Wipping!

No, not whipping!  But WIPping… as in completing WIPs (works-in-progress).  And I have more than one of those!  Here is a border I started aaaaages ago.  It has, in fact, sat completed for a considerable amount of time on my worktable.  I just needed to attach it to the hanky.  I did a little bit here and there but never settled to tackle the whole task in one go.  Still, I got to the end eventually… this morning!

The thread is a size 60 HDT by Jess of Tat-ilicious on Etsy.  It is called "Chilled Mess".  I struggled to find a matching handkerchief for the thread and finally decided to improvise a bit.  I had this one with a blue flower which could possibly work so I added some embroidered colours on the edge to pick up the colours of the HDT and bring the design together a bit more.

The edging pattern is "Pomegranate" by Ann Orr which I slightly modified and for which I designed a corner.  I just looked back and I'm embarrassed to say that I started this edging more than a year ago and the tatting was completed last February!  So there you go:  it took me about a year to attach it to a hanky.  Does that make you feel better about your own incomplete projects?  (Assuming you have any of course!).

Here's one last photo (from the original post about this edging)

that better shows the tatting, and the corner.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Taffilicious Twirly

I see that Fox and I had the same idea!  Jane's Twirly was next on my list, so I started it and then saw it appearing on Fox's blog too.

I decided to use Jess's Taffilicious which has lots of pretty colours in it.  I love the thread but I don't think it was a good choice for this motif.  The colours distract from the pretty shape of it.  I find that's often the case with variegated and more often than not, I decide, in the end, that a plain colour would have been better.  But there are so many gorgeous variegated threads!  I'm always tempted by them.  It's just finding the right pattern to best display them which can be tricky.

Jane seems to have endless inspiration with all these patterns she comes up with - thank you Jane!  I was torn between making Twirly or the latest Ferris Wheel which is neat looking too.  Perhaps I'll have to do that one next.

Best wishes,

Frivole

New to Me

Just a quick post before a busy weekend ahead.

Thank you to Evelyne of Le Blog de Charlette for enabling me to discover some new patterns.  They are designed by Jennifer Williams and her blog is called Cariad Tatting.  She has quite a few free pretty patterns there so do go check them out.

This is the first one I tried but I will be making a couple more.  Next to it is the small butterfly I modified from Handy Hands' pattern.

This is not a difficult pattern but I think it has an appealing shape.  The thread which I have had for a little while but never used is from Jess at Tat-ilicious.  I don't think it had a name (maybe Jess can put me right on that).

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best wishes,

Tat-ilicious Deliciousness

It might be obvious to some by now that I am a fan of Jess's threads (Tat-ilicious on Etsy).  "Chilled" was one of my favourite colour ways.  A little while ago I told her that it would look good done in her "messy" technique...  So she did.  And it's lovely!  Just received it this morning.

I love the gentler, more random colour changes that she achieves using this technique.  Wonderful.

I bought it in two sizes this time:  size 20 in the motif above and also in size 60 for a change.  And now looking at this lovely fine thread... I feel a hanky edging coming on...

This is one edging I've tried.

It's called Pomegranate (modified just a little)

and is from Anne Orr's

Classic Tatting Patterns book.

Not 100% decided yet but it's a maybe.

I don't know if the variegate calls for a simpler pattern.  As a general rule, I think "keep it simple" when there's lots of colour in the thread and use plain colours for more complex designs.

Best wishes,

Stawasz/Konior?

Here is another motif from Jan Stawasz's book.  

I made it with one of Jess's Messy Jess-y's (Tat-ilicious on Etsy),

a bright mix of fresh greens.

Jan likes to use lots of decorative picots.  These are getting lost a bit with this (gently) variegated thread.    But the overall shape is still very appealing.  I found it reminiscent of Mary Konior's masquerade with the same oppositely curving chains on the outside.  Did one inspire the other?  Which one came first?

In fact, it's so similar on the outside round that I used the border of Jan Stawasz's motif to make a border for Masquerade on a small doily I made last year:

Best wishes,

Wonderful Jan Stawasz

I was so excited when a copy of Jan Stawasz's book came up on Ebay.  I have made a few of his designs before thanks to a kind tatting friend who lent me her book.  But I was always hoping I'd be able to get my hands on my own copy one day.  And the day finally arrived!  It's mine - yipee!

Here is the first motif I tatted from the book.  Just a little one so I could try out Jess's Madder Tatter thread (definitely a good name for it!)

I forgot to put a magic thread in for the centre ring so there's an unappealing blip of colour there.  There is a lot of contrast in the colours of this thread and by having a thrown ring off the chain, it makes a bit too much of a line (a break) in the colours.  I also played with the thrown rings (the little flowers) because I felt they weren't sitting quite straight on the chain... I tried "posting" the shuttle as some people advise (passing the shuttle through the loop of a ring before closing it) and I think it did improve the look in this particular motif (see if you can spot which ones are which!). 

Here it is!  Love this book.

So glad to have it in my eager little tatting hands!

Best wishes,

Slow Start...

I've been back a few days but couldn't figure out what to put in my first post!  I've been messing around with a few things but there was nothing particularly special to show you which seemed disappointing after having been away for some weeks.

I did work on necklaces, earrings and a new pattern while I was away but I don't have good pictures ready and the pattern is still being tested as we speak.

So in the end, I am settling with these two small offerings.  The first is my maple leaf which I had not tatted for a long time (and I can't say I did a great job of this one, some of my chains are a bit wonky).  I had some Tat-ilicious thread called Messy Jessy which I really like the look of, pretty for a leaf, isn't it?

