Category: 25 Motif Challenge

Tatting for little boys

I have two grandsons and have been thinking of things to tat for them.  Little girls are easier I think.  You can do things for their hair, their dresses, their socks (Fox has done some really cute ones), all kinds of things.  But boys aren’t usually into the frilly things, and my grandsons aren’t old enough to really appreciate bookmarks.  I’ve thought of several things, like pillow cases with critters on them (haven’t done one yet) and maybe things to hang on the wall (haven’t done that yet, either).  One thing I was going to do for Christmas but didn’t have time for I have finally gotten around to: insulated cups.

This is “Paprika the Dragon” by Martha Ess, in Lizbeth #122, Caribbean,  in size 20.  There is one opaque black 8/0 bead and 12 opaque rainbow 10/0 beads.  The cup/glass is one that you can decorate an insert for. I don’t remember where I picked this one up at, but Hobby Lobby and Micheal’s have carried ones similar to it. 
The flowers, bird and butterfly were made when finishing off shuttles and are a mixture of threads.  I have a baggy (and a few other containers here and there) full of things like this that are great for putting on cards and letters.  And now, cups! Tatting Paprika was fun and didn’t take much time.
Here is the insert before I put it in the cup.
I was very pleased at how this came out. I gave this to one of my grandsons the other day and understand that it has been well used already.  He hasn’t drank out of anything else since he got it.  He says his “grandma made it and it has a dragon and flowers on it.”☺
Now I need to make one for the other grandson. 
I’m calling this #24 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.  I keep forgetting when I make something to count them!  
Let’s not forget the TIAS!  
This is Day 5. I have no idea what it could be.  Day 6 will be out Wednesday (Jan 25), maybe that will help in figuring out what it might be. 
“Boys are found everywhere on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to.  Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them.” 
Alan Beck 

Doily Finished! And my giveaway

My Yes-U-Can doily is finished.
This has been a fun challenge, though I rushed through it. Looking over it now that it is complete I see several things I would need to do differently when/if I do this doily again. In the center ring I’d make the joining picots smaller, as well as the joining picots in the second round (open thread round). If those picots were smaller the third round of individual motifs would still need a little adjustment to keep them from being so stretched looking, but probably not as much as they need the way it is. I’m thinking another couple of stitches in the chains would help. The last round, even with the adjustments in the previous rounds, wouldn’t need to be tweaked much if any. Of course, it would be nice if I kept the picot count the same in each repeat on this round. I didn’t notice until I was blocking it that some of the chains have seven picots instead of the five they are supposed to have. I knew I had caught myself doing this but hadn’t realized I had missed fixing some – and so many! But I’m not changing it now. I have too many other things to do. I’ll just take some notes along with stitch counts and try to do better the next time.
Even though it has a lot of issues this doily was certainly a challenge, so I’m calling it #23 of my 25 motif challenge. #23? Oh, my, I didn’t realize I was so close to 25.
As I’ve been saying for the last several weeks, my blogaversary is next week. If you comment on this post you will be entered into the drawing. I do have several things picked out for the package but it’s not complete yet (I’m not telling, it’s a surprise!). I’ll announce the winner on my Tatting Tea Tuesday post October 25th, so comments need to be made before 8:00 AM CST (USA) the 25th to be included.
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m having a cup of hot apple cider, mmmm. We’ve had very fall-like weather here in Kansas the last several days, and what’s more fall-like than apple cider? I had bought the jug for a dinner this last weekend then forgot to take it with me, so I’ll have to drink the whole thing by myself (my husband doesn’t like it). Such a hardship! *grin*
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s okay to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.”

