Category: 25 Motif Challenge

A Givin’ and Gettin’ Tatting Tea Tuesday

Today’s the day! Are you ready?

And the winner of my anniversary drawing is…

** drum roll**

Kathy Niklewicz!

Congratulations Kathy! Email me at the address in my profile with your address and I’ll send you your wonderful prize package!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by and entered the drawing. I have really had fun coming up with what to put in the prize package. The biggest problem – from my end – was when to stop adding stuff! I kept thinking “this would be cool to put in” or “that really fits the theme” and a few hundred other thoughts. I finally had to tell myself “enough already!” LOL! Kathy, I hope you enjoy the package as much as I have enjoyed putting it together and givin’ it out!

I’ve also been enjoying making my next bookmark. Last week I asked for a suggestion of a good one to make. Gina suggested using ‘Pumpkins on a Vine’ by Heidi Sunday for a fall themed one, and Isdihara gave me the link to the pattern, so I gave it a try.

I think I got a little carried away – it’s like “Pumpkins on a Tangled Vine” now. This is definitely a one-of-a-kind bookmark. The outsides are per the pattern except that I added the turns to come back down. Then I had to figure out how to connect the two sides together so I started adding the pumpkins down the middle. That made it look kind of like a pumpkin ladder so I started a little free-form tatting up and down the sides. Then I had to come up with a bottom that didn’t look like it had just been whacked off at random. Just look at the pumpkin patch that grew up out of all that! I’m very happy with this. It’s a bit three-dimensional because of the way the vines climb around, very textured. I stayed up late finishing this because I just had to see how it was going to end. Thank you, Heidi, for the wonderful pattern, and Gina and Isdihara for the inspiration and help finding the pattern. This was fun!

Oh, it’s made with Lizbeth size 20 in 694 (Harvest Orange Med) and 684 (Leaf Green Med). I’m counting this as #13 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. How appropriate for October, hey?

Now on to the gettin’!
About a week ago I was on the Handy Hands website admiring all the books – okay, drooling over some of the books – and I mentioned to my husband that I really would like this book. And he replied “Why don’t you get it? Birthday, Christmas – something’s coming up pretty soon.” So I did.

This is a wonderful book, full of enough pictures of gorgeous shuttles to make any shuttle-tatter drool. Pam has done a lot of work looking into the history of shuttles and shuttle making and put it together for the rest of us. Wow! If you are interested at all in the history of shuttle making, or would like to see a lot of ways people have added “bling” to their shuttles, and you get the chance, check out this book!

But the gettin’s not done! I also picked me up a few Clover shuttles – as I was making an order anyway, right? And then of course I had to personalize them a little bit. It seems everyone is dressing up their shuttles right now – and it’s such fun! Of course, the new book has a lot of inspiration in it, too!

This blue one was pretty easy – I just added a little fingernail bling*, then sealed it. Makes for a fancy-looking shuttle in a very quick time!

And then I touched up one with material. Cutting out the shape of the shuttle was a little bit of work – my scissors seems to have developed a dull spot, just where I cut the most! But I succeeded! I think it came out very well! These are pictures of both sides of the same shuttle.


Here I thought I wasn’t much of an orange fan – but I’ll take this shuttle anytime!

Over the next few weeks I suppose I’ll be working mostly on snowflakes and other Christmas goodies. Can you believe it’s almost November already? And I realize that I’m way behind on all those things I try to do for Christmas gifts. I have quite a list of things I want to do and my time is getting short. So I’ll sit here this Tuesday morning, sip a little hot tea (mint!), wind my pretty new shuttles and get started on more of that givin’ stuff.

May all of you have a fun and safe Halloween and find a little time for tatting!

