After finally sorting through a box that I'd dumped everything into from some end tables months ago, I found a bag full of shuttles....with thread on them...and thought I should start tatting it off. I made one flower from Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage but messed up on the stem and leaf part. My plan is to use all these "end tattings" in some kind of picture and I can probably use that flower somehow but I didn't scan it. Then, I decided to make her tattered heart on page 54. I have shuttles full of these two threads - I can make a bunch of hearts! Looks like a good color for a parrot too. The heart is about 2" square but I'm not sure what size thread - either 30 or flora size 50. I'm pretty sure the purple is 50 but I don't know what the variegated is. I can't find the ball it came from.



And here is heart #2. I tatted the one above yesterday and this one tonight. The yellow gold thread was on an old metal boye shuttle - I have no idea when I did that. The bobbin and outer edge of the shuttle were beginning to discolor though. The variegated is thread I bought in Hector 2 years ago - both appear to be size 20 thread and the heart turned out bigger, about 2 1/4" square.





I just loved tatting these up - also from Lindsay's book. The Bird of Paradise, dragonflies, and the multiple headed thistle are all from the same thread. I can't find where it came from either! I love it, but I can't find a ball that it came from. I don't participate in the thread exchanges but occasionally I'll exchange with someone privately and I wonder if that's where it came from? After I scanned the dragonflies, I worked the wings in my fingers a little and that rounded out the ends so they weren't so squared off from the blocking. I love the thistles! These are so small....I'd like to make a collage of some kind and frame them. I followed the directions on one dragonfly and tatted a regular chain but on the other one, I tatted a lockstitch chain instead. It turned out thinner than the other one and that surprised me. I thought it would lay straighter and flatter but it looks almost too skinny compared to the other one.

I don't know what I'll do with these yet. Something will come to mind!