More Tagging than Tatting

Gail has been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

Elizabeth created a shuttle design for the TatChat group back in the 90's and she still uses the design today. Here it is as a pin and done again as part of a necklace. Isn't it lovely? Elizabeth has also been tagged to post 7 weird/random things.

For everyone who thinks that dazzling designs drip from a designer's shuttle, Martha shows the slow, steady, scrupulous journey from concept to completion. There are 9 variations shown here for one small heart. Now multiply that by the 19 designs in the book, and Martha has done the challenge 7 times over!Pamela tatted one little mouse with Coats Red Heart 20 and another with Coats Mercer Anchor 20 and there is a significant difference in the finished size. Did you know that the plural for mouse, the rodent is mice, but the plural for mouse, the Manually-Operated User-Selection Equipment attached to your computer is actually M.O.U.S.E.s because it's the plural of an acronym? Last year Wendy's neighbors left a nativity set on their doorstep one piece at a time until the night before Christmas the last piece, the baby Jesus was left and the gifter revealed. What a nice way to celebrate the season! She is working on a Halloween yo-yo quilt, planning it as she goes.

Anne has added the pattern for her dragon wave wrist warmers to her web site.

Sarah has added some books to her library thanks to the book fair, and she did a little weaving just to try out bias weaving.

Joyce participated in the scissors fob exchange and has posted pictures of the fobs given and received. She made one with a button centre and another with beads. Beads do add another dimension to the tatting, but it also takes more time working with them. I prefer bobbin shuttles for working with beads.

Connie has posted the tatting she did while away. Jon's Heart Snowflake was done in DMC Cebelia Size 10 in a pale yellow and Mary's Square Motif was done using a sportweight yarn. Wally Sosa's Base motif #2 was made using Knit-cro-sheen metallic as an experiment. The "Butterfly Snowflake" by Samantha Melinychuk was tatted with Clarks O.N.T 6-cord Size 30 in a variegated blue. She also did a crocheted snowflake as a sample for a friend.

Sapna posts her 19th motif. She's also been tagged to post 7 weird/random things.Norma is recovering from cataract surgery and slowly working on her TAST samples. She has posted some pictures of a round robin CQ block where they are stitching a favorite Bible story or verses and this block has incorporated the lace corner of an old hanky.

Diane is modeling the hats Teri D made.

Bev has completed Mark's bat and it's waiting for Ruth's Tootie Fruity bat to join it.

Kelly aka Catherine has completed the Tatalong motif, Mark's bat and the X of the Cecelia doily but hasn't taken any pictures yet.

Ruth saw a picture that looked so much like tatting, she had to give it a try. Introducing Mr. Clickety Clank the Bone Collector.

Arlene has used the glow in the dark blending filament on another beautiful ornament. It makes ME smile and I can't even see it glow. Arlene has also been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

Clyde has been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

Mark posted the most gorgeous floral spray using Oliver Twist thread. I'm glad he got the visibility problems sorted out because it's just too beautiful to miss. Mark has also been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

Jon has been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

I have been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts too.

Snowy has also been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

Marilee has a new colourway done called "Winter Blend" in frosty looking blue. Marilee is starting to write down her colour recipes so that theoretically she will be able to reproduce the colourway. Marilee has also been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.

Laura tatted Sherry's Autumn Leaf pattern in 4 colours and made a small mistake which she didn't notice until the end, so she re-worked it in Gemini Double Strand Crochet Thread by Royale color # 0460 Golden Yellow/Pumpkin and it's a very fall like colour. She may do a bunch of these and create a mobile with them. Laura has been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts too. Marty's sister did this tie dyed long sleeved onesie for a winter baby and Marty added the tatting along the neck using one strand of Gütermann cotton thread and one strand of Signature machine embroidery thread. The diagrammed pattern for it is on her blog. Marty too has been tagged to post 7 weird/random facts.
Melissa has completed the tatted cuffs for her sweater. It certainly adds a touch of pizazz to an ordinary sweater. While she was on a roll adorning winter clothing she finished embroidering the lapels of her jacket and added some beads for sparkle. Doesn't it look terrific?

Sherry received a surprise package in the mail from Diane which included some wonderful tatting threads and the shuttles that Diane blogged about.

