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 10/5/10

Today’s tea was Rooibos again (I’ve become quite enamored of this tea!) and my tatting should be my homework for the Design Tat class. It might be yet, but I keep getting distracted by a doily that I’m working on. I had hoped that it would be done in time for today, but mistakes keep happening – and I keep changing my mind. So if it’s not making a change it’s taking out stitches because I goofed. I think I’m about done, but obviously not in time for today. I did take a ‘working’ picture I’ll let you see.


God’s Kid left a comment last week, suggesting my bookmark would make a nice bracelet. I thought it was a great idea! So I made a little change…

Thank your daughter for me, God’s Kid!

For some reason I seem to make a lot of things in Caribbean : -) I’ve written the pattern down somewhere so I could share it with you, but I seem to have misplaced it. I’ll write it out again and see about posting it next week, really!

Until then, I hope you all have a great week, and fit in a little tea and tatting if you can.

Odds and Ends

During our trip to Colorado I did tat a little bit – I made another bookmark, a variation of the one I did a couple of weeks ago. This was done mostly while driving and with a few trials of different ways to achieve the same end. I don’t know if it’s just the color combination or the different things I tried, but the chains don’t quite look right. Of course I noticed that the most while I was blocking it, otherwise I like how it turned out. It’s made in Lizbeth Caribbean and black size 20.

State Fair
I did mention that I had a few more fair pictures.

This is the butter sculpture. There were so many people looking at it that it was hard to get close enough to see it let alone take a picture; I hope you can make them out. Amazing what someone can do with butter!

My grandson really enjoyed the goats. He kept trying to give them hugs and kisses.

There was a remote controlled robot named Oscar talking to people and keeping everyone laughing. I don’t know where the person was who controlled him, but Oscar commented on the people around him and moved around interacting with the crowd. My grandson thought Oscar was great until we got him up close, then it wasn’t fun any more.

I thought this was definitely the winner of the fair!

Surprise in the sky
We were on the way to work Friday and saw what at first we thought were some odd looking clouds. And then we realized they weren’t clouds.

The Thunderbirds were going to be at the air show at McConnell Air Force base open house on Saturday and Sunday and we were seeing their practice.

We kept an eye on the sky all the way from Newton to Wichita, about 25 miles, and saw quite the show, even from that distance. We weren’t going to be able to go to the show but we got to enjoy a bit of it anyway.

Tatting Tea Tuesday
I’m enjoying Tazo Refresh tea today. It is refreshing on this cool, fall morning. My tatting today is what it’s been for the last week, a project inspired by the bed and breakfast we stayed in while we were in Leadville. I’ve been so excited about it that I’ve spent almost all my time working on it. The house definitely looks like it, too – I really need to get up and take care of it. But I’d really rather be tatting!

May all of you have a wonderful week with a little tea and tatting in it!

A Try at a Butterfly and other things

I see a lot of beautiful tatting done with beads as I surf through blogs. Now I don’t do much with beads for several reasons, the foremost being that it’s not very portable, at least for me. But a friend asked me to make a butterfly and an idea came to mind that would look pretty with beads. This is the result, what I had mentioned I was working on last week. This is made in Lizbeth size 20, black for the body and Caribbean for the wings, with 10/0 seed beads. I’m counting this as #11 of my second 25 Motif Challenge – it certainly was a challenge for me!

A mini vacation
My husband and I took a long weekend and went to Colorado this last week. Our timing was great as the aspens are in the midst of changing their colors for fall. It was gorgeous in the mountains! We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast called The Ice Palace. We had a wonderful stay there. I highly recommend it if you ever want to spent the night in Leadville.
Leadville’s elevation is recorded as being 10,152 feet, which took us a little while to get used to. We also went up to Independence Pass, which is a little bit higher : )

We enjoyed a guided horseback ride from Mega Mountain Magic that had some pretty magical views. We don’t ride much so at the end of our two and a half hour ride I was glad to be done, but sad at the same time. You know the views are wonderful when your guide stops to take pictures, too!
We drove up to Weston pass and stopped once in awhile to enjoy the colorful roadsides.

