Buttons

It was a gorgeous day in the Piney Woods!  I awoke this morning to a cool temperature of 56F.  Such a welcome break from all of these triple digit days that begin in the mid-80's.  After dropping the kid off at school I went to our local parish park and walked my American bulldog & faithful tatting companion, Lily Fey.  Although it was most comfortable out, I did not get much tatting done.  The wind was too strong coming off the water for my thread to co-operate.  Upon returning home I found the Czech buttons I had ordered waiting in the mailbox.

Isn't this button gorgeous???  Or as we say down here- "gawjus"!  I have 4 of these beauties and ...

these!

The afternoon was more productive as I piddled with the left over DMC size 5 perle cotton I had used on some of yesterday's offerings. 

This is the result.  I will expand on this and share it later.

The results of my first blog poll are: beads are the top ranked thing you'd like to see more of in tatting with recycled vintage jewelry, mixed media and buttons following respectively.  It just so happens that my Czech buttons arrived today so that is what I played with.

I will be going through my bead, pearl & Swarovski stashes this evening, so you never know what I may have up on the blog tomorrow!!!

Please don't forget:

GIVE AWAY ENDS SOON!!!

Be sure to follow my blog (click on the google "Follow this site" button) for your chance to win the cool thread, tatting needles and other mystery goodies I'm giving away.  Deadline is September 7th!

Happy Tatting!

Happy Labor Day

 Hope everyone has had a nice long weekend.  It has been so nice here in the Piney Woods!  Even with the threat of the tropical storm, we have enjoyed ourselves.

These are my results from sitting outside the husband's workshop tatting away while he makes goodies for me.  I found an old notebook from the early 90's in which I had compiled some of my designs.  It made me want to tat up a few little quick items to share with y'all.

This motif was inspired by an old brooch base design of mine.  I dug out a skein of Anchor perle cotton and tatted away.  The finished piece above will grace the side of a cloche I am currently crocheting for myself.

To begin this motif, simply tat 6 interlocking chain-rings of 11 sm- med- sm- 11 CL Join last CHR to first, tie & hide ends.

The second part is very simple.  Run the needle through the top bar of the ds to the left of the picots of any CHR, tat as follows: 5 with 7 graduated -s 5 CL + to the top bar of the ds to the right of the picots, 1ds + to the left of the next set of picots and continue around the motif, + at beginning of round, tie, cut & hide ends.

 This is the base of a pendant I created in 1994 for a friend.  Tat as follows:

R3-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4- CL

CH13+ to top bar of ds to right of first - , continue around motif, tie, cut, & hide ends.

The second round goes:

Run needle through top bar of ds next to previously tatted CH, tat each CH around motif as

CH5 7 graduated picots 5 CL + at ds to the right of the next prev tatted CH.  You will need to cut a good length of thread from the ball and pull it through to create the Celtic look.

Another stitch variation of the second round is:

CH 7 5 graduated picots 7 CL.

I do hope that I have caught all of the typos & such.  I don't know if it is Blogger or me, but I cannot preview my post today and the spell check seems to want to hang up.

Enjoy the patterns and have a wonderful Labor Day.

REMINDER:

Folks, we only have a couple more days until the Thread Give Away!!!  Please be sure to follow this blog for your chance to win some really nice thread, tatting needles and mystery goodies! 

Happy Tatting!!!

For the Love of Tatting

I recently read a thread on the In-Tatters site that struck a chord in my little tatting heart.  Much ado has been made in our online tatting community concerning copyright infringement and the "tatting police".  I would like to take the opportunity to make my views crystal clear on this issue in regard to my work & designs.

(The above brooch was made with a fabric yoyo base, an antique carved MOP shell button, Miyuki rocailles, a Czech fire polish bead and was tatted with Sulky Blendable size 12 quilting cotton in "Buttercream")

Tatting is obviously very dear to me.  It truly is becoming a lost art.  There are many, many more practitioners of crochet, knitting and other lace making forms than there are tatters.  We are a seriously endangered breed of artisans.  ALL tatters are precious treasures in my eyes.  I do not care what method you use- needle, shuttle, Japanese hook, cro-tat, finger, etc.- you are a valued member of the tatting community.  The implement/method used to create tatting is no big deal to me personally.  Each individual will use whichever works best for them.  Additionally, skill level makes no difference.  Beginners to seasoned experts are all essential to the continuation of tatting. 

Concerning my patterns, I have very strong views!  I post free patterns on my blog & website for anyone to use.  If I post it for free, I mean it is FREE!!!  There is no higher compliment I can receive than for someone to take the time to tat one of my patterns.  I do not mind people using my designs for classes or demonstrations.  If someone wishes to use one of my free patterns to make an item and sells it- great.  Please be so kind as to give me credit as the original designer.  But please, do not claim my design work as your own- it's rude and will make me less inclined to share my work.  Purchase a pattern from me, make something and sell it- fine, but I do expect the courtesy of acknowledgement as the designer.  I see this as common decency.  It is how I treat others and fully expect to be treated in return.

I have had instances where a person felt it was their duty to report another tatter who was selling earrings and other items of my original design.  I checked it out.  Not only was this a pattern I had posted for FREE, but I was listed as the designer.  The tattle-tale was politely informed that I make my patterns available for all and that I was deeply flattered they were so appreciated by another tatter.  This person felt I should be enraged at such an incurrence upon my work.  The only negative emotion I felt was annoyance that this tattle-tale did not have more constructive things to do than to try to stir up trouble.  Said person was asked to please focus their energies on turning more people on to the joys of tatting rather than chastising and berating a fellow tatter.   Other designers are most protective of their work.  That is their perrogative.  As an artist, I fully respect each individual's need to protect their work and how it is disemmanated.  These are only my personal views regarding MY work & no one else's. 

Now, concerning my pieces which I do NOT disclose as free or for-purchase patterns- these are my intellectual and artistic property that I will most vehemently defend within the confines of the law.  These are the few pieces I produce that take exhaustive hours of tedious tatting and serious design work.  The pieces themselves are offered for sale on rare occasions in art galleries or my atelier site.  They are original works of art, much the same as an original oil painting or even a sculpture.  I pour my heart and soul into these works of art and will go off like a crazed monkey jacked-up on Mountain Dew if they are compromised!!!   That being said, I do NOT post images of said pieces where someone could easily discern stitch counts and the minute details that make them uniquely mine.   If you are inspired by them- fantastic.  I have no problem with this. A simple acknowledgement of where the inspiration came from is the polite thing to do.  As an artist, I do not feel this is unreasonable or extreme in any manner.

A HUGE thank you to Kersti for her In-Tatters thread that inspired this blog post.  I hope this makes my views crystal clear.  It is not my intention to offend anyone.  Indeed, my goal is to inspire and encourage as many tatters and potential tatters as possible in order to keep the art of tatting alive. 

Happy Tatting!!!

Thread Give Away ending soon!  Be sure to click the "Follow this site" button to enter!

Thread Play

Today was much better for tatting.  No poisonous serpents lurking where I lay my tatting box or anything of that sort.  I've made more progress on the necklace you've seen in previous posts and have designed some more jewelry pieces which you will get to see in posts next week along with the free patterns for them.

Today I am posting a little piece I did last week with a ball of Valdani perle cotton that was at the back of one of my thread cabinets.  The colors really struck my fancy.  It has been so hot, humid and stifiling down here.  The wonderful darker colors made me think of my favorite season- Autumn.  So I got busy with that little ball and created this:

 I haven't come up with a name for it, so it is just "Valdani doily".

The fist round of this piece is tatted as follows:

R5-5 (sm- m- sm-) 5-5 CL RW

CH5-3 (5 even sized -) 3-5 CL RW

R5+5 (sm- m- sm-) 5-5 CL RW

Continue around forming a motif of 10Rs & Chs.  Tie & cut, hide ends.

The next step is to run the tatting needle through one of the joining picots and Ch13 CL + to next joining - over the top arch of the R.  Do this around the motif.

It should resemble this~

The 2nd round goes:

R5+ to last - of prev made Ch 2 + to first - of adjacent Ch 5 CL RW

Ch10-5 CL R7 (sm- m- sm-) 7 CL Ch 5-10 CL RW

Continue around motif, tie, cut & hide ends.

It should resemble this~

The final round is:

R11+ (to - of Ch prev made) 11 CL RW

Ch5 (7 med -s) 5 CL RW

R11+11 CL RW

Ch7 followed by 7 graduated -s (sm, med, med/lg, lg, med/lg, med, sm) 7 CL RW

Continue around motif, finish off & voila.

This piece is currently on my blocking board and looks like~

This piece may be part of a future give away I'm planning for November.  What do you think?

I really like the Valdani perle cotton.  It is not as smooth or fine as DMC & it bears a strong resemblence in texture to Danish flower thread in my opinion.  The colors offered by this company are absolutely breathtaking!  They are all hand dyed in Romania.  I'm including an image of the ball before I started playing- er, I mean tatting.

Hope you have enjoyed today's free pattern post.  Rest assured, you have not seen the last of the necklace project.  It is still in the design & tweaking stage.  Next week should bring the finished piece, though!  As you may have guessed, I am one of those tatters who is always working on multiple projects.  I just can't help it.  The thread beckons and I am compelled to play.

