page so she needs your email address to be able to contact you. You can send email to sharon at gagechek dot com if you think you'd like to participate. This will be fun!

Marilee has started listing her gorgeous designs on ebay and in her etsy shop. Mother's Day is coming up, how about getting Mom some original design necklaces or earrings?

Charlene has been tatting the motives from the Tat Along project and can't see where number 3 should start. She made a lovely blue variegated bookmark in Finca size 12 and added elongated aurora borealis beads to the end. Charlene has been perusing the books in the Project Guttenburg web site and discovered Therese de Dilmont's Encyclopedia of Needlework. That book will keep her busy for a while.

It's a star, it's butterflies, it's a butterfly star motif. Marty was working on a square design in green and white, but it just didn't lay flat. She tweaked the design adding one more repeat, some Josephine rings and some larger rings in places and suddenly it all fits together with butterflies holding things in place. There is one problem though, she wants to see what it looks like with several joined together and she has run out of the red ombre thread.

Alece has finished her embroidery and Melissa showed her how to turn it into a cute little pillow. Melissa is working steadily on creating a hummingbird and roses for her quilt block.

Square Motives and Tatting Business Cards

Sharon has been toying with the idea of tatting with square motives and making a vest or shrug or something. She's not quite sure yet what she wants to make. The current square motif is in time out for not behaving and will probably need to have it's edges trimmed.

The kids at Melissa's house are stitching merrily away.

Sherry has created a notice page to hand out while she's "out in public". It's something that she can hand out with additional tatting information for interested parties. We all ought to have a little business card or something with our phone number and e-mail address, website and maybe links to some teaching sites so that we can pass the information on while people are interested.

Socks and Crabs and 3D Roses

Mark and Kim spent the weekend camping out at the annual quilt show in Paducah. Mark was able to meet up with his bobbin lace teacher and visit a lot of vendors where he picked up some bobbins and lovely threads as well as this shuttle for his collection.

Snowy has added a delicate lace edging to some socks for a feminine touch. Does anyone have tips for putting lace on socks?

Ta Da! Donna has finished her knitted sock. It has a few problems, but it is a sock.

Laura has tatted another critter for Isaac's room. This is one is Jane Eborall's pattern for a crab and Laura can't wait until the little guy wakes up to see his new crustacean.

Melissa is busy working on CQ block that needs to be finished by the 15th and they currently have kids staying with them while their mother who's in the army is away in the field. The kid's are 6, 11 and 12.5 and have been learning to embroider. What a great way to both entertain and educate the young.

Patti observed one day of blog silence May 1st, in honour of the victims at Virginia Tech.

Sherry tatted Jeanne Lugert's 3D rose earrings for Mother's day, and she had so much fun doing them that she did a bunch more in a variety of colours to give away to the mothers on her list.

Tons of Terrific Tatting

Gail has started this doily again and she has reached the point where she's wondering if she should stick to the pattern as written, or let creativity take off and go in a whole new direction. See the shuttle? It's one of Sherry's ceramic shuttles and it looks like it tats very nicely. Ceramic!, think of all the possibilities.
Jon has been working on an edging that she plans on attaching to a tablecloth. She doesn't like the way the outer row looks so she's leaving it off for now. She plans on attaching the edging to the centre section, and not the outer edge. So far, it's looking really great.

EeKoon has laid aside the cross stitch for a while to do some embroidery. As for tatting she has picked up Iris Niebach's book "Tatted Doilies" and has begun to work on one called Beatrice. Stay tuned for pictures as the lace develops.

Marilee attended a day put on by the Prairie Mill Lacemakers. It sounds like it was a totally Victorian day from the laces to the sumptuous tea they enjoyed. Check out the pictures on Marilee's blog and keep a bib handy to catch the drool.

Marty has done a square motif from "Tatting together square motifs" edited by Iris Niebach. This one is made in DMC Cébélia size 20 in green and white. She has also been working on this lovely oval design also by Iris. Should she add more blocks to it or design a complimentary border? Any ideas?

Sylvia passed the time on her coach ride tatting a cross from the Mary Konior book Tatting with Visual Patterns. On the coach going to Ostend she tatted a snowflake from book by Lene Bjorn called 24 snowflakes in tatting.

Melissa and her husband both learned how to shuttle tat this weekend. They are working on a MOM bookmark.
Sherry posts a tribute to her great grandmother and a picture of the tatted flowers given to everyone at the Shuttlebirds convention.