Getting Ready For the State Fair

This is the mess on my table after trying to get things finished for the Kansas State Fair. No actual tatting done, but at least I got a cup of tea in (Country Peach Passion – yum!)
I’ve been busy with getting things made and put together for several weeks now. I haven’t been on the Internet much, I’ve been too busy tatting. And planning. There is only one class for tatting at the state fair but I wanted to get a few more items of tatting there if I could. Looking through the options I found they have a category for Christmas decorations and one for holiday decoration, one per holiday. So that makes three categories I thought I could enter.
I entered my antique motif doily (of course!). This is at a higher level than the county fair but I think it has a chance to do well. Then I had an idea for a Christmas decoration using those snowflakes I’ve been working on. I just couldn’t get my plan to work out but entered them anyway. They still look nice but nothing spectacular. And I forgot to take a picture of it before I dropped it off.
I chose a Halloween decoration for the other entry. I had this idea of a spider on a web using one of Jane Eborall’s patterns. But I just couldn’t get those floating chains! *head hangs in shame* I worked on it for half a day, but running out of time I had to do something else. I did come up with a spider, making the legs out of split rings similar to the way Jane made the legs on her stork. The body has a few issues but still looks pretty good. I added a black bead for the body and glass beads for head and eyes. I had planned a black spider but felt it would not be seen well on the black background I had in mind, so it’s made of gold Cebelia size 30, color 437. This actually worked better than the size 20 black that was planned, because being a smaller thread the legs worked better. The web is made of size 70 Lizbeth color 602 natural (not-quite white) and a strand of metallic coats thread, a Nylon and Polyester blend. I started once, then realized I made a bit of a mistake so had to start over. I got soooo tired of doing this. The last round is made of chains, each of 35 double stitches. Not very stimulating, and a lot of chance of mis-counting. But I’m very happy with the result.

I hope the judges at the fair like it, too. I’m going to call this #22 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. This was very much a challenge!
I might know by next week how my entries did at the fair. I’ve told several people who have plans to go to let me know the results if they get there before I do. The fair lasts ten days but I’m not sure what day I’ll get to go. There is a lot to see and do at the fair – I’m really looking forward to it.
“Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all possible circumstances.”
Orison Swett Marden

A Wonderful 4th of July

Did everyone have a happy 4th of July? We celebrated with fireworks both Sunday night (the 3rd) and Monday night. We were visiting our daughter’s family and went with them on Sunday night to a neighbor’s to share the fun. There were several children my grandson’s age that had a blast watching the show. As the other adults there were mostly parents, the fireworks consisted of light shows – fountains, small ground lights and the type that explodes into lots of lights in the sky – and very few that made only noise – you know, firecrackers. I don’t particularly like the noisy ones myself, and my grandson runs and hides from the loud ones because they hurt his ears.

The evening of the 4th we only set off a few ourselves, but there were a lot going off all over town that we could see and enjoy. It was quite a show!

Monday during the day we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. It was a nice day for a zoo visit, a little hot but not bad, and not very crowded. My grandson had a lot of fun looking at the animals.

Here he’s looking at the rhinoceros sleeping. A little later we went by the on the train that goes around the zoo and saw then standing up. He thought they were pretty cool either way!

We finished off our visit with a walk through the rain forest exhibit, which is quite an experience. Our grandson really enjoyed having Papa show him some of the wildlife in there. He didn’t really enjoy the ‘caves’ and dark places, though.


I didn’t get much tatting done over the last week, first getting ready to go, and then being there – just too much to do! What little I got done was in the car while we were on our way there.

I’m wanting to add some tatting to a handbag I have and found some metal pieces that I thought had a nice potential for adding tatting to them. I had wanted to try using some beads with this, but I don’t do beads well when traveling. I’ve actually started on another piece with the same center but it’s not looking as good as I’d like, so it may have to be started over. I’m calling this #21 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

I’m not sure how much tatting I’ll get done this next week, either, as I’ll be doing some traveling again. Probably something without beads again, if anything ; )

I missed Tatting Tea Tuesday this week due to a lack of Internet access, though I tatted and had tea 🙂 I guess today I’ll just have to join Cindy at A Happy Bluebird for Wine Wednesday. I’ll have a glass when I get home from work, though instead of tatting I’ll be cleaning out my tatting bag so it’s a little lighter – somehow it keeps aquiring things!

“There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens can not cure.” Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President

Tatting Tea Tuesday on Flag Day

Are your flags flying today? It’s Flag Day today here in the United States. My family observed Flag Day when I was young, and still do today. I’ve done so, some years with more awareness than others. And I’m sure I learned all about it in grade school but I had to look it up to refresh my memory. If you are interested in a short history of Flag Day you might try this site.

© Wanda Salmans
In the midst of all the things that are going on in my life right now I hadn’t really noticed that it was going to be Flag Day today until yesterday. I thought it would be nice to have a little something to wear to celebrate the day. And I needed a little break from my Heart’s Honor bookmark diagramming. I grabbed red, white and blue thread on my way out to work yesterday and started this little pin. I finished it this morning while I ignored a few other things I should have been doing. I’m going to wear it to work today. If my count is correct this will be #20 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. I’ve done a few more things that could have been counted but I keep forgetting to until I’ve already posted!

