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.