*Fingernail bling – those little decals you can get to jazz up your fingernails.*

Doily with an Antique Motif

I mentioned last week that I have been working on a doily based on an old pattern. I’m finally done! There was a lot of mind changing and retro tatting due to mistakes as well, but finally, finally it’s done! I’m calling this #12 in my 25 Motif Challenge – I did make 13 of the medallions for it!
This doily is 8 x 8 inches (about 20 cm) made with DMC Cebelia size 30 in ecru. The large medallion is a pattern from Priscilla Tatting Book No. 1, copyright 1909. The way patterns were written back then makes it a lot harder for me to decipher than the way many patterns are written today, so at first I just used the picture as a pattern, then I read through the written text. And, yes, this pattern uses two shuttles (“For convenience’ sake call one shuttle A and the other B” page 5, Pris. Tatting Book No. 1). I didn’t follow it quite like it was written as I climbed out of the center by a picot and went on to the next round without a cut and tie and used size 30 thread instead of the specified size 50. As this medallion has long picots and I was going to be making quite a few of them I made myself a set of picot gauges from a plastic lid, which helped a lot after I got used to using them.

Another way I didn’t follow the pattern was not using the size 150 thread to go around each of the medallions. According to the pattern you should make all your medallions and go around each of them with the small thread, not joining them to each other yet. You then place them all on a piece of material in the order you want them, THEN you stitch them together. You also use ‘simple rings’ (which are the same as the center of the medallions) between the medallions, which you stitch in at this time, too. Okay, I wanted an old fashioned looking doily, but I didn’t really want to go to all this trouble. So I did it my way, joining them together as I went, and the simple rings became small medallions made of the center two rounds of the big medallion, just with slightly shorter picots, to fit in the spaces between medallions. The outside rounds of the doily were not part of the 1909 pattern at all, they are something I came up with. Both rounds were started and restarted several times. I’m still not real sure about them, but for the moment I’ll leave it like this. The question is, did I succeed in making an old fashioned looking doily?

It’s funny, I thought I did a pretty good job of blocking this – twice – but looking at the picture now I see where I didn’t do as good a job as I thought. I made this with the Cebelia thread because I have several balls of it as I used to tat with it a lot. After tatting with Lizbeth and Manuela threads this seems to be soft and fuzzy. I know that when I was retro tatting I had more trouble doing it without messing up the thread that I’ve become used to lately.

I was inspired to make an old fashioned-looking doily by the Ice Palace Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at while in Leadville, Co. According to the owner, the B & B was built using some of the lumber from the original Ice Palace, which was built in Leadville in 1895. The B & B is furnished with a lot of period pieces and I enjoyed the Victorian look of the whole house. On the way home I got to thinking about a doily that would fit into that decor. So when I got home I started looking through my vintage pattern books as well as on-line, including the Knots pattern page, which has a lot of vintage patterns. I chose the one I did for several reasons: 1) I liked the look (obviously) and 2) the picture was good enough that if I couldn’t figure out the written text I was pretty sure I could figure it out with just the picture. As I mentioned, I did a little of both. I actually have an idea for another doily using the same medallion. Except that I have a couple of other pieces that I need to do first, I’d already be working on it!

For today’s Tatting Tea Tuesday I displayed part of a miniature tea set I had as a little girl on the doily. I think it adds a little bit to the old-fashioned flavor of the doily. The shuttle is a wooden one from The Shuttle Shop my husband bought me. And to really set the mood, I’m enjoying a little mint tea with my tatting today, another old-fashioned flavor.

Thinking on the age of things, I looked back at my old posts and realized that I will have been blogging for two years in a couple of weeks, which got me thinking of having a giveaway. If anyone is interested please leave a comment on this post to be entered in the drawing. I’ll announce the winner on October 26th in my Tatting Tea Tuesday post.

Now on to newer things: I did finally get my homework done for the Design-Tat class and I’m working on a bookmark for The Tatting Forums bookmark-a-month challenge. That’s coming out a little different than planned (again!) but it has a nice fall look to it. I’m almost done and ran out of thread (!) and now have to add some, but it should be done soon.

I did say I would post the pattern for the previous bookmark/bracelet, so here it is. I’ve gone through it for errors but a few might still be lurking. (I’m so hoping that when I’m done with the Design-Tat class that I can diagram patterns!)

