Decorated Canvas Tote

I'm still in the long road of recovery and healing, but a few days ago there was enough "sunshine" for me to work in this canvas tote. I got 3 of them at a local fabric/crafts/etc shop. They were super cheap and came with a set of fabric markers and 2 stampers (leaves and a flower). I got 3 of them because as soon as I saw them, they screamed decorate me!

I stamped the leaves and paint them witht he markes and draw some stems. Then I tatted some decorated buttons that look like flowers and added a cute button butterfly.

I think it needs something else, but I can't get what is missing. May be some grass? Or more butterflies? Could you help me with ideas?

Also I got a cool set of 20 colors of Sharpies (permanent markers). They are supper cool! I have been painting the clear buttons I got a couple of months ago and also painting my tatting. Yes, painting already finished tatted items. This opens a great creative window. Can you imagine that you need something in an especific color and you don't have time or the money to buy the thread or to dye it. Then paint it with a Sharpie! lol

Here I used white thread for the rings and pink for the chains. I painted the picots. The colors bleed a little because I wanted them to be very dark. But I love the way it looks!!! The button was also painted with the Sharpies.

Late night tatting

Two hours ago I signed off from Twitter because I was going to sleep but I made a mistake and went to see if the new patterns from Georgia's site were up and there were!  There is the cutest butterfly paper clip bookmark by Ellen and who can resist making it?  Not me!  While I was watching SciFi channel movies (Carny and Chupacabra: Dark Sea) I made these 3.  I used LIzbeth #20 in Seashell color, which is a peach/purple thread.  Love it!!!

Now I'm really tire.  Changed Rioki's litter box and will take a shower and go night night.  Sleep well my knotty friends!

Motif 9

You know I tat a lot!!! And sometimes I forget to take a photo and post it on the blog and then I have to post in bunches like now.

Anyway, this gorgeous butterfly is by Marty. She has several butterflies patterns and I keep putting them aside to make them. But I wanted to play with this one. I used DMC Cebelia #30 and purple El Beida #12. I love it!!! It doesn't have decorative picots, which I like a lot. I think I'll make this one again but playing some more with the color position. thanks Marty for the pattern!

Motif 8

This is a motif I'm working on since yesterday. I got a ton of these beautiful big sequins and I have use them to make several butterflies and hearts, substituting buttons for these. Got them here in Egypt in several colors. They are around 3/4". The only thing I don't like is that the center hole is not always in the same position, but these silver ones looks like they are all uniforms. I used DMC Cebelia #30 in white, but will make it with perle #8 to see if I have to "tweak" the ds counting. The pattern will be available later on my site.

This one is not finished yet. I'm thinking in beading the decorative picots. I'm in a beading mood this week. You'll see on the next posts. :-)

Motif 7

Another little cutie with weird antennas. :-) This one is from a Russian Book. The cover only says Frivolite (in Russian) and #1, year 1993. Again I made some mistakes but it's because the diagram is a little weird. Looks like hand-draw and the numbers are a little off here and there. I'll make it again because it's pretty easy to make. The body of the butterfly is a SCMR.

I used the rest of the yellow Olympus in the shuttle and the pink is El Beida #8 in baby pink.

Motif 6

I made this butterfly like 3 days ago. When I was still with the strong pain (it has lessen now). The pattern is from Bina Madden and it's on her web site of Paradise Treasures. Bina is an excellent tatter who shares many techniques and patterns on her web site. I like the design of the butterfly but I made many mistakes.

The very bright yellow thread is Olympus #40. I got it at Palmetto's as a gift. Oh! I love this thread and when I have a little of surplus on my pocket I'll get some. It works as a big #30 even if it's says #40. It's a crisp thread. Very nice to work with.

Motif 5

These I made them this morning. They're so cute. The patterns are form Jane Eborall and can be found here. She uses a nice technique to make the beaded picots without having to load gazillions of beads on the shuttle. Hmm... The big one looks a lot like a bow. I have plenty of beads so I'll make a few more.

Motif 3 & 4

These butterflies are from the book Tatted butterflies by Adelheid Dangela. I love her books and patterns. They are diagrammed.


This one is Celine. It's one of my favorite and I have done it several times, specially when I was in the Butterfly's Round Robins. It says to use 2 shuttles but can be easily done with one and ball. The thread is DMC Petra #8 in white and navy blue.



This one all weird and with silly antennas is Teresa. The pattern uses long twisted picots, but I wanted to use bugles on the picots. The problem is that I didn't use a picot gauge to measure the picots and one wing has longer picots than the other. The antennas are all "here and there" because the pattern doesn't say when you need a SLT (Shoelace Trick) or SS (Switch Shuttles) and the pattern confused me, specially because I was using 2 colors and want the colors in specific positions. But I think she looks fine.

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.

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.