Lots of Tatting Treasures

I started this update Friday morning and here it is Monday afternoon and I'm still working on it. Some days it just takes a while to report on all the variety of activities you folks are involved in. I apologize if I've missed anything. Sometimes I notice that things have been updated again after I've gone through the first time, especially when it takes me several days to get through them all. If there's only one blog that's updated I'll include it, but if there are a lot, I'll catch them the next time around.

While Bhavani was browsing the internet she discovered the "Encyclopedia of Needlework" by Therese de Dillmont on the Project Gutenberg site. The on line version is more recent that her copy and has some additions missing in hers. She's settling in to her new home and new job but hopes to have some tatting to show soon.

Wendy has posted some quilt blocks from an exchange and she's still on the hunt for books to make the kind of lace she wants that in are in a price range she can afford.

Sarah has been doing a lot of Christmas knitting and weaving a lot of different squares for the Square Deal Weave Along and just for good measure she got in a little crochet. Still no tatting.

Sapna has been making good use of her Easy Tatting book by Rozella Linden (aka Ruth), tatting a six sided motif, a small heart and a square motif. Lots of quick little tats that look really pretty.

The Square Necklace is another lovely design by Iris that will be in her jewellery book. She's working hard to get as much done as possible before she has to babysit her grandchildren in November. Iris also shares with us more of her Palmetto adventures.
Diane has done some more squares for the Square Deal Weave Along and she has decorated some shuttles for a friend as a gift using the wee tatted pieces made earlier. Sherry has tagged her to share 7 random and or weird things about herself. And Sherry has also helped her with setting up some links.
Kelly has been busy too linking to other bloggers. I don't think it is necessary to ask permission to link to a blog. In fact linking to the one anther's blogs and web pages just makes us all that much more visible. Kelly has been tagged by Melissa to share 7 weird and or random things about herself.

Carol's computer died on her, so no pictures until she has it back. She's been working on some exchange piece that she can't show yet anyway.

Ruth has posted Tootie Fruity The Southern IL fruit bat. The pattern was shared with the online class and in the Tatting Pattern Calendar. Ruth has also launched the first ever, Tatting Podcast.

Arlene has knitted some cozy socks and tatted an ornament from Ann Stearns book using a Sulky blended hologram filament and a glow in the dark thread. Next up she plans to do some angels in the same thread and maybe we have another podcast coming.
Mark couldn't find a suitable birthday card for his Mom so he did a hand made card and he and Kim are making a butter pecan cake cut into 4 horizontal thin layers with coconut pecan filling and maple buttercream icing. Yum!

Jon has posted a daisy picot snowflake with pattern and step by step instructions with pictures. This will be a good page to bookmark so that we can refer people to it.

Snowy has been tagged for 7 random or weird things about herself.

Here are the earrings Marilee did using her new Tigereye thread.

Laura did Martha's Flower Bouquet Heart tatted in Flora size 20 and DMC Cebelia size 20 and had to master the SCMR to do it. She thinks she may frame these to go in her Victorian bedroom.

Marty learned to tat from this Coats and Clark book she bought in 1974. There's some good patterns in those old books, but I agree, I much prefer visual patterns.

Melissa used a pattern Marie Smith sent her to create an edging for the cuffs of a sweater. Her friend Debbie found some wonderful tatting patterns in some old Workbasket Magazines and scanned them so that she could share them on her blog. There are numerous patterns including a tatted alphabet. Melissa has been very busy and has lot of pictures to share of her CQ blocks and silk ribbon embroidery and she's also been tagged to share 7 weird/random things about herself.

Sherry finally got to have her husband home on his birthday. She has also been tagged to share 7 weird/random things. Teri D sent her a wonderful package of goodies including some lovely tatted pieces. The request has gone out for cards to be sent to Mary Konior care of Sue Hanson and Sherry is sending her this lovely autumn leaf she designed made in Ruby 5 thread. Sherry has posted the pattern for it on her blog.

