Doing some "cleaning"

Prepare yourself! Here is one of the many boxes and bags I have filled with tatting.

This is just one I have filled with the things I made last year. Because I tat almost everyday I keep placing the projects in a box or bag. Then mom sits and choose whatever she wants to embellish her t-shirts or xmas tree. But still I'm left with tons of motifs. Some are my designs, others are from patterns (online and books).

I really don't know what to do with all this! There are some pieces that I will sell on ArtFire (suncatchers, bookmarks, doilies, appliques...). But still I'm left with tons of bits and pieces.

This is a photo of the doilies. There are a few crocheted ones too. But most of them are small tatted doilies.

I think I'll make a few surprise bags and make a giveaway or sell them as surprise bags or something like that. I'll keep rumming all the boxes and bags to see what else I got. All because I'm looking for a collar that I made and I know that mom didn't keep it so I want to sell it. In result, I found all this tatting but not collar. :-( But this is just one box. lol

Sequined Ornament

After recuperating from the bad evil picot I started another. BTW... The previous motif is recuperating fine after surgery to remove the evil picot. lol

This time I decided to place silver sequins to the points and then decorate in the same way the bangle. I really like how it looks and mom too. Now she wants a dozen of them for her Xmas tree. *rolling eyes* I already place this one for sale and will be making more of them because it works pretty fast, even if I have to take more rests often.

You can find it at ArtFire.

Do you know that you can sell completely free, without having to pay posting at ArtFire? Check it out here.

Bad Evil Picot

Dang! I spent the whole day doing this small motif. It's not that is difficult but because today was so hot, my hands were too sweaty and couldn't tat fast. Also I'm still with the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and have to stop frequently to rest the hands. The motif is from the 2nd book of the Gr8 Shuttle Bros. I used perle #8 and it's like 3 inches and was going to place it on a bangle when I noticed the bad evil picot! GRRRR.... What should I do? Do I cut it? Do I just ignore it? See how it's looking at you with a big grin? Bad, bad evil picot!

I think I'll do tomorrow another one. *sigh* That is if the weather is not very hot and my hands are not so painful so I'm able to tat.

Sequined Ornaments

A few month ago Sharon Briggs made a necklace with this motif. I found it really pretty. I asked for the pattern and she c=kindly share it. I made this 2 ornaments long time ago and forgot to post it. Today I was going through a tatting bag full of little projects and found them.

Both of them are joined to bangles. The one on the top is on a black bangle and the one on the bottom a copper and slighter bigger bangle. I like them both. They give me an inspiration for another design. I'll try to work on it today and then will let you know how it went. :-)

Finished Fairy Hair clip

I like his more and more as I keep making them. Here is the green clip finished. I made yesterday a purple pair and a yellow pair. They are made so fast! I think the fairy hair still have some magic and make me tat fast. lol

This is already posted on ArtFire for sale.

Marble Pendant

I bought a strand of this gorgeous marble stones and didn't know what to do with them until a couple of nights ago. I used this Lizbeth thread because was already on the shuttles. :-) I like it but I'm not convince of the thread color. I'll make another one using black or ecru. The stone is a little over an inch high. I have a matching strand of stones but like 1/2" so I'll make a set of pendant and earrings. I "encapsulate" the stone with a double round of split rings. Like Jane explains in one of her patterns ( can't find it now)... :-( So the stone looks the same front and back. Then I made the edging around. Something pretty simple.

Now I have to think what kind of cord will go great with the pendant.

A surprise in a church

While on vacation this week, we enter inside of a catholic church. I'm not catholic and neither my family, but it's an historical building and Letty wanted to take photos inside. I sat in a corner when suddenly this statue caught my eyes. Do you notice what she has on her hands?


Yes! It's a handkerchief with a traditional "calado" (drawn thread) and tatting edging! I'm not sure how old is the piece because the church was empty for an exception of a few people entering to pray . But it looks old. Specially in a corner where the thread looks brownish and frail.



I tried to take a closeup but the reflection of the window was caught on the photo. Anyway I think you can appreciate the pattern. It's very simple, trefoils joined to the edge and chains. Isn't it cool when you find this kind of things? :-)

If you hit any of the photos you can see it bigger.

Decorated Shirt with Tatted Buttons

A week before going on vacation I made this for mom. I tatted 4 buttons. Mom sew 3 on the shirt and the 4th one I made it into a brooch.

It's really a t-shirt and mom takes out the neck collar because it bothers her. In this one she sew gold e-beads along the neck line and sew the buttons with the tatted decoration.


Here is a close up of the brooch. In the button center there's a polyclay yellow rose. Those are mom's favorites. The patterns are original and I'm writing them to include them on an e-zine that will come soon.

I'm back!

I'm back from my short vacation. It was too short. Only 4 days. I enjoy it a lot. Got tire of the swimming pool and even got a few minutes to tat and made 2 bookmarks, one stayed with the woman that cleaned our room everyday. :-) It was really fun to stay in a green hotel. Now I have to rest my hands. They have been feeling numb for 3 days now and even tatting is hurting. None the less last night I made a medallion with a big pretty oval rock. Will take a pic later and post it.

TTFN!

