more tatting

I have a dear friend who has moved away and just lately sent me a friendship present.  I am "retaliating" with a pair or earrings.

The thread is a LadyShuttleMaker HDT in size 50 Wildflowers.  The seed beads are unknown.  The drop beads and the findings (doodads) are from FireMountainGems. 

I have been working on the turquoise doily again today. Another row, is nearly finished.  I need to concentrate on that so it gets finished soon.

I have another project that I have started.  Many of you may have figured out that I am Catholic.  Many of you may remember way back yonder when the Catholic women wore a veil or hat to Mass.  I have been feeling called to wear a hat or veil for quite some time now, and resisted for a long time.  I occasionally wore a straw summer hat off and on over the years, but was never comfortable. About a year ago, I started to wear a small black hat I inherited from my Grandmother.

It felt right to wear something on my head in respect.  But I started feeling like I wanted to return to wearing a veil. So I started looking for one I could add Tatting to.
There are many websites online offering Chapel Veils, but they are basically allover lace, no plain net.  I finally found one on Etsy at LizzieLovesVintage  It was perfect.

about 40" along the wide end and about 20" deep to the point.  It is mostly a nice net with some lace along the edge.

perfect for adding tatting.  I am going to replace the edging over time, but for now am wearing it as is.  I will be appliqueing tatting to the net ground. 
The first item to be added is this cross.  It is the pattern Camilla by Lene Bjorn from her book of Cross shaped Bookmarks.

It is tatted in Jess's Grackle Mess size 80.  It is a bit hard to see how pretty the thread is in this picture, so I took a closer one.

If you click on it and make it bigger, you should be able see the different colors in the thread, purple, green indigo...

I will also be doing a bunch of VicTats's Roses are Red.  Her patterns are available on her blog along the right side.  or Click here to go directly to the Rose pattern on Keep and Share.

It rained about .7" by the time it was done today, so was able to spend most of the afternoon tatting. 

Have a great week everyone.

School colors

I have finished another Cross Bookmark for a high school graduate from our Church.

The threads are size 20.  The blue thread is Lizbeth Royal Blue and the white is DMC Cebelia.  The Cebelia is a slight bit larger then the Lizbeth but they worked out o.k.   I am positive I have a ball of  white Lizbeth in size 20, but do you think I can find it?  Oh, well, the ball of Cebelia has been in the drawer for a loooooonnnnnngggg time and really needs to get used up.



When I held the PIF several weeks ago, there was one gal who left me no way to get  in touch with her.  She finally contacted me just after holding the 2nd chance drawing.  I have decided to send her a set of earrings in her choice of thread. 

The thread is HDT size 40 RainForest, the beads and doodads are from FireMountainGems and the hooks are from eebeads

A neat trick I discovered tonight while trying to scan the earrings,  There is often a focus problem when scanning an item that includes beads, but there is no good light tonight, so inspiration struck and I dug out a piece of fake fur. It cushioned the scanner lid and filled in the spaces around the beads and I think it worked pretty well.  I will have to remember this.

The garden is all planted, Yeah, in between all the rain.  We have had a lot of rain the past 10 days or so.  And the crops are all in except a very wet spot or 2 where the tractor would have gotten stuck if farmguy had tried it.

Catching Up

I haven't been very vocal on my blog lately,  but I have been doing some tatting and I have some things to show to you.

First up, Fox was so kind and asked me to test her Elizabeth motif. 

I didn't have bugle beads, and will need to get some at some point so I have them available.  I instead stacked several seed beads to mimic the Bugle beads, but I did not estimate correctly.  I used 3 beads, when I should have used 4.

I tatted the 10 sets of Victorian Sets hoping for a straight sided motif, but because I didn't have the beads long enough, there was more length then I should have had, so the side chains were longer then I was looking for.  I also left too much space at the end of the long beaded picots.  I used some knitting stitch safety pins

They are nice, have no loops at the end to catch thread like metal safety pins do, but because they are plastic, they are thicker.  There was enough space on the long picots to add the 4th bead, but I did not do so. 
Fox's pattern is perfect, my execution was not. 

The thread I used was a size 30 HDT picked up from ebay many years ago.  I do not have any artist info.  The name of the colorway is Sakura2.  It is a very pretty pale yellow and pink.  The beads are clear lined with pink, but most of them do not show any pink in the scan. 

I have several other projects in progress
1. This is a rework of an antique pattern requested by another tatter.
I have done the original pattern twice,

This yellow is my first pass through the pattern, it worked out pretty well. I was able to re-write the pattern in modern notation, I did not find any mistakes, so that was good.
I then worked it the second time like this

Silver beads on silver thread,  it is a start, but needs more thought to end up with what was requested.

2. I am also doing a test tat for another tatter

This one is fun and going quickly. 