Vacation Bookmark/Bracelet Sept. 2010
p = picot += join RW = reverse work DNRW = do not reverse work
prev = previous CL = clover leaf
1 Shuttle and ball. If wanting chain color for center
ring of cloverleaf, 2 shuttles.
All picots on clover leaves are for joining only,
make as small as possible.
CL R 6-3-3. R 3+6-3-3-6-3. R 3+3-6. RW
*Ch 9-9. RW
CL R 6+ (to 2nd p of prev R)3-3.R 3+6-3-3-6-3.R 3+3-6. RW*
Repeat between * for desired length, then
Ch 9-12 RW
R 6+(to 2nd p of prev R) 6. R 6-6. RW
Ch 20 join to base of last two rings DNRW
Ch 12-9 RW
R 6+ (to p of prev R)3+(to 4th p of facing R) 3.
+ (to 3rd p of facing R. R 3+(to 2nd p of facing R)3-6.RW
*Ch 9-9. RW
R 6+ (to 2nd p of prev. R) 3+(to 4th p of facing R) 3.
+ (to 3rd p of facing R). R 3+(to 2nd p of facing R)3-6.RW*
Repeat between * for length, then
Ch 9-12 RW
R 6+(to 2nd p of prev R) 6. R 6+ (to 1st p of starting R)6. RW
Ch 20 join to base of prev two rings DNRW
Ch 12-9 Cut and tie, finish off the ends.
For bracelet:
Put the thread through the chain at one end before wrapping
it around your hand for a ring.
*R 15 ++ to toggle clasp 15. Cut and tie, finish off ends.*
Repeat for the other end.

Tatting Tea Tuesday and Motif #10

This morning I’m enjoying a glass of iced Vanilla Rooibos tea, which I have come to like very much. It is described as “a lush and indulgent blend of rooibos, Tahitian vanilla, cinnamon, apples and peaches” (Tazo box label). Mmmm. I’m drinking my tea with my feet up -ignoring the dirty house – glad that I’m inside instead of outside. We’re currently enjoying very hot weather, but that should be no surprise, it is August in Kansas.

There has actually been a lot of tatting done this week but there’s very little to show for it. Several things have gone directly into the trash after completion, or maybe a little earlier. I was trying for some earrings – there are so many beautiful creations on others’ blogs that I just had to give it a try – but my first try was pretty ugly. First, I don’t use beads very much, and second, some days things just don’t work!! It did get a little better on my second try.

This is the only picture I have of these, because I was lazy and didn’t snap a picture until I was on my way out the door. I was on my way to enter a few things in a local county fair, including these. I had this last minute thought that I should enter some tatting that wasn’t “old fashioned”, something to show that tatting could be modern and fun. These are a long way from being as pretty as, say, any that I’ve seen so far, but I will wear them. My sister liked them, too. These are made in Lizbeth #682 Country Grape, Dk, size 20. I’m going to consider them motif #10 in my second 25 Motif Challenge.

I also made another cross bookmark in the same color based on the motif from the November 1953 Workbasket. I don’t know how I made such a mess of hiding the ends when I was done, but it is terrible! : (
Oh, well, I guess I need bookmarks, too.

Wishing you all a little time for tea and tatting.

Tatting Tea Tuesday with Tea and Tatting!

Greetings and Salutations! This has been a good week! A girl’s day out on Thursday with my sister was a load of fun. We got our nails done, went to a wonderful scrapbook store in Derby called ‘Scrappin’ Time’ (you may recall I just got back from vacation), had a relaxed lunch, visited with my daughter and her family, then went to JoAnne’s and spent lots of money! What could be more fun than that?

Then Saturday I had the evening to myself so I spent it going shopping again! Okay, didn’t spend nearly as much, and it wasn’t quite as much fun because I was by myself, but still! Went into a quilt store to drool over the material and found out they are going to be having a beginners quilt class at times I can even attend – amazing! A friend of mine had mentioned she was going to be going to this, but I hadn’t realized what the times. So we’re both signed up for it now.

Then it was on to the Salvation Army store to see if there were any good bargains to be had. And look what I found!

I’m almost positive I’ve already got a copy of this, but at $0.49 I couldn’t leave it there. It had a doily pattern and a motif pattern in it. I went home and made one of the motifs. Then I made another one. A simple pattern but nice look. These haven’t been blocked yet, but except for the clovers at the ends of the arms it lays pretty nice. I say that though the centers bowed up a little, then found out if you make the picots of the little rings longer that problem goes away.

