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.

A snowflake for a change

Gosh! Can you believe me that I can tat faster than I can post! lol I made this a few days ago. It's a snowflake by Becky Dempsey. It's very unusual the pattern. Looks complicated but it's so easy! This one is Crystal Flake and the pattern can be found here. I used DMC Petra #8 and the snowflake measures near 3 inches from tip to tip.

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.

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

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?

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.