Motif 2 - Large Butterfly

Well, I think that waking up early was worth it. I made this butterfly. The pattern is from Teri Dusenbury. I love her patterns so much. If it wasn't for the toothache I have I would have finished it earlier. *sigh* The threads I used are Brown El Beida #8, Navy Blue DMC Petra #8 and 3 strands of different blues each one of Omega 40wt. which is a thread for machine embroidery. Very nice I think. I'll see this one to a headscarf or to a t-shirt with a few more butterflies that I'll start now. The pattern for this and others butterflies can be found here.

WTH? I woke up at 5 am and it's almost 7 and I'm still awake? Gr... Guess I'll go and start tatting now.

More shuttles - Silver

These are my silver shuttles. I got them on eBay. I got them because I love silver and I was thinking in using them. Well, unfortunately they are more like to use them as a pendant. They have a jump ring attached at one point. But even with the ring I used one of them for awhile. The one in the center. That's the one I like the most. The design is so pretty. Anyway, I stop using it because I found the metal too soft and the points separate easily so I had to keep readjusting the points. Now they are resting nicely with the other shuttles.

*Mumble, mumble* Can someone help me installing a php chat on my web site. Three days in the same thing and I can't get it working!

Shuttles - Georgia Seitz

Now that I showed a little preview of my shuttles in a nice mess I will show them in details.

These are by Georgia Seitz and were the 1st shuttles I bought for collection but at the same time for use. They are made of wood. Some are flat and others the traditional "boat" style. I love Georgia shuttles because they feel so good on the hands. Love the nice tuned "click" of the thread when using them, almost musical. I don't use too much the flat ones because the unravel too much. But they add a nice fun touch to the collection.

You can learn more about Georgia's shuttles at her web site of Georgia Seitz

Picture Perfect - Collective

Shuttle Mess Taken by Wally ©2007 Kodak Easyshare C310

This week in Picture Perfect the theme is Collective. What a better way to show my collection of collectible Shuttles. lol These are very special to me. A couple of years ago something very terrible happened and I lost them all! they appeared on E-Bay. Yes, the thief was selling them! But some of my shuttles have my name and NATA # and a few tatters-friends recognized them and bought them back for me. You can't imagine how much I cried when Tonya (from GA) gave them back to me! They are safe now in my mother's home and when I return to PR I'll have them waiting to use them. Some of them are old (1920 the oldest), some of different materials (wood, bone, brass, silver). Others big, others small... But all of them have the same use, create lovely tatting lace.

Even if this is not exactly tatting, I'm cross posting to Blogger because I use my shutles to tat with.

Butterflies!!! my next 25 Motifs Challenge - Motif 1

Yes! Why not? I have been making tons of them since I started tatting. Butterflies are, most of the time, the 1st motif we learn to tat. At least with my students that's the case.

I have been tatting this butterfly and variations of it for a long time. I really haven't written any pattern for them but I can write it if people want it. These have sequins on the wings. Aren't the cute? They will find a good home soon. I have like 2 dozens of them and will fly to a Special Orphanage. lol From there they will find a good mommy or daddy that would take care of each one.

Sorry the photo is a little blurry but they were all fluttery and happy because I was going to take their 1st photo. For those of you that have lost track of how many time I have done the 25 Motif Challenge... Well, this is going to be my 4th time.

Motif 24 and 25 - Ellen Lai Hearts

Last night on the Online Tatting Class we had a blast. Well, we always have a blast! But last night was so packed with ideas and patterns that I couldn't sleep. Only 5 hours. Well, that's pretty much what I sleep anyway. This morning I jump from bed, actually slide off because the mattress is on the floor, and the first thing I did was to tat Ellen's hearts. She kindly designed a pattern for each month this year and this one is the first. She use them to decorate big paper clips to use as bookmarks or whatever.


This is the 1st heart. It has interwoven picots. But mine doesn't want to look very heartsy. Looks more like a heart inside a wheel. But it's pretty anyway. Then I had a "aha!" moment and came with this...



