Bookmarks, Doily, Motifs, Snowflakes, Butterflies and Dragonflies

Bree is another new challenge participant that taught herself how to both needle and shuttle tat and her first entries are some simple bookmarks that she designed using size 20 Lizbeth thread. These are a variety of simple rounds with tails and dimpled rings or clovers to hang out of the book.
Jennie used "bamboo spun - natural bamboo yarn" in sea blue to make a headband, but she thinks it might need a ribbon backing for stabilization.
Gwen used Jon's pattern to make 2 dragonflies with Lizbeth size 20 Springtime and another in Falling Leaves to make a third dragonfly. The dragonflies and a couple of butterflies were then used to decorate some cards.
BSOTF has been playing around with tatting different things like the leather and elastic shown here. Ann tatted a motif from Patti Duff's Mini Tats with one little blip, so she thinks she'll have to do another.
Wanda doesn't often work with beads because she doesn't find them very portable, but she had an idea for a beaded butterfly that she had to try out. It's worked in Lizbeth size 20, black for the body and Caribbean for the wings, with 10/0 seed beads.
Ancolie did a little work on the regularity of the stitches with a thick thread using an old insertion lace pattern.
Diane is tatting more shuttle shapes for epoxy shuttles. She tried adding a picot to each end of Stumpy to give it more of a point in Altin Basak size 50, color #3005, but it was only moderately successful. Then she tatted Anne Bruvold's pattern designed for the purpose in Lizbeth size 20 colors #661 and #660.
Fox tatted The Amusement Doily by Celtess using some variegated thread that Heather sent her. It looks lovely, but she ran out of the variegated thread and had to improvise. She discovered in doing it, that round shapes with the concentric circle designs do not please her.Kelly has just been asked to substitute for one of the Fringe Element teachers who was in a car accident and won't be able to teach. She is both apprehensive and thrilled at the proposition and has assembled an assortment or easier pieces for beginners to tackle.
Martha has posted some pictures from the Palmetto's get together where there was lots of lovely laces to look at. She has been tatting some things with the threads from the Thread Exchange and finds that bookmarks like this Mary Konior's Duet pattern are a good choice for the length of thread. She also used an exchange thread, maybe Lizbeth 691 Mocha Brown Medium? to perfect her koala bear pattern.
Mica tatted Day 20 from Bjørn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting and finds she is getting more comfortable with split chains although the mock rings are visible because she didn't want to pull the metallic thread too hard and break it. Maybe the trick with this is to tat the whole thing looser so that you can pull hard and not damage the thread.

Motifs, Bookmarks, Edgings and Bracelets

Jennie joins the challenge and here she has created a red bracelet, then picked up some beads to do another in black.
Hattalahutta is new to tatting and decided to join the challenge. Currently she has been working on bookmarks. This one that she started for her mother was tatted in 2 shades of size 20 thread, but she ran out of thread before it was completed and had to improvise. The alligator was from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks - A Tatted Zoo and the Thistle bookmark was one she found online.
Ingrid pulled this thread out of the supplies from her aunt and proceeded to make an edging for baby socks. Sadly what looked white on it's own looked off-white on the socks, so it got moved to the baby shirt instead where it looks very pretty. The pattern is one from a Burda magazine.

Magda was commissioned to make a garter and created this lovely piece in size 20 Madeira that simply ties with a white ribbon. Orsi is still working on her suit with the tatted bodice, collar and sleeves. The collar has been completed now and one sleeve. This has been so interesting to watch it all come together and there is such a huge amount of work in it not only tatting motifs but fitting them together for the shaping of neckline, armholes and closures. I can't wait to see it finished. Cindy wanted to make Jane Eborall's Flowery SCMR Bookmark but had to pause and learn how to make a SCMR first. Thanks to Anne's instructions, she has now grappled with the technique and won.
Diane has really enjoyed tatting Kersti's Stumpy with this silk thread. It's Royal Ruby HDT from Sherry.
Fox isn't happy with the way the chains sit in this motif and she's not really satisfied that the downward join used when tatting on the front side really looks like a front side stitch and the Design-Tat course has really got her thinking. She re-did the motif in a variegated Manuela, #20 received through the Thread Exchange and a brown exchange thread she thinks is Altin Basik and with longer picots in the centre, it now lays flat. She's off to try something new. Any guesses as to what it is?
Marty entered her tatting in the State Fair with a couple of new pieces and for the most part got all the same ribbons.

