A Little of This and A Little of That

I have been tatting, not that you would know it from reading here. Some days I feel busier than a one armed paperhanger with so many things on the go that require my attention it's hard to prioritize.Days always go better when I'm up before hubby because it gives me some quiet time to read my Bible and talk things over with the Lord before the busy of life gets in the way. We take time to read the Word and pray together daily, but I still need the personal time with God and really notice when I don't have it.
The 25 Motif Challenge can take up a lot of my time if it's not handled regularly. I thank God for the many volunteers who have stepped in to help. As the interest in the challenge has grown, keeping up with it went from a pleasure to a pain and without the wonderful folks who volunteer their time it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. We have recently added some new volunteers and that takes a bit of extra time sending them out the information they need and answering questions they have. The Challenge has clearly kept people tatting and created another point of contact for the tatting community.
The Tatting Round Robins have been popular and you'd think that once everyone has their partner information, that my involvement would be over, and most of the time that would be true. The very first group of round robins I co-ordinated ran into all kinds of hiccups. Some of them went off without a hitch and others experienced all manner of road blocks, some of which are still being sorted out 2 years later. Many of these little speed bumps have been related to unexpected accidents and illness that have hampered people from completing their obligations.

If you are someone like my sister who checks email once every week or two, sorting things out can take a very long time. In the interim I can get 5 messages from other participant who are online every day. Last year the individual groups had leaders that collected the pictures for posting on the blogs and helped herd everyone toward the finish line. The most recent groups have been plagued with not only illness but also technical problems due to crashed computers.
This year I started the Design-Tat group to help people create their own designs. I'm not an expert, but there are some things I've learned from doing it wrong the first time, that may encourage other people to spread their wings. I had though of doing it as a paid class because of the time involvement, but I didn't because A- I didn't think I had all that much to teach, and B- I didn't think that there would be that many people interested. I had anticipated that 2 or 3 people might want to know what I know and I had to cut the group off at 60 because there was no way I could personally answer the design challenges of that many people. Really, I think a lot of the folks that joined, just did so out of curiosity, but I have another dozen people that have emailed since asking if they could join. So I'll be doing another course soon.

On the work front, hubby has completed some new software and I helped out with Beta testing and writing the help manual which required setting the software up in a logical manner for doing screen shots that could be incorporated into the manual and the web pages. These had to be done twice. The first were done in a small size for the manual and the second set were done larger and created with transparent backgrounds for use on the web site. We have been fortunate to already have several users promote the software, so we are very encouraged by that.

Things have been especially challenging over the last few weeks as our high speed connection was out and a lot of my "normal" activities are very graphic and require that high speed connection.
In the in between minutes I have been doing some tatting that will go into an upcoming book. I have the designs done and I'm tatting up some additional samples for filming. That's one of the reasons that there haven't been any pictures, as it's all a surprise.

Books, Design Challenge and Mail Call

Look what the mailman brought! It's a lovely card from Maria who is one of the participants in the 25 Motif Challenge and in the recently completed Snowflake Round Robin. The card shows sightseeing trolley in her home of Portugal. Included with the card is a beautiful snowflake she tatted and put in in a bright red bag. The pattern is based on a design in the Burda magazine. Isn't it wonderful?

I have been tatting but I haven't posted much recently because I've been tied up with some other projects. There are some new round robins about to start. I just need people to tell me what they would like to be making. If you haven't had a chance to look at the round robin blog, go look now, but make sure you take tissue with you so you can wipe the drool off your keyboard.

Another project that I'm trying to get under way is the Tatting Books blog for all of our wonderful tatting authors. It's a blog where they can post pictures of their books and information on where to get them. So many of our talented folks have started producing books and a lot of them are self published and not available in stores. Sometimes we just don't know what books there are or where to get them, so I am hoping that if each person enters their own book data that it will help them to be more visible and it will help tatters to find all these terrific publications. The blog is in it's infancy and the only way people can add their information is if I send out an invitation from the blog. So if anyone has a book and hasn't been sent an invitation, please email me so that I can get you added. If I missed anyone, I promise, it isn't intentional, I'm trying to reach as many book authors as I can find. I have been linking to the Tatting Books blog on all of the blogs I manage, but for some reason my personal blog here doesn't seem to have the same format.