3. Several other doilies that I have posted about previously are still waiting for their final repeat or a round or two.  I really need to get them done,

4.  another set of 6 snowflakes to fulfill a commission.  

5. I have some threads from Jess! on order, they have been shipped and I am looking forward to receiving them.  One of them in particular is destined for a large project that I have in mind, and I will detail that more once the thread has arrived.

We had another winter storm yesterday, and because it is March it was accompanied by rain/mist/drizzle.  There is ice on the roads and ground drifting, so there are snow drifts across the roads.  Made for a slow drive to Mass this morning. But Yeah!  the sun is out this afternoon, so maybe the roads will be cleared off before I have to leave for work tomorrow morning. 

I hope you have all had a fun weekend, with much tatting time.  If you don't tat, then I hope you have had time to do something fun.

angel but no wings yet

I have been tatting. several of my projects are private and can't be shown, but this can.

it may look like a heart and a bell, but this time it is an angel wings and skirt.
the threads are size 20 Lizbeth, in dark olive and Carousel.  The beads are 2 sizes of seed beads, 10/0 in the wings and I think 11/0 in the skirt.  The beads in the skirt were a free gift from Fire Mountain beads and didn't have any information.  and I also used tear drop beads.  I have no idea of what color these beads are called, they are multi colored iridescent.

The skirt stands up just fine see...

but, the wings aren't going to work.  there are too many beads, I will need to use the smaller size seed beads, and less tear drops.  and I think I will have to snug up the center of the heart or add some more connecting picots to give it some more stability.
the heart pattern is Small Tatted Heart by Betsy Evans. 

I was lucky to have the little face bead in my stash.  it has a large hole through it from top to bottom, so will have to come up with a wig to cover that. 

here is a look at what it would look like if the wings worked

we have had 2 major snow storms in the past 4-5 days.  Saturday night through Sunday morning, we got 9" of snow with only a little bit of wind.  Tuesday night through Wednesday (today) afternoon, we got another 9". this more then doubles the entire amount of snow that we had received in the whole rest of the winter. 
I wasn't able to get out of our yard today, so didn't get to work.  Farmguy will have to get the yard blown out tomorrow morning so I can get there. At least it is the end of February, so spring will be here soon enough.

Hope you all had a great Leap Day.

2011 Christmas present finished

Well, I have finally finished my next to last Christmas present for last year.
this one took me much longer, I had started to lose interest in doing bells, and sandwiched a few other items in between, but you haven't seen them.  as they are not for public at this time.

but despite the lateness, and despite that fact I didn't do a very good job of shaping, (I am not stiffening this, it should hole it's shape by itself.) here is my last bell

the threads are Lizbeth size 20 in Watermelon, and Mauela size 20 in gold.  the beads are delicas in red lined and gold and the tear drops in amber.  There is a lock chain with a tiny bell for a striker in the center that you can't see.  The pattern is from Tatsy but I changed the starting point and the number of stitches in the lower chains. 

the last item left to tat is similar, but will not end up as a bell. I will post that when I get it finished as well.  This will be on it's way monday in the mail. 

I am waiting for the threads that I ordered so I can start Umi & Tsuru's tat along.  since I had to finish this & a couple others first, I splurged on some really pretty threads from LadyShuttleMaker when she celebrated her Etsy anniversary with a sale.

tomorrow I will either wind a skein of Wisteria Lane HDT from Krystle onto a spool and get back to my hanky edging, or get started on my last Christmas present. Along with canning about 6 qrts of turkey and chicken. 

Have a good rest of the weekend with lots of time for tatting.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all 

and a very 

Blessed 

and  

Happy New Year

Melissa over at Green Girl in Wisconson,  is an amazing writer. I recommend taking a few minutes and reading her post about the Reason for the Season .


I have a bit of tatting that I can show you, and some cute crocheted earrings that I received from a dear friend of mine.

The pattern is by Elizabeth Zipay, and I posted about it several weeks back, I changed the thread that I used, this is Cebelia size 30 and the small beads are Mill Hill antique Glass Beads and the larger center pearl is a 4mm glass pearl from eebeads.com

aren't these earrings darling?  a very dear friend of mine sent me these.  they are so cute, as soon as I received them (at work),  I had to change the ones I was wearing  to wear these. 

the final picture shows both pairs on a small Christmas tree that I picked up for displaying tatting items. 

when I was down in South Carolina last month, I saw some Charlie Brown Christmas trees offered for sale at $25.00 each.  way too much for my pocketbook.  but I got to thinking, and did a search online the saturday after Thanksgiving, and found an online store offering Charlie Brown Christmas trees on sale for $9.99 normally $15.00 and with free shipping, so I got 2, one for my office at work, and one to use for displaying tatting at various venues. 

so you will occasionally be seeing this tree as I won't put it away for only Christmas. 