Cool, eh? I added beads. Well what do you expect from me? I can't leave a pattern alone and make it as it is. I beaded all the picots. The interwoven picots I used Iris Niebach's style. It looks more like an apple with a heart in the center. I was going to put it in a headpin to use with my headscarf but I could find the jump rings. I don't know why but there's something that keeps repeating in my mind "Or-ga-ni-za-tion". Hmm... I wonder what it means...


Then I think my brain was fully awake because this cuties where done in less than 4 minutes! I started them when a song began and I finished with the song. So that's how I know how long took me to make them. I don't have paper clips with me, so instead of joining them to a paper clip I just tie the ends in a cute bow. I really love them! I can make a gazillion of them per day! But don't expect me to make the bows. I hate bows, they always look crooked to me and the legs are all over the place. This bow actually amazed me because looks perfect. lol

Eek! I didn't noticed these are the last hearts of the 25 motifs challenge. Aw... Was a short one. Hmm... Will I stop here? I DON'T think so! I'll check what would be my next challenge and you'll see.

Special thanks to Ellen Lai for these cute patterns and a HUGE hug for all the staff of the 25 Motif Challenge.

The patterns of the heart can be found at Georgia's site.

Motif 23

This is a heart that I love!!!! The pattern is by Inga Kristersen from Denmark. For the pattern if you send her an e-mail she will send you back a password to download it. I used some buttons that come is nice big packages at Walmart. They are like 1.5 cm and they are dusty rose. But they blend really good with the pink and white thread. The overall heart measures less than 3 inches. this is one of those patterns that you can make a dozen per day! lol

Why bother?

Yesterday I made the Sequined Heart and I was thinking it needed some tweaks. Tatting chic commented (on Blogger) that why if it was perfect. Hmm... I should follow advices more often. Here is the one that I made after a horrible disfiguring attempt to change something almost perfect. This one has a shorter bottom chain and instead of a clover at the point, has a SCMR. It looks more broad-shoulder than the other.



Here are the two of them side by side. Still not sure if to write the 2 versions or just one. What you think?

Motif 22

Well today is my BD! Yay me! I'm only 39 years old, just a baby! lol I wanted to make another special pattern, so last night I was inspired by Sharon Brigg's using of sequins and because I have like a kilo of sequins (just kidding, but they are a lot!) I got this design in mind and made it right away.

I called it Sequined Heart. The sequins are a deep pink, almost fuschia. The white thread is DMC Petra #8 and the pink is El Beida. I'll write the pattern later. I think I still need to tweak a little some stitches but for the 1st try I like it!

Motif 21

This heart is a design by Karey Solomon and is in her book "Heart Belong to Tatting. Lovely book! This one is called Heart of the Rose. It was a little tricky with all the chains on the outer round. And because I was using 2 colors I had to be extra careful remembering which color was suppose to be where. But I'm please with the final result.

The threads are DMC Petra #8 in pink and ecru. I made it while in PR for the challenge but I didn't post it. Wonder why?

Floral Bookmark

Yesterday I got an order on my shop for this bookmark. It's my design and the pattern can be found here in English. The bookmark is made using 2 sizes of thread. The white is DMC Petra #8 and the multicolor is Coats & Clark Machine Quilting #50. This one tats like a #80. I love this thread and have all the colors available. All of them are ombre or variegated. The bookmark took me like 3 hours. Not so bad... I think I'll make another one to keep with me and my book I'm reading now.

If you are interesting in ordering it you can do it at: Floral Bookmark

El Beida Thread for sale

Since I have been traveling and living in Egypt, this is the thread that I can easily find here and work wells with my tatting. It's a cotton perle and comes in size #8 and #12. They are localyy produced and used mostly for an Egyptian embroidery style. For people that likes to work with perles like Valdani, DMC and Rubi, this thread is like them. They don't come in lot numbers. Several people were asking me about the thread and I got a small amount of it. They're on my shop under the Threads section. I got 10 colors of #8 and 10 more of #12. Later if I see the demand is big I can get more colors or if you are interested in a color that you don't see in the shop (like yellows, other tones of red or blue, etc) drop me a line or two and I can get them. They come only in solid colors. But I heard of other company that sells some varigated colors. As soon as I get their info I'll get the threads.

I'm shipping them via EgyptPost Expedite Mail to everywhere. The orders could take around 10-14 days to arrive. If you need more info e-mail me.