On to the next project. I have uploaded an new entry for the Design Challenge. This challenge is to take a basic rose and make something with it. You have probably seen the rose centred snowflake collection by Denise Munoz and that's one thing you can do with a rose. You could make it the centre of a round motif or a square motif, or make it into a bookmark or a heart or whatever else you can dream up. So there's the challenge. So let's see what you can come up with that has a rose as it's base.

A little of this, and a little of that

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately and for the one or two who wondered, here's what's been going on. During most of August our front yard was dug up due to the burst water mains. Twice during that period the driveway was unusable and I had to use a bicycle to get around which meant that just doing things took much longer leaving me less time for other, more interesting things.


Then a number of local folks decided to get a craft group going for socializing and for teaching, so I have been showing some people how to tat. The ladies in this group are keen on finding ways to sell their finished goods and I have been coaching them on how to use the internet as a selling tool. This has resulted in some one on one hours spent showing them how to set up PayPal accounts, showing them how to use things like Ebay and Etsy, helping them to take pictures of their goods, explaining why it's important to crop out blank spaces and re size their images and showing them how to use software to accomplish this.


I mentioned that I was discontinuing the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection newsletter and a number of people have taken that to mean that I wasn't going to be designing any more. That is far from true. I have a small doily completed, in addition to the elephant flake seen in the disaster photo, 5 more motifs and part of a bookmark designed and recently I have been stuck in a rut doing these beaded snowflakes. For some reason, this design just makes me happy and I want to tat them in a whole rainbow of colours. The pink one is half done and the beads are already loaded for the yellow version and I have an idea for a necklace that I may or may not do.


Some of my time has been spent just being there. Hubby, who has been diagnosed with Meniere's was relatively okay during the summer but as soon as the colder weather hit, he started having drop attacks again. Let's just say life's not fun.


On another note, I sent out notice that another set of round robins would be starting and I've been trying to match people up and get mailing addresses to get them started. In the middle of this I was reminded that some of the tatting from the earlier round robins hadn't made it home yet, so I started chasing them down.


In the mean time the awesome volunteers on the 25 Motif Challenge blog have been keeping everyone up to date. It's a good thing too, because I certainly haven't had any time for it.

Yippee! the Newsletter is done

I'm so excited to finally have this newsletter published. This edition has a lot of items I've been wanting to try for a while now. I decided that as a wee, "thinking of you" gift, that I wanted to make something for my sister in law. She wears a lot of yellow so I thought a yellow rose motif would be nice. I used the Coats machine embroidery thread in yellow with a matching variegated yellow/orange/brown for the outer border. I really like how this turned out, but it was hard doing all of the shuttle joins with this thread as it's not as strong as tatting thread and it's so fine I had to use a #14 hook to do the joins.

Then I did up a quick drawing to experiment with making a tatted angel. I didn't want wings that went straight out so I tried for a more uplifted version.

It looks OK but the bottom is too straight and although it can all be done in one piece from beginning to end I thought I'd try another variation. The first inner bit with the large rings was too small so I added another row and zigzagged back with a second row. At that point I ran out of thread on the shuttle and got side tracked from what I had originally intended. Usually if I'm tatting something for the newsletter and it isn't quite right I already have an idea of what I want to do to fix it. I just re-load the shuttles and start again, maybe from a different point or with a different technique. I set this one aside thinking it was done except for the bit I had to finish where I ran out of thread.

Whatever I was thinking of, when I went back to finish it off for the newsletter, I realized that there was no way this design could be worked in one pass. Sometimes a project just has to be done in pieces and I can deal with that, but I don't like designs that could be worked in one go if they were designed better. I tatted a bootie pattern once that had 5 or six little pieces and it drove me nuts so I really try to avoid piecemeal designs if I can. So for this angel I had to start over.

