Category: edging

DVD Appreciation Day

Do you know about DVD Appreciation Day?

What is that you say? Da Vinci Disorder Awareness Day.

Why would anyone have an appreciation day for a disorder?

According to Craftree member wodentoad:

“For those who don’t know, DVD awareness day is a wholly made up “disorder” which celebrates Leonardo Da Vinci who was a true Renaissance man. He spoke several languages, painted, invented many things in many different disciplines, learned about medicine, and even music composition. He was also a man who rarely finished work because like most men of the time he believed that the learning and designing was “gentleman’s work” while the actual finishing of projects was for laborers.”

Doesn’t this sound like crafters who start projects in any variety of mediums, all excited about the enterprise, but get distracted before it’s done and move on to another fun and exciting crafting adventure? Well, it sounds like me.

DVD Appreciation Day is celebrated on April 15, Da Vinci’s birthday. This year it was on a Sunday, a Sunday I didn’t even have to work! I was able to do some tatting, mostly emptying thread from some of my shuttles.

Weekend tatting results on wandasknottythoughts
Weekend tatting results

I made the small four ring crosses with the idea of making earrings. After I had done a few I started thinking how to put them together.  I started an experiment to find out. It came together very well.

Believe it or not, I finished my little experiment Monday.

Ring of crosses Results of weekend tatting on wandasknottythoughts
Results of weekend tatting

I say finished, but is it? What do I do with this little ring? Put it on material for a coaster? Fill in the center, add to the outside?

Maybe I’ll finish it by the next DVD Awareness Day.

Craftree.com is a craft forum for the fiber arts. Membership is free, you just have to create an account.

“Art is never finished, only abandoned. Leonardo da Vinci” 
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Magnifier Case

December just flew by! We were so busy with family, work, and church I had to make choices of what things were done and what was left undone or to do later. I have some things to blog about they are some of those things to do later.

I did get some tatting done, including several Ice Drops (to be blogged about later). A last minute gift that I tatted was for our pastor’s wife, who has a lot of trouble with her eyes. I had been thinking of getting a magnifying glass for her for a while, but I wanted one that was easy to use and portable. I found one at Hobby Lobby a few days before Christmas that was almost exactly what I had envisioned. It just needed some way to be carried that kept it nice and was easy to access.

Magnifier and case with tatting on wandasknottythoughts 2018
Magnifier and case with tatting

The felt and thread I already had at home. I design tatting but I’m not as well versed in designing with material but I was able to come up with a case made out of the felt. Of course, it couldn’t be left plain. Lizbeth Caribbean worked well with the purple felt. The tatting on it looks simple but I had to make it hard – the edging has rings on the other side, like the gem in an Ice Drop.

The entire case and tatting were done Christmas eve day/evening. You can’t make a case for something you don’t have or I would have started much earlier! I thought about attaching the tatting with fabric glue but decided that as much use as it might have, sewing was a better option. The purple paracord I had left over from my Tat Days costume worked well for the lanyard part.

Magnifier case with tatted edging on wandasknottythoughts 2018
Magnifier case with tatted edging

I’m happy to say that the recipient loved both the magnifier and the case. It will come in handy at church but also for things like reading labels at the store and menus in restaurants.

I’m hoping to blog a bit more frequently than I have been lately. I not only have been tatting some but also taking a few pictures. Maybe not everything, but most.

Here’s to a new year with lots of time for tatting! And taking pictures. And blogging. 🙂

“The beauty of handmade is in the imperfections. Anything perfect is machine made.”   craftprofessional.com

 

Butterfly Edging

There are a lot of tatting projects that I need to get done now that I’m back from Palmettos Tat Days.  I knew about them before I went to Georgia but didn’t have time to do them, so it was rush, rush, rush when I got back. I did get two of my projects done, two more to go before the end of October.

Tatted Butterfly Edged Doily for auction on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted Butterfly Edged Doily

One project I finished was an edged doily. Our church participates in an auction to raise money for a local retirement home, which is supposed to be a ‘basket’ of items that we donate. This year, it’s not a basket at all, but several items of a theme that we’ll bundle together. I try to include something tatted every year, and this year I planned a doily with a tatted edging.

Tatted Butterfly Edging looks like Mary Konior's pattern on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted Butterfly Edging looks like Mary Konior’s pattern

Our theme this year is butterflies, so I envisioned a doily with a tatted edging of butterflies. I had an idea of what I wanted and got started without a pattern. While on Craftree I found an edging that was exactly what I wanted: Mary Konior’s Butterflies from her book “A Pattern Book of Tatting.” I don’t have the book and I don’t know the stitch count of her pattern as I made it before I saw a picture of it. As it is so close to her pattern if you want to make it, check out her book.

I loved the butterflies but thought the edging needed to be a bit wider, so I added another row. The result is more suitable to what I planned for the doily.

Tatted Butterfly Edging with a second row on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted Butterfly Edging with a second row

At this point, I didn’t have a center for the doily, I made the edging first 🙂  I had time to tat but not the time to cut and sew the doily center. With the edging done I had to figure out a way to get the center the size needed and found a paper plate worked out nicely. I miscalculated a bit by not making the seam a tad bit wider (making the doily diameter smaller), but it still came out okay. Finished size with edging is about nine and a half inches across.

Tatted Butterfly Edging sewn on found on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted Butterfly Edging sewn on

These are the items we put together for our auction ‘basket.’ We had members of our congregation add the butterflies to the grapevine cross.