Quantiesque Snowflake

When I returned to be online one of the 1st things I made was to check the 25 Motif Challenge and I saw several people making this snowflake. I was like "wow, that's so pretty". So I check who was the designer and I discover was my friend Jon Yousuff. She always make such pretty motifs! this one is called Quantiesque and you can find the story of the name and the pattern on her page: http://tatsaway-patterns.blogspot.com/2008/12/quantiesque-snowflake.html

I used El Beida pink and blue. Yes, I still had some on the shuttles; so I empty them making the center. And the white round is made with DMC Petra. I'll do it again but I'll make the blue ring's picot smaller and take off the picot on the chain. The picot doesn't want to cooperate with me and stay in the middle. lol

Thanks to Jon for the pretty snowflake pattern!

This one is orphan...

I was checking a bag of threads and other things that I left when I traveled to PR and I found this doily attached to a ball of thread and a round 1/3 done. I can't remember from where is this pattern and I tried to decipher the last round that was making but couldn't, so I cut it off. The doily is a little ruffled. If someone knows or recognize the pattern please let me know so I can finish it or if not I'll let it as it is. It looks pretty as it is. The thread is DMC Petra #8 in a lite cream or lite ecru and it's like 12 inches.

The son of the Monster

This is "Monster Jr." It's suppose to be the coaster from the oval doily I made. Wasn't so bad to make. Just the I had to read the instructions like 10 times to decipher them. The photo in the book doesn't show the coaster in detail and the instructions say "repeat round 3". But if I repeated round 3 was going to be the same last round and the doily would cup. So after straining my eyes to see the details I decided to use this round, which is the 1st of the doily that goes around the 3 medallions. This one measures like 6 inches or a little bit more. (I need to tell hubby to get me a ruler or a measuring tape!)

The thread is like the other. DMC Petra #8 in white. I'll make another and then I'll have a pretty vanity set.

Tatted Monster

This is a doily I nickname it "the monster". Gosh! Took me like forever to finish it! Well, 3-4 weeks to be exact. It's the 1st time I made it and I think the last! The pattern is not complicated, only rings and chains. Nothing fancy like split rings or special joins. But the problem for me is that is so repetitive I get bore and after an hour or 2 per day I just put it away. But I didn't want to start making something else until I finished it.

The pattern is from an antique Ann Orr book. You can find it on the reprints of Ann Orr books. I used the instructions from the book "Ann Orr Classic Tatting Patterns" (the one with the redish cover). It's for an Oval Table Set. The instructions call for #30, but I used cotton perle #8 (DMC Petra #8 in white) and it came out very big. I don't have a ruler with me but I'll say that the long is around 18 inches. I was thinking in making the set for a 6-place table, but nah! This will be alone. I'll check how big are the coasters, to see if they make a cute little doily.

One thing I liked it the center medallion. It's very pretty and easy to make. I'll try to make 4 of them joined in a square to see if they will work for an idea I have in mind. I won't tell until I get it right.

More hearts for your delight - Motifs 18, 19 and 20

Last night at the Online Tatting class we discussed the Interlaced Picots among other things. It was so curious this technique that my brain started to work really fast. But I couldn't stay up all night as planed because hubby arrived home. You see, when I'm alone I can stay up all night but when hubby is at home I have to play the "good girl" and go to sleep early. *bummer*

Anyway, after setting the blog in Blogger for the tatting stuff alone, I decided to play with the technique.


First I made this little guy here. Only made half of it with the laced picots. It looks like it's going to fly! lol

















So, okay, I got it. Now how I can use it? Well, make a flower. Those are the easiest to design. I used "Daisy Picots" and the "Daisy Ring" has the laced picots. The 1st petal I measured the picots by eye and made them too small and it looks like a fat Josephine Knot. Then I measure the picot 1/4" and look better. The 3rd ring has picots measuring 3/8" and they look nice. I decided to return to 1/4" and "eye" size to finish a 5 petals flower. But taking the chance that I could use this as part of my 25 Motifs Challenge I made it into a heart. So I made it simple following the idea or concept of the hearts I made yesterday. At the bottom of the heart I made another ring with laced picots.