Fairy Hair & Flower Hairpin

Isn't this cute? I got inspired by some *aunthentic fairy hair I had in a box for a long time and with the new buttons I got a few weeks ago I thought I would make some hairpins. I used the rest of the cerulean blue that Marilee sent me. It was not enough for a bookmark but yes for a flower. I really like the look of this one. I have to find the hariclips I have somewhere and then look for a model to take a nice photo. I can't use Nelsita because she doesn't have hair. lol

*No fairy was left bald in the process. The hair come from fairies who have donated their hair. :-)

Magic Moment

a few days ago I ordered a hank of "Vibrato"from Marilee and she kindly sent me a sample of "Cerulean Blue". It's a very lovely shade! I used it to makeJon's Magic Momentand I think it was a nice magic moment to tat it with this thread. :-) The blue is #20 and the white is DMC Petra #8. I love how this motif looks. It measures 4 3/4" from point to point. I still have left some of the blue sample. I think I'll make a bookmark and keep it.

Collar finished

At last, after 3 days of tatting I finished this slim collar. It's from the Gr8 Shuttle Bros new book. It's a very simple pattern and if it wasn't for the humid hot weather I would have finish it in 1 1/2 days. Mom already claimed it! lol So I will make another one to keep it as inventory. I used #10 in a light ecru color and it measures around 20 inches; just perfect to sesw around a t-shirt.

I heard the bros are writing another book (or is it two?). I will be waiting for it! Love the designs in the book. I think I'll fill the shuttles now with white to make a few snowflakes. :-)

For my friends at Facebook

"Go to this event and vote 'Like it'on my photos. Please! May be if I'm a winner I can make something special for you. http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=97593859356&view=all#/event.php?eid=97593859356"

Hairpin Lace Fever?

I think I got a bug! A hairpin lace bug! lol Thisis a mini doily by Leonore English that was part of the online class a long time ago. I have made this one several time and in different sizes. This time I used #10 in ecru and pink. The picots are a little too long and they look all twisted. But I like how the look. It gives a more "fliud" look tot he hairpin lace. The clovers look more pointy than the original becasue I didn't use a 2nd shuttle to thrown them off, instead I made them as SCMRs. One thing I need to practice better is the closing or joining of the HL braid ends. The pattern of the doily can be found here.

Oh... I'm having an idea of HL and beads and buttons. Unfortunately I will have to note this down and go to bed early. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a gastroenterologist. I have been suffering too much of stomach aches and reflux. May be is all the pills I'm taking. Let see what he says.

Button Bracelets

After spending most of the day browsing and perusing the bottons I bought a few days ago I tatted these 2 bracelets. The pattern is an adaptation fo Karey Solomon and which appears in Tatting With Buttons. THe one up I tatted with thread #10 in Ecru and the buttons are like 1/4 inch, so I used less stitches than in the pattern.

This other is the same as above but I used the green Petra thread I bought with the buttons and the rings are made with Lisbeth in Countryside color. I love the combination of colors! These also will be posted on my shops.

Hairpin lace and Tatting Hairband

I love to work with Hairpin Lace and it's been awhile since I did anything on HL. This month on my Spanish Tatting group the challenge is to work with HL and combine it with tatting, or make the imitation of HL in tatting (pearl tatting, SR with long picots, etc). So I took out my HL loom, a Clover HL loom, which I adore!; and made a little headband.

It's a pattern that I worked years and years ago but I made at that time into a bracelet. Now I used thread #10 and made it into a headband. It's almost 3 inches wide. The ties are "rice" stitches in crochet to tie it on the back on a bow. This one will be a gift but I'll put others on my shop.

More buttons!

Yesterday I spent another full day out of the house making some errands for a new medical insurance. The one I have now chenged a lot of the medicines policies and I ended spending over $300 in medicines per month plus my cholesterol medicine (the only one that worked fine with me) was taken off the medicine list and I won't pay $5.50 per pill!!!! So even if I have to change doctors and may be pay a little more for doctors visits I will gladly do it if I can save that money in medicines. Anywya.... After going here and there getting documents I need for the change I told mom I wanted to buy more buttons. She gladly did it. I was thinking she was going to scream "More buttons? You already have thousands of them!" lol She didn't scream to me, just looked at me like I'm from another planet, but I know she pleased me because at least I was out of the house walking. This morning I woke up with the complementary pains after a long walk, but nothing that half percocet and an ultracet won't take care off.

So I got my 2 bags of pretty and shinny buttons. This time a set with brown tones and the other bag with blues/lime green/purple buttons. They all look so pretty! Each bag is 250 grams, that's like a 1/2 pounder, right? I'really suck converting metric to English. lol

Also got this Petra ball in a very pretty and bright green that complements the green buttons. Petra is my favorite thread to buy while I'm in PR. It comes in #8 and #5 and for less than $4 per 100 grams balls I get very happy with this thread! Comes in a lot of pretty colors too. Only solids, but now that I can paint my threads with Sharpies I will experiment and make a variegated thread myself. :-)

This 4th of July I won't go out of the house. Mom already went to the beauty salon and left me here at home. So I'll spend the day watching the marathon of "Twilight Zone" at SciFi channel and tatting some buttons bracelets, headbands and flowers. See ya later. Enjoy the picnics and BBQs if you are having them.

"Duchess" variation of Marilee's design

I have Marilee's book "Boutique Tatting" and it's one of my favorite. I wanted to make the necklace that is on the cover but I didn't have to many beads in the color scheme I selected, so I made a variation of it; doing only one repetition. I love it!!! I had to make a few minor variations so I was able to make it in one pass.

Here is a closeup of the main part of the necklace. This is definitively one of my favorites now. I need to buy more beads in amber tones so I can make another. I'm thinking also in earrings to complete the set.

I used Aunt Lydia's #10 in ecru. The beads are from Walmart, size E and the deep amber seed beads were a gift from Aileen Chia.