Here's the new version that's tatted all in one piece. The wings look more like wings ad less like arms. The skirt isn't a straight line across the bottom and the use of smaller rings gives it more all over shape.

One of the other things I wanted to try was making a beaded ball. I wanted some droopy bits along the bottom and some different sizes of beads for some texture. When I went through my stash of materials the only kind of bead I had with a hole at one end that would let it hang was an iridescent blue/purple/black bead that had matching seed beads. Not exactly my first choice, but then a friend of mine told me that black was the "in" Christmas colour this year and she's done her whole tree in black and gold. So I thought why not and started tatting my beaded ball. The first couple of rows went quickly but then I had to stop and think of a beading arrangement that would accent what I had already done and use the beads I had on hand. Several attempts were discarded because they called for more beads that I had and since I couldn't remember where I had picked up the iridescent beads I had some additional limitations to deal with.

I put the beaded ball aside to handle some more pressing issues and when I can back to it I decided to go with something simple. Some heavily beaded double picots finished this one off nicely. The colour of the beads just doesn't show up in the pictures and after several tries with different background colours, I just gave up trying to get a good image.

The piece that I'm really excited about is this one. I tried to tat it a couple of different ways, before I hit on this design, but I'm tickled pink with the results. Tatted Ice Skates. Aren't they adorable? My physiotherapist asked if I made them for sale. Her daughter has taken up skating and I think she'd love to have the skates for her. My initial reaction was "no way" but since I had to sit down and tat another skate to make sure I had the instructions right, I just might do her a pair. It's one of those things where you have to do it in pieces because you need 2 of them.

By the way, for anyone who doesn't already subscribe to the newsletter, it's published quarterly and has 4-5 designs in each issue. Usually there is one larger item and several smaller items although sometimes there are just a bunch of medium size projects like this one. The newsletter is published in PDF format and is sent out by email. The cost is $21 Canadian and can be purchased through PayPal. That means that you can order it and have it in time for Christmas even if you order it on Christmas day. Here's the link to the order form if you want it. And here is the link to the main page

Now that all this is done I can get back to other things like updating the 25 Motif Challenge. I know there is a lot of tatting going on that I haven't blogged about, but I have been busy.

Just a note

In case anyone's wondering I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. The lawyer needs lots of information for the impending court date re the accident in 2005. Lots of piddly details and they all have to be right, not just, sort of, near the mark. I'll get to updating the 25 Motif Challenge blog when I can come up for air.

Five years of creating newsletters

I have been doing the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection for that last 5 years. I've designed snowflakes, doilies, necklaces earrings, edgings, motives and a lot of 3D stuff like flowers, snowflakes, and Christmas angels. Here's a review of the designs from the past year:

There were 2 doilies, a snowflake, 2 pairs of earrings, a heart frame, 2 bookmarks, 3 3D flower designs, a motif turned into a V-neck collar, a chatelaine, an amulet bag, 2 edgings, a necklace, and a snowman family.

I can see my tatting progress each year because it's all recorded in the newsletter. I know how much I tatted, what kinds of things I've made and relatively how long they took. I know that none of them took more than 3 months because every 3 months there's another newsletter. I don't look back over the year and think, "What did I make this year?", I know what I made because it's all recorded in the newsletter. At least, most of it is. I tat more than what is represented here but this is a big chunk of it.

One of the benefits of the 25 Motif Challenge is that it give people an opportunity to keep a record of their own progress. A lot of people when they started out, didn't think that they could tat 25 motives in a year. Maybe for beginners it is a bit of a stretch, but piece by piece your skill and your speed improve and suddenly you realize that you are doing it, you are accomplishing that impossible goal of 25 Motives.

Over the last 5 years I have designed and executed an average of 19 patterns per Volume. It started out as a black and white publication that was mailed out 4 times a year. Now it is a colour publication emailed out 4 times a year. The subscription price when I started was $20 Canadian and 5 years later it's still $20 Canadian.

If you are interested in ordering the newsletter, or if you are interested in past volumes, click here for the order form. If you want past volumes, please specify. The pictures for the projects in each volume can be seen here.

Volume 1 Edition 1, Edition 2, Edition 3, Edition 4

Volume 2 Edition 1, Edition 2, Edition 3, Edition 4

Volume 3 Edition 1, Edition 2, Edition 3, Edition 4

Volume 4 Edition 1, Edition 2, Edition 3, Edition 4

More Threads

I had a "fun" time yesterday. Hubby was diagnosed with Menieres and made a scheduled visit to the hospital for a check up. He way too dizzy to drive, (I don't drive) so we took a taxi. While waiting for the interminable tests to be done I had an opportunity to talk to a lady whose friend did lace of some sort, but she didn't know what kind. Then an older gentleman who had been watching us throughout our discussion walked over and introduced himself saying his wife was a tatter. It turns out his wife is Joyce Harper and I was in a round robin with her several years ago. We had a nice little chat before hubby and I had to change rooms for yet another test. I took my big craft bag full of a change of clothes for hubby and I and all my tatting supplies, but got very little tatting time in.

After we were done we called a cab to go home. When the cab came it was a van and hubby opened the door for me to get in. My bag got stuck of the armrest and I put my hand on the outside of the van to keep my balance while I twisted around to untangle an pull my bag in. Meanwhile the driver, finally figuring that he ought to do something other than sitting like a bump on a log decided to get out of the van. He opened the door which pushed my hand off the door and as I used my left hand to brace myself to pull all the stuff over my left shoulder my fingers went around the frame between the front and back door and the driver slammed the door shut. All four fingers inside. OUCH! After we got home I made a quick trip to the doctor's for x-rays. Nothing broken, just swollen and the important thing is, I can still tat.

You would think from the amount of blogging that I get done that I don't do anything. I'm actually online and blogging quite a bit, just not here. Most of my time is spent in the 25 Motif Challenge blog keeping it up to date. In between I try to keep on top of designing new things for the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection which I publish. I'm behind with getting it out, but in my defense I did manage to get the challenge kicked off for another year. At least I think I have, I'm still trying to get a couple of things going. Before I made any changes I wanted to write to the affected participants so they knew what was happening. It was an extra step and more work, but one I thought was necessary.

I'm still working on the goodies for the newsletter and part of the delay is that I wanted to add a few more flowers made with different threads to the bunch already pictured. I can't get the newsletter done until I can take these off my blocking board. So here is the same picture with a few more added at the bottom.

Manuela is a nice crisp 6 cord thread that's nice to work with that's a little less shiny that the Olympus, but shinier that the Flora. That means that in my opinion, the Olympus slides easier and the Flora less easy and the Manuela is right in the middle. They are all nice threads to work with, but if you are making a doily or any larger project, Manuela comes in a 50 gram ball, Flora in a 25 gram ball and Olympus in a 10 gram ball. That means that for an average size doily, (12 inches across) you could use 1 ball of Manuela, 2 balls of Flora or 5 balls of Olympus. I'm just throwing this information out there so that a beginner has some useful information on purchasing threads.

DMC Cebelia size 30 is a 3 strand thread slick, shiny and soft. Its a nice thread to work with that slides easily Cebelia and Coats Opera are comparable threads. they are both 3 strand soft threads that are nice to work with. The don't take well to a lot of retro tatting.

Coats Royale size 20 is another 3 strand soft thread much like Cebelia and Opera. It works up to the same size as the Flora size 20. and comes in large balls but only in white (and ecru?).

The last thread on the board is a Coats Button Craft thread Dual Duty Plus. It's a glace thread with lots of body and although there isn't a size on the spool it works up about the same size as the DMC Cebelia 30 or the Altin Basak 50.

