August 18, 2010

Tatted Bits

Thanks to the tatting birthday club I joined, I've been doing a lot of tatting this year. It is through one of the tatting groups on Facebook. Most of the time, I'm late mailing the pieces, don't have time to photograph the completed tatting, but here are the pictures I have, along with some other tatting that hasn't made it into a blog post yet.










The three pieces above were for birthdays. The heart pattern was a free pattern I picked up at Hobby Lobby. It was published by Lizbeth. I've made the heart a couple of times; it's a quick and easy pattern. The piece on the black background is the seed bead earring  from the Big Book of Tatting. I figured it was pretty enough to be a stand alone medallion, as well as an earring. I've also made it with white thread - you can see it in this post. The medallion in the picture above is called 'Booties'. It was designed by Helen M. Spencer, and is available here. All of the bits above were made with Lizbeth thread.



These are just two random bits that I never put up pictures of. The pattern for the medallion on the left is available from freepatterns.com. They seem to have moved all their tatting to the crochet category, but here's the link to download it. You may have to join to download the pattern. Most of their patterns were originally published in Old Time Crochet Magazine. This pattern is from Summer 1998, Vol 20, No.2, Page 26.

I made this bookmark for one of the Summer missionaries at my church. The pattern is from the blog Elizabeth's Lace, and is titled 'Motif Twenty-Four'. This was challenging, because I needed to learn the "front side/back side" tatting method. I never really saw the point of tatting that way, until now. The tatting looks much nicer (not that it doesn't look nice the regular way of tatting, it just looks nicer this way) and it has a definite front and back to it. I used the instructions here to figure out the frontside/back side method.

Those are all my pictures, for now. I'll be away this weekend, and I'm hoping to finish a dragon (or two)! Also, my Etsy shop will be closed until this coming Monday.

August 2, 2010

Blog Posts of the Week VI

Blog Posts of the Week: a semi-regularly published collection of my favorