Melinda's bookmark that I mentioned in an earlier entry is now featured on Bellaonline here. It wasn't showing up yet, but it'll be there eventually. I was going to use the pastelles thread to make it, but the strands got too fuzzy and I didn't realize this bookmark was made up of self closing mock rings, which means the core thread is under even more stress when you close the ring. It kept sticking and then breaking, so I went to another thread. I've scanned some of the steps and have a few more to do - then I'll show them on here, along with the completed bookmark.

Wow! tomorrow is July 1. Fair is only a few weeks away! Fan! Bonnet! Bookmark! Earrings! I'm almost ready!

I've spent hours the last two nights trying to separate this floss. It's a cotton floss and not the smoothest of threads. It gets fuzzy and that creates tangles. It's soooooo pretty though. I bought several different ones at Hobby Lobby on sale for $.30 each. I have a habit of trying to separate 2 strands at a time but in an experiment with rayon floss, I found it easier to get one thread out at a time intact.. Belatedly, like halfway through, I remembered that with this, and sure enough, if I only pulled one thread, it went more smoothly. I'm still soothing out some snarls however so it will be awhile before I get to tat with it.


I have a couple of more goals for this site when I have time. One is to get the links listed on the sidebar. The other is to learn how to do thumbnails so you can see the scan in more detail. I try to keep it smaller on the page so that loading time isn't so much, but then you can't see as well. I know I like to see DETAILS - especially for certain stitches.

This is that single shuttle motif. I'm thinking this might be a good shuttle emptying project. As long as the thread is the same size, I could keep joining motifs and end up with a patchwork sort of mat. It might get interesting. Looking at it here, I think you could make the side small rings even smaller and make the big rings bigger, even make an onion ring or two there, change the bottom samll ring to have only 1 picot - and you'd have a butterfly!

I added LINKS to the sidebar, but need to change the color and then add the links. I was guessing it would show up and it's so slow loading here at home, I think I'll wait til tomorrow to add links - if I have time. It's a busy week.

I'd scan my other 2 shuttles from lace day and the picot guage.................but I'm concerned about how long it takes to load the page. I'm thinking there are too many images for now. Or maybe it's just a super slow connection today.

Well, I've piddled around and it's almost too late to get my walk in, but I'm going to anyway.

I still have some bonnet thread on the shuttle so I'm trying a small shuttle only motif from Tatting Patterns and Designs. It's a square, or diamond, depending on how you use it. In the book, it's hung on a mobil from the large ring so it looks diamond in shape.

I finished up the bonnet detail tonight. It's now soaking in some Oxy Clean to get the hand oil and grime off. Then I will block it and put ribbon ties on it. Then I need to dig out my notes and transcribe them.

Below are examples of how I empty my shuttles. If I'm in a hurry, I just put the thread on a floss holder, but usually I just keep them in a baggie and then one evening when I'm not really in the mood to work on a specific project, I'll make daisy rings and simple butterflies. The rings are varied. Some have same size picots and others have a combination of large and small. So simple yet quite elegant when gathered together and tied with a tiny ribbon.

I ordered Tatted Artistry from Georgia today - well, I have to paypal her but still, it's ordered. It's by Teiko Fujito, who also designed Tatted Fashions, the book I got the edging pattern that I used for the last bookmark. You can see Tatted Artistry and a sample of the pattern style here.

Sigh.........I've got 1/2 hour to get started on that bonnet edge. I think I have to wind a shuttle too.



Here's a shuttle I bought during our Lace Day in April. The tiny bonnet is a result of my first attempt at recreating the center of the Dorcas Bonnet, shown earlier in this blog. The flower is one I made while emptying shuttles. The yellow is rayon floss and the green is thread with a blending filament. I should put some sheer ribbons on the bonnet, tiny 1/8 inch ribbon ties.

Well, I would at least like to get the shuttle wound.

Last night I snipped out the extra part on the bonnet and hid the resulting ends. Hopefully, tonight I will tat that last edging row on and find my notes and type them up for Georgia. It really is quite pretty. I was late for class last night and must have missed out altogether. I thought they were there for an hour but no one was in there.

It's so hot out, I may stay home and walk the treadmill instead of going up to the school and walking the track there. But then, I probably won't run on the treadmill. Decisions, decisions!

The pattern for the bookmark was really an edging, not an insertion. The nice thing about an edging is that you can join on either side and have two different results. I'll have to try this one again and join the chains instead of the rings. I think it will show the rings off better that way. I just kind of guessed at how to finish each end but it worked out well. I made a chain with picots, then a ring which could have been from a 2nd shuttle ball thread, but I did the shoestring trick, crossing the threads over and then crossing back to continue on the chain for the other side. For the top ring, I added picots for decorative effect, but for the bottom, it was just a plain ring because I knew I wanted to put the tassel there.

I got this blinkie from this page. Creative people are so cool!

Time to go home!

A quick scan of the finished bookmark - I'm sending it to someone tomorrow - I think!

I emptied some shuttles last night, making simple flowers and butteflies that I put on cards and notes. Then I decided to make a bookmark from an insertion pattern in Tatted Fashion , a Lacis publication, with some Valdani thread.


Cool! I learned I can put a label or title on a graphic! I'm trying to find the link where I bought the thread - still haven't transferred that part from my old computer so I'm using what I exported from my work computer and they aren't quite the same. Oh! Here we go. The colors seemed to scan a little brighter than they are but they remind me of pansy colors when worked up, which I didn't expect. I've been wanting to try something else with these threads and decided on the spur of the moment to play with this pattern. Like I don't have anything else to do.