Happy Tatting!

SPECIAL NOTE:  The Thread Give Away deadline is fast approaching!  To participate click on the google "Follow This Site" button to the right below the poll and you'll be automatically entered.  Spetember 7th will be here before you know it!

The Give Away

There was peril in the piney woods today!  After taking our daughter to school I returned home in a good, ready-to-tat mood.  I went inside, fixed a nice pitcher of ice water (essential here in the deep South), gathered my tatting box and proceeded to diddy bop out to my favorite outdoor tatting spot.  Well, the pines have been dropping their needles due to the excessive dryness & heat so I figured I'd rake before settling into my tatting time.  Whilst raking I disturbed a rather frightful copperhead!  After dispatching the snake (a non-poisonous snake would have been welcome, but I simply will not tolerate a poisonous one), I was entirely too freaked to tat as I usually do.  There was nothing for it, I returned to the air-conditioned, snake-free environment of my in-house atelier.

Poisonous snakes give me a serious case of the screaming heebie jeebies, so I did not exactly feel up to doing quality tatting today.  Since my tatting time was basically shot I decided to go through my thread and cull some of the excess.  I don't know- can one ever have an excess of tatting thread?!?   Anyway, I thought I would do a "Thread Give Away" to compensate for the severe lack of new tatting eye candy. 

 The give away will consist of:  3 balls of Majestic size 80 white thread, 2 balls of Finca size 16 peach perle cotton, and 2 balls of vintage Coats & Clark size 70 green & white tatting cotton.  Six extra small size tatting needles will also be included.  The antique Bavarian dessert bowl used for a prop is not included.  The winner will also receive a "mystery" tatted piece and several other "surprise" goodies. 

To enter, simply follow my blog by clicking on the google "join this site" button located on the right just below the poll.  Those already following are automatically entered.  Deadline for entry will be September 7th, 2011.  The winner will be selected by a random number generator and subsequently notified on September 8th, 2011. Please note, there are a few countries where I cannot ship lace and/or metal objects.  You are more than welcome to follow my blog (if you are from one of these areas), but please understand there are some restrictions I have to abide by.  Good luck and let's hope tomorrow will be a better tatting day!

Happy Tatting!

Step Two of Tatted Necklace Project

I've gotten a fair bit done on the next round of the necklace.

This is a really easy round to do.  Run the needle through any side - of any R & Ch9-(with 3 beads)9 CL, run the needle through next R's -, carrying the newly made chain across the beaded top of the foundation R.  Use your fingers to shape and neaten your work. 

The piece pictured above is another foundation necklace tatted to a little over Opera length (36+ inches).  It was done with Sulky Blendables size 12 quilting cotton in "Lime Sherbet" and is enhanced with size 10 Ornela Czechoslovakian seed beads in "Cream Pearl".  I will be doing a different elaboration on this foundation later.  Stay tuned for further developments...

Here are the two necklaces draped over a pine cone.  The ecru tatting on my blouse (used as a handy backdrop) was done by my great-great grandmother.  A few years before her death, my grandmother gave me a box filled with tatted and crocheted edgings done by various great- great & great grandmothers.  If she knew who did what, I used a safety pin and attached a label to it.  I love to wear my own work, but it always makes me feel special to wear something one of my grandmothers made.  They have given me the most precious legacy- the ability and inspiration to create needle art!

Until tomorrow...

Happy Tatting!

The Long Awaited Launch

After many years devoted to homeschooling and family concerns, I am at long last returning to my passion- creating original needle tatted art. 

My current project is in the above image.  It is a foundation for a necklace tatted in Sulky Blendables 12 weight quilting cotton in the "Caramel Apple" color variegation and is enhanced with Miyuki Shoji rocailles (size 15 seed beads) in "Gold Luster Cranberry".   To get to this point string a good number of beads (I did not keep an exact count) and proceed to tat the following until you have a length of approximately 26 inches:  R5-5-(with 3 beads)5-5 CL RW Ch 5-(with 3 beads)5 CL RW  R5+ (to last - of previous R) 5-(with 3 beads)5-5 CL RW & continue.  When you have reached the length you want, tat the last R5+ to last - of previous R5-(with 3 beads)5+ to the first - of the first R CL RW Ch5-(with 5 beads)5 CL join to the base of first R & Ch, tie, cut & hide ends.

Here is a close up of the foundation.  Round two will follow very shortly!

Please note that I am new to blogging and am working hard to learn how to layout and configure my blog to be more aesthetically pleasing.  Thanks for your interest and please remember to leave comments.  I appreciate the input!

Happy Tatting!!!