Thimble rings

My son spotted my bag of thimble rings and asked if he could play with them. He arranged them and counted them and told me there were thirteen. I was surprised. I didn't realize I'd made a full baker's dozen of them.

Before I show mine, let me show the master thimble. I won this in a lucky draw from Chloe Patricia's blog. It almost hurts to look at; the stitching is so fine. I'm using it as motivation whenever I get too sloppy with my stitches.


Here's a super bright one from two months ago.


This is from last month. I think it looks like peacock feathers.


Here are the latest ones. The blue-green one is my current favourite. It's very calm.

Motif 5: A bit of edging

I had an eventful month that robbed me of the will to do anything except eat, sleep and watch movies. The good thing is I'm too scatter-brained to maintain a funk for long. So the shuttles are starting to move again, the keyboard keys are clicking.


Here's a little tatted edging made with the last of my DMC cordonette 10 (It's from the book 'Tatting Ideas' by Yusai Shokoin). I have nostalic thoughts as I use up this ball. It's the first ball of thread that I bought specifically for tatting. Before that, I'd been trying to teach myself to tat using a huge ball of acrylic yarn. The results were less than encouraging.



Here's the inside of the bag. Those little dragonflies are at least three years. Let's not look too closely, eh? My joins were still a little iffy back then.




These are my two latest baju kurung. The yellow one almost fell victim to my 80% rule. My 80% rule dictates that only 80% of the garments I make end up being wearable.

The yellow cloth was a remnant. I knew there wasn't enough, but I loved the colour too much to resist. I decided to reduce my usual measurements a little bit. Since I usually cut loosely, I thought I'd be OK. When it was finished, I was able to wear it, but the result was miserably unflattering. After much foot stomping, I finally cut it down and turned it into a baju kedah for my mother. It fits her beautifully. She even looks better in yellow than I do. Sigh...

The black one fits fine, but Malaysia is in the middle of a heat wave. It's not the most comfotable thing to wear right now.

Motif 4: Mignonette motifs

I got delayed by mid-terms and missing camera batteries, but now I can finally push down my picture of defeat. Here are some motifs from my lone Japanese tatting book, all with bits of mignonette. The white one is in DMC Cebelia 10, the pink ones in DMC Cebelia 20.

Right now, I'm taking course on multimedia technologies. It's a hands-on course, and one of the assignments is to create a magazine page using Adobe Illustrator. For my assignment, I decided to make a page for an imaginary tatting magazine, with a diagram for a little tatted butterfly (DMC Cebelia 20, dyed with batik colours) by Anna Wuerfle Brown.


My little lady grabbed this out of my hands when I showed it to her. Then she got out a roll of sticky tape and stuck it on to her dress. I guess that one way to accessorize.

Defeat

I got some great tips and encouragement on the previous cluny motif. Thanks Katie and Mimi.

Unfortunately, this motif didn't turn out so well. This is my attempt at Teri Dusenbery's Fantasia Fan. When she posted it on her blog last year, I nearly drooled on my keyboard; it's so beautiful. Since then, I read and re-read her articles on modern joins and directional tatting.



Finally, I tried it, in slippery, slidy burgundy silk. After three weeks of fiddling, I admit defeat. Every centimeter of that thread has been unpicked and re-done at least twice. At this point, I just don't have the skills to make this.

Sadly, Teri Dusenbery took down her patterns. I wouldn't even post this picture except at this point, it's just a mess, and doesn't remotely resemble her gorgeous fan. Perhaps, if she publishes the pattern again, I will buy a copy, gather my cordonette cotton and concentration and try it again.

So for now, I'll leave that picture up there as a lesson in humility. I have some mignonette motifs on the shuttles that are coming along nicely, so hopefully there will be some nicer pictures on the blog sooon.

Motif 3: Cluny coaster

From strips...
To blocks...
To actual motifs...
But what's this! There's a ...GASP... mistake.

So, one more try, and here's a motif I can live with. This is Mimi Dillman's tatted coaster in DMC Cebelia 20. It could be better, but honestly, I don't want to look at another cluny for a little while.

This last motif is a testament to what practice and frustration can do for you. The first one took me two weeks. The second one, fueled by annoyance, only took me three days.

Brother-sister outfits

I'm putting together some pictures of some outfits I made for my kids, but before my dreary long shots, here's a little close up.

Here are the roses on my little lady's latest dress. The roses are 3-strands of embroidery floss in stem stitch. The leaves are 2-strands of floss in back stitch. I've been reading about liberated quilt making. The idea, as I understand it, is to work without marking, with minimal planning, to achieve an effect that is more joyful and spontaneous.

I tried to embroider these roses without any marking. I like the roses, but frankly, I don't see the liberation. I do know that my anxiety increased, worrying if the lines would match up. Perhaps even spontaneity requires practice.

So now, on the the brother sister outfits. I like to make matching brother sister outfits for my little lady and my big guy. I'm not quite sure why I do it, but they look cute together, so there are quite a few sets now. I still can't figure out how to take a decent picture of a full outfit, but I wanted to put the pictures all together for the record.

Here's the first one, also the first baju melayu I made for the little guy. I didn't sew for him as a baby. He was a regular shaped baby, and store bought was fine.



Here's set two, a baju melayu, and two top and bloomer sets from a nice green stripy piece. The little lady has always been a beautiful, big bundle. I sew for her out of necessity.


This is from Hari Raya two years ago. The dress was a bit of an afterthough, which is why the sleeves are a different material. The lace is not just for decoration. It was necessary to make the dress long enough.


These are from Hari Raya last year. This set is special. This is a brother/sister/cousin set. One of the baju melayu is for my sweet nephew. The long one is a baju kurung. Finally, something traditional for my little lady.


Here's the latest set. The little guy calls this his Kungfu outfit because of the white pants.

Motif 2: 26 Magic Thread tricks

Here's a tatted collar (the rose collar) from Tatting Ideas, made in DMC perle #12, ecru. There are 13 little medallions in there, two ends per medallion, so 26 magic thread tricks.

I shouldn't have worried about running out of thread. Thread-wise, tatting is very economical. There was even enough left over for a little butterfly.


I've been practicing cluny leaves. So far, I've gotten to the point where I no longer need COMPLETE AND UTTER SILENCE to make a leaf, but I still can't string together more than 2-3 without making a mess and needing to cut off. Oh, well, more practice needed. At least the tangled strips are getting longer.