The road did get kind of rough. But it was worth every mile!

It was a wonderful, long weekend with just the two of us this time. Quite a difference from the trip we made to Washington, DC earlier in the year. Each trip was great in it’s own way and I’m fortunate to be able to have done both this year.

Rooibos was the tea for today. I sipped several cups this morning as I finished off a bookmark and went through vacation pictures. A wonderful start to the day even though I have to go back to work this afternoon.

May all of you have a wonderful week and enjoy a little tea and tatting if you can.

A bookmark and the Kansas State Fair

I’ll start off with what I made when I got home from the state fair Saturday, a bookmark for the “Bookmark a Month Challenge” on The Tatting Forums. This is made with Manuela size 20 in color 021 (thanks AnneB for the translation!) I actually made one first in Lizbeth Jellybean but I made many of the picots too long. In fact, I dislike it so much that I almost didn’t finish it. But I forced myself to and then made this one. I didn’t use any pattern for this, though I think I’ve seen something similar somewhere.

The Kansas state fair was fun and it was a beautiful day for it. But there was very little tatting this year. I was very disappointed and angry at myself for not trying harder to get something entered. My sister and I have agreed that we both will enter at least one thing next year, and maybe more. With us encouraging each other I think it just might be a reality next September.

These pictures are of the only tatting I found there this year. They may be an item or two I missed because of the way they displayed them, but not more.

Nice display, isn’t it? A great idea for all those snowflakes I like to make.
Check out the multiple ribbons through the center – another nice idea.
Kind of disappointing that they left the ribbon in front of the doily. The earrings and snowflake didn’t show up well with the tag behind them, either. I didn’t do such a great job on taking these pictures, did I?
That white bar along the bottom is a reflection of the light fixture. This was not hanging in a place that I could get any closer to it.

In the Domestic Arts building where the tatting is displayed they have the textile arts such as quilts, embroidery, crochet, knitting and such as well as the foods. They give demonstrations of these types through-out each day which can be fun to watch. My sister and I watched a felting demonstration, which was very interesting, especially as neither one of us knew what it was before it started. It was given by a woman from ‘Yarn’, a yarn store in Hutchinson, which is home to the state fair.

She even let us try adding a few colorful touches to the piece that we watched her make after it was rinsed and ready to be decorated. This is me giving it a try. It was very interesting to watch but I have way too many things I want to do to really want to do this myself. There aren’t enough hours in a day for me to take up another hobby!

There were some wonderful quilts, too, lots and lots of them. This is only a very small fraction of what they had on display. I’m glad I’m not a judge – I don’t see how they can decide on which ones are the best.
This one looks to be a queen or king size quilt done entirely in crazy quilting. It was amazing! BTW, I didn’t pull back the plastic to look at it but I took advantage of it to take a picture. My picture does not do this quilt justice of how amazing it is and the colors aren’t quite right either. It is spectacular! The judges thought so, too, it got a Best of Show ribbon (but not grand champion or runner up).
There wasn’t a lot of knitting or crochet either, though a lot more than the tatting. I just thought this crocheted wedding dress was so beautiful. I didn’t see a ribbon on it, but it could have been tucked in behind somewhere.

These are the State Fair dolls. They are supposed to represent a favorite part of the fair. Didn’t they have some cute ideas for these?

There are so many things I wanted to take pictures of that I didn’t! Such as the Duct tape clothing (completely out of different colored Duct tape) and the most original hand bags (made from the same pattern but using unusual mediums) but my batteries in the camera were running low. And did I bring any more? NO. Could I find any place to buy any? NO. And my grandson was coming so I had to be stingy on picture taking until I could get a few (okay, a lot) of him enjoying his first fair. Those are pictures I’ll be sharing in another post.

My tea for today’s Tatting Tea Tuesday was a nod in the direction of the cabinet I keep it in. We had several errands to run and a multitude of things that had to get done around the house today and I just didn’t take the time to fix myself any. I did get some tatting done that I’m pretty excited about, but that, too, will have to wait for another post.

May all of you have a wonderful week. Try to get in a little tatting if you can!

New Techniques Learned

Have you ever not tried something new because you just KNEW that they were going to be difficult? That’s me. There are a lot of techniques I haven’t tried because I didn’t have the time to spend on learning them – or didn’t think I did. But this weekend the time came to give a couple of them a try. Can someone just kick me now for procrastinating on these???

Thanks to Toptattyhead, aka Linda S. Davies, and soluranne, aka AnneB, for their wonderful tutorials on YouTube. I have now successfully learned split chains (Linda) and single shuttle split rings (Anne) **happy dance** I have not even tried these before because I thought they would be difficult! Man, when I tried the SSSR I really could have kicked myself on how easy it is!!

The first ring above is a normal ring and the second one is my first try at the SSSR – it looked good until I pulled it closed. The third ring is my next try and I figured out what I hadn’t done on the previous ring – and wa-la! The whole time I’m making these I’m going “Is this all it is? Really?” If you haven’t tried this yet I encourage you to check out AnneB’s tutorial and give it a try.

Linda’s tutorial on the split chain is good. She takes it slow so you can understand what she’s doing. And of course, being a video, you can go back and see it again and again until you get it. The picture shows my first attempt. The piece is just for this practice, it’s not part of anything else. I’m not saying I don’t need to practice this a bit, but I’m not afraid to use it now.

Thanks, ladies!

Update on my doily: I’ve completed the fourth round and still have two rounds to go. This has not been blocked as there is more work to be done.

It’s late summer here in Kansas, obvious everywhere by blooming wild sunflowers. These are in our yard, but can be found in ditches and fence rows everywhere this time of year. I look forward to seeing them as they are hints of the end of hot weather and the start of fall.

Another indication of the end of summer is the Kansas State Fair which starts this Friday. My sister and I plan on going. I plan to take my camera with me, so next week be prepared for a picture heavy post. I didn’t enter anything this year but I’m going to check out what others have. I also want to see the quilts, the photography, the butter sculpture and the pig races and… There is so much to see and do at the fair I know one day won’t be enough time, but I’ll get in as much as I can : )

Today I had a cup of George’s Cherry Tree Tea with my tatting before getting ready for work. As yesterday was Labor Day, a national holiday here in the states, today is the start of the work week. I love short work weeks! May all of you have a great week and fit in a little tatting if you can : )

A Busy Week

Wow, it’s been a busy week! One daughter and her son visiting for a week and a different schedule at work makes for quite a change of pace. My visiting grandson is about 21 months old and full of energy. And we had several visits with our other daughter’s son at the same time. Talk about go,go,go! Add on top of that working a different shift for three days – it plumb wore me out!

As you can imagine, I didn’t get a lot of tatting done, just one small motif from the January 1960 Workbasket magazine. I was putting away the Workbasket I just bought and picked up this one to look through. This medallion is supposed to be joined with six others to make an edging for a pillowcase.
I didn’t quite make it per the directions: instead of making the center ring then doing a cut and tie, I made the center ring and climbed out on the last picot. And I’m not really sure that it would come out correctly if you followed all of the directions. I had to refer to the drawing a couple of times and I was still a little unsure (the drawing, aka “picture” isn’t accurate, either!). This is not a hard pattern, simple rings and chains, but before I made the second round I wrote out the directions in a more modern fashion just to be sure – a person can really get lost with all those words and paragraphs! Considering I did a lot of tatting from Workbasket magazines back when I was learning it’s amazing that anything was finished! And actually came out looking like they were supposed to!

I got something fun in the mail this week. I did a little exchange with Stephanie Grace at “Tat’s What She Said”, just for fun. I suggested the butterfly from Soyloquesoy on Intatters. This is the lovely card she sent, and a few extra goodies. Didn’t she do a great job on the card? Thank you, Stephanie Grace!

