12th Motif - Beaded Wreath

This time of year requires some holiday motifs. I've done a few snowflakes but I couldn't resist this beautiful beaded wreath. The designer is Laura Bobay and the pattern can be found on Tat-Man's website.

Just so you know, the pattern calls for a second round of tatting but I liked it so much with just the first round that I stopped there. I've started making a second wreath and will do both rounds - I promise.

11th Motif - Rosie the Seahorse Dragon

Meet Rosie, the Seahorse Dragon. This is Anne Bruvold's pattern which she taught in a recent online tatting class.

I've hesitated to do any of Anne's dragons because they looked so difficult. But, Anne, thank you so much for the seahorse dragon. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and I really enjoyed creating this piece.

As with other patterns I've done that join two pieces together, I always have to stop and think about what I'm doing. The first time, I usually join things upside down, but that's all part of the learning process.

Rosie's body is needle tatted while her wing is shuttled tatted. There's no particular reason for that; I just wanted to use both methods.

10th Motif - Snowflake #2

Here is another snowflake from Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting book.

It is the Thirteenth Day of December pattern which, like my previous snowflake, has long chains.

There was another challenge with this snowflake which I have yet to conquer. It is the dreaded split chain. My heartfelt thanks to all who have created videos on this technique. I feel like I managed it pretty well for this snowflake but I definitely need to find more patterns to practice the split chain technique.

Like many other tatters who have tatted all of the snowflakes in this book, I hope to be able to do that before the end of 2010. They are beautiful and I'd really like to add them to my collection of snowflakes.

9th Motif - Snowflake #1

I took Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting book with me on vacation because I've been anxious to try some of these patterns and because it's time to start thinking about motifs for the holidays.

It was difficult to choose which snowflake to begin with. Of course, I could have just started with the first one, but doesn't everyone do that?

Instead, I began with The Fifth Day of December snowflake and shuttled tatted it while on vacation. I also did some very small motifs like butterflies but I gave them away to anyone who inquired about what I was doing. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it but please don't look too closely :) remember, I was on vacation.

As for doing something new as part of my 25 Motif Challenge, the only thing about this snowflake that was a little challenging was making long, even-tensioned chains.

One of the reasons for choosing this particular snowflake was that each round was repetitive which meant I could put it down and pick it back up later and not lose my place.

Tatteristic! is at the Halfway Point - Am I On Track?

Well, it's July and I should be halfway through my 25 Motif Challenge - but I'm not.

I have been tatting but so much of it has been practice and not really suitable as a motif for this challenge. As least not as far as I'm concerned. You see, I started this challenge to learn new techniques so I'm trying to post photos and add to my list of pieces where I have actually challenged myself to learn something new.

I really do have something in the works - I've finally learned how to tat cluny leaves. Another tatter just gave me an idea for a pattern with cluny leaves so I will be working on that motif next.

As soon as it is completed, I will post pictures and continue with the challenge. I am bound and determined to complete 25 motifs by the end of the year. That was the time frame I set for myself - 12 months -  January through December, 2010.

Wish me luck!

8th Motif - Clover Leaf Doily

Yeah, I finally have something to post in my 25 Motif Challenge. It's a Clover Leaf Doily that is about 6-1/2" wide. I found the pattern by Linda S. Davies at www.craftown.com and thought it was beautiful.

It took me quite a bit of time to finish because I was working on some other things at the same time. As you can probably tell from my other posts, I enjoy tatting clovers. I haven't made any doilies before because I thought they would get boring and I would give up on them. However this pattern had interesting rounds and I really enjoyed making it.

 I used Lizbeth #20 thread in a medium green and ecru. If you click on the photo, you'll be able to see more detail.

7th Motif - Clover Pendant and Bookmarks

I started the 25 Motif Challenge to learn new techniques. While the clover isn't new to me anymore, turning it into a pendant is. This is the first piece of tatted jewelry I've made.