THE SPIRIT OF THE CHALLENGE

In the summer of 2006 a couple of people were talking about designing 100 motifs in 100 days, or tatting 100 motifs. The discussion was carried onto one of the tatting lists and then travelled from list to list and 7 or 8 people were interested but 100 seemed like too many for people already juggling families and jobs. Some people weren't designers, but were interested is seeing how far they could push themselves just to tat more, to try new techniques, new patterns, finer threads. In short, the whole idea was for us to be challenged and share our experience. We settled on doing 25 motifs in a year and those of us interested discussed things like where we would show our work so that others could see our progress and comment on it. Blogs, which were relatively new at the time, seemed like a good place to talk about the laces we made and what our challenges were with them. It also let others leave us encouraging comments. That still left the problem of keeping in touch with one another to see how we were progressing. That's when the 25 Motif Challenge blog was born and I started checking the blogs regularly and doing an update so that we could check on each other.

From the handful of people who started we have grown to nearly 70 participants. Some of the participants who designed 25 motifs had 25 new patterns and put them in books which enriched the community of tatters. Some tatters from the surplus tatting they had created for the challenge, sold off some of the laces created. Along the way we all discovered new books, new threads, new shuttles and new techniques and the we have all gained from the experience. We have seen how patterns look when they are tatted, we have seen how certain threads look when they are worked up and we have collectively gained from the process. The 25 Motif Challenge Blog became a central location for all tatters, whether they were participating or not, to enjoy what was being created by like minded people.

Recently a few people have joined the challenge who already have commercial outlets for selling their tatting. They don't need a challenge to keep them motivated. In fact, they seem ONLY to have joined the challenge in order to advertise their merchandise which is not really the purpose of the challenge blog. Since it's not really possible to know when someone asks to join whether they are interested in a CHALLENGE or just more exposure I have considered how best to deal with the situation and be fair about it. If a participant stretches themselves and designs new motifs and then sells them or puts the patterns in a book, that is in the spirit of the challenge. If a participant is regularly designing new pieces for their shop, that is not and it's a very fine line between the two. After a great deal of thought I have decided that when a commercial seller of tatting joins I will count off 25 motifs and then remove them from the links so that we can get back to what this challenge is really all about, namely a personal challenge to tat more, design more and try more.

Necklaces, Earrings, Doily, Bookmarks, Flowers, Motifs and Snowflakes

Petite tatted Debbie Arnold's square doily in Olympus White 800, tan 733, Ivory 731, Lt. Mocha Beige 813 and Light to Medium Beige Brown M16 in size 40. BSOTF has found that hemp cord can be used to tat more than jewelery like this hair decoration.
Catherine has a lot of motifs to catch up on. The Remembrance Ring by Marilee Rocklee was done in size 20 Lizbeth Falling Leaves. The Foldover Bookmark by Jon Yosuf on the left was done in size 20 Lizbeth Carousel, while the bookmark on the right was designed by Nancy Tracy and done in size 20 Lizbeth Mediterranean. Ruffled Snowflake by Vida Sunderland was done in size 20 Lizbeth Seascape. This grouping of motifs is waiting to get blocked and turned into Christmas ornaments and another batch of tatted motifs waiting their turn on the blocking board.
Lily finished the petals for the first flower in white and now she is on to making her second flower in pink. Diane used Lizbeth size 20 #124, Lizbeth size 20 #121, Lizbeth size 40 #126 and DMC size 70 #65 & #23 to make Stumpy bookmarks for Chris Hinton to use.
Fox tatted Vinnie's Spring Doily that needed a picot held down and she's wondering if she can use Jane's technique for a downward facing picot.
Krystle has added some things to her earrings to give them a slightly different feel.
Nami has a new pendant design in fall colours.

Ornaments, Bookmarks, Edging, Dragonflies, Motifs and Snowflakes

Wanda tatted a bookmark for the "Bookmark a Month Challenge" on The Tatting Forums in Manuela size 20 in color 021. She took lots of pictures at the fair including this one that shows a delightful display of tatted snowflakes. What a great waay to show off your tatting.

Fox finished Ring A Ring O'Roses and while it looks lovely, it was a challenge to tat. Umintsuru created a lovely dragonfly pattern and Fox was priveledged to test tat it. The Mary Konior borders help her to focus on following a pattern, since not following it brings disasterous results.

Nami has decorated another container with tatting. Shirley turned all of the leftover butterflies into bookmarks and gave them to the ladies that worked on the quilt. Another bookmark she that I designed and decorated it with more colorful flowers than the first one has also been given to one of those ladies. The Christmas ornament is the Beaded Snowflake from Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman made in size 20 Lizbeth color #116.