While at Hobby Lobby in Wichita this week I happened to notice a yarn shop I hadn’t seen before called Odd Balls Yarn Shop. I hadn’t noticed it before because it just opened in March (I don’t get to Hobby Lobby as much as I’d like to). I had a whole list of things to do but I decided to take a few minutes and check it out – maybe it carried tatting thread. It’s a nice, large shop with an area for open stitch (chatting area) and a lot of yarn for knitting and crocheting but I didn’t see anything for tatting. But I did see some finished tatting that was for sale. I got to meet the tatter-in-house and we spoke a little of tatting and threads and such. She said that the buyer was currently at a (thread? fiber?) show and was planning on bringing home some shuttles and threads, brands as yet unknown. So this is definitely a shop to keep in mind if you are in Wichita and need a place to sit and stitch and would like to talk to other fiber artists. And maybe purchase some thread or shuttles 🙂

The Heart’s Honor pattern is currently being test tatted – or the top, heart part is. So far it has few issues, but I have gotten some great feedback from the test tatters. Thanks to all of you who are helping me out. I’m having some difficulties with the second part, mostly trying to get the perspective correct. I should have more time to get into it after this weekend so I’ll get serious then.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I had iced green tea with a squirt of MIO liquid Mango Peach. It was delicious! And I was tatting my flag pin while I sipped it – totally into the communi-tea today.

Pledge of Allegiance
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”

Francis Bellamy

Bookmarks

My tatting this week consisted of making a couple of cross bookmarks. I started with the one on the right, with an idea of how I wanted the ends to look. I started several times because it didn’t work quite right. I did this in tatting instead of with computer software because I had more time to do it that way. I would have liked to do it with software but it’s a little harder to take my laptop everywhere than it is my tatting. That’s one of the great things about tatting, isn’t it? The portability.

I am pretty happy with the result of the first one. I used a SCMR on the ends of each arm and one in the center as well. I did have a little trouble making up my mind about the tassels on each end, trying several different things before I decided that the spiral tails looked right. The entire pattern is straight forward and easy which will make it an excellent bookmark to make quickly give for special occasions.

There were a few things I thought might work better done slightly differently so made another one. On the second cross I made the end SCMRs a little bigger and each of the thrown rings a little differently, too. I had planned on doing the center the same way as the first cross but I made a little mistake that I didn’t notice ’til I came around the next time. I thought it would work, so continued on with that change. I actually like this center better than the first. I did plan the tassels a little better this time so I didn’t have to start over and over and over. Using a software program might have helped a little here also, to decide on the size of the rings compared to the rest of the cross. I definitely need to take some time to utilize more of what I learned about software designing in the Design-Tat class.

Both crosses are made with Lizbeth size 20 threads, center in #633 dark purple, outside in #127 Butterfly Breeze. These are #19 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. I am working on writing out and diagramming the pattern for these – again, need computer time to get it done. I’ve got a good start but still have a long way to go.

I’m still drinking hot tea on this Tatting Tea Tuesday. The weather has been rather cooler than normal this spring so it’s still more appealing yet than iced tea. Today Cinnamon Apple Spice really hit the spot. I think I’ll make another cup and work on my next project.

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” Pat Riley

A bookmark for Tatting Tea Tuesday

Flowery SCMR Bookmark © Jane Eborall
This week I tried my hand at Jane’s Flowery SCMR Bookmark, found on her free patterns page. Search for Jane Eborall.
I used Lizbeth Butterfly Breeze #127 and DMC Cébélia light green #955, both is size 20. I thought they went well together and they do, but a bit too well. The green DMC is almost an exact match for the green that is in the Butterfly Breeze, so there’s not as much contrast as I’d like. But I went ahead and finished it anyway. I may have to do this one again in different colors.
If you know how to do split rings this isn’t really a hard pattern but I kept having trouble with it – not on the self-closing mock rings or the split rings, but on the way which the split rings went after each of the SCMRs. It’s not the pattern’s fault, it’s just me trying to make things hard. The second side, which is the “leaves” weaving back and forth around the “flowers,” was much easier. Jane has a nice way to go across the first side, which I just couldn’t get until I slept on it, then it was, like “Oh!”, the light bulb came on. I don’t have the tail on yet but I don’t anticipate any problems from it. It’s also not laying very flat but a day or too in a book will take care of that. I’m counting this in my 25 Motif Challenge as #18.
I haven’t mentioned tea lately on my Tuesday posts, but I always try to have at least one cup of tea as I prepare my post, or while I finish that last bit of tatting before taking pictures. Today I had Rooibos again. I must thank Isdihara for introducing me to Tatting Tea Tuesday, which inspired me to try different kinds of teas. I never was very adventuresome with teas for some reason, but now I enjoy trying different flavors. Now that the weather is getting to be warmer again I may have to start trying different flavors of iced tea.
Thank you everyone who has been reading my blog. I’ve not had as much computer time lately so I’m way behind on replying to comments and on reading other people’s blogs. Though I don’t know what the future will bring, I’m hoping it brings a little time to do all that soon.
There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as “nutty methods.” Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as “a complete waste of time.” Scott Adams

