Snowflake Bangles--Motif 12

Just a quick post to show I'm still here.

I've been working on snowflake bangles for small Christmas gifts. Most of these are Mike's excellent "Playing in the Snow-flake". I love the swirls and the fact it is quick and easy. Check out his blog for plenty of tatting-on-glass-balls eye candy.

In the center is the Layered Tatted Snowflake from Nancy at Be-Stitched. On her website you can find her online store for tatting supplies and a generous array of free tatting patterns.

I will claim Nancy's snowflake as motif twelve. I used Mike's snowflake in a previous challenge, so it doesn't count this time.

When I went to make the scan, I found my missing bookmark in the scanner. Now, if only I could find my missing free time as well....

Quilt Pattern Solved

This is Ann's solution to the quilt pattern. Note that another "B" section goes across the top of the "A" section, and those four parts make up the repeating pattern. Now I understand. Thanks Ann!

Inherited UFOs--Part 1

I have inherited UFOs. I think I will take this one on someday. What you see above are three sections of different sizes laid out in position. Then there are hundreds of little squares and triangles in ziplock bags.

Does anyone recognize the pattern? I think I could study the way the seams are pressed to decide the sequence for piecing, but if I could locate instructions, that would be simpler. I wonder if the hand drawn diagram means that it's an original, though.

Motif Eleven-Heather's Hearts for Tracy

Please visit Heather's blog for this patterns and to read about her appeal for hearts for her friend with breast cancer. I'm running late, so she has probably already given Tracy the gift package, but I assume she can still use more for the fund raiser.

I like to combine a variegated thread with a solid and worked this version first:
(I tweaked the pattern a bit since I wanted the bottom ring in the outline color.)

Next, I was going to reverse with solid rings and variegated chains, but I wasn't having a good day. I could tell that it lacked pizazz since there wasn't enough of the variegated showing.

So then I tweaked some more and added a second row of chains. Better...

Next time, I added lots of picots instead. Besides being frilly, it allowed more color progressions to show. Happy now!

This is a nice pattern that works up quickly. The first version used Shuttle Trend Lab thread from Palmetto, and the rest are Lizbeth.

Best wishes to Heather and her friend, Tracy.

Motif Ten--Mark's Pumpkin

I hope you have seen Mark Myer's Pumpkin pattern. He does these marvelous things giving tatting the look of bobbin lace, often with some free form bits as well.

I really enjoyed making this in size 80 thread.

My pumpkin is a bit crowded on the inside, compared to the original. Either I made the picots in the outline section too small, or it just needs proper blocking. My stainless steel pins have gone missing (my craft closet is really, really scary right now...), so I couldn't do much more than press it for now.

Vacation

I've been too lazy --er, um, Busy! to blog lately. We actually took a small family vacation, which we haven't done for a long, long time. We visited my sister in Maryland, and spent the next day in Washington, DC.

This is the Museum of the American Indian, with a beautiful fountain all around.

There were handcraft exhibits on the ground floor.

Look at the pineapple like necklace. Can I tat that?

Then on to the Air and Space Museum.

Then a mad dash through the Freer Gallery just before closing for the Japanese art (Sorry no pictures.)

The next day we came home via the Sky Line Drive in Virginia with the trees in beautiful fall colors.

When I got home, I had HDT from Tatskool waiting in the mailbox. The picture doesn't do the thread justice. They look lucious, with a beautiful shine. These are two members of the Choco-Raspberry family and a sample of Raspberry Ripple. I will have to choose the perfect project for them.

Here's How I Did It

Here is how I made those flower petals. This is the method I worked out. Someone else may know a better way.

First, wrap the thread around your hand, but instead of bringing it into the pinch as for a ring, bring the thread over the index finger and then into the pinch. This is the color that will show on the outer part of the petals. I used two shuttles, but perhaps this one could actually be a ball thread. You will hold this thread in place while weaving the other shuttle around it, so it feels a little like a cluny. Perhaps you could make a loom to hold the thread just like you do to avoid those cluny hand cramps.

Next, with the other shuttle, make an unflipped stitch around the left thread. (I had to make a few repeats before I could get a good photo.) If you are trying for one-sided/front-sided tatting appearance, make the halves of the stitch in reverse order.

Then make an unflipped stitch around the right thread.

Repeat back and forth, with the first stitches very close together, and then leaving more thread between sides as the V shape widens.

Once you have made enough repeats back and forth, end with a stitch on the left side. (Yes, that's an uneven number of stitches, but it works easier for me to start on the left.) Tension the stitiches so that they lie close together, and then begin making regular flipped stitches for the chain across the top of the petal.

Once you have enough stitches, tug this shuttle to tension the chain, then take the work off your hand and pull on the other shuttle to close the loop.

Then make one more stitch to bring the core thread down to the base of the petal. With the blue and gold threads, I had switched shuttles to make this stitch and with the pink and purple I did not. I'm not sure which way is best, though you would need to do it the second way if you were using a ball thread instead of two shuttles.