Tatted Acorn

Here is my latest tatting design. It will be in my new tatting book.

I Tatted Again!

I did some tatting yesterday! YAY! It's been 6 weeks since I did any sort of handcraft following the doctor's order to give my Tennis Elbow time to heal. I didn't do a lot of tatting, but at least I was tatting! I started on a design for an acorn for my new tatting book.

Future Tatting Pattern Designer

Emily was watching me drawing sketches to design new patterns for my new tatting book. She asked if she could do one.






This is her sketch for a tatted Mommy pattern.
I think I have a designer!

UPDATE to previous post!

On my way to church this evening, I thought of another location I may have saved my tatting book. When I got home, I checked and it was there and it has 11 more patterns than the one I had before!! So I don't have as much to do as I was thinking! What a BIG relief!

Huge Setback

Well, I decided to try and get my new tatting book finished up in the next couple of months. I had a few more patterns to test tat and then type up the patterns and I had a couple of patterns I wanted to tweak. However, when I went to open my file, it said it was "corrupted" and couldn't be fixed! I had it saved in 3 different locations in different stages of completion and the only one that I could open was the smallest/earliest version! So I have A LOT more work to do! I think I have most of the handwritten patterns, although I can't seem to locate the original spiral bound notebook that I started with, so there may be some in there, too. It's been so long since I worked on it, I'm really not sure. So big bummer on that front!

Mission Accomplished

Sarah's school has a rule that they may not have snacks with more than 6 g of sugar in them so I decided that I would tat each student a pumpkin or a bat for their Halloween party. I started by making 2 bats, but didn't have a size thread that I really wanted to use. So I switched to pumpkins. The pattern that I had written (and will be in my new book) was made using split rings. It was taking quite awhile to get a pumpkin done, so I designed a new pattern! (So now there will be 2 pumpkin patterns in the new book!)






Split ring pumpkin (I did 2 of these)




















Pumpkin using chains (I did 25 of these)

I decided to attach the pumpkins to a bookmark to make it easier to handle.

I put the pumpkins in little zippy baggies and attached the bags to the bookmarks with double sided tape. (so they could take the pumpkins out if they wanted)

All finished!

For October...

I decided it was time to tat up some things for Halloween. I had come up with a pattern for a bat in 2004, and it will be in my new book (whenever I finish it!)




This guy is tatted using one strand of embroidery floss and turned out tiny!

Third Time's the Charm

Some of the patterns for my new tatting book come together fairly easily, others take a little bit of doing! Like the heart--it took 3 tries to get it to where I was happy with putting it in the book!








Here they are with the first attempt on the left, 2nd in the middle.

The finished heart will be my motif for the West Michigan Lace Group's motif exchange this month. It just occurs to me that I did a heart last year, too! Although, I like this year's better!

Extreme Tatters Round Robin--Round 3

Here is what I made for the last mailing of my Extreme Tatters Round Robin. This one has a beach theme! It is for Camille.


I still haven't received my 2nd or 3rd mailings yet. Hopefully they'll come soon!

Extreme Tatters Round Robin-part 2

I mailed out the 2nd installment of my round robin. I tatted these for Wally. These will also be in my new tatting book, although I think I need to tweak the 3rd one a little as it is too round.

Extreme Tatters Round Robin-part 1

I mailed off the first item in my Extreme Tatters Round Robin. This one is for Ellen Lai .

This will also be in my new tatting book, although I need to tweak the bottom of the basket a little and I'd like to come up with a variation for eggs in the basket.

New Tatting Book Preview

I've had quite a few people ask what other patterns were going to be in my new tatting pattern book. It is going to be things to tat for each month/season.

So far, the patterns I've designed are:
snowman
shamrock ( see previous post)
Easter egg
basket
party hat
sand shovel
sea shell
leaves (oak, maple, aspen)
bat
pumpkin
cornucopia
sleigh
menorah
present
wreath

Here are a few sneak peaks!

Shamrock

Now that my mom's birthday is over (and St. Patrick's Day) I can show what I made for her! This is one of my latest designs and will be featured in my new tatting book which I hope will be out this spring or early summer!

New Round Robin

Well, I signed up for another Round Robin. This one is "Extreme Tatters" and I'm the group leader for this one. There are only 4 of us in this exchange, so we each have to tat 3 items (one for each of the other participants). The goal of this Round Robin is to design new items or work a technique that is new/difficult/always wanted to try. I am planning on working on designs for my 2nd tatting instruction pattern book. Because we are designing new things, we have 3 weeks for each stage instead of the usual 2 weeks to mail. I have to mail the first item by March 22nd.