Happy Holidays!

Tatty Turtle

Isn't that just the sweetest little thing? This is my niece's favorite of all the bookmarks I've been making lately. Bet you thought it was from Dianna Stevens again. Nope, this one is Tatty Turtle from Mark Myers. This is such a clever pattern and it made a really nice little bookmark. I used a different color for the bookmark tail because I didn't want any one thinking I thought turtles had really long tails. The butterfly at the end is so there were no ends to hide when I finished (well, not in the tail, there were ends to hide in the turtle). The turtle is made of Lizbeth size 20 Christmas green. The tail is size 30 Cebelia "Day and Night Rainbow". I like that nice flat pearl tatted tail for bookmarks.

See Ya Later, Alligator!

You're ready to run out and get a copy of Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo, aren't you? This little beastie is another from that book. The pattern is fairly easy, and the results are so much fun. I think I might have done a better job on the lower jaw, though. I just decided this is a mama alligator, and she's carrying baby ones in that puffy mouth. :) Yeah, that works -- I wonder if they'll grow up to be bookmarks too? I was going to make something creative like a pink and purple alligator, but decided on these more earthy colors. These are medium Harvest Orange and Christmas Green from Lizbeth in size 20. I was going to get all creative and put a bead in the eye, but decided not to chance that bead-bump-in-the-book problem.

I've got this and some other posts set up to pop in here automatically while I'm away for the Holidays. If you decide to share a really interesting, fascinating, well-written, insightful comment, be assured, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just going where I don't have an internet connection. :)

Ssssssnake!

Hey, you wanna practice all those thread spaces? This is the bookmark for you! Another from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. I don't like thread spaces. I'm not very good at judging the distance, marking my finger didn't work, and I couldn't figure out how to use a picot gauge to make them. So...they're just eyeballed, then blocked to a fair-thee-well. It helps that the snake is supposed to squiggle like that!

This one is a ...hmmm... rainbow banded coral snake. I will say this is the most charming little snake ever, even though I think they are really, really poisonous -- extra poisonous. Squashed in a book might be the best place to keep one. It is made of size 30 Cebelia thread that my sister dyed "Day and Night Rainbow". Maybe that's too pretty for a snake. Nah.

Love that Butterfly

This is the Butterfly heart Bookmark from Dianna Stevens' Animal bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. I've been to the butterfly zoo, once in Seattle, and once in Las Vegas (just between you, me and the gatepost, Seattle was better). This was a pretty simple bookmark to work, especially if you like split rings. There are lots of them.

I've been wondering since I finished if I should maybe try one with the butterfly a different color than the heart. It would stand out more. I like this one, though. It's made with Lizbeth size 20 Christmas Red (so apropriate to the season, eh?). I don't usually like tassels, but this just works so well at the end of the split ring tail -- no ends to weave in if they are made a part of the tassel. Nifty!

There was a challenge on InTatters in November to tat something from a book you owned but had never used. That's when I opened this little treasure chest from Dianna Stevens. Once I got started, it seemed like I ought to just get through the whole thing!

Butterflies

Jane Eborall, the ever creative and generous (yes, you are, don't be modest), has just shared this new pattern for butterfly bookmarks. It's got her wonderful long beaded picots, so I used silver ones on both of these.

She mentioned on her blog that the tail could be made with pearl tatting instead of lock chain. I tried that too, since she had a link to "the lazy way" (yeah, that's my speed!). Ooooo, I like it, it's fun to do! I did change the end of the bookmark tail. Instead of the pretty little five-ring beaded flower, I did a non-beaded four-ring butterfly. I did that for two reasons. First, I wasn't certain how long to make the tail -- what if someone was reading a bigger book than they had bookmark? I wouldn't want to have a bookmark with beads that would sit inside the book and make bumps in the pages. Second, so I could not mess with hiding ends. If I'd made the beaded end Jane shows, there would have been no ends to hide, but it would have needed the beads -- and I've already explained why I didn't want beads.

The purple one, done in Lizbeth size 20 "Country Grape Swirl", was the first one I did. the butterfly at the bottom had to be blocked (just sprayed with water and pinned flat), because it wanted to fold up. The blue one is in size 30 Cebelia "Singing the Blues". The butterfly at the bottom of the tail is fastened to the tail at the small rings. It stays flat without all that blocking bother. Nifty -- another new favorite (partly because I really like that pearl-tatted tail, so nice and flat for books!).

Thanks, Jane!

More Chickens!

Isn't that just the cutest little chicken? I think the Cockerel bookmark from Dianna Stevens' Animal bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo is my new favorite -- or one of them, anyway.

The one on the left was made from real size 20 thread. It's "Springtime" from Lizbeth, but I got it from Dorcas. :) Lucky me, eh? We're right in the middle of a thread exchange. I've sent mine off, and I received this lovely sample from Dorcas. I don't own any of this, but now I think I might have to get some, because this is a really pretty variegate. Funny, because I keep telling my sister I don't like purple and green together. I guess I do, after all! See, there? Aren't thread exchanges just the most useful thing ever?

I've got another one of these done, too -- it's the one on the right. I've used the size 30 Day and Night Rainbow again, and it's come out just as nifty as the first one. Of course, I was lazy and thought I could put the tail on without breaking the thread, so there's an extra little chain. I think it looks okay, though, right? Say "yes" -- that's what I wanna hear!

Beady Ornament

Two views of the same ornament. The pattern is my first original ornament pattern, without the top and bottom caps. The thread is my sister's Dark Rainbow on a size 80 DMC tatting cotton base. Finally, the beads are pale green seed beads, but there are lots and lots of them. They are crowded together on picots separated by only one ds, and clustered in threes on other picots. It clacked and clicked while I was working on it and felt heavy when I was trying to pin it to the ornament.
I was informed when I was making this that the beads were too large for my thread. Well, okay. That would depend on what "look" I was going for, right? I was going for the beady look; the really beady look. This thing succeeds in that. It's beady, and it's going on our Christmas tree this year. It's not traditional Christmas colors, but we've got lots of other non-traditionaly-colored ornaments, so it works -- even with too-large beads.

Icy Ornament

I had to wait until this one reached it's destination before posting it. It was part of the package I sent off for an InTatters Secret Santa Exchange. It seems that people have stopped taking pleasure in anticipation! Packages are being opened as they arrive (I can hardly wait -- until Christmas. I like to have things to open that morning!). Anyway, this ornament is not a secret anymore. :)

This one is adapted from "Ice Crystal" in Tatting Patterns and Designs by Blomqvist and Persson. It's made from my sister's Desert Green thread dyed on a DMC size 80 tatting cotton, and has red seed beads at the picot joins.

I think if I do this one again, I might make the bottom piece a bit differently so it would fit higher up in to the empty spaces left by the top piece. Still I do like this one.

I wonder how well the other patterns in the Blomqvist and Persson will adapt to ornaments? There's a thought.

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