Adding to my 25 Motif Challenge

I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day Monday. I had every intention of posting this weekend but time got away from me again. I was working on this heart, writing and diagramming the pattern and I didn’t get it done! So I decided to post it today. February has Valentine’s Day and is considered American Heart Month, but I think hearts are appreciated any time. This one is made from Lizbeth size 20 in #147. This is #17 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

This last week Tabatha, from Crafting with Tabatha, asked for some help with ‘Angels in the Snow’ by Miranda Rensberger. Tabatha is very new to tatting, having started just this year. This is a pretty ambitious pattern for one so new, made with two shuttles and SCMR, but she is doing an amazing job tatting already so I think she should be able to make this. I’d seen this snowflake on Miranda’s blog and other places where others had made it, but I hadn’t yet purchased it. Tabatha’s questions gave me a good excuse to buy the pattern and help Miranda raise money for the Brain Injury Association of New Mexico at the same time.

Angels in the Snow © Miranda Rensberger

I made this in Lizbeth size 20 in #662 Turquoise Lt. and #657 Ocean Turquoise Dk. While I didn’t find this difficult I have been tatting quite a bit longer than Tabatha and I still remember when this would have been a problem. I started this again, taking pictures as I went to help her understand what she was supposed to be doing. I checked her blog this morning and she’s made a good start. I’m naming this #18 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

This is ‘Triana’ by Megzaela, one of my classmates in the Design Tat class. I test tatted this in Lizbeth size 20 color (?). This was an interesting challenge. None of the elements were that hard but you have to pay attention to which way’s up and where you join. I found I had made a join incorrectly after I was completely done so it has not been fixed. Apologies, Megzaela! This will be #19 of the 25 Motif Challenge.


‘Triana’ © Megzaela 2010

While I was blog surfing this week I happened upon Peachtree Cottage Creations and noticed that one of the bookmarks she had made kind of looked like the one that I had designed last fall. And it was! If you haven’t been over there you might go check it out. In this particular post she was trying to decide how best to stage a couple of bookmarks for a photo. She has a lot of really nice things she’s done on her blog, well worth a visit.

On this Tatting Tea Tuesday I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes in keeping with a month dedicated to hearts and love.

Poetry is the song of the heart, molded by the mind.

– Roger W. Hancock –

The thing about falling in love,
is that if you do it right,
you never have to hit the ground.

– Kendall Lepitzki –

Homework

Do you remember when you were in school as a child? Did you ever ask why you had to learn a certain skill/subject? Back then, you could never see how you would ever use it and homework could be a real pain. And then you’re older and taking classes, through a school or because of your work, on subjects that you are interested in. Then the homework isn’t quite the drudgery because you can see the where, why and when you’ll use the knowledge. It doesn’t mean it will be easy, though.I’m taking Sharon’s Design-Tat class, learning how to design tatting and then how to share it by writing out the pattern. One lesson was to design a motif, with part of it given to all, and a part of it we each were to come up with ourselves. That wasn’t too hard, and was fun. But then the next lesson was to write it out – not as much fun. But after a bit of stress and several starts (and re-starts) I finished that, too.

So, what do you do with a motif? I’ve done lots of them over the years, but when they’re done, just what is their purpose? Some I’ve done in white and hung on my Christmas tree, though they may not be a snowflake, and a few I’ve put in frames. Quite a few are tucked away, hidden from sight, because I didn’t have anything planned for them. I think the main thing done with motifs is to join them together to make mats or runners or tablecloths – something bigger anyway.

Okay, I have a motif: let me try to make something bigger.

