Piney Woods Dragonfly

As I strolled through my Piney Woods this morning, I caught a whiff of the mock oranges.  They are blooming like crazy and smell wonderful!  I cut a couple of branches and made my way back to the atelier.  By chance, I happened to have the perfect thread to tat a little something inspired by the mock oranges- Sulky Blendables 12 wt. quilting cotton #4017 "Lime Sherbet".  I then filled a butter pat with various beads that compliment the thread- 15/0 rocaille seed beads in ceylon pastel butter yellow, a few 3mm jonquil Swarovskis, and some 11/0 seed beads in silver lined shamrock green.  For some reason, I thought about a pattern I had designed many years ago- a Celtic dragonfly.  This is what I tatted:

It is a very simple pattern.  To begin with, string the beads on the thread in the following order: 1 yellow rocaille, 1 green seed bead, 2 yellow rocailles, 1 green seed bead, 1 yellow rocaille, 11 green seed beads, 1 3mm jonquil Swarovski bicone.  Run the needle back up through the 11 green seed beads and tat the following counts:

R 15 - (with 1 yellow rocaille, 1 green seed bead, 1 yellow rocaille) 5 - (with 1 yellow rocaille, 1 green seed bead, 1 yellow rocaille) 15 CL.  At this point, I cut a length of thread from the spool to allow for weaving the thread for the Celtic effect.  Continue tatting R 45 CL, R 45 CL, R 30 CL (NOTE: before closing R completely, weave through one of the longer Rs previously tatted), R 30 CL, weaving through the other previously tattes longer R.  Tie & cut, hide ends.

Here is a view of the little bugger by himself.

Another count version of this is on my Atelier website and can be found here:

http://www.pineywoodsatelier.com/bugs.htm

This page also includes counts for a Celtic butterfly. 

I have used these patterns for many pairs of earrings, bobbypins, brooch accents, scrapbook & crazy quilt accents plus many other instances where a small tatted accent was useful.  I hope you will enjoy this pattern as much as I have.

Jocelin is out of school today and we are going to have a movie afternoon.  Have a wonderful day and don't forget to comment either on Saturday's post or on the Facebook posts for your chance to win the Button Brooch Giveaway!  The winner will be announced tomorrow.  Until then~

Happy Tatting!