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| Konoir edging, Original pattern ornament, Morgan Mouse Bookmarks |
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| Renulek's Spring Doily, Original Pattern Doily, Halloween Card, Flowergirl Headband, Time & Again Earrings |
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| Baby Afghan |
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| Edward's Menagerie Elephant, Zebra, Rhino, and Hippo |
Yes. Bugs. I made some. Jeanie Schekel, the chair of the Ogden Bonneville Tatters group, held a class on Riet Surtel-Smeulders Daisy Picot Butterfly last month. I didn't finish in class, so my attempt at hiding the wire was not as easy as it probably should have been. There's wire in the wings so they can be shaped and hold the shape without stiffening. I did not choose the threads wisely either -- really should have selected three plain colors to get a proper contrast. Still, I do like these and I like this pattern. The top butterfly is size 20 and the bottom is size 40. Now I need to try it with size 80.
I demonstrated tatting at the Bonneville Tatters table in the Home Arts building four times during the Fair: twice with Tonya, another Bonneville Tatters member, and once with my sister and my niece (and once with Judy, but I don't have a picture with her). My sister has been tatting for 5 days (not all this year!), and when we went to tat on the last day of the Fair, my niece, who is ten, had been tatting for about 2 hours. She made a lot of little short chains -- she called them worms. Some guy asked her what their names were. She gave him a strange look then said, "Wormy and WormyTwo." She proudly placed them under the clear plastic cover on our table with all the other tatting bits and bobs.
The ornaments and the butterfly are the same ones I entered in the County Fair, but I had to add a bookmark tail to the butterfly to enter it in the State Fair. I added a coil-less safety pin to the back of the Grapes from Karey Soloman's class at Shuttlebirds to qualify it for the wearable (flat) tatting category.
There are more categories in the state than the county, so I made some new things for the State this year. In the jewelry category I entered a necklace and matching earrings which are really Patti Duff's lanyard pattern with smaller thread and bigger beads. I found these beads that look like crumpled tinfoil, and really like the way they turned out. For the Halloween suncatcher, I used the center of Linda Davies' new Classic Doily fitted into a bangle with black thread. Then with invisible thread (it was 3:00 in the morning on entry day!) I sewed on my Ripley the Ghost made from Jeff's Hamilton's pattern. (Thanks so much for sharing, Jeff!) It turned out really well (especially for 3:00 in the morning).
The other new things I entered were a Tatted card (I sewed the Celtic motif on a card with invisible thread about 2:30 in the morning), and the swirled square motif I made up a few months ago. The comment I got on the card was that white on white was not a good idea (lots of things seem like good ideas at 2:30 in the morning), and it was not evenly blocked -- too true. The comments on the motif were that I pulled some of the rings too tight. It probably looks a little warped, but second place is still cool.
The lovely Utahraptor got a nice blue ribbon. I got a note on that one, too. It said if I'd done a better display it would have been considered for sweepstakes. Well, rats. I didn't do this display. The people who took in entries at the fair pinned it to this board with big "T" pins -- I didn't have any choice in the matter (boy do I sound grumpy and unappreciative and sour-grapeish or what?!). Anyway, next year I need to make a stegosaurus and put it on a proper display board with invisible thread, not with "T" pins. 
Wondering what happened to the little butterflies from a few posts before? They got made into this Easter Egg Ornament. I used those three and a bunch of smaller butterflies (some of which are adapted from Jane Eborall's great butterfly pattern). I pinned them to the satin egg with little gold applique pins stuck through powder blue seed beads. I'm counting this one as number 16 for the 25 Motif Challenge. It's destined for a long trip half-way around the world as a gift for a good friend.
"Jade" is from Sherry Pence's The Exquisite collection of Tatted Butterflies II. It would have been prettier if I'd followed the pattern. There would have been a more defined point at the bottom of the wings and a nice picot there, too. I was talking while tatting and didn't count twice -- close once. As a matter of fact, I didn't count or look at the pattern until after I'd closed. After looking at it for a dismayed minute or two, I decided there was no way I was even going to attempt to open that little tiny split ring! I just made the other wing to match. This one measures 1.25 inches (4.5 cm) wide and 1.5 inches (just under 4 cm) at its tallest point.