I played around with my motif a little and soon realized that it, at least to me, did not lend itself to be joined together, not as it was anyway. The edges are very frilly, and when two are joined together as designed end up with overlapping picots. Not very aesthetic. So I made a few modifications, which helped a little, though I still wasn’t happy with them. I played around with them a little more and came up with adding corner pieces. Much better. This design leaves the finished piece a little floppy as there aren’t many joins to the center. I found that a bit of hair spray after blocking does a great job of stiffening it enough to fix that without being too messy or taking too long to dry (hair dryers are a wonderful tool)

Both the single motif and the mat are made in Lizbeth size 20 in white. I’m going to call the single motif #15 of my second 25 Motif Challenge and the mat #16. I’m hoping someone in the class will be kind enough to test-tat the motif. It really does a help a lot to have someone else read over a pattern and try it. I always see what I know should be there, not necessarily what’s really there. I haven’t written out the changes and additions to the mat pattern yet – I’m waiting on the proofing of the other pattern first.

And now, on this pretty Tatting Tea Tuesday as I sip my “Constant Comment” tea (“tea flavored with rind of oranges and sweet spice”) – which was a gift from my Advent swap partner – I’m going to share what my wonderful husband did for me this weekend.

He made me another shuttle!

It was hard to take pictures of this; I had a hard time getting the camera to focus. Finally I got the right setting on the camera and was able to take some clear pictures but not as good as I’d like.

This shuttle is made with, we think, Japanese walnut; he actually got the wood from one of our neighbors. In the pictures it looks like the sides are rough but they are actually smooth. In person it looks the same, you touch it expecting it to be rough. It’s also very light weight. The color was much lighter before the hand rub polyurethane was applied. The tips don’t, and aren’t supposed to, meet, but when dangled the thread doesn’t unwind because of the way the slots are cut. I will have to keep a crochet hook with me when I use this shuttle because it doesn’t have a sharp point, but that’s okay, I have several hooks:) It’s a little longer than the Clover shuttles I usually use, but not bad. I think it will hold a bit more thread than a Clover, too. It might be a good shuttle for when I use beads.


Can you tell I’m a little excited about this shuttle??

May this be the start of wonderful new year
May you have enough thread for all your projects
May your shuttle always hold just enough thread
And may there always be a little tea with your tatting on Tuesdays: )

Happy New Year!

Making wreaths and wrapping gifts

I got up on Tatting Tea Tuesday and had a cup of Cinnamon Apple Spiced tea and tatted for a couple of hours – with a lot of interruptions. The whole day was full of interruptions and re-dos, actually. My tatting was a couple of wreaths, which aren’t hard – if you just follow the directions! I started the first one three times because I didn’t pay close enough attention to what I was supposed to do! My own fault; there were just too many things going on that kept pulling my attention away from my tatting (one is about three feet tall and gets into everything! Very cute though.)

Chain Christmas Wreath by Susan B. Taliaferro

I’m counting the Chain Christmas Wreath as #14 of the 25 Motif Challenge. Considering how much trouble I had with these I can definitely say it was a challenge. I like this pattern well enough I’ll be making more for this Christmas – the shuttles are already wound anyway, might as well 🙂 Susan has the pattern posted on InTatters if you’d like to try it. I’m not sure of the thread, Handy Hands tucked it into an order I made back when Lizbeth was new. It’s a green with a slightly blue tint, but it looks very nice as a wreath with red beads.

I have been tatting like mad the last week, but everything is for gifts, so I can’t show them until I know they’ve been opened. Other than that I’ve been wrapping said gifts. In fact, most of my day has been spent wrapping gifts, in between running after my two year old grandson that is staying with us. His mother had to go on a short overnight trip and my DH had to work, so it was just the two of us – oh, boy. He gets into absolutely everything if you don’t keep your eye on him constantly!Secret Santa gift from xstchntat

Look what I received in the mail! Look at all the goodies! These were sent to me by xstchntat for the Intatters Secret Santa Exchange. The bookmark was part of a group that won second place at the Arizona State Fair – it’s lovely. A ball of Christmas Delight, 116, Lizbeth thread, size 20 (but it’s labeled Mocha Brown Dk, 692!). Three balls of Coats and Clark thread, size 70, variegated pink to white, variegated green to white and variegated pink, blue, white. A skein of pink Lola color 135 Rayon thread from EdMar which looks a little finer that size 20. Two cute little mittens that would look good on stitch markers (strivers), a Clover shuttle and…

Handmade Podauk Shuttle and striver!
a handmade striver and a handmade shuttle! The shuttle is made from Podauk wood and is very light. You can see it’s smaller than the Clover shuttle. I think it will work very well with the size 70 thread she sent. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’m very much looking forward to giving it a try. I know I’ll be using the striver soon as I have another project I need to do this week that needs several.

Thank you, xstchntat, for the wonderful gifts!

May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving this week, and take a little time out for tea and tatting if you can!