Blocking at Least

Lucky Clover by Blomqvist and Persson in Tatting Patterns and Designs is one of the last things I finished before hand surgery. It's taken a while to get my fingers willing to pick up pins, let alone push them into the blocking board. This one is made with "Jewel of the Nile" King Tut quilting thread. It measures about 6.25 inches (16 cm) in diameter. I don't have any plans for it, so it might end up as a gift.

Jeans Purse

The jeans purse is something less than one-quarter finished. I sewed a bunch of things on it, without taking pictures or scanning them first. With a little computer help, I made individual pictures of some of the pieces. This first one is a Jane Eborall flamingo (the Pamela Myers version). I used pink ombre polyester embroidery threads (because I didn't have any plain pink) and blue for the bill (because I couldn't find any black) and a silver bead for the eye. The swan (made with white polyester machine embroidery thread) turned into a duck, because it was so much smaller than the flamingo and I goofed somewhere in the pattern (also one of Jane's). The free-form doodle I posted on June 24th worked okay as a stylized pond, so I put some goldfish in it. I found the pattern for them somewhere on the web years ago. (if it's yours, please let me know).
The profile butterfly is a Sherry Pence pattern. I don't think I did it justice, though, because I added a little piece to avoid cutting and reattaching the thread. Then I modified it a tiny bit more and made a double-wing butterfly out of it. This side of the purse needs more butterflies and lots more flowers. I've got some made, but not enough. As soon as I get through physical therapy so my thumb works and my fingers have feeling (long about December, I understand) I've got to get this side finished! I haven't even given much thought to the rest of the purse for a while -- gotta start hunting up those star patterns.

Signature Thread

Someone left a comment somewhere on here that I can't find. Google told me there was an error when I approved it for publishing, so maybe it just ate the thing.
Anyway, if it was you asking about the size of the Signature thread -- this is my answer. It's a very fine thread, because it is a machine embroidery thread. It's about the same thickness as regular sewing thread. It's trilobal polyester. I have no idea what that means, but it seems to be less inclined to fuzz than polyester covered cotton sewing thread. It does tend to stretch when trying to close rings (well, it does if you tat as tightly as I do). I buy it at a local shop. I don't know if it is available somewhere on line; I've never looked. Here's a picture of the thread labels:

No Tatting for a While

Last Wednesday I had surgery on my left hand and wrist to take care of a carpal tunnel problem, a bone growth in my thumb and a cyst in my ring finger. Ick. All wrapped up for three days, it doesn't look too bad. Unwrapped, it's sorta ugly. The purple writing on my hand belongs to the doctor. He made notes so he'd know what to do when I was not awake to tell him. I had a red pen and wrote "yes" next to his notes. :) I guess it saves on errors!
Good thing I'm so right handed!
I'll be trying to get some things blocked and starched while it heals, so I can post pictures of those things. I also did a lot of work on my decorated jeans purse in anticipation of surgery. I only have a part of one quarter done, but it's really close to how I want it. I need to make some more butterflies and flowers. I'll be thinking of things I can post, anyway.

Neck or Nothing

T-shirts are so plain, aren't they? A bit of decoration and they look much better (of course my sister thinks they need dye, and some twisting, but, this works for me).

Both of these pieces were made with one strand of Signature machine embroidery thread and one strand of Gütermann cotton sewing thread wound together on the shuttles. The buttons are 5/8 inch four-hole buttons.

I combined one of the pieces of "baby lace" (see March 25th) with the decorated button (see May 28) I designed for the 25-Motif Challenge to create this neck decoration. After sewing some decorated buttons to a t-shirt for my sister and having them curl up after washing, I decided the entire piece had to be sewed to the shirt. Because of that, I didn't stitch through the buttons. These were gifts for my sister and my niece. I think they turned out pretty well.

Something a Bit Different

Nope, these aren't tatted -- they're crocheted. They were all done a number of years ago (more than 5 certainly) and stored in tins or plastic bags or bins. Not a nice thing to do! They didn't wash up well, but my sister fixed 'em up when she was tie-dying. This first one was actually done by my mom. Somebody spilled something on it, and I told her I'd wash it and restarch it for her. Uh-huh, like a thousand years ago. Fortunately, she likes the result! It was twisted by itself then dyed in shades of purple and blue.
This second one was placed inside a t-shirt then twisted and dyed with the shirt in shades of blue. It used to be ecru, but very dirty ecru. I also think it was supposed to have individual pineapple points at the outer round. As I recall, it meant lots of threads to hide and I was sick of the color, so I just put it away. I like it the way it is now!