And now that I've shown you all these threads I can pull the flowers off my blocking board and use them!

Square Motif Play

I created this square motif for the 25 Motif Challenge. I had seen a picture of a crocheted something or other on the internet and I took the general idea of it and recreated it in tatting. Since I like to see the pattern within pattern created when you join motives together I did 4 of them. They were pretty enough but 4 little joined motives don't look like much of anything. I kind of liked the negative space in the middle and wanted to recreate it on the outside border. I also wanted to repeat the arches used in the corners so that I could carry a design element of the motif into the outer border

This was my first attempt. A week's worth of tatting time just to see that it looked like crap. Grrrr! The arch between the motives ruffled like mad and just wouldn't lie flat. The chains around the corners took away all of the square definition and made the corners round. Really ugly and no way to fix it except cut it off.

Once I cut the offending border off I had an arch section of the exact proportions that I could play around with. I didn't want to do anything elaborate on the corners because I wanted the focal point to be the arches, but I also didn't want them rounded.

Here's the final result and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. The negative space created pattern within pattern so that the joined motives look more like a planned whole than just a collection of motives. Your eye is drawn to the X created between the motives and it takes a moment to see that it's just 4 motives with a border.

Sorry to burst the bubble of those who think that designers just "get it right" the first time. The truth is that sometimes it's just a lot of slow slogging doing it over and over again until you like the results.

Best laid plans- and all that jazz

When we started the 25 motif challenge I had anticipated designing some motives and morphing them into hearts and butterflies during our one year trek. I began with the best of intentions, and designed a few little motives and sketched out how they might be transformed into hearts and butterflies. October I was in a mad rush to get the tatting done for my brother's 50th wedding anniversary, followed immediately by the mad rush to get the November newsletter completed. Then there was the Christmas rush. See a pattern here?

I posted a couple of pictures of some motives I had done and then there were the Christmas snowflakes sent out to my siblings, all 8 of them and about a dozen simpler beaded snowflakes that were given out with gifts. One of the motives I created went onto the red shirt as a V-neck treatment. There were 9 of them. The square motive that is currently in time out, isn't a complete project yet but the 4 motives are complete.


Here's a couple more that I have done. I had an idea that the one on the left might lend itself to becoming a butterfly, but when I added the rings for the body it stopped looking pretty so I gave up on it.

Then there the motif from the V-neck shirt that I worked on converting into a heart. Why is it that the lace in my head just isn't as pretty in reality? I'm not even going to try to tweak this design into some semblance of respectability. It's as done as it's going to get.


Wait a minute, that's 25 motives. No hearts, no butterflies, just the same motives done a bunch of times and all of the lace for 3 newsletters.... and a whole bunch of hours spent blogging the fun everyone else was having with the challenge.

I want to explore what can be done with square motives, but then there's the Tatting Treasures from Trash denim bag challenge. Some days I think I have the attention span of a gnat.

There you have it. I did plan on 25 new designs, but what I accomplished was tatting the same designs a lot of times. So I am officially giving myself permission to move on to the bag challenge. It wasn't what I planned to do, but it's done. All of the designs for the May newsletter are giving me a hard time and I want need to be giving it all my attention.

Bits and Pieces with Purpose

See this jumble of thread? Want to know what it's all about? I was interested in the comments made by a woman who had inherited a workbasket which contained some pieces in various stages of completion. She was comparing 2 pillowcases and noted that one used a very fine thread and another used a very thick thread and she wondered why her aunt would have worked the 2 pieces so differently.

It made me stop and think of what someone might make of the collection of tatting supplies and half completed bits that I have. Since most of what I do are new designs, I have a lot of trial bits and pieces done with crappy thread because I was just trying something out. I've kept piece of things I did when I first started tatting and bits of edgings I was trying out, sample motives I tatted up and pieces of threads I tried out.