I haven’t quite decided what I am going to use the paper-fold inkwell with yet, but I’ve got a vague sort of idea. Now if I can only find the time!

Today’s tea was just plain decaffeinated tea. I didn’t really have time to savor a cup today and didn’t want to waste a special tea when I couldn’t take the time to really enjoy it. Maybe next Tatting Tea Tuesday won’t be quite so rushed.

Wishing all of you a wonderful week, with maybe a little tea and tatting!

Trying New Bookmarks

I’ve been getting quite a bit of tatting done this week but there’s not a lot I want to share today. Most of what’s been made is unfinished due to lack of time. I did make a couple of bookmarks. I’m not exactly happy with them but they have potential.

The one on the left I started at break at work for a challenge on The Tatting Forums, which is to make one bookmark a month. I didn’t have a pattern and didn’t think what I was doing completely through – it didn’t come out quite the way it was supposed to: ( It looks a little unfinished, don’t you think?

The one on the right was another thought, one that pretty much did come out the way I thought it would. It’s a pain to make, though! I did make a few decisions in mid-stream, which is obvious by the couple of ugly rings: p If I make this again I’ll do a few things a little different, and maybe add a tail or something. Both bookmarks are made in Lizbeth #682, size 20.

I also started on a butterfly this week for a friend of mine. The prototype has been made and decisions mad e of changes I would like to see when I make it again. The prototype looks very plain as it was made in ecru size 30 because I had two shuttles already wound with it. Size 30 is definitely too small for what I have in mind for this piece. The next time I plan to make it in Lizbeth Caribbean in size 20 and use beads. I’m not very proficient with beads, but practice makes perfect, right?

I don’t know how much tatting I’ll be getting done this week. I have to work some very different hours during the week. And my daughter and her son from Washington D.C. are here for a week! Yippee! We’re going to try to get together with our other daughter and her family as much as possible this week, too. Both grandsons together – it’s going to be fun!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week this week!

Miscellaneous Stuff on Tatting Tea Tuesday

I actually got quite a bit of tatting done this week. I had to restart my doily again – it seems to have had the wrong number of repeats : ( – and then got the second round done as well. It’s not blocked as there is a lot of work yet to be done on it, but it’s looking pretty good. Some of this was done while waiting to pick my entries up from the fair.
I forgot to take a picture of my fair entries with their ribbons. My doily and the bookmark (same pattern as this one but in different colors.) each received blue ribbons and the earrings received a red (it was in the same class as the bookmark). I was pretty happy even though there was no other competition. If nothing else this should help keep the tatting classes for another year at least. I kept the fair book to keep in mind other places that I might be able to enter next year (maybe jewelry, note cards and stationary).

While I was at my mother’s house the other day she gave this piece of tatting. It was on a doll/baby dress that her mother gave her. Mom doesn’t know who tatted it, but she knew I would like it. I haven’t decided how I’m going to display or use this piece but I would like it to be seen instead of tucked away in a drawer somewhere. It is made with small thread, looks like size 70.
On InTatters there is a thread about Innocent Design Challenge which I thought sounded like fun. I started several times: had one that looked waaayy too big. It might have been okay, but I cut off some and tried again. I don’t have a bottle to try it on, just the dimensions Kersti gave. Obviously I need to have a sample to work with as this was the next result.

This is the top of a soft drink bottle, which I am very sure is much smaller than the top of the Innocent bottle, as the dimensions given are about 2 to 2.5 inches (5 – 7 cm) diameter at the bottom of the hat and about that tall. This is about 1 inch x 1 inch (2.5 x 2.5 cm). I guess I could make that third round a little longer so the shape doesn’t cup so much and put it on the top of an egg for Easter. Or maybe I can figure out a cute look for a Christmas decoration? ; )

I was planning on having a cup of Rooibos tea today to go with my tatting. As far as I know the cup of water is still sitting in the microwave…

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.