Jon's Quantiesque Snowflake

A colorful rendition of Jon's Quantiesque Snowflake (click here for the pattern). However, I think all this color detracts from the beauty of the design. Size 10 Opera tie-dyed by my sister makes this snowflake four inches in diameter. I forgot to put in "magic threads" so the ends are waiting for sewing-in. They may wait a long time, because it seems they might be used for tying the snowflake to a Christmas tree -- maybe. This is a pattern I certainly want to try again, in colors more suitable to showing off the pattern. Thanks, Jon!

Gift Ornaments Eleven

These had to be called "Eleven" together, because they are made on satin-covered plastic ornaments only one-inch in diameter. Because the ornament is hard plastic I couldn't use pins to hold the tatting in place. These are laced on with metallic green thread (the only use I found for this particular thread -- it split, frayed, knotted and broke when I tried tatting with it). The red one on the left is an adaptation of Mary Kohinor's Spinning Wheel Glass Mat. I have no idea where the one on the right comes from -- I copied it off an old mini-ornament. These went to a friend of my sister's to decorate a mini-tree. It seemed appropriate.

Dragons!

Before making "Gift Ornament Ten" I tested out the Flying Minor Norwegian Dragons by Anne Bruvold. To get the feel of the pattern, I used size 10 Opera thread. Yes, that's what that large colorful dragon is made of -- cream-colored Opera. At least it was cream-colored before I let my sister play with it. She was tie-dying and trying out all her "new" colors. They turned out well on the thread -- looks like "dark rainbows" to me, especially the purple. I made the dragon without her knowing (which meant tatting after midnight) and gave it to her for Christmas.
When making the small dragon, I found out using one strand of Signature machine embroidery thread was not the best choice. The polyester thread stretches a bit when closing rings. When I went to make the "Yorkie dimple" for its nose -- I pulled the wrong thread! then I couldn't get the ring to close right. Poor little nose -- the little dragon looks like it ran into a mountainside!
This is a great pattern and my sister was very pleased with her dark rainbow dragon and it's minature friend (with threads attached for sewing onto her denim jacket collar).

Gift Ornament Ten

Flying Minor Norwegian Dragons by Anne Bruvold: one in red and one in green size 80 DMC tatting cotton. The red one has green seed beads included and the green one uses red seed beads. They are wrapped around the center of the white satin ornament. The three snowflakes that fill in the rest of the space are all from Jon Yusoff's Snowflake Collection. This one went to the 'dopted-bruvver who introduced me to the Save the Dragons Campaign. :)

Gift Ornament Nine

Very traditional red and green with gold beads made in size 30 DMC Cebeliá. Another one copied from an ornament made years ago. This one is most probably not an original, but an adaptation of a doily or snowflake. With all the books I've got, I've been too lazy to sit down and go through them all to discover which ones I used to make all the old ornaments. If you recognize this pattern, please let me know. (This is a not so subtle attempt to get someone else to go through all those pattern books!)

Gift Ornament Eight

This one is made with red and white DMC size 80 with silver seed beads. Once again, this is a copy of one I made many years ago. I have no idea if the pattern is original or an adaptation of a published pattern. If you recognize it, leave me a comment.

Gift Ornament Seven

Lots of frilly picots in blue variegated hand quilting thread backed with white cotton thread, gold beads, and gold-headed pins. It's a little busy, but fits the ornament well. I have no idea where this pattern came from. I copied it from an ornament I made years ago and don't remember if I made it up or adapted it from a doily center. If you recognize it, leave me a comment so I can give attribution.

Gift Ornaments Five and Six

Lock chain ornament in yellow and red DMC size 30 tatting cotton on a yellow satin ornament. The top is the same as the pattern on this blog (September 25 post), except it repeats only 5 times because of the size of the thread. The bottom is a long stretch of lock chains between sets of rings. When it's hanging, it looks a little bit like a hot-air balloon. This one also went to a friend in England. Her favorite color is yellow, so I hope that's yellow enough for her.





Ornament Six is another of my first pattern, but this one is done in DMC size 80 orange tatting cotton with clear yellow beads, also fastened to a yellow satin ball. This one went off to Minnesota. Even though it's not traditional Christmas colors, this is one of my favorites. There's something so cheerful about primary, crayon-bright colors. The orange on yellow doesn't contrast very well in a photograph, though. It's probably my picture-taking ability (or lack thereof) again.

Gift Ornaments Three and Four

These two ornaments are both made from my first ornament pattern (well, the first one I ever wrote down, anyway). The green and red one is made with red DMC size 80 tatting cotton on one shuttle and machine embroidery thread in a variegated mix of bright colors backed with white sewing cotton on the other shuttle. There are red seed beads scattered around at the picot joins, and it's pinned to the ornament with gold pins. I was concerned about the variety of colors with the red, but decided it looked really good and made the cut to to be sent off as a gift. The blue one is covered with Signature machine embroidery thread in shades of blue backed with white sewing cotton. I know it looks yellow, but it's not. I'm just not much of a photographer. There are silver beads at the picot joins on this one, so I used silver pins through a silver bead to fasten it to the ornament.

Heather's Hand-Dyed Thread!

It really pays to read tatting blogs -- really it does. Know why? Because so many of the blog writers are so generous. I know this is true because I was reading Heather's blog the day she put up a photograph and offered her hand-dyed thread to whoever guessed closest to what it was. I suggested frozen mud. That was close enough to get me these:
Isn't that great? Talk about generosity. I was thinking some little samples or one skein. I've got six (yeah -- 6!) full-sized skeins of thread here. I'm thinking pigs for the size 10 "cotton candy" pink and dragons for the size 10 "blue jay" and "blue raspberry" -- I just acquired Karey Solomon's "Here Be Dragons". The size 10 "licorice" is going to become fall leaves, I think. I might do a frilly decoration with the size 30 cammo to "girly" up my niece's cammo pants. Even though Heather says the last size 30 is "over the rainbow" I'm thinking Christmas red, green, gold and silver -- so that's destined for ornaments.