I wonder if they would know that this lump of pink and blue is really a place mat that I stopped working on because I got tired of rows of the same old stuff and the store quit selling the thread so while I might be able to complete it, colour matching might be a problem.

This piece was an early attempt at doing a treatment for a V neck. I had the idea of making the lace as an inset and trimming away the fabric to fit it in. What stopped me was that doing the first side was easy, making the second side to match meant counting stitches for every little section and the more I worked on it the less I liked how it was looking.

And what about these blue flowers? They were intended to be appliqued on a tablecloth or place mats, but when I picked up the balls of thread I didn't notice that the size 8 perle cotton I thought I had bought, was actually size 5. They'll never get completed.

Here's another failed designing attempt. A small 5 sided motif intrigued me and I wanted to see what it would look like bigger, so I played around with a one shuttle border. It doesn't lay flat and not amount of blocking is going to improve it.

Here's some bits and bobs that have no use. Gold and pearls on an ear wire so this was obviously and attempt at an earring that went wrong. How do you like the mutant 3D daisy? The doily is from an old crochet magazine that included a couple of tatting patterns. Way back when I didn't have any tatting books a friend gave me this pattern. You will probably recognize it from several old publications. The aborted doily is incomplete because in my opinion anything with floppy bits on it's perimeter doesn't deserved to be tatted.

That's just a smattering of the fragments, snippets and incomplete pieces from the bottom of my workbasket. What about yours? What do you think people will make of your leftover bits? Do you think some distant relative will scour the internet looking for thread to match an incomplete piece that you put aside in disgust because you hated working on it? Will all of your treasured pieces from round robins and exchanges show up in a bulk lot of "vintage tatting" on ebay? How about a useful way to keep and use all of your little bits? How about using your cast off bits and incomplete pieces, your mistakes and your ugly trials and turning them into something useful, durable and educational? How about dressing up an old pair of jeans and recycling them into a craft bag? How about (drum roll please!) another challenge!

Here's the idea. Just like the 25 Motif Challenge you can work at your own pace. Take an old pair of jeans, cut off the legs and sew them along the leg end to make a bag. Add a handle, you can use the leg pieces sewn as a strap or do something else, it's up to you. Then decorate the bag with all your old scraps and bits or use the pieces from your 25 Motif Challenge. If you don't like the colour of your old bits you can do what CQers do and dye them any colour you'd like. Here are some ideas from an embroidery challenge to get you started. If you don't have a pair of jeans you can cut up, there are a lot of yard sales or thrift shops where you could find something suitable.

If is sounds like something you want to try let me know either by e-mail or by leaving a comment. For this challenge I will set up a separate blog and each participant will be added as a "Team Member". Blogger allows blogs to have team members so that each person can add their own pictures and comments. That will make it much easier for me and it's why I'm willing to handle another challenge. Your regular Google account will let you access the blog to update your progress. At least, I've been told it will, I haven't done it yet.

Toying with Squares

Way back when...I used to do a lot of crochet and I remember seeing lots of things created with crocheted squares. Not just granny squares, but beautiful, gloriously lacey squares. Trouble is I can't find anything in my old pattern books. OK, I admit it, I didn't look really hard, digging through a file cabinet full of old books, magazines and leaflets just doesn't appeal to me. I spent last week doing the accounting in preparation for doing the income tax, last weekend helping hubby replace the spark plugs and wires on the car, Monday helping him clean out the garage and Tuesday sorting through it all again at the recycling depot. More wasted tatting time looking through books just wasn't going to happen.

Searching the internet is something that my bruised and battered body CAN handle and along the lines of interesting things you can do with a square I found a couple that I'd be willing to try reproducing in tatting. Here's a Bolero

The layout shows how to position the squares so it would be easy enough to convert this to tatting.

Or how about this very open shrug?

It's nothing more than a short scarf laced up with ribbon to form arms. I could do that in tatting. without much trouble, although I think I'd like a little more back to it for warmth. If it's done in little squares it's easy to add a short row or two along the back.

