Motif 19: Flower medallion

In my last post I showed a set of unfinished motifs.  Here's the first one.  It's a medallion from the flower garden cluster in the 'Tatter's Treasure Chest'.  I like the little sprays of leaves.  I think it gives the whole a 'vintage' feel.

I used split rings throughout to get from motif to motif. I almost always use split rings to climb out of rounds, but for motifs like this, I'm never sure if they are the right choice.  Cut-and-tie results in bulky ends to hide, but split rings also distort the shape of the rings, turning them into footballs instead of ovals.  Still, it's a pretty pink.  Perhaps the little lady is due for a new dress?

Motif 18: Forever doily

I had some quite time at the end of last year, so I tatted and tatted.  The first thing I have to show for my tatting spree is this doily.  I joined a tat-along on the Malaysian Tatters facebook group earlier this year.  The pattern was a clover doily by Eileen Stafford.  I over-complicated things by adding beads.  After many starts and stops, the last double stitch was completed a few days ago.

Somehow, finishing wasn't very satisfying.  Finally, I bit the bullet.  First, the doily got a good wash (it really needed it after being carried around in my bag for almost a year).  Then I stretched it into shape on an old cloth diaper, covered with another diaper and stacked a pile of books on it.  Here's the result.

Much more satisfying!  I also tatted these...

Here are 7 indistinct blobs of tatting.  Inspired by the header of the 25 motif challenge blog, I made a medallion, a snowflake, a heart, a bookmark, a butterfly, a pair of earrings and a small bit of tatting.  Looking all those messy ends, I'm starting to question the wisdom of my 'tat first, finish later' approach.  Considering how long it takes me to finish, block and photograph things, it might be another year before I finish writing up the posts for all of these.

Motif 17: Potholder dragonfly

I thought I'd try something different from flowers and butterflies.  Unfortunately, inspiration proved elusive so the best I could come with was this little dragonfly.  I know, dragonflies are almost the same as butterflies.  This is Lisa Reichert's dragonfly, worked in chunky size 2 thread.  It's a simple, effective pattern, but I'm not so sure about my version.

A while back, I made up some skeins of thread, mixed up some batik dye and let the kids loose.  The result is a little container of mixed up HDT.  Some of the threads came out quite pretty.  Others came out looking like turmeric mixed in mustard.  Both are nice in food but neither is nice on fibers.  Still, add some beads and it's an interesting looking dragonfly; in a macrame potholder sort of way...

Motif 16: Pearly flowers

I still have flowers on the brain, so today's motif is a little flower brooch from Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige.  These are done in Anchor variegated perle cotton 8.

It would probably have look better with darker beads, but on the whole I'm happy with it.  I think it's proof of the enriching potential of tatting.

Start with some cheap beads.

Add some knotted thread, and get pearly flower buds!

Motif 15: Someday magnolia

I first saw Nancy Tracy's tatted magnolia on Umi & Tsuru's blog.  It's impressively cute, so I saved the pattern and planned to do it someday.  I can see from Umi and Tsuru's post that this was over a year ago.

Oh well, today is someday, so here's my version, in bud, and in bloom.

After tatting the pattern, I'm even more impressed.  It's clever as well as cute.  The way the base supports the center, the ruffly middle bits, the overlapping petals, all of it clever.  The only tricky part is getting the chains between petals going the right way.  I'm putting this picture here for reference.

See, the chain comes out the front of the first petal and wraps round to the back of the next petal (Many apologies to Nancy Tracy if I got that wrong).  I have a feeling I'm going to need this picture in future.  I'm planning to make a whole bouquet of magnolias someday...

Motif 14: Flying SCMRs

I had a sudden itch to tat self closing mock rings, so I went straight to the GR-8 page and tatted some butterflies.

In the spirit of fairness, I won't point out which ones are THE butterfly and which are 'Da Udder' ones.

Motif 13: Peaceful snowflake

The beaded tatting was making me beady eyed, squinting to get the thread through those tiny holes.  So I took a break and made another of Hajjah Jon's elegant snowflakes.

This is the Adan snowflake from Elegant Tatting Gems, done in heavenly blue Cebelia thread.  There's something peaceful about the changes of direction in this design.  Ahh, so restful.