Pigs and Hearts, Stones and Butterflies

Pamela has tatted the onion ring pig found on Jane Eborall's web site in a variegated Flora size 20, then in a brighter pink Flora size 10 and she just couldn't resist the urge to add wings. Of course, adding wings made the pig 3D so she has him suspended in a copper bracelet. Also displayed are her flea market finds of 4 lovely shuttles and a gecko pin.
Wendy's yo-yo afghan has grown big enough to be a bench cover. She's thinking about getting some cookie cutters for stand up Halloween cookies. Wendy has also shown 2 different yo-yo layouts that can be used. One of her other interests is Armenian Lace and she's been looking for all the information she can get on it. Today she has posted pictures of some 4 ring butterflies done in size 10 crochet thread. These will go in the butterfly room.
Anne has been honoured that the folks at Revelry want to use her photo of her Bird’s Eye Shawl as a sample photo for the pattern. She's been knitting some wrist warmers and a colleague suggested she make two more pairs with blue yarn. She bought lots of yarn so now she has enough to make 12 pairs. That's a lot of cozy wrists. Anne says the picture of the dragon wave wrist warmers shows the beads up clearer than they appear in real life.

Sarah has listed a lot of yarn for sale as she helps someone else de-stash. She joined the square deal weave along a couple of weeks late so she's been playing catch up. Also on display are some knitted hats and caps from her new book. Now she thinks she'll work on writing a book of knitted lace. Hey Sarah, when do we get to see some more tatting?

Iris has given a beautiful description of her Palmetto Tat days, with more to come. She picked up a lot of new techniques and tools for tatting and shares with us a picture of a marvellous earring design which incorporates a stone in the centre, surrounded by beaded tatting.
Diane's tatting seems to be more mistakes than successes recently so she's taken a break and done some woven squares.

Kelly started a doily from the Bestitched web site using some vintage size 80 thread that kept breaking. She noticed an immediate difference when she switched to newer thread. She's also started on the Tatalong project using Cebelia thread size 10. Her shuttle tatting isn't looking the way she wants it, but rather than switch back to the needle she's going to persevere. Today her blog is full of the kitty characters she lives with.
Clyde is a great fan of hand dyed threads and he shows off some of the "Leafy" thread he purchased from Marilee's Etsy shop.

Mark posts a picture of a "quicky" bookmark design he created, although if you know anything about Mark, you'll know he consistently wins the Tat Off for speed, so it's doubtful anyone else would call it a quick project.It's tatted is a variegated light blue to lavender Waterlilies silk thread by Caron Impressions that tats up about the same as size 30 cotton thread. Also posted are pictures of some lace finds.
I still don't have any tatting to show, just an embroidered butterfly that really wants to be put out of it's misery.

Snowy can finally say goodbye to the black doily she tatted with Venus thread. The thread was terrible to work with, but just look at how elegant the doily looks.
Marilee has created another colour of hand dyed thread for her Etsy shop. This one is called "Tigereye" and it's used here to try out a new design she is working on.
Laura tatted the "Freeform" heart from Tat's Amore in DMC Cebelia size 20 and it was so much fun, she did it again. The second time it was done in blue and white Flora size 20.
Marty used Motif #5 from DMC's Tatting for Today and some cheap ecru crochet thread to make a tatted mat. She didn't like the results. It got dyed and she still didn't like the results. After some major blocking the picots still won't stay in shape. The outsides can't be stretched enough to keep the insides flat and she's still not happy with it. I feel your pain. I've been there too.
Sherry has crocheted another had and added a matching tatted motif to it. Her new butterfly pattern that will be in her book is called "Cluny Love" and features a flower in each wing with cluny leaves. The model was made using Rubi 5 thread size 20. Sherry's visit to her grandparents let he do some sightseeing and while she was away she created another butterfly. This one is called Queen Alexandra and was also tatted with Rubi 5 thread. Sherry plans to put some of the Rubi thread in her Etsy shop. Her newest purchase, wasn't thread, but a new costume and now comes the tricky part, where does she add tatting to it?

Doilies, Critters, Hearts and Flowers

Lynda has been working of several tatting projects and planning a 50th birthday party for her husband so she hasn't had a lot of time for taking and posting pictures. We'll have to wait until she's had time to recuperate and do some blocking and picture taking.

Wendy has no time for tatting, she's just too busy with embroidering quilt blocks, participating in exchanges, going to a conference, uploading pink pictures to the Passionately Pink for the Cure site and making salt dough for her kids to use.

Anne has been posting some lovely sunset and sunrise pictures and has kept up with her knitting projects. Whether, tatting,knitting or crocheting, it's always the same with large projects. The bigger they get, the longer it takes to complete a row.

Sarah has been cataloging her books in Librarything and she's displaying several hats she made for a baby.

