Me? Sedate? Not Anymore!

#7 Motif Challenge

I did not rush... honestly, but my concentration was wonky. There is a wicked boo-boo here; I forgot a section of stitches and a  picot!  But it is kinda pretty, considering the button I used that I thought was pink/blue turned out to reflect yellow/green!

This is a first; I have not done this kind of thing with the ruffles before, ( from 24 Tatted Snowflakes by Bjorn) and it is, after all,  the era of experimentation.  So, I have decided to be proud of this one.

It is a pattern I have been keen to try since Tatskool sent  me a beautiful red-centred that I love and use as a guide - her tatting is impeccable!  (Check Jan her blog -   January 11, 2010 for hers!)

With the leftover thread I make little flowers to paste on letters and cards as it is good  practice for measuring picots.

My shuttles were all  occupied , so I hunted up this one by Georgia Seitz that I had forgotten about.

I will use it for clunies, as it is a perfect size for my hand, and also thin and pointless, which is easier for weaving the tallies.

Two tips:

1) I like these cheap shuttles a lot.  However, they get loose.  I read somewhere on InTatters that you can dip them in boiling water, then quickly squeeze them, let them cool and they will be tighter.  It works. Perfectly!


2) Jane told me about the self-threading needles last year.  I tried them and they did not work for me.

BUT, I saw another make, bought them and they are stellar!

Got them in a dollar store - forget the brand and lost the label.  I will get more and post the name another time.

The lesson : with this type of needle, try many brands, as they are quite different. When you find the right one for you, it's a terrific aid to the sewing-in-ends part of tatting.

Emptying shuttles.

NEWSFLASH!

I Just Picked Up My Mail!

Wow!  Look at how nicely umintsuru. packaged the threads from T.T.E.! New thread for me, and The Dreamy Brother will be so happy to get this colourful stamp from Singapore!

Not only the promised thread in the package, but a lovely note and a bonnie tatted butterfly.

Thank you so much, umintsuru.  This is beautiful. I will keep it with Tatskool's, Jon's and Suneeti's motif as a great example of what fine tatting is supposed to look like.  Such immaculate stitching!

Anon,

Poltergeist

 DON'T ASK.

 

#5 Motif Challenge

This was to have been a relaxing break from the more demanding piece I am working on
v - e - r - y slowly, keeping my promise to pay attention, and to go for quality not quantity.  

My new approach is working - in the blue piece - but absolute hell broke out while I was trying to tat that snowflake.  

Split thread, cut picots, breaking thread, wrong counts, crossed threads and re-tatting to beat the band...  I finally listened to the furies and threw the bewitched motif into the garbage.

I am certain that object was jinxed, foredoomed to failure; thus, tatted nevermore!

On a gentler note:

Lizbeth #40, Motif Challenge #6

This pattern, by Yusai Shokoin, in A New Approach to Tatting, is a delight to tat. I will be making four squares to form the completed larger motif.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

I will not rush; I will be patient. I will not rush; I will be patient.

Anon,

Stick-to-it-iveness: colloq. (orig. U.S.), dogged perseverance.

 The Pay Off

#3 Motif Challenge

I started this many times.  Is it the weather?  Everything I do is wrong - sloppy - uneven - cut picots -  knots where they should not be. You get the picture.  I should have stopped after one wasted attempt with this wonderful ( Thank you, Suneeti!) Garden Afternoon by Yarnplayer  HDT.  But, no.  Snip, cut, tear, growl, pull and stomp. Cry. Pound fists.

I did not give in to temptation. No short-cuts.  I took the high road and tatted the best that I could.  I have a long way to go, but this is the best yet.  The tension still sucks, however. I know, Gina!  It takes time, but I am really noticing it now and it is frustrating!  The muscle memory is just not developed enough.

As a reward, I allowed myself an hour in a cool coffe shop to bring down my body temperature, high already because of the weather, and higher still due to the Battle of the Threads. 

Sitting there, in the cool, sipping hot coffee, I realized that, 

beyond a doubt, colour is happening...

#4 and #5  Motif Challenge

I am so encouraged by your comments about my use of colour, that I have been experimenting beyond my comfort zone.  Example:  the yellow here, I bought because I was doing the  T.A.T.  course and I needed #20 flower colour.  The DMC Cébélia is available in Toronto, so no postage fees; I bought  a number of balls. Not wild about the colours and thought the thread would languish in a box forever.

Enter The Thread Exchange!  I have sent off yards of the stuff! I am playing with the colours I have, and being - for me -   very adventurous in the combinations.  Sometimes they do not work, but so what! For the first time in my very disciplined and unadventurous colour life (aside from the stained glass work, years ago) I feel creative. The new sense of freedom  is a very good feeling. 

So, folks, thank you for all the wonderful comments and encouragement.  You may have unleased a monster - in technicolor!

 Remember, I tatted this a few days ago?  It was to be the last one for a while...  Well. I was having my lunch break at a Czech Deli near my work place  - always wonderful soup -  when the waitress came over to check out  what I was doing.  She loves tatting and has told me she has seen lots of it in Poland where she grew up. She always comes to look!

Impulsively I handed her this dangle, which was in with my tatting gear and said,
" This is for you."  Well... she looked astounded and said. "For ME? Thank you .  Thank you so much. Thank you."  She must have thanked me twenty times.  And, it was genuine!  I got the gift.

Anon,

Promises...Promises...

This is the second attempt:

#1 New Motif Challenge

This is the first attempt:

 #2 Motif Challenge

The pattern is from A New Approach to Tatting by Yusai Shokoin.  The first time - second photo - I messed up badly.

So, I turned the tatting into this star-shaped motif and kept going.  I just didn't have the heart to throw out one more piece of botched thread.  It came out better than I expected!

The second one - I need to tat it again and make the clunies much bigger.  The pattern is in Japanese, and thought there is a very clear diagram, I was not certain how big to make the tallies.  They are way too small, as they are supposed to arc in the corners.  Next time....

Through tatting, I am learning more about myself.  I am more impatient than I thought.  I have a very short attention span and get easily bored, so I tend to rush through patterns and so am disappointed in the result.

 Therefore...

A RESOLUTION

No more tearing through patterns.  I will slow down and concentrate on the quality - not the quantity. I want to see how a conscious effort will affect my tatting.

I am pretty stubborn ad very determined.

After this post,  pieces I tat should reflect if I am keeping my promise to me.  : ) 

 #3 Motif Challenge

Playing around with left -over thread;  I am now able to do split chains easily!  Finally!  AND I saw clearly that I needed TWO shuttles to keep the same colour in the chains!  Duh! Never realized that before.

Ah, sweet learning curve... it'll get you every time.

The beads were too small!  I bought the wrong size and when I returned to the store, there were NO MORE!
However, I did find these..........
Not a bad replacement!                                           

#4 Motif Challenge

One more - just for fun!

Anon,