Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is more than half over, and I very nearly forgot to post these. The three white ones are "Heart's Desire" by Susan K. Fuller. The large one is Coats "Button Carpet & Craft" thread, the small one at the top is two strands of polyester machine embroidery thread, and the other is DMC size 80 tatting cotton. This is a really great pattern. It looks so complicated and I kept wondering how I was going to get the last part joined without being a contortionist. Ta-da! It just worked so smoothly. That's why there are three them -- how fun!

The pink heart is Nancy Tracy's "Clover Drop Heart" with a little variation. The first one I made according to the pattern, but my chains were too tight and it was oddly misshapen. For this second one I added beads and a couple of extra stitches to the chains. That worked for me.
Hmmmm...perhaps I should have made some flowers to go with those hearts. Maybe next year...

Still Snowing

Motifs number 14 and number 5 from Tatting by Myra Piper. These are nice substantial snowflakes as they are made with Coats "Buttons Carpets & Crafts" thread. It's a cotton-covered polyester with a glace finish and works up nice and crisp. These just required a bit of a press under a slightly damp cloth, no real blocking. I'm pretty certain I can find a home for them -- I've already had volunteers.

It's Snowing

...at least it was this morning. Making these two was certainly more fun than shoveling the real stuff out of the driveway (which is long enough for five cars). These little snowflakes are items No. 1 and No. 2 from Tatting by Myra Piper. In the book, they both have nine points -- but I wanted them to be snowflakes, so I only made six. The first one is made of size 12 DMC cotton perlé and the second is machine embroidery thread (one strand of white and one of blue ombre). They are both really small, No. 1 is only 1.5 inches (4 cm) and No. 2 is a bare 1.25 inches (3 cm). These are both going to my niece's school for the silent auction on Art Night. They'll probably be combined with some of my other snowflakes rather than auctioned by themselves -- they're so little, they'd get lost wandering around by themselves.

Quantiesque With a Twist

Jon Yusoff's Quantiesque Snowflake again -- but this time with a twist in the chains leading to the outer clovers. I had to make the chains almost double length to do the cross-over for the twist, and I think they should have been still a bit longer. This twist makes the outer edge look more round with sticky-outy things. The original version has a nicer flow, but I think this is interesting. I used size 80 DMC tatting cotton in red and green, but to get it to shine added one strand of white rayon machine embroidery thread. I made another one with a green center and outer round but, somehow, got the twists backward on a couple of the ends. It looks odd, so I'm not showing it off.

Scribble

Anxiety does odd things to tatting shuttles -- or the hands that wield them. This really is a scribble using left over thread ends from two different projects. It goes around and back-and-forth, then up and down and around again. It hasn't been blocked in any way, nor have the ends been hidden. It doesn't look like anything much. I would have just kept going, but finally ran out of thread on the red shuttle.
My sister makes knitted felted purses. She said if I gave it to her she could put it on a purse. I think I might do that. If I don't, it will just end up in my dresser drawer with all the other odds and ends -- though this might be the very oddest of the ends.

Well, THAT Didn't Work!

Sometimes the things I do with thread ends while waiting here and there just don't work out. I had a concept for a profile butterfly in mind, but it certainly didn't translate well. Of course, I was just sitting and waiting and making it up as I went along. Maybe there being no pattern is a good thing.
Can you tell that the bit of wing at the top is supposed to be the part of the wing you can't see on the other side of the butterfly? Yeah, neither can I. It's legless, too -- how sad. Of course, the thread doesn't help, it's variegated green and yellow Signature machine embroidery thread combined with a cream cotton for strength.
Maybe I should pretend it is a luna moth -- aren't they greenish?
Perhaps I should stick with four-ring butterflies while I'm waiting, waiting, waiting...

Quantiesque Again

Jon's Quantiesque snowflake really IS addictive. These two are made with size 12 cotton perlé in pink and purple (for those of you who have trouble with colors on your monitors). By doing two, both the front and back can be shown. Neither of these is made exactly according to the pattern. When making the purple edged one, I put too many stitches between the three picots on the center rings. On both of them I hooked the clovers to the chains. Some days I just can't read -- either that or am too poor to even pay attention.
All the little butterflies are from the shuttle thread ends. There was one more, but I tried these interwoven picots on it -- that didn't work it looked like a blob-fly, so I threw it away.

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).