Have a great time with what ever Holiday you celebrate.

Thanks Veterans

I'm at work, so sneaking the time to post this.


I tatted this last night while watching the pressure canner as it canned the stew meat from the 2 deer.  got 5 qrts.

Looking for some feedback on a set of earrings.

point to point this is 1"

 The scan isn't the greatest, it is off white with pearl beads and of course the background on the scanner is white, so had to lay my sweater over it. Also the bead in the center caused the blurring in the center as it raised the tatting above the bed.

The thread is antique Clark's big ball Size 50 and the beads are Mill Hill Antique glass in a pearl finish. The bead in the center is a bicone.

The pattern is Elizabeth Zipay's Tiny Tatted Snowflakes that I bought in her Etsy shop.

The thread is a 3 cord, and I think it is too flimsy. Also for a size 50 it seems to tat closer to a size 70-80, which I am going to try next as it might be crisper and hold it's shape better.  Obviously my technique leaves a bit to be desired, the rings and chains are not as close together as they should be.

what do you think?  leave out the center clear glass bicone?  (I don't have any bigger pearls in the off white color.)      Use picots and  less beads on the points? 

thanks for any ideas you can give me.

2 pr christmas trees

Here are both pair of the Christmas Tree Earrings that have been requested by a gal in Texas.

and another bit of news.

I have started an Etsy.com shop so will be posting these there. It may not be a very busy shop, that will depend on what I can get done, but it will not be just tatting. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ladytatslace

I have a lot to learn about taking photos of my items. I have always used the scanner, but tried my camera for the picture above. Some of what I post for sale on etsy,will not be able to be scanned so will be learning how to take good pictures with good presentation.

I have a couple of bookmarks that I tatted over the summer that I have not yet posted so those will come in time. Right now I have them scanned, but I might try taking photos to learn just how to do it right.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

I have a Fujifilm FinePix A330 which is listed at 3.2 mega pixels. I have had it for 4 or maybe 5 yrs or maybe longer. It was one of the first things I bought on ebay. I know it was one of the better ones at the time I bought it.

pair of Christmas Trees

here is the first pair of Christmas tree earrings
Size 40 Lisbeth thread in Christmas green with red, silver and gold Delica beads and 1 gunmetal teardrop bead for a trunk.



still working on the 2nd pair

it is snowing and the wind has been blowing 40 - 50 mph all day today. I put the winter "we may be closed due to weather" message on the answering machine at work before I left today. a little early for my taste.

farmerguy did get the final 40 acres corn combined, in the rain yesterday so it was done before all this wind knocked the ears off. that at least is a relief.

first try at wire tatting

I have decided to branch out a bit and tried tatting with wire. I had some copper wire on hand and paired it with some beads and worked up this pair of earrings.

I then splurged and bought some more wire, silver and gold and brass colored as well as some ear wires and jump rings, so will have to see where this takes me.

~later~ I forgot to mention, this is 28gauge wire it is a spool that I picked up in the bead section at I think Hobby Lobby in Fargo ND. but the silver, gold and brass wires are both size 28 & 30 and I ordered them from Firemountaingems

beads on an earring

Yesterday Jane Eborall on her blog posted about beads and sizes.
Today Gina posted on her blog about bead sizes and gave us a nifty scan to show relative bead sizes.
Bree has posted a wonderful tutorial about beads
so I thought I would add a bit to the discussion.
I am working on 2 pair of these earrings. I am using Lisbeth size 40 thread in Christmas Green with delica beads. I can add the delica beads with a size 15 mini crochet hook.


I didn't block this yet, and since this is just the first trial to see if the person who commissioned these liked them, there will be a few corrections to the techniques I used for adding the beads.
I used 3 different techniques to add the beads,
1. the direct method, where you thread the beads when you are winding the shuttle,
2. adding beads to a joining picot between the rings and between rings and the chain below
3. adding beads to a long picot that you then join back to, I used this for the side beads on the 2 top rings.

I am grateful to all those who post instructions for new techniques on the web.

the pattern in one of Jane Eborall's, I don't think it is listed on her pattern website so you will need to contact her for the pattern if you want it.

~later~ I have heard from Jane and it looks like the pattern may be in the public domain.

# 5 on the list

this is #5 for this 25 motif challenge. It is tatted in Manuela size 20 color # 210 and the beads are silver lined clear delicas.
because this is a first, I have named it Incipient Snowflake.

I am rather proud of this as it is the first design that I drew out with software before tatting and it worked. well mostly. It cupped a bit but then that was to my advantage as I am actually aiming for an ornament drape instead of a flat snowflake, but with blocking it does lay flat. Since this was a trial, I didn't put as many beads on it as I will for a drape. I have found some changes that I want to make and have designed a second one. that I think will do more for what I need it for.
I will be putting this pattern on my patterns blog possibly tonight.