I Love Lock Chains!

I recently received my latest purchase from Jess at Tat-ilicious:  some Jade n Salmon thread.  Lovely.  So last night I was playing around, wondering what to make with my new thread.  I thought how much I like lock chains when they are made with two colours... I made a quick sketch of an idea and tatted it straight off!  Never done that before.  One go and there it was.

The thread is gorgeous but as I made it, I thought how much nicer it would look with two different colours instead of a variegated.  So I made this next version in purple and gold.

I just love the look of those lock chains in two colours!

I may add this pattern to my Etsy store.

And it's done in one pass (just the way I like it!)

You could even add picots on the ends and join motifs...

I'll have to give that a try.

And I've not forgotten about the Beaded Shuttle Bags.  That's coming up soon.

Best wishes,

Beaded Shuttle Bags

If you remember, a little while ago I showed you the wonderful beaded shuttle bag Marie Smith had sent me as a gift.  Of course, I HAD to know how to make them!  Marie kindly shared the pattern with me.  And the pictures just don't do them justice:  these little bags are so wonderfully textured with the roundness of the beads that you have to hold one between your fingers to get how great they are.

I started tatting one straight away but wasn't happy with the first.  So these are the second and third bags I've done.  The grey-blue one still doesn't have its drawcord done.

Here's a close-up that better shows the beadwork.

I made a different ruffle on the blue-grey and will

probably make a different tassel for the drawcord too.

I love these bags and the bead technique would look nice for other projects too (brain cogs in motion...).

Best wishes,

Butterfly Doily Progress

I've been making progress on this... slowly but surely.  The second butterfly round (with 28 butterfly repeats) took me a while to complete.  And it's not a pattern to tat when you're distracted, I've had to do more un-tatting than I care for (which is NONE really! :-)

I was tempted to change the next round because I feel that the following round (which I'm most of the way through) and which is the same as the round after the first butterfly row detracts from the butterflies in my opinion.  Those long looped chains make them loose their definition - do you know what I mean?  I thought about repeating the same round as below the butterflies instead, thinking this would "frame" them better... maybe?  But then I thought it might mean I would have to change all the other rows so then I wasn't so sure I wanted to tackle such a challenge just now.

The only good thing is that if I decide to do the largest doily, it will end on a butterfly row (as it does now, temporarily).  This doily is now larger than my largest doily so far which was one of the two Jan Stawasz doilies I've completed.  

We like?

A few more rows to go!

Best wishes,

Flowering Quatrain Bookmark Pattern

Here it is.  I hope you like it.  Thanks to Krysta, Leah, Marla, Loretta and Fox for their help in test-tatting this pattern.

I said in a previous post that there would be more versions of this bookmark...  I did try other versions but none that I'm happy to share with you.  I made another in one pass which is closer to the original Quatrain design but it involved a lot of split chains and split rings and I didn't enjoy tatting it.

So I came back to this version which was my favourite.

Flowering Quatrain Bookmark Pattern (In Tatters Link)


Flowering Quatrain Bookmark Pattern (Google Docs Link)

Best wishes,

Flower Doily

I completed the doily with the flower border.  I really love this pattern.  So pretty.  I have no doubt I shall be tatting this again in the future.  

I made holes along my drawn oval (the bits of blue you can see on the edge is the marker I used which is water soluble so will wash away eventually but can still be seen a bit) and then used a crochet and the same green thread to attach the border into the holes I made with my machine.  I then folded the extra fabric on the back.  The decorative pink stitch keeps the folded edge in place.  I used a variegated Sulky which I thought would go well with the colours of the flowers.  But a plain, bold pink or green (or yellow or orange for that matter!) would have looked good too.

I found a pretty fabric that has a subtle cream on cream motif through it.

When I last made this edging, it was from another book and the flowers were larger:  there were 2 ds between each picot as opposed to just one as here.  And the "stalks" were longer (I shortened them here by choice).  Both ways look nice.

Here's one last photo on a dark background.

I think it really brings out the brightness of the flowers.

Best wishes,

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,

How About This One? - Flowering Quatrain

Here is another version.  I wasn't happy with the central space in the golden bookmark so I changed the centre... what do you think?

No. 10 of 25-motif challenge

I went just a bit wrong on the last flower join on the right-hand side

(made the mock picot too long) but apart from that...

it's acceptable?

There will be more to come in the Quatrain bookmark saga,

hope you'll keep visiting and commenting!

Best wishes,