25 Motif Challenge - Number 11

This is one of those .75 inch ornaments that I thought would allow me to get through 25 for the challenge very quickly. Well...that didn't work! These tiny ornament covers take just as long because to make them look good I have to use smaller thread. This one is my Lock Chain Ornament Cover using only 3 repeats with DMC size 80. I did use the single ring with sufficient picots to fasten it on -- that worked a treat.
I've stalled on these again. I'm working on a few things for the fair and I've only got a bit over a week to get them ready!

25 Motif Challenge - Numbers 9 and 10

Two more bring my total to 10 -- still behind, but gaining! Again, made from Lizbeth 40 on 1.5 inch glass ornaments, these two are a pair in different colors. The pattern is Ruth Perry's Celtic Snowflake 2008. I had to use just five pattern repeats instead six so it would fit the ornament. The bottom is the first round of the snowflake with that lovely Celtic twist Ms. Perry does so well. These are laced together with a single strand of the colored thread to hold them on the ornament.

25 Motif Challenge - Numbers 7 and 8

See? I might actually get 25 done if I can keep up this momentum! Another pair made from the same pattern, but in different colors. This one is also my own pattern, but uses only four repeats. Both are made with size 40 Lizbeth (the size of the thread also dictates how many repeats are feasible. These were actually made before Mike gave me his suggestions for fastening onto the ball. The beads at the joining point of the top and bottom are being used as a knotting point. The thread runs in and out of the bead as it joins the picots, and there is a BUK (big ugly knot -- don't like to say that too loud) tied, tucked and hidden by the bead. I thought about tatting them together -- but having tried that once, I'm not anxious to try it again!

25 Motif Challenge - Number 6

TA-DA! I did it twice. Now I've got a matching set. This is the same "Lock Chain Ornament" pattern as the green one -- it's just made with red instead. See? Much easier to get these smaller things done, because I only use four repeats of the pattern instead of six. It's finished off with that same single ring with all the picots, too. Oh, this is also Lizbeth size 40 thread.
I don't think the pattern actually shows very well in the picture, because you can see the other side through the glass ornament. It looks really pretty hanging on my metal tree thingy, though.
I've decided to make a bunch of these for a present, so I've ordered a metal tree (actually, it looks like a naked branch) for them. This way, I'll get my challenge done, and have something useful to do with the results. Of course, once I give 'em away, they aren't my storage problem any more, right? That means I can add to my stash. Oh, yeah!

I Like Mike!

This is Number 5 for my 25 Motif Challenge. Yes, okay, that's what I said: 5. I know it's July and I should be more than half-way through. I'll get there, eventually.

I might actually make it in time thanks to MSquared. I joined into a discussion on InTatters and we got around to how Mike attaches his tatting to ornaments on which you can't use pins. I tried fussing with stuff like taping the darn things to the ornament then lacing and trying to do a little weaving in the center of the bottom where all the threads cross. Uh-huh. There were a zillion little threads in the trash after that fiasco. I tried making a matching bottom and lacing them together. That works, but it's a pain in the patoot to get both sides to stay the right shape and in the right place.
This little ornament was the result of my first attempt at using one method Mike mentioned. It's all done with the magic of making one little ring with enough picots to correspond to picots on the cover. I know when I say it you all think, "Well of course! That's such a simple thing." Yeah, well so was the picot join -- once somebody else thought of it! Anyway, it should be no wonder to anybody that I like Mike! With this one little bit of inspiration, I might actually get 25 ornaments covered in a year.
I do have to admit, these are not the extremely inexpensive (oh, okay -- read "cheap") ornaments I was going to cover. Even tatting couldn't make them look pretty (amazing, eh?). This is one of a set of 1.75 inch glass ornaments I bought. I also have to admit that the small size makes the prospect of doing 25 easier to envision, as well. In fact, that size was so inspirational I went out and purchased a box of 0.75 inch ornaments this weekend!
THANKS, MIKE!!