Then there was this one.
Very open, and very easy to reproduce in tatting.

Or there is this idea of square motives used to embellish a T-shirt.

This one reminds me of the rose motif in my last post.

I could see any of these reproduced in tatting. Except that tatting usually isn't done with yarn, and cotton doesn't stretch. I have added tatted motives to sweatshirts and T-shirts without any problem but if the finished product needs to stretch it has to be made with yarn or another type of flexible elasticized "thread". Needle tatting would be more appropriate for that type of project.

I need to do some major thinking before I attempt a project like this. The newsletter keeps me pretty busy designing and the 25 motif challenge takes most of my blogging time. I've already decided that I'm going to try to tat a bookmark to send each of my 8 siblings on their birthdays. I'm not sure that I can do it. I'd like to design new ones, but I may just go with something simple like this one I designed a couple of years ago for the 5 girls in the family and then create something more masculine for the 3 boys.

Nothing like jumping into a whole pile of work is there? 20 new patterns a year for the newsletter, while tatting 8 bookmarks on top of the 8 snowflakes or whatever I decide to do for Christmas, on top of tatting for the 25 Motif Challenge and blogging for the challenge blog and I'm still thinking of taking on a major project! I must be nuts. Still...it would be nice.

What was I thinking?

I tatted this cross and I swear that the colours on the thread spools looked good together. Here in it's pre-blocked glory it doesn't look too bad. Maybe it was the lighting in the room at the time but my orange rose looked good with the yellow and variegated threads, but now that it's done, I don't think I like it. I wanted to slip this one in with the card for my sister's birthday, but I think I'll have to re-do it. I could cut the orange out and re-tat the centre, or drop the whole thing in a cup of tea and see it that mellows things out, or.....Or maybe I should just chuck it.

The pattern is a simple one from my latest newsletter which you can access by clicking on the link at the right. Shall I call it a motif, just so that the work isn't a total waste?

For those who have asked, the cross from the previous post was in my Tatted Crosses book which is available from my website.

Circles and Squares

While surfing the other day I saw picture of a corner of a crocheted bit that had a fairly solid circular motif with lacier bits making square corners and I thought of doing something like it in tatting. I got the circle part done and stared on the lacy part, but it didn't work so I un-did an entire row. I liked the rings in the corner and added a row to join them all together. I'm not sure if I want to add another row of chain or just stop here. I made a mistake I'll have to correct, but it's at the beginning of the prvious row. I'll either have to cut off 2 rows or cut out part of the previous row. Or not, I'm not planning on doing anything with it, I was just playing around.

Yippee the Newsletter's out!

The February newsletter is finally out. I know it's March, but I almost made it for February, in spite of spending part of each day this last month soaking up water from soggy carpets and consequently doing a ton of laundry. I 'm getting closer to my target date with each issue so I'm a happy camper.

Remember that mess I showed you earlier, where my left side didn't match my right side and I had to cut it out several times to get it right?

Take a look at it now.

I not only designed a motif for the challenge, I tatted 9 of them, added a border and attached it to a T-shirt. Here's a shirt with some WOW factor.

Here's a close up of the motif. I knew it was going to be added to a garment and I didn't want to spend ages blocking it every time it was washed, so there are very few free picots. In fact there are just a few in strategic places so that the motives can be tacked down so they stay in place during laundering.

Designing the motif was the easy part, matching the border to it filling in the gaps between the points of the motives and making a wide enough straight edge to it that it covers up the band around the neck V was a bit more of a challenge. Which is why I had a lot of messes before I had something useful.

I am pleased with the way it turned out, especially since the border fits around the V-neck but it is actually a 90 degree turn so that it could be added to the edge of a hanky, used as a border on a shawl, mat, tablecloth or whatever you have that needs a square corner. I used a Coats thread size 30 for this one but you could use any size thread you want and just add or subtract motives to lengthen or shorten the border to fit the fabric.