Auction items on wandasknottythoughts
Auction items

This is one project down out of four that I want to have done before the end of October. I have one other completed that I’ll post about later. Now on to the next!

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” Rabindranath Tagore     https://brainyquote.com

Practice and the fair

Tatted earrings based on Lanyard pattern on wandasknottythoughts
Earrings based on Lanyard pattern

I have been enjoying the Lanyard pattern so much I tried making earrings with it. I know there are other earring patterns that are very similar to this but I made these the same as the ends on the lanyard.  Each of these have a couple of mistakes but I will wear them any way.  The next pair will be better.  Unlike with the bigger beads and bigger thread I had to use a floss threader to get the beads on the picots.  It takes so much longer than using a crochet hook!  These were made with Lizbeth #646 Purple Iris Lt in size 20, which is a very similar color to the DMC I used for the lanyard and the bracelet.

Speaking of which, I entered the bracelet in the county fair.

Tatted bracelet made with Lanyard 2016 pattern on wandasknottythoughts
Bracelet made with Lanyard 2016 pattern

My bracelet was the only entry in its class.  It’s great to see a blue ribbon on it as they do not have to give ribbons or top place to any entries even if they have no competition.

Doily with 'Harper' tatted edging at the fair on wandasknottythoughts
Doily with ‘Harper’ tatted edging at the fair

Doilies have to be mounted on cardboard to enter the fair.  My ‘Harper’ Edging looks good on the black background, doesn’t it?   It, too, was the only item in its class.  I’m glad I decided to enter both bracelet and doily so they don’t eliminate the classes.

Now I’m back to practicing cluny tatting.  I am taking one of Mimi Dillman’s classes at Tat Days in September and need to be a bit more comfortable with them.  I’m not trying to be perfect yet, just able to do them well enough that I can understand and learn any tips she teaches in the class.  Then I’ll practice what I learned 🙂

“To practice any art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” Kurt Vonnegut

Tatting by P. Melanie Vliet

P. Melanie Vliet contacted me a few months ago apprising me how she had used my pattern “Flagged Edging” to make a garter for her son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law’s wedding.  She actually made two, one to keep and one for the groom to toss. She added beads for a little added elegance.

Wedding garters tatted by P. Melanie Vliet using 'Flagged Edging' on wandasknottythoughts
Wedding garters tatted by P. Melanie Vliet using ‘Flagged Edging’

I love her manikin leg display!  Can you guess what it is?  It’s a box of oatmeal wrapped in skin-colored paper inside a pair of old pantyhose.  What an inventive way to display garters!  She’s going to exhibit them at this year’s Orange County and Southern California fairs.  The wedding party won’t miss them; that event isn’t for several more months.  I hope she does well with them at the fairs.  I give them top marks!

Using the same pattern as a start she also made herself earrings.

Earrings made using 'Flagged Edging' by P Melanie Vliet on wandasknottythoughts
Earrings made using ‘Flagged Edging’

Amazing, aren’t they?  I would never have thought of using the pattern like this.

Melanie has used another of my patterns, ‘Hanging Basket Edging’, to decorate an eye-glass case.  I love the colors she used.  Another great job!

Tatted glass case cover done in 'Hanging Basket Edging' on wandasknottythoughts
Tatted glass case cover done in Hanging Basket Edging

Thanks, Melanie, for letting me share your wonderful tatting here on my blog. Such a wonderful way to imagine tatting.  Good luck at the fairs!

P Melanie Vliet is a member of the Facebook group “Tatters of Lace.”  It’s a closed group but you can request to join if you are a tatter.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.                       Albert Einstein
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_imagination.html

Table Runner with Queen’s Crown Edging

Do you remember way back in February I made the edging Queens Crown Edging?
Well, I finally got it attached to the material! Yay!

http://www.wandasknottythoughts.com/2015/02/queens-crown-edging/
Queen’s Crown Edging © Wanda Salmans

I like making edgings and seeing the tatting on the material, but I really don’t like sewing the tatting to the material.  This part of the process is a necessary evil to finishing a table runner.

The finished table runner is 11 1/2 inches wide and 46 inches long, including the tatted edging which is Lizbeth #693 Linen Medium size 10.  I think it turned out well.

I have several other edgings already tatted and ready to go on material.  My sister is very sweet and offered to sew the material for me as her sewing machine is always out.  I cut the material for several runners then she sewed them.  I will turn them right-side out, stitch up the hole left for that and sew the edgings on.  I feel it takes me forever to do the hand stitching but it is worth it.  I’ll be sharing more table runners in the next few weeks.

My sister and I are going to be in a local craft show next week.  We usually participate in this one every year because it is local, making it much easier for both of us to go.  Going to craft shows much farther away can get complicated with our jobs.  Sometimes we do well, other times not so well, but we both enjoy participating in the show because of the festive atmosphere, the customers and the other crafters contributing to an enjoyable day.  Last year I did well with table runners and I’m hoping to do so again this year.

Something funny about this edging: I made this one and two others and put them in a drawer when they were finished, planning on putting them on runners when the material was sewn.  In the course of tatting other things and life happening I forgot about them until I was looking for something else. I also changed my mind on what material all three edgings were going to go on. But they all look really good finished.Yay!
“Of course I talk to myself when I tat. Sometimes I need expert advice.”