I know this because I tried it on the third motif. When I was almost done with this one I thought “just extend one leg a little bit and it will be a cross” and it was.

The two-toned blue cross is made out of Manuela size 20 in color 019 (dark blue) and a DMC blue that I don’t have labeled. The variegated, unfinished cross is made from an unknown brand, size 30 thread that my mother gave me. I just added four more of the small rings to each side of the forth leg of the motif, and wa -la! a beautiful cross.

The second cross is for my mother as well as being made from thread she gave me. That was another thing that made it a good week: she picked up a bag of crochet thread from the senior center to give to me. I didn’t take it all because most if it was white and ecru! There were several new balls of thread, but I can’t see me ever using that much of regular crochet thread. I’ve gotten spoiled with Lizbeth and and few other types of thread that are much smoother and easier to tat with. But it was so nice of her I thought I’d make her a little something in the thread she liked the most.

I had more trouble with that thread than I’ve had in a long time! It was fuzzier than what I’m used to as well as being somewhat old – it kept breaking on me. Well, at least three times, and that’s only because I started being v-e-r-y careful when I closed rings. And then at the end I got in a hurry and cut off the threads a chain and ring early 🙁 Adding thread again for the last ring was a pain, but I was able to squeeze in the last chain with the little tail of the chain thread. Then I ran out of time. If I wanted a picture of it for this post I didn’t have time to sew in the ends. You can see what I chose to do about it.

I’m calling the original motif as #8 in my second 25 Motif Challenge, and the cross as #9.

The title says there will be tea and there was. My daughter gave me a box of Tazo vanilla tea, which I can’t remember the actual name of it. It has vanilla, of course, and a little peach and is very good. I had it on ice today. Though I was inside I saw that the outside temp was already 102 degrees (F). It made me hot just thinking about it.

Until next week, may you all have a little time for yourselves with a little tea and tatting.

Tatting Tea Tuesday in Red, White and Blue

On this hot Tatting Tea Tuesday I had my tea iced! It’s a sweltering 94 d F with a heat index of 101, making it a good day to stay inside. If I could have I would have stayed home so I didn’t get out any more, but that was not to be. But I’m not working outside, thank goodness!

As I mentioned last week I’m taking a short break from my doily to work on another project. It needs to be done before we go on vacation! And as it’s getting close to Independence Day I thought I’d do this project in patriotic colors. This is going to be the hatband on a floppy brimmed hat and it’s about half done. As you can see the ends have not yet been trimmed. I like to leave those until I’m done and then go around and trim them all off. I’ve always thought that the most aggressive handling of a piece is usually in it’s construction and if an end is going to have trouble, this is when it will happen. By leaving them all to the last I can check all my ends as I finish the piece when I cut the threads. I’m calling this motif #7 of the 25 Motif Challenge, even if it’s not quite done.

These stars are done in size 20 thread; Hakelgarn color 2011 (red) and Manuela color 019 (blue). I am trying to get this done pretty quickly so I’m not using LHP joins. As this is going to be permanently attached to material or a ribbon the back won’t be seen, so those pesky little color spots will remain hidden and unremarked. (If you wonder what I mean by LHP joins I spoke about learning to use them in this post and directions on how to do them are here.) I think this troop of stars will look great on my hat. I’m pretty excited about it : )) I hope to have it done by next week, mounted on the hat and everything. Done or not, I’ll try to have a picture.

The wheat in the picture is from the field outside our house. They’ve already started cutting the fields close by and this field could be cut at any time. We actually came home from work yesterday and were surprised that it hadn’t been cut. This is what it looks like today. Any time now it will be much shorter.

Take some time for yourself with a little tea and tatting, and may all of you have a blessed week.

Motif #6 in my second 25 Motif Challenge

Here is motif #6 of my 2nd 25 Motif Challenge. It’s the pendant I made for my exchange partner in the Intatters pendant exchange. I sent both of them to her. I was late – very – but I finally got them sent! She received them a couple of days ago so they can be shared without giving anything away before her first view.
I posted a picture of the pendant I received from Deb (dbrn) last time. If anyone is interested in making one for themselves, she very kindly sent me the pattern. It’s in the comments of my last post. Check it out if you’d like to give it a try.