I made a simple clover/chain motif and added beads to the center rings of the clovers and a charm to the bottom of one of the clovers.

What I found while making the pendant was how versatile small motifs can be. I made a couple more motifs and added them to shepherd's hooks and really like the way they turned out. I've given one of the bookmarks to a friend as a thank you gift and she thought it was lovely.

Click on the photo to see a larger view of my tatting.

6th Motif - Clover

I am fascinated with Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns and am enjoying trying out all of her designs. This is the Clover pattern and, as you can see, I used my new Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle to make it. This shuttle is very comfortable and holds a lot of thread which makes doing edgings a breeze.

The pattern provided a lot of good practice doing clovers and it turned out so beautiful that I am going to put it on a special crazy quilt block.

The edging is about 9.5" long and you can see there is still plenty of thread left on the shuttle. Yippee, fewer ends to hide! I think this pattern would make a beautiful choker necklace.

5th Motif - Green Butterfly

This butterfly will be taking flight soon to the Palmetto Tatting Guild - it is my membership butterfly for 2010.

I made this butterfly once before when I first began tatting and it was quite a challenge then. This time I used a finer thread and took my time. The butterfly is actually five sections all joined together.

 
I used both shuttle and needle tatting techniques to make this butterfly. I could have done the entire butterfly using either technique, but I had already wound shuttles for both colors using the continuous thread method and I did not want to make the two- and three-ring centers using the thread on the shuttles. They are such small sections that I decided to needle tat them and leave the thread CTM on the shuttles for the larger outside sections of the wings.

Now fly away, fly away little butterfly...

4th Motif - Curds and Whey

Now that I  have Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns, I want to try every pattern in her book. One of the patterns I've been wanting to work on are edgings. The pattern I selected out of Mary's book was Curds and Whey.

 

It requires only one shuttle and I filled a plastic Clover shuttle and was able to complete this piece with 3-4 inches of thread left over. It measures about 7' (or 19cm) When I ordered the book from Handy Hands, they included a small spool of thread to try and I loved working with it. I could not find a number on it but is a size 40 thread and from the pictures on their website it could be the Grape Pizzaz color. It's absolutely gorgeous and a dream to work with.

I also worked on a small edging and added it to a burp cloth during the Superbowl Game which you can see on Tatteristic's main blog.                                                                                                 

3rd Motif - Glass Mat

This is a motif that I fell in love with the first time I saw it. Just recently I purchased Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns so I could give it a try. Up to now I was afraid to try it. You see, I didn't want to try it to early in my tatting journey and get frustrated because I wasn't experienced enough or have enough understanding of visual patterns.

Fortunately for me, this pattern was very easy to follow and I thoroughly enjoyed making it. Thank you, Mary.

However, now that it's all said and done, I have to admit that I did have a little trouble joining that last and first sets together. I tried folding them but a couple of times, I think I actually tatted it backwards and had to untat it to continue.

If anyone would like to share helpful hints on joining something like this together, please feel free to leave a comment. I'm going to make another in a different color - just because it's such a beautiful motif - and I will appreciate any suggestions for finishing it up.

Note: I swapped the photo of the Glass Mat because I felt the first one was too dark. 02/03/2010

2nd Motif - Paprika the Dragon

I had a little bit of red thread left on a shuttle after doing some Christmas ornaments and decided to use it for this motif. Meet Paprika the Dragon, pattern by Martha Ess.

She's a cute little dragon and the pattern was fun to do with all of the lock stitches to create turns in the head and wings.

Now, onto the next motif. What will it be?

1st Motif - Tatted Heart

I finally decided which motif to begin with - a heart. I love hearts so it is fitting that I begin with one.

I used the beautiful Spring Green Lizbeth Size 20 thread. The pattern which is called Tatted Heart is from Handy Hands Tatting and it was shuttled tatted. I did the center three rings one evening and finished it the next. It works up very quickly and the pattern is very easy to follow.

Hmmm, what should I do next?