A Rose by Any Other Name...

As usual, once I open a Mary Konior book, I always see something else that strikes my fancy.  After yesterday's motif, I was attracted to this rose which is very similar to the flower in the Tischband.  The rose is actually part of a collar pattern but after making two as in the collar, I decided to make one as stand alone.

This enabled me to practice my newly learned technique for the split chain (video in the making, still in the editing process) which is great - more on that soon.

Rose adapted from the Rose Collar pattern 

from "Tatting Patterns" by Mary Konior (pp. 52-55)

The thread is Autumn Splash by Yarnplayer

and as I was tatting, I kept thinking it reminded me of something...

I hope Yarnplayer will forgive me but eventually

it came to me....

Fruit Loops!

I've not eaten those since I was a child

and even then, not very often as my mother 

never wanted to buy them!

And the design itself reminds me of the Tudor Rose:

I realise now I need to work on those "blip less joins" for this type of tatting in variegated thread.... or is that to do with front-side/back-side tatting....?

Best wishes,

In the Interest of Research...

I have really enjoyed Fox's latest post about front-side/back-side tatting and the responses received.

So I decided to tat this little motif called "Backchat" by Mary Konior (from the book Tatting Patterns) which is actually two motifs mirrored, making one in regular tatting and the other in fs/bs tatting.

Motif 25 of 25-Motif Challenge

Oh no!  This challenge ended too quickly!

Not my best tatting, serves me right for tatting when it's so late

but this little experiment has confirmed me in my decision:

I'll stick to what I've always done.

Works for me.

And that's all that matters:

Whichever way you do it, as long as you're happy

and you enjoy tatting!

There are little jump rings attached because I think I might wear it as a necklace...

What do you think?

Sorry, my photos are not great, it's late here and as always,

I struggle to take good photos without daylight

(I'll blame my camera, but no doubt it's the operator!)

Best wishes,

Starting on a Chain - NO PAPERCLIP

To celebrate "thumbs down" on videos (see previous post) and the fact that I shouldn't be so silly as to worry about it, I decided to make another video!

A little while ago, during a conversation over at In Tatters, Wolfgang explained how he didn't use a paperclip when he started on a chain.  I tried his way and found it much better than the paperclip method. Here's why:  first of all, the obvious one, you don't need a paperclip!  But more importantly, I find it makes a much better starting loop which lies completely in line with your tatting

 I took two photos to show you.

With paperclip, slight twist in the work, loop facing down.

No paperclip, nice small loop in line with tatting. 

So of course, I wanted to share my discovery with all of you.

And grateful to Wolfgang for mentioning how he does this.

Here is the video, very short and sweet:

Best wishes,

Butterfly Doily Progress

Here are the few more rows I have done on the doily.  The long chains needed steaming into place and only really behaved after I tatted the rows of small rings.  I like the rows of small rings but am not completely happy with the two previous rows; due to the shape of the butterflies, the chains look unevenly spaced...

Still, I've got this far, I'll soldier on.

And now I'm going to have a teeny-weeny rant if you'll allow...  I've just been awarded a third "thumbs down" on one of my tatting videos (no, actually two on one and one on another).  And I can't help it:  it bugs me!  Why is it that people give you a thumbs down on videos (I mean I can see it on some videos but tatting ones?)  I wish people had to tell you WHY they dislike your videos when they click on that thumbs down box, so easy to do.  It seems to me there can be nothing offensive or unpleasant enough about my tatting videos that people would wish to mark them down?  Is there?   I know I should not worry about it but it does bug me a little...  What can I say, I'm a sensitive soul...

End of rant.

Happy Tatting!

Best wishes,

I'm Back! - Last of Easter...

I know Easter has come and gone now... but as I was away for it, I still want to show you the eggs I made to decorate our Easter table.

Motif 23

(I'm counting all eggs as ONE... this challenge is going by too fast!)

I just used some vintage edgings and winged it...  Counted the motifs that fitted around the wide part of the egg and made some "ends" matching the number of repeats and then joined them with criss-cross threads.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out.  Might try to find some white eggs for next year.  Funnily enough they can be difficult to find here in the UK.

Once the eggs were done I was wondering what the next project should be...  I'd taken some of my new books away with me to enjoy perusing at my leisure and fancied the look of this doily from the book "Tatting from Burda" (Lacis Publications).

Here is a progress photo:

Motif 24 of 25-motif challenge

Tatted in Lizbeth 20, "Mocha Light"

I've done a few more rounds since I took this photo

so will have more to show you soon.

Now I've been very naughty and sneaked off to do this blog post when I should be unpacking and getting organised for the start of the week tomorrow!  Many emails to answer and matters to be dealt with but that will be for the morning.

Best wishes,

I think I'll Stop Here...

For now.  I've been carrying this project around for what seems like ages.  It all started here last summer.  And was mentioned here too.  This project was my "in the background" project.  It's the one that lived in my car and got worked on when I wasn't doing anything more pressing (the stuff you were seeing on the blog) and whenever I was in the car and had to wait, out it would come and I would work on it a little bit more.

Motif no.22 of 25-motif challenge

This currently measures 18in x 13in.
It was tatted in DMC Babylo no. 20

I still love the look of the motif and may work on it some more at some point in the future.  I may make a border for it...  Maybe I'd like to make a bigger square out of it...  I don't know.  But for now I think it's time to put it away for a while.  Or rather I won't put it away but use it and enjoy it as is for the moment until I'm inspired anew.  I love the colour of the thread and have enjoyed working on this.  But there are a lot of tiny rings and short chains which mean a lot of flipping the work back and forth which is fiddly when working on a bigger piece and you are joining the motifs.

This design comes from the book "Tatting Patterns" from Workbasket Magazine

and here is where you can find a bit more info about it.

I wish you all a...

See you soon.

Best wishes,