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.

Another Pendant

I've worn my fingers out -- two of them have a couple of severe thread dents, the kind from which a couple of layers of skin peel back. Working with size 20 thread always does this to my fingers. I think it's because I want the stuff to be as small as size 80 so I pull it tighter. My tension is very tense. *sigh*

I made this a couple of weeks ago. It was going to replace my exchange partner's pendant, because I was convinced the purple and silver one had gone missing. Nope, it got there safe and sound. This one I thought looked like a leaf. Some nice leafy earrings would look good with it -- but I've been babying my fingers, so those are still in the planning stage.

The thread is Oren Bayan multi-colored metallic. It matches any and all of the beads I have.

That's a pretty funny picture (lots of empty space), but I thought y'all might like to see the necklace, too. It's a very thin metal cable covered in see-through green plastic of some kind. The fastener screws together, so it's easy to put on. I think these things are perfect for pendants -- then you never have to worry about making the necklace part and whether or not it is going to be scratchy.

June 10:

I gave this one to my sister for her birthday. She claimed to have been coveting it since it was finished. Good! Green is her favorite color. Now she's waiting for those matching earrings!

Charming things

The green phone charm that Wendy won in my giveaway has gone astray. It's my own fault. I didn't send it with any kind of delivery confirmation. Actually, I did worse than that, I sent it first class with stamps on it (after weighing it at work). Well, duh. There was no customs form attached. It's probably being probed by some government official who suspects it of being something nefarious. Perhaps it's been taken out and blown up in some preemptive strike. Who can know? That was pretty shabby of me.

Wendy told me her favorite colors were red and pink. Hey! I have red. I made up two more charms, both with red Oren Bayan metallic threads -- one with silver beads and one with red beads. Both are pretty (f I do say so m'self), but the silver bead one was more striking. I sent it off properly custom-formed and all. Well, fat lot of good that did. Who knows when it will get there? Some volcano seems to have gotten in the way. As I frequently say, "If it ain't one darn thing, it's another!"


PS: Wendy received both the green and the red charms. Nice! I think the green one was slow because I am slow (couldn't seem to remember to get a padded envelope at the store!). The volcano didn't slow the red one down much, either. Good. I'm glad to know they didn't go wandering off into the ozone and that she has two to enjoy or share, as she chooses. :)

Rings 'n' things

I've been tatting -- really I have. I just didn't seem to have anything I could show. My InTatters exchange partner has informed me that she received the pendant I sent, though. I thought sure the poor thing had disappeared behind some monster machine in the Post office or something. Nope, it made it safely. It's made with Oren Bayan silver thread and purple mini-seed beads (a whole pot-load of 'em). The necklace part is a twisted metal cable inside a purple protective casing. Really, it matches better than this picture makes it appear.
The other things I've been doing I'll trot out when they're finished. I'm still emptying bobbins, too. I've been making more butterflies -- the little four ring ones. But, I've also made a couple of Jane Eborall's Butterfly Bookmarks without the bookmark tails, and one tiny one with a tail for really tiny books! I've got a few more bobbins with enough thread to make Butterfly Bookmarks, if I mix the colors. That should be interesting. I might very well end up with a Christmas Butterfly, because I've got a bobbin each of red and green that are about evenly matched in amounts.

As for the ornament challenge...it has foundered. *sigh* It will get back on track pretty soon though. I ordered covered styrofoam ornaments and they've been received! I think the plastic ones are going to end up with my nieces. They can decorate them by gluing or sticking things on 'em. My patience with them (the ornaments, not the nieces -- hmmmmm, wait, some days it's them too!) has been exhausted.

Success!

Disneyland is still there -- so are large portions of my feet. I'm certain I came home with barely-there soles and at least one charming blister. My feet pieces are not all that got left behind, somewhere in the world are at least a dozen butterflies that have found new homes via the lines at Disneyland. Hey, if someone asked what I was doing, in addition to explaining it, I snipped 'em off a butterfly. A lot more people looked, whispered (not too quietly -- Disneyland is noisy!) or talked behind my back. My shuttle and a selection of bobbins with left-over thread went into the park everyday. I came home with 19 empty bobbins and this collection of butterflies and a few flowers (Well, I didn't tat every minute, you know!):

As for my teaching my sister -- that's another reason I'm claiming success. :) I took two colors of size ten thread, plain cream and rainbow (that Bonnie dyed for me). I asked her how she wanted to learn -- right hand holding the shuttle or left hand. She chose right hand, because she tried to learn to crochet doing the mirror-image thing and just couldn't figure it out. She did very well -- she knits right handed, too. She says it's because both hands are doing something, they just have to be trained to do the correct thing. She started with a BUK (big ugly knot) and made a chain, then a ring, then a chain and a joined ring, then a chain and a couple of joined rings and a chain, and ... Well, you get the idea. Then she used just the cream color and made butterflies. She only had enough thread for two and 3/4, though. I think she did just peachy wonderful for a first-timer -- especially for someone that learned to tat standing in line. What do you think?

VACATION!!

Yup, I'm taking one. I know it looks like I've been on vacation for a while, but I've just been busy getting things done at work so I could leave. I'm off to Disneyland with my sister and my two nieces. :) I'm taking a nice little supply of tatting threads, shuttles, and lots and lots of patterns. The patterns are all stored in my Nook, so that's how I can have lots and lots. I'm also taking two colors of size 10 thread because Bonnie said teaching her would give us something to do while waiting in lines. I hope it works, because she's a lefty and I'm a righty. I'm not much of a teacher either...we'll see. I'll report on our success (or lack thereof) when I come back. Maybe I need to learn left-handed (I did that to teach her to crochet many year ago -- and I can't do it anymore).
As for tatting -- I've been doing some! I've got some UFO's (one of which I'm taking with me) and I've been emptying shuttle bobbins by making lots of little butterflies. Some of the bobbins have quite a bit of thread on them, so I tried making something a bit bigger. This is Jane Eborall's newest butterfly bookmark -- with some oops things. I didn't load any beads first, and miscounted the ones I did add. Duh. It's made of one strand of variegated quilting thread and one strand of yellow Cebelia wound together. I also didn't have enough thread to make much of a tail...it's for marking tiny books, maybe.

Happy Blogoversary to TattingChic

You'll want to pop over to TattingChic's blog! She's having her Second Blogoversary and is celebrating by giving away a "Learn to Tat" book, a shuttle, and some thread. Doesn't matter if you know how to tat -- isn't there someone you want to teach?

25 Motif Challenge - Number 4

"Ice Crystal" by Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs is a beautiful piece worked in two continuous rounds (only one set of threads to hide if started continuous thread method). I modified it by using only six repeats of the pattern instead of eight. That made it cup nicely around the ornament. For the bottom I used the diamond motif made by the pattern, but used six repeats instead of four.

Lacing the top and the bottom on is just a trial and a pain. I thought I'd out smart this pair and just tat it right on the ball. Oh, yeah, that was clever. It worked, but it was worse than trying to lace the pieces together. It slipped all over and trying to get the final join done took me about 20 minutes. I was certain the thread was going to pop before I got the last ring to close. Finally!

I don't think I'm going to try that again. In fact, the next one is still in the thinking stage.

I've been working on a pendant for an exchange, and making some earrings for my niece's art night auction. I can't show the pendant, and the earrings are just same-old, same-old.