The third one was also placed inside a t-shirt and twisted then dyed in shades of purple. The picture doesn't do it justice!

Finally, she prepared a shirt and a doily for dying (soda-ash bath) and stretched them over a styrofoam board. I pinned the doily out to shape on top of the t-shirt. She put the dye into spray bottles and sprayed both the doily and the shirt. After an overnight stay in a plastic bag, they were separated, rinsed and washed. Then I pinned out the dyed doily. This one is all in one color of blue, but the back against the t-shirt didn't get dye on it, so the reverse side is pretty interesting. The t-shirt is mine, mine, mine!

Jeans Purse

Made from DMC size 80 yellow thread and vari-colored yellow-range beads, this is my representation of the sun. It's all made of split rings, and every ray was added separately. This is the front right-hand side "theme" for my Jeans Purse for the Tatting Treasures from Trash challenge. With the sun, I intend to use some flowers and butterflies and a few other small bits.
The front left-hand side has a night theme. So far I have completed the moon and some "maybe" stars. I know I'm going to use stars, but they might not be these particular samples. Ruth has put a number of star patterns on the Tatting Pattern Calendar and I intend to try out some of those. I know I want to use beads (because I'm a crow), so I'll have to work those into some of the patterns. They are all going to be colored stars, too -- a little realism, you know (well, very little).

Treasures from Trash

These are the first two pieces I've made to decorate my denim purse for the "Treasures from Trash" challenge. The end threads are long enough to use to fasten them to the purse -- I hope. One is obviously just a bit of lace. I'm not saying what the other one is -- just in case it doesn't work out!

Square Bookmark with Buttons Pattern

After some requests for a pattern for these bookmarks, I managed to cobble this one together. The instructions are sketchy and the diagram is a bit off-balance, but it's there! Now that I've figured out how I can do the diagrams I need to practice to refine them. But -- here's the square one with buttons if anybody is interested. I think if you click on the little picture it will open a bigger one that you can print.

After reading the comments on the size of the image, I resized it and am reposting it. I think it should print out on one page now -- without having to copy and paste it somewhere else before reprinting.

Plus Two

The first bookmark that went out in exchange really grew out of the rainbow quilting thread one. I liked how it looked with three joins in each of the four buttonholes, but thought it needed more body. Using slightly larger buttons and one strand of Signature pink ombre machine embroidery thread with a dark purple Gütterman sewing thread, achieved the right weight. But -- it was a little too crowded around the button. Another modification seemed to be in order. I kept the three rings near the button, but only connected two of them to the buttonhole. Yes. That looked just right to me. But the picots were in the wrong places and looked uncentered. Solution -- leave out the picots! This final one that was sent out as my exchange is made on shiny white buttons using Signature pastel variegated machine embroidery thread and Gütterman purple ombre cotton sewing thread. It's this bookmark that inspired the individual buttons I made as t-shirt decorations.

The second exchange bookmark was actually based on the second of my "try using buttons" experiments. I started with black buttons and white DMC size 80 tatting cotton. to make these connected squares. That was okay, but the split rings between the squares made it too flexible. I don't even have a picture of the next incarnation, because I cut it off the buttons and threw it away. Essentially, I got rid of the separating split rings, but joined the end picots of the tops of the clovers. Can you say curled up? The next one worked just right -- but I forgot the magic threads. Rats. All the way to the end and -- oops -- where am I going to hide these threads? This lovely red, white and blue book mark has a knot and a nasty bit of glue to keep that polyester embroidery thread from slithering undone. Oh, well, it makes a good pattern piece. Finally, I got just the look I wanted and remembered to put in the magic threads. This one is made with Signature pastel machine embroidery thread and Coats pink ombre machine embroidery thread. I couldn't believe these two polyesters gave each other enough support so neither frayed, snagged or broke. Funny how things work sometimes. Besides, it's shiny. I like shiny.