So I guess I better get busy!

I can't believe how little I've tatted the last few weeks!

I found a bookmark pattern on Melinda's Tatting Exchange site which I didn't even know about until she posted she was closing it down due to time constaints. I like the pastel variegated thread on this one.

I'm already bored with the idea of a moose bookmark........but I happened to have some little square frames from the dollar store that will frame that smaller moose head perfectly. I might do a few of those in addition to bookmarks - earrings are out. I'd have to do two mooseheads for every pair in that tiny thread.....nooope, not fun, I decided.

I also need to be thinking about the county fair - my fan will go in one category. Maybe I could get the bonnet finished by then too.

Speaking of bonnets, it's June, the wedding month, and here is an updated version of the heirloom handkerchief/baby bonnet. Can't see the photo very well, but the instructions are more detailed than before. This one doesn't actually have any tatting, but that's a simple edging to put on. If you go to the projects page of this site there is a cute stuffed fish that is actually a cat bed!
Actually it is a Simplicity pattern with Elna embroidery instructions, but I can adapt. I like the napkin cuffs too - if I ever have a formal table setting.

This might be a good time to finish cleaning the sewing room out.........and SEW! If it continues to rain this weekend, I will do just that. I need to make a little stuffed something to put all my tatted boo-boos on too. I'm not really a teddy-bear person. Maybe a monkey? ROTFL!

Early tatting from 1999-2000. I learned to tat in 1998 and took part in exchanges and lists as documented here. I'd never remember all that stuff I made if I hadn't put it in online albums!
Tatting in 2001.
Tatting in 2002.
This year's tatting which I haven't kept up to date so well since I started this blog!

This year I am tatting more for family and friends, instead of doing exchanges. Hardly any of my tatting has gone to my family.............found out my sister bought some tatting on ebay 'cause she likes it so well.

Dreams of Lace: Easter Eggs 2002

Yeah, Easter is long gone, and these patterns are even a year old, but I didn't see them before. Might be a nice touch on a wooden egg too. Paint a little scene on there.......

and oh my! I haven't checked tatting links in quite awhile it seems! Kersti got married! Ah well, looking at the updates, she just put the photos up last month. I looked at the recipes - had to look up "copha" to see what it was It's a vegetable based shortening. Then I saw the gingerbread - which would be a cookie here, but when I think of gingerbread, I think of cake, with whipped cream or ice cream on a freshly baked square. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.........I'm hungry - my tummy is growling.

So, I'm off to run an errand or two and get home!

Here is the latest moosehead! Tatted in sulky quilt thread, it measures much smaller. This would work for earrings.


I didn't mention where I got the pattern. Dianna Stevens is the designer of this critter - an inspiration during her days in Alaska.

The sulky quilting thread is slightly smaller than size 80. I'm not sure if it's the looser twist or what, but it's not exactly the same. It does tend to shred if you don't pick it apart carefully when retrotatting.

I finished the lavendar crocus today. Two of the flowers are in size 20 and two are in the turkish thread size 50, which I always thought tatted up the same but they are definitely different sizes. The 20 crocuses came out larger. I got some stamens over the weekend and hope to finish those up soon. Our county fair is in July, so I need to be deciding what to enter. I have big ideas in the winter but as it gets closer, I have to settle for what is already done!

Finally, the bookmark. A good one for males, I think.

Here's that last amulet bag. The cat, Chewie, was playing with it one day - I got it from her before she chewed something apart. She never bothers my tatting.............I hope this isn't a trend.

The moose head is done and I'm working on the bookmark part - close to being done and I even scanned it, but decided to wait until I've completed it and blocked it before I show it. It will look better then.

Long day, mostly spent driving - went to Muncie to do some work related stuff. Haven't felt like doing anything this evening but did tat for a change - cause I can just sit and vegetate, more or less.

Now that I've got a scanner that shows such nice detail - I'll have to scan my shuttles. When I have nothing better to do. (((ggg)))

So when is someone going to come up with Tatting for Dummies ?

I screwed up the moose........finally found my printout with the graphic intact. I was having trouble knowing which direction and if there was an extra join........there wasn't. So do I retrotat or cut it and hide new ends?

Straight home tonite - no errands! Jesse wants me to cut his hair though.........and I'm making a strong effort to clean and sort in the kitchen. It's driving me crazy!

There's an online class to do the split cluny tonight! Split cluny appears to be a new technique. I don't really like to do clunys because I don't do them enough to be consistent or even good at it. It's a nice change of texture though, so I really would like to get better. There is a violet spray pattern to go along with the lesson and I'm thinking you could use any flower motif. Think I'll be trying this out pretty soon...........after the bonnet and the bookmarks and the crocuses.

I started a tatted moose last night. Wish I could find the printout with the photo - the graphic is broken on the site I got it from but I printed it out a long time ago - it's buried in tons of printouts in a storage tub that I haven't had time to go through. I want to get this one done, see if there is way to make a bookmark with it, and also try an earring version.

Okay, I got a doll to try the bonnet on and more than ever, I'm convinced I need to take a few rows off the back, so that's my next project.



I've folded under the last 2 rows on the back - so I need to cut those out and redo the edging. And then find my notes! This was the Dorcas bonnet from Georgia's files. I offered to document, not realizing all I would have to go on were the photos. I've taken a long break from it but now I need to wrap it up.