Motif 22 of 25-motif challenge

The second item is also tatted in Messy Jessy in purple shades.  I particularly like the more random and gentle colour changes of those threads and hope Jess will come up with some more (hint, hint).

It's called "Josephine Wreath" and is by Mary Konior from her book "A Pattern Book of Tatting".  

Motif 23 of 25-motif challenge

It looks pretty, frilly, frothy

with all those picots and tiny flowers

in the Messy Jessy thread.

Best wishes,

A Brooch, Earrings, and Some Rolled Tatting

A tatting friend generously sent me a sample of two of Karey Solomon's threads for me to try after I had been admiring the original colourway on her blog - Thank you so much! - I was delighted to finally be able to try her threads.  I thought about it for a while wondering what to make with it, not wanting to waste any and keen to make something I would enjoy.  I started with a pair of earrings but then looking at the first earring inspired me to make a brooch based on the same layered flower idea.  This will be going to my Mother.  I hope she'll like it.

Motif 21 of 25-motif challenge

Tatted in Karey Solomon's "County Fair"
with Lizbeth in "Natural"

After making the main flower part, I felt it needed a bit "more"... so I gradually added the dangly pearls at different lengths and with different size freshwater pearls.  They are attached with tiny Josephine knots to give added texture and interest.

And here are the earrings I made for myself.  Karey's threads really are lovely and unusual, unlike any other HDTs I've used so far.  I hope to be able to get my hands on some more in the future!

I also played a bit more with the interlocking rings of the previous post.  In fact this two-tone neutral colours rosette was going to be the brooch for my Mother but I wasn't satisfied with it.  Though looking at it now in photo, it does look pretty (should I send her both?).  I added the tiny pearls on my shuttle thread so I could put one on the top picot of every other ring.  I like them nestled in the centre like that.  Another idea that I might elaborate on.

Motif 22 of 25-motif challenge

Tatted in Lizbeth Mocha Light and Natural

Here is another small project I've been working on (wow, this is going to be a long post!).  Edwige Renaudin teasingly put a picture of this motif in her book saying the method would be in the next book... now that's a bit mean!  So of course, I couldn't resist having a go at working it out.  She calls them "noeuds roulottés", incompletely closed.  So that's what I did.  And I think it looks like what's in the book.  It's rolled tatting really so I'm sure many of you will have tried it before but I only tried it once in the past, not very successfully.  My technique is not perfect so they are not quite evenly worked but I'm getting there.  I still wanted to show you because I liked the different look this creates.  I also didn't think to tie back after the first trefoil so there is an unsightly gap there, at 11 o'clock in the picture (this is done with one shuttle only so the trefoil is not naturally closed at the bottom by changing back to a chain.  Because it's a rolled ring which isn't pulled closed, the bit of bare thread that remains twists itself around the roll and I like the effect that results.  Something else I'll be playing with whilst on holiday.

Motif 23 of 25-motif challenge

To finish, here is Mary's Butterfly

tatted in Jess's hand-dyed thread called "Havana".

Motif 24 of 25-motif challenge

This is going to be it from me for a few weeks as we are going to be away in a couple of days.  I wish you all a wonderful summer.  Back again early September.

Best wishes,

Tatting in French - La Frivolité aux Navettes

Although French is my mother tongue, I have learned and have done all my tatting in English.  All my books so far were in English (apart from a couple of German ones).  I thought it was high time I learned to tat in French.  So with the help of Edwige Renaudin and her book called "La Frivolité aux Navettes", I am learning tatting terminology in French.

I have to say I am finding it difficult!  Just because I'm so used to all the English terms, I keep looking at noeud dessus, arceau festonné, anneau fendu et raccord double feston endroit and am forever having to refer to the lexicon!

The exercises and patterns in the book appear more complicated to me just because I can't read them really quickly like I can an English pattern.  Still, I'm learning new things and am finding her book very interesting.  For example, when making the last ring of a flower, if you flip your work under and up to make the last join, instead of over and up, your shuttles end up on a different side of your tatting which is something really useful to know if you are carrying on with the pattern.  This is probably not clear in words, perhaps I'll have to take pictures eventually.

Anyway, here are some earrings I made based on an exercise in the book.  They are tatted in "Macarons" by Jess! at Tat-ilicious.  I like the construction of these which enables you to make all three rows in one go.  I shall be playing with this some more.

Motif no. 13 of 25-motif challenge

The sun was shining for a rare moment

so I went outside to try to take a better photo.

I liked the shadow of the lace on the leaves behind...

but it was very windy and the earrings

wouldn't stay in place long enough for

me to take a good photo!

I don't think the photos do the earrings

or the thread justice.

They are very pretty and look good on.

I'm wearing them now.

Amitiés dentellières,

Tat-ilicious Heart

I just received another package (which are little treats!) from Jess at Tat-ilicious and her threads are delicious indeed.  So I made a quick heart to show off the colours.  This is "Serendipity"(thread colour name) and the heart is from the Rainbow Heart Bookmark pattern by Betsy Evans.  I am thankful to an In Tatter member for enabling me to discover this pattern.  I think it's a very effective little heart.

Motif 11 of 25-motif challenge

Best wishes,

Tat-ilicious Indeed!

I received my first purchase from Jess at Tat-ilicious and I was not disappointed - I love the colour!  I shall be keeping an eye on what else she comes up with...

Earrings tatted in "Chilled", size 20.

Best wishes,