Sapna has posted a whole collection of things she has done recently. The heart shaped motif from Tatting Patterns and Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson was done twice because she didn't like the brown colour of the first motif. She used the green thread purchased from Marilee as an accent colour on the square motif from the same book. The basket from Gina's blog was tatted in size 20 crochet thread and the green 5 sided motif another of the Blomqvist and Persson designs. The Rosette is a design from Georgia Seitz' web site. The four leaf clover was tatted with Marilee's thread. While attempting the Rosette Sapna created these little earrings, and now that she has experimented a bit she thinks she might try it again with beads.
Norma continues to work on the TAST challenge and she has been experimenting with dyeing some cloth. She attended the 41st Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale Quilt Auction with her son and posted some lovely pictures of the quilts they saw.

Diane has finished 2 more of Mary Konior's Bell Flowers in size 20 Flora. Inspired by Mark's posting about working in fine threads, Diane tried the Briar fragments in King Tut quilting thread, color #934 and was amazed at how tiny a piece of lace she was able to make. She laid it on one of the squares from the Square Deal Weave-Along to photograph it. Then she decided to make more squares so that she could see the diamond pattern emerge.

Bev has posted a picture of a spectacular sunset and the tatted fan with the tassel and a fastener large enough to accommodate embroidery scissors that she made for her exchange partner in Singapore.
Kelly got an opportunity to tat some awareness ribbons and she'll post pictures when she's had time to block them.

Clyde has posted a picture of his miniature orchid that's in bloom .Anemone is finished and looks simply gorgeous.

Mark spent a hot weekend demonstrating at one of the local heritage shows and had several familiar visitors come to sit and tat with him. Mark was asked to make a pair of doilies by a friend and he has chosen to tat "Mom's Pink Doily" from Nancy's Bestitched web site. One down, one to go.

I have added instructions on how to do a screen capture to get a picture for when just highlighting doesn't work. I spent the weekend climbing the ladder into the attic and helping hubby haul out 30 years worth of STUFF so that the contractors can come in and re-insulate it. Twelve hours of hauling heavy boxes of metal parts out of a fiberglass filled attic and down the ladder and then downstairs left me exhausted and sick, which is why the challenge page hasn't been updated. I'm still dealing with laryngitis and a low fever, but at least I'm awake. I did manage to finish off the modifications to the collar for my sister in time to take it down to Hamilton on Wednesday when I went to the surgeon for and independant assessment, but that's about it on the tatting front.

Snowy took a survey and shares her answers.

Marilee has posted pictures of several items that she is submitting to a lace exhibit. There are several collars, a neckpiece that was the beginning of her necklace designing, the centre part of Ben Fikkert's "Noel" in the book "Floriade", weaving with tatting incorporated and a heart from one of Elgiva Nicholls' books. These aren't part of the challenge, but they certainly are worth looking at. If the images were copied here, they wouldn't be large enough to do them justice, so go check out her blog.

Laura tatted "Star #1" from the Blomqvist and Persson book in Altin Balsak, but she found the thread a little soft.She has finished attaching the critters to the arm of the jacket and tried taking a picture of it in the mirror. What a wonderfully novel jacket.

Marty tatted Lucky Clover from the Blomqvist and Persson book in "Jewel of the Nile" King Tut quilting thread. It measures about 6.25 inches (16 cm) in diameter. She doesn't have plans for it so it might end up as a gift.Melissa shares some CQ treasures she received, a purse she created with a pair of CQ blocks, and a tutorial on how to make a Spiderweb Rose in silk ribbon embroidery.

Sherry has Martha Ess' book "New Critters on the Block" and plans to try some block tatting. She has been working steadily on editing her book and took a break from it to go hiking and post some lovely autumnal photos.

The California Poppy pattern was shared with the online class by Lyn Morton. Wally used 2 tones of yellow, the darkest in the center and she added an extra repetition on the 2nd motif so it was a little bigger.

Lions, Snails, Butterflies, and Snowflakes

Elizabeth posts a pattern of mine she calls "graduated circle." that she mainly uses for earrings, but here used it in a pendant for a tatting exchange run by Mary Donahue. Elizabeth would like to have some "play" time for some abstract or asymmetrical designs, but she's just too busy keeping up with the demand for her tatting. Well, Elizabeth, that's what you get for being popular!

