Month: July 2014

Tatted Horse Picture

Tatted horse picture on wandasknottythoughts.com

 I finished the horse picture, yay!

After much thought and trial I finally decided on Kraft paper as the background.  It was very hard to come up with a background that showed off the silver horse and the brown saddle without making one or the other disappear.  This choice looked the best of all the colors that were tried.
Then, of course, what to put with the horse?  Flowers, yes, but how many and what colors?  How about grass? Yes, but long strips? short strips? Critters?  And then how should they be put together?
A lot of time was spent debating and trying out different ideas.  Some worked, some didn’t.  I finally took a break from it all and just worked on my vest.  Which really helped, as when I went back to the horse things came together a lot faster.
This picture was taken before the glass went on and I debated about leaving it this way.  But putting the glass on would keep the dust off the tatting, so on it went.
I’m very happy with the results.
Now I just have to give it to the planned recipient.
About two months late.
Horse (Foal) by Inga Madsen from “Tatted Animals” in Lizbeth  Silver #605 and Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20
Lady Bug by Sue Hanson in #671 Christmas Red, size 20
Bunny doodle* Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20
Dandelion and collage ideas from “Tatting Collage” by Lindsay Rogers
*can’t remember where I saw this. If anyone knows, please let me know!
“The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip”
Henny Youngman
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Not much done

I haven’t gotten much done on either the triangle doily or the horse picture.  I’ve thought about them a bit, more the horse than the triangles, but no progress on either.  The doily still taunts me from the blocking board where I’ve been ignoring it.  The horse has been teasing me from several possible backgrounds to give it a pasture to run in.  I’ve played around with tatted flowers and birds, bunnies and grass, background colors and frame sizes, and still haven’t made up my mind.
We’ve finally been making progress on a house project that’s been put off for a long time, which is now taking up some (okay, a lot) of my time.  I think most of my creative thoughts have been funneled into this instead of my tatting.  Instead of trying to come up with ideas for the doily or the horse I worked on my vest Sunday night.  I’m at a place in it where I’m just repeating the same thing over and over for a while so I didn’t have to think much.  It was very relaxing.
This is a doily I gave to my mother several years ago.  I noticed that as it aged it looked like it was stained.  I brought it back home and washed it.  It now looks good as new.
A cup of tea
A ball of thread
A shuttle close to hand
A little time
A plan in mind
A tatter’s wonderland

Tatted horse

Horse (Foal) © Inga Madsen
From Inga Madsen’s book “Tatted Animals”
Made with Lizbeth Silver #605 and Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20
I tatted this horse over a month ago for a niece’s graduation present – and I still have it!  I want to make this a tatted scene, with flowers and  – stuff.  The horse itself wasn’t hard, though I did do a little unintentional change in the saddle right at the start.  I also took off the last chain of the pattern because I didn’t like the look.  In the book all the animals are done in one color and look great, but when done in two colors that last chain just didn’t look right. 
So why is it still at my house instead of the graduate’s?  I’m having a hard time making the decisions about the flowers and birds and such.  I have been going through Lindsay Rogers’ book “Tatting Collage” to get ideas.  And now I have a lot of them.  I have so many ideas now I have to choose how elaborate or simple it will be. Do I put it in an 8″ x 10″ frame?  A 5? x 7″?  I’m afraid the one is too big but the other would be too crowded.  Decisions, decisions!
I’m still trying to make decisions on the triangle doily as well.  It is right there beside my chair so I can see it, taunting me to finish it.  But again I can’t make up my mind exactly how to do that. I will eventually, probably sooner than later, but…  Decisions, decisions!
Maybe I should ask the horse.
“A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.
Go right to the source and ask the horse
He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.
He’s always on a steady course.
Talk to Mr. Ed.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And this one’ll talk ’til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking horse?

Well listen to this.

I am Mr. Ed.”

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/mredlyrics.html

Circle of Triangles

I’m still working on triangles. 
All the centers are made the same, a tatted circle motif that is then stitched to the inside of the triangle with bare thread.  Attaching the centers this way is a bit tedious.  The triangle has to be pinned down to a board so they don’t get pulled out of shape too badly while putting the centers in.  And while stitching them in the thread has a tendency to catch on the pins holding the triangles. It did seem to get a bit easier as I went along and got the hang of it.   

Even pinning the outsides while adding the centers deformed the triangle shape.  Once the centers were attached each one had to be blocked to have them lie flat.  After pinning then out flat they were sprayed with water then left to dry that way, which worked out well.  The whole thing was blocked and dampened again after joining the triangles together, too.  It now lies flat very nicely.
This arrangement was suggested by muskaan in a comment made on my first triangle post a few weeks ago.  I looked at the first triangle and could see something like that, so I tried it.  I’m now trying to decide if/what I want to do in the center.  Maybe something around the outside as well.  In white?  White and red?
Hmmm, I’ll have to work on that.

“Square box, round pizza, triangle slices.
I’m confused…” 

It’s a Plane!

I’ve been trying to post about this airplane for the last several weeks.
First I had trouble with my computer so I couldn’t work on the pattern.  
Then I thought I was ready and lost the tatted airplane without a picture of it.  So I tatted another one and in the process found I hadn’t saved the most recent changes of the pattern (I think the computer ate it).  
Today I finally get a picture of the new airplane – and the computer won’t let me download it.
After a bit of fussing and worrying I tried out a feature of our camera that we hadn’t attempted before – transferring the picture from the camera to my phone.  Have you seen the commercials for the Samsung Galaxy phones where two people hold their phones close together and the picture/file is transferred?  Just like that, except from our Samsung camera to my Samsung Galaxy III phone.  Then from my phone to my Google+ and the picture is accessible from anywhere I can get to the Internet.  Pretty cool!
Airplane @ Wanda Salmans 2014
This airplane is made of Lizbeth thread # 605 Silver in size 20.  Unfortunately the pattern isn’t up yet.  I still have to go back and fix a few things.  If things go a bit smoother tomorrow it will be up in the afternoon (I hope) but if not, then in a few days I will try to put it on my Pattern tab.
Triangle update
I’ve gotten a little bit done on the triangles.  All the white center motifs are done and I’ve started adding them to the middles.  The one on the left below has tatted chains instead of the bare thread.  The center was added last just like before except this time I went all the way around with the bare thread and caught all the picots of the triangle as well as the long stitches in the corners, then went around a second time using the needle as my shuttle and doing direct tatting (un-flipped stitches) on the bare thread.  I don’t like this very much: it wasn’t fun to make and it didn’t end up very round.

Independence Day is this Friday and I actually get the whole weekend off!  This doesn’t mean I’ll have a lot of time for tatting but I plan to get a little in one way or the other. 
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
Henry Ford
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