And talking about yesterday's hearts. Here are them. They are sweet and easy to make. The pattern is called Trio of Hearts by Vicki Clarke. The pattern can be downloaded from E-Tatting at Yahoo groups. It took me only like 20 minutes to make them. They're a little over an inch so I'll use them as earrings.

Motif 17

Here is the 2nd heart of the "Two Hearts as One". It's individual as the other. Why? Because silly me forgot to save the instructions of how to weave both motifs. But it's okay because I was thinking in making it this way.

I used a pretty brown color. But the photo doesn't show it right. It looks a little lighter than in the photo, a chocolate milk brown. I noticed when I was in PR that there were a lot of fashion themes with a combination of browns and jewel colors (pinks, blues, teals, burgundy) kinda like Hindi themes. So I wanted to make this heart using colors like that. I'll check now where are the instructions to make the 2 hearts together and then post the photo.

Motif 16

Last night I was checking the online patterns that I have saved and haven't done yet and found this darling, part of a celtic heart. The designer is Martha Ess and the pattern was discussed in the Online Tatting Class a while ago. You can find the pattern here. This is the 1st motif. I'm winding already the shuttles with a second color to make the 2nd motif. The center in this one is a tad different. I didn't read the pattern correctly and the central rings are smaller because i left 3 knots and a picot out. That happens when I star tatting first thing in the morning, even before breakfasting! lol I noticed when I was in the 5th ring, so I leaved as it.

The thread is El Beida cotton perle #8 in pink. The photo is a little dark but it's the baby pink I have been using.

Motif 14 and 15

These hearts are all designed by Jon Yussuf. Her patterns are always so pretty!


This one is called Jon's Heart and it's made using one shuttle. Instead of leaving the bare thread between the rings I added beads to the shuttle and then slide 3 beads in place after each ring. I love how the beads made a nice contour inside the heart.




This other heart it her latest design: Hearts Entwined. Love it! I want to see if using 2 colors I can make it more entwined-look. But as it it looks great. Hmm... What they would look like if I un-entwine them?

May be I should just go and finish the movie I'm watching and think in other things. I'm in the middle of Ringu 2 (the original Japanese The Ring 2).

Ah... the threads are El Beida in pink (uff! I finished the ball!!!) and DMC Petra, both perle #8.

Motif 13

This is a small cute heart by Rosemarie Peel and is called Heart of England. I think I made a little mistake and the heart is not well formed, so I'll make it again. The pattern can be found here. the threads are again the same as the one before: El Beida in ecru and DMC floss in brick red.

Motif 12

I made this heart while I was offline. The pattern is by Ann-Christine Sundqvist and is called Abby's Heart. The pattern can be found here. It's a lovely pattern that I have made several times. The colors are not very well matched for my taste. lol The thread is El Beida cotton perle in ecru and the reddish thread is DMC floss.

Motif 11

This is one of my favorite motifs to make. It's so simple and so pretty, specially when made in 2 colors. I don't remember if I already made it for the challenge and I'm with headaches today so I can't think. So I'm posting it just in case. The pattern is from Nancy Tracy from Be-Stitched. Again I used the pink and blue El Beida perle #8 I had left on the shuttles after making Jane's bookmark. Not sure what I'll do with it. Probably will end in the "Tatting Box" that I need to start for this year.

More hearts photos will come soon. I have 1st to make a list of the hearts I already made.

The Phelp's Hearts - Motifs 7, 8, 9 and 10

This week I made 4 hearts from Birgit Phelps site. They are very cute to make and pretty easy too.

This one is Lil' Heart and its so cute! It's a little over 1 1/2 inch.





This other is my favorite. It's Lattice Heart. It looks like if it was made with several motifs. But was made with shuttle and ball and doing some shoelace tricks and direct tatting you can play with the colors.





This one is Peacock Heart. I think the name is because of the colors she used on the original heart. Again playing with colors using the SLT.




And the last of the Phelps' Hearts is Sweetheart. A really cute one too. It's a little tricky but not difficult. And I think in 2 colors looks great!

The threads I used are Opera #20 (dusty rose), DMC Cebelia (burgundy) and El Beida (purple).