Finally, I made "Curly Q" -- another little treasure from Sherry Pence's book. All those tiny rings in this fine thread gave me a lot of "aaaarrrrrgghhhhh" moments. It's such a pretty little butterfly, though, so I kept at it. It measures about 1-3/8 inch (3.6 cm) at it's widest point and about 7/8 inch (2.3 cm) tall It also needs some blocking. I'll take care of all that before I stick them on the ornament.
Valentine's Day got away from me -- it happened while I was busy being ill. Who has time to post anything when they're stumbling around looking for tissues and anti-cold pills? I suppose that's why Blogger has that convenient schedule a pre-prepared post option. But, really, pre-prepare -- who does that? Never mind, don't tell me. I'm certain it would be just too, too depressing. I've been making hearts for Valentine's Day, though -- quite a few of 'em.
This one is made with Lizbeth size 20 pink and variegated pink. This resulted in parts of it just looking washed out, but I rather liked the effect. Instead of the chains with the little ring pairs I used split rings around the outside of the bottom part of the heart -- those make it look a bit more substantial. Then I made the other ring pairs "Dimpled Yorkies" -- sort of hearts on my heart. I'm thinking about what to do with this one. Maybe it will just sit in my tatting drawer until next Valentine's Day.
Then I did a couple of little hearts. This one is Jane Eborall's Flurry Heartache. Sort of -- I didn't have the big beads ready to hand and was too lazy to get up, so I just used a pile of little beads. It's made from Lizbeth size 20 in Dark Seagreen and Wildflower colorway. It's a great pattern all made in one round -- one pair of threads to hide at the end. I'm going to get some bigger beads and make more!
While I've got the opportunity to use Mary Konior's book "Tatting Patterns" (because a very nice person let me use hers for a while), I'm trying out the small patterns. This one is a rings only butterfly. It's tiny little head is a knot hidden down there by it's wing, so I made the antenna extra long. Thread spaces are usually so difficult for me to make even. The way this butterfly is made, though, the thread spaces are less critical. Its not blocked in any way -- just set on my new scanner (the old one gave up the ghost after 13 years of trusty service). It looks pretty good, if I do say so m'self. Not only that, I think the colors might be more true to life than on the old scanner.
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 sil
ver 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.
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!):
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?
miscellaneous tatting in the County and entering it as sewing in the State (especially when it was the tatting that was new, not the purse). I'm going to be more careful about picking categories if I do this again!
I've shown these ornaments on the blog before. The first one -- with the second place ribbon -- is being donated to the "Festival of Trees" tree being decorated by the Bonneville Tatters. The pattern is my own and I quite like it (but never did like the color). The comment card said it needed more sparkle. I think they liked all the beads on the other set -- because those got a first place ribbon. These are the ornaments I made from an adaptation of Iris Niebach's "Cornelia" from Tatted Doilies.
of a couple of extra rings on the top of the wings). The comment cards for both of 
these mentioned the wonderful use of color -- I have to say thanks to my sister, because they were both made of threads she dyed for me (the dragon a size 10 and the butterfly a size 30). One of the comment cards for the butterfly also expressed delight with the beads. I think some judge out there was as much a crow as I am -- gimmie the shiny stuff!
New butterfly, but not really a new pattern. This is an adaptation of the snowflake I designed from the post "Flake-y Tatting" earlier in this blog. This is about the third, or fourth incarnation of the butterfly, and it finally suited me. There are still other possible alterations or additions that I'm going to try. First, though, I need to get this version diagrammed and written down. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to that. I usually keep a piece and just make more by looking at it. That's not really all that efficient, though.
InTatters is having a bookmark exchange in which I am participating. This is NOT what I'm sending -- don't want to spoil the surprise! However, this is my square bookmark pattern without the buttons. After all, who really wants buttons stuck in their books? It's made in size 30 DMC Cebelia thread dyed into "Day and Night Rainbow". It looked like a really good idea to me -- much harder to lose a bookmark that colorful than a little piece of white paper (which is what I usually use).
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.