This was supposed to be a Tatting Tea Tuesday post, but as you can see, I’m a little late. I had the picture downloaded and everything but had not typed anything. This way I could finish the post during break at work. Good idea, right? Yeah, good idea until I back space and delete the picture! And didn’t think fast enough to save it. So the post became late, again.

I didn’t get a chance to tat yesterday, anyway. And no tea, either. We had several errands to run before work so left the house early. It turned out to be a nice day, though windy. After our errands we had a bit of time with nothing to do before we needed to be a work. So we went for ice cream! It was a very pleasant shop we stopped at, backed up to an inner city lake. There were Canada geese, with babies! We counted nine baby geese wandering along with their parents. Very fun to watch. I wished I had my camera with me, but I had taken it out of my purse a few days ago.

Today is a lovely day, too. We don’t have many days that are so pretty, with the temperature in the 70’s, very little wind and lots of sun. Wonderful! So I’ll enjoy the wonderful weather as long as it lasts and try getting a little tatting done, too. Maybe I’ll post on Tuesday next week. Wouldn’t that be a surprise?

A Snowy Tatting Tea Tuesday

It’s snowing!
Okay, sometimes it’s sleeting and then sometimes it’s raining – but then it’s snowing!
There’s only a couple of inches on the ground right now, though they are predicting that we’ll get a couple more before the night is over. Farther south, where I work, they got more ice than snow. Which will make it fun getting to and from work. Just looking out the window at all that snow makes me think of Christmas-y things but it also makes me cold. So I made myself a nice, hot cup of green tea and sat back for a few minutes to tat.
This week I found a snowflake I made some years ago (I don’t know how many, but I’m thinking at least 10). It has some yellow spots and isn’t quite the cleanest because it was in the bottom of the the box of Christmas decorations. It is an interesting pattern in that it has a lot of ends to hide. Looking it over I couldn’t see how to make it without all those ends. But I liked the look so modified it a bit. The two on the right are what I came up with. They are made with Lizbeth color 102 (I think it’s Western Sunset) in size 20. One was made with SCMRs and one with two shuttles. Can you tell which one is which? I’m counting these two as my 4th motif in my second round of the 25 Motif Challenge.


I didn’t post a picture of the original because I got in a hurry and forgot to take a picture of it. I’ll try to share it later, maybe after it gets a bath.

The one on the left I designed in September.
It’s done in the same thread as the others and I think it looks pretty good in this color. I’ve been going back and forth between white snowflakes and colorful snowflakes. I’ll empty my shuttles of one and try another and then back to white. There is just something about a white snowflake, no matter how pretty they look in colors, that appeals to me.

I think I’ll check outside now and see if there is more of the real thing coming down!

Wishing everyone a blessed and joyous Christmas season.

Thanksgiving is here, and then comes Christmas

Yesterday, as I was getting home from work (late, late) I realized I had missed having tea with everyone for Tatting Tea Tuesday. It didn’t dawn on me until then that it was even Tuesday! I’m sorry I missed it! I hope every one had a nice cup of tea and enjoyed a little tatting.

Here in the States tomorrow is Thanksgiving, also commonly known as turkey day because the traditional main meal of the day is centered around a turkey, be it roasted, fried or smoked. I don’t want to forget the reason for this holiday, which is to remember all the things we have to be thankful for and give thanks for them. I’m very thankful for my wonderful family – the kids, the aunts and uncles, cousins, parents, and of course, my very loving husband. I’m thankful for the great friends that we have, many of them so close as to be like family themselves. Even though I’ve been known to complain about the long hours that we’ve had to work this year, I’m very thankful that I have a job during this time when many people don’t. And I’m very thankful for the Internet, that I can share my love of tatting with people no matter how far away from me they are and meet new friends that share that same passion. I have much to be thankful for!

After Thanksgiving comes Christmas, very close around the corner. Among other things, I’ve been working on snowflakes. I try to send one in each of my Christmas cards to close friends and family, and make it different every year. This year I’m working on these two. The finished multi-colored snowflake is made with a pattern I’ve posted about previously here . I’ll probably put it in a bangle for people I hand deliver cards to, but probably not for the ones I’ll mail, as I’m not sure it would mail nicely.

