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.

Pocket Angel, Doily, TIAS and Round Robin

Wendy is working on a crocheted baby bonnet and wondering if anyone would like the pattern.

Connie did Mary's Pocket Angel in variegated Rubi thread.

C4G has discovered the antique pattern library and the wealth of information contained in it.

Diane isn't able to join in the TIAS challenge, but her friend Laura is doing the tatting for her to keep her in the loop. In the midst of a cold winter Diane is browsing through Pat Stevens book "Fantasy Flowers" dreaming of a house filled with vases of tatted blossoms.

Pamela has caught up in the TIAS challenge and she's eagerly awaiting the next installment to see if she has guessed the identity of the mystery object.

I participated in a round robin in 2001 and this is a picture of the hearts I received which have been sewn onto a shirt. If you are interested in participating in a round robin email me before January 28, 2008.

Laura has the next round of her doily done. Isn't it gorgeous?

Melissa is continuing to work on CQ blocks and she's added the second tutorial on creating a CQ block.

Sherry was doing a terrific job on this motif from "Tatting Patterns and Designs" by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson and then she ran out of thread not once but twice and the second time was near the end of the motif. That was when she noticed a mistake about half way through it. The colour is her own bright and cheerful Spring Poppies.

Bookmarks, Medallions and Celtic Knots

Sapna had no idea of all the different types of threads there were that could be used for tatting. The only thing she had ever seen was size 20 or 40 and whee she mentioned that on one of the tatting forums the tatters did what the usually do and sent off a car package of threads for her to try. Sapna is one happy tatter with all these new threads to try. She has discovered that she has 15 bookmarks done in a variety of colours as each time she tried out a pattern she decided she liked it and did it again in different colour combinations.

Moni has tatted a pretty medallion necklace in beige with glass beads and a collection of snowflakes. She's working on a medallion for a lavender bag but the first one was too large, the second one done in the same thread size was smaller but not as pretty. The third one done in a finer thread is much better.

C4G has been tying herself in Celtic knots and having trouble with doing a join for a pattern in Judith Connor's book Contemporary Tatting New Designs From an Old Art. Is there anyone who has this book can give her a better explanation of what is required?

Laura's darling Isaac had a rough first day at school where he fell on the carpet and banged his nose. Poor baby.

Melissa shares another SRE pattern. This one is for an oval design.

Kathy used Manuella size 20 for the December 1962 Workbasket pattern and Altin Basak Size 50 for the pink medallion. The design didn't want to co-operate and needs to be beaten into submission by a good blocking.