Ornaments on a Ring

Ruth Perry's Snowflake 2008 is a beautiful Celtic pattern. It's made in one continuous round when done in one color. Of course, I cheated and made it in two colors instead of one, so there were extra threads to hide. Both are made with Lizbeth size 40 thread in Christmas red, Christmas green and white, just combined differently,

At first, I thought I could just do the inside round and fit them inside the ring. That was the right size, but not the right choice. The outer round stabilizes the Celtic twists in the inner round. Without the outer round, the inner lost some of its definition. That's why the outer round sticks out beyond the ring. I like the way they look hanging up -- really they look better than flat (especially against that bright yellow [what ever possessed me to do that?]).

I know, you all thought I was working on my challenge ornaments, right? HA-HA, fooled you! These are not part of my challenge because they are not covers for round ornaments, but they're still going to look good on somebody's tree.

Actually, I have been working on my challenge ornaments, but round doesn't fit in the scanner, you know. I have to haul out the camera (like it's a chore when it's just a point and click digital), and find a good place for the pictures, then get the lighting just right and figure out the macro settings and all that other stuff. I don't have any excuses for not taking the pictures just this reason: lazy, just plain lazy. Maybe tonight. . . [for the pictures! not for anything more exciting!]

Mini Beatrice

"Beatrice" is from Iris Niebach's Tatted Doilies. (See? My favorite book!) This tiny little bit is made from YLI machine quilting thread in a very subtle variegated blue/green/purple called "Alaskan Twilight". It measures just 3.75 inches (9.5 cm) across.

It might make a tablecloth for a dollhouse. Originally, I intended to leave out a couple of repeats and put it on a Christmas Ornament (as I am soooooo way behind in my challenge pieces!). It went traveling with me, though -- and the ornament did not. When I got home I discovered that I'd already done too many repeats for the little glass ornament I had intended to use.

*Sigh*

I've started another ornament cover, but it can't travel as I'm using beads on the picots. I don't like hauling beads around with me because I tend to drop them all over everywhere. That wouldn't be so bad, but then I feel compelled to pick them up. That just looks strange -- some old bat crawling around on the floor in airports, restaurants, county recorder's offices, . . .

Jellybean Cornelia

"Cornelia" from Iris Niebach's Tatted Doilies is one of my favorite patterns. I feel about this one they way the Lace-lovin' Librarian, Diane, feels about the Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. It's like comfort food. :)

This one, however, is rather uncomfortable to me. I made it in Westminster, Colorado while I was at a seminar ...errr... last month. (Blocking has NOT been inspiring me lately.) I picked up the thread at a huge Jo-Ann's store there -- which I happened on quite by accident (some accidents are lucky). All the Lizbeth size 20 was on sale. This Jellybean looked pretty good on the ball, and there was this nice matching green. *sigh*
As it turns out, the green matched too well. The varied colored parts should be the rings, with all the chains solid. That's really how it is but NOT how it looks! The Jellybean thread green so exactly matches the solid spring green that it loses definition by also having some green rings.
Still, it's bright and cheerful and it is a wonderful pattern -- it looks complicated when completed, but is really very easy to do.

Wheeeee -- Monday MONDO Giveaway Part XIII

LadyShuttleMaker is at it again! It's more Workbaskets -- wonderful, eh?

Get over there, enter her drawing and give her a little commiserative pat while you're at it.

Just click on Monday Mondo Giveaway.

(I wanted to make the button clickable -- but Google Chrome doesn't want me to!)

Delia

More than two weeks since the last bit of visual mumbling posted here. You might think it's because I've not been tatting -- that would be incorrect. I've been tatting, mostly just bits and pieces, messes, broken things, things I threw away, and little butterflies.

When I reach a point in my tatting where nothing seems to be working or I can't figure out what I want to make my shuttles always "run home to mama". Mama in my case is Iris Niebach's Tatted Doilies. Her designs are always such a pleasure to tat, and they stretch my concentration without stress. It's delightful to fill the shuttles, and work from the outside to the inside and back again until the doily is completed -- one round! If I had used size 80, there would also have been no necessity to add in a new thread.

This one is "Delia" made in Lizbeth size 20 in Light Raspberry Pink. It just about fills my scanner. It's eight inches (about 21 cm) in diameter. It needs some blocking -- some of the chains are rumpled -- but I still think it's a pretty thing.