The white one is new this year, too. I very much like the looks of this one, and it’s pretty quick and easy to make. I’m trying it in the multi-colored thread as well. At least on this background it’s not showing up as well as I’d like. I’ve found that I love the look of this thread, but what background to use for pictures? The white one is made in DMC size 20, the others in Lizbeth Christmas Delight size 20. I’m counting the white snowflake as my third motif in my second round of the 25 Motif Challenge.

I got a nice surprise from my mother yesterday. She’s been doing a lot of cleaning, getting rid of things she doesn’t use or need any more. She found a stack of old Workbasket magazines that she gave to me for the tatting patterns! These are mostly from 1987 and 1988, with one from 1989. Isn’t she sweet to think of me? She was concerned I already had different patterns for some of the things in them – cross bookmark, hearts, etc. – until I explained to her that wasn’t a problem. Who wouldn’t want a variety of edgings, bookmarks, hearts, and the like?

I remember back in the day when the Workbasket was one place you could find tatting patterns. There weren’t nearly the amount of books available as there are now, and no Internet to find patterns on-line. Of course, the patterns are written in long hand, so can be somewhat hard to follow. But, hey, in those days I didn’t complain because this was all I knew, and who would I complain to? I didn’t know any other tatters! I did make a few notes here and there in my short hand – much closer to how a lot of patterns are written now! One more thing to be thankful for 🙂

Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tatting Tea Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

I’m having tea in Washington, D.C today.
What am I doing there, you ask? Well, one of my daughters was having surgery and I came out to help for a few days. The surgery was nothing serious – if you can call any surgery not serious – but she would be down for a few days and the grandbaby is not quite one year old. Can you imagine trying to keep up with an eleven month old when you’re supposed to take it easy? Not possible! So I flew out to help her out.
The surgery went well, so at least that is now off our minds. And she’s getting along pretty well, which is great. And being here with the baby is lots of fun. Okay, I love seeing my daughter and son-in-law, too, but babies are babies and they don’t stay that way very long. You gotta grab the chances when you can to enjoy them!


I haven’t had a lot of time to tat – the baby moves pretty fast, gotta keep up – but I did get a couple of hearts made, one on the plane on the way out. I’m doing these hearts for Heather at the Tarnished Tatter. She has a friend, Tracy, who is having a double mastectomy on November 11. Heather is a great friend, helping out in a wonderful way. She has designed a tatted heart which she invites others to make and send to her so she can give them to Tracy with words of encouragement before and after the surgery. I’m sending these to her to help out.

I’m counting this as my second motif in my second round of the 25 Motif Challenge.

I’m hoping to see a few of the sights while I’m here in DC. So far I haven’t really been out of the house yet, but I’ll be here for a little more than a week. The other night when I got in it was raining, besides being late. There is suppose to be some sun before I go, and I’m hoping there will be some of the fall colors left, too.

Whether I see very much of the area or not, at least I get to visit with the family for a little while. That definately makes the trip great!

Work, work and very little time to play

It’s inventory time where I work. And that means I got to change hours for a week, oh yeah. Instead of working a late shift it’s really early AM to whenever we get to a stopping place. Doesn’t that sound like fun? (NOT)

No, I’m not counting widgets. My department along with maintenance is doing some major line changes that have to be done before the plant returns to production next Wednesday. Between the change in sleep hours and the long work days I am pretty much done when I get home. Not very conducive to getting any tatting done.

I did get these snowflakes done. I know it’s not the best picture, but I just wanted to sit down and put my feet up, so this is as good as it gets for now. This is just something I came up with because I didn’t think I could follow a pattern and have it make sense. The colorful one is Lizbeth size 20 in Jewels. The other is DMC Cordonnet Special, size 30. The outside round has a strand of Coats Metallic Decorative sewing thread in bright gold added. I was kind of leery about adding it but it went very well. Of course, there was nothing very complicated going on, so we’ll try it again later.

This is my #24 of my 25 Motif Challenge (I think), well, I’m calling it that any way.

Now, I’m going to let my brain take a break. Hopefully we’ll be done tomorrow and get the whole three days for Labor Day weekend. That sounds so wonderful!