Pamela's playing with Lions. She did both versions of Martha's lions and I have to agree that I like the fluffy mane lion better than the curly one. The fluffy one is done in Coats Aida 10 and is 6cm tall and the curly lion is made from Coats Madura Red Heart 20.

Wendy posted pictures of the cookie house her kids decorated for Halloween. The girls did a geography report on Brazil and they collaborated on the poster, but did separate reports and sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese.

Sapna is still fighting with clunies and onion rings, so to take a break from them she tatted the round motif from Melissa's blog in two colours, a little heart in blue and her first butterflies. The pattern form the Gun&Elwy's book done in one colour AKA Laura's 2 colour Pyramid motif, was done in Rose's crochet thread size 20.

Diane has indulged herself with hand dyed threads from Marilee, and a ceramic shuttle from Sherry. She tatted Mary Konior's Bell Flower from "Tatting with Visual Patterns" using the lovely green "Leafy" dyed thread and now she can't decide what colour to use to tat the other parts of the motif. She has joined the Square Deal Weave-Along and she thinks she'll add her motives to the woven background. Now does she make 3 blankets for her grandchildren or make little bags?

Bob started off trying to make a heart, but it's turned into a really cute snail.

Ruth has a new book almost out called " Tatted Butterfly Garden" and she's taking pre-orders for it. Lots of lovely butterflies and flowers.

Clyde's at row 7 on the Anemone doily. Lots of little motives to join together on this one, isn't it pretty?

Some time ago my husband Rob, started some software and then he got too sick to work on it. PDFPick is done now and can be used to catalog all of your PDF files like the ones from the online class or from any of the web sites that share vintage patterns and magazines in PDF format. It's a great way to keep track of all of the craft files you have and it lets you keep a record of the description of what's in them along with a picture from the file so that it's easy to recognize. There's more about it on my blog and on my web site. For subscribers to my newsletter, it's a great way of finding the pattern you want.

Laura tatted this snowflake from the Tat-Along project in size 30 DMC Cebelia in pink and white, but she really wanted to do it in red and white.

Sherry crocheted a hat in chartreuse and added some sprightly blue and yellow tatted flowers for accent.It's really cute!

Cats and Flowers, Hearts and Critters, tatting of all kinds

Pamela has been making lots of cats from Martha's book and decided to try for a Siamese cat. The first attempt was close, and she thinks her second attempt is just about purrrfect.

Wendy is working on a yo-to swap, and planning to make a Halloween cookies house with her kids.

Anne has posted an autumn picture of the moon low in the sky.

Laurie has done a tutorial on making a dream catcher postcard and she's working on plastic canvas Letters for the kindergarten class.

Sarah's technical glitches have been worked out and she's back to blogging about knitting.

In addition to working on her TAST samples, Norma has tatted the Simple Flower Heart from Martha Ess' new book "Tat's Amore" using #20 Anchor thread and the same thread was used for Connie Strobel's fan design. The "Elegant Coaster" designed by Linda S. Davies was also done with Anchor #20. The change in the appearance of the thread colour is simple due to the change of the background.

Clyde is up to row 6 on "Anemone" and so far the colour variations seem to be swirling out from the centre.

Mark has been working with some very fine vintage rayon thread and he has plans to make a number of motives and attach them to tulle for a shawl or cloth or veil, he's not sure just what it will be yet. Also posted are some yummy pictures of the cake and the room they decorated for the wedding.

Jon has done a wonderful tutorial on how to tat around a plastic ring and attach a motif into the centre of it.

Snowy has adopted 4 kittens that were sadly in need of care when she got them. Now they are more robust and becoming very helpful with her lace making.

Marilee has used her hand dyed threads to tat a version of Mary Konior's Briar fragment. This piece will be used on some note card.

Laura has posted pictures of her favorite subject, Isaac, although she admits she had to snap fast before he moved. She has managed to sew the critters she tatted onto her denim jacket. She's got a couple more to add, but she had to take a break from using the invisible thread. That stuff holds well and is invisible but it's like trying to work with a coiled spring.

Sherry has introduced a shuttle of the month at a discounted price. The October shuttle has a lovely orange pumpkin on it. A note on the Tatted Ring of Bloggers, it is apparently incompatible with Yahoo 360.

Wally designed "Rose's Peace" incorporating some mother of pearl tear drops she got in Cairo. She's hoping to find a gold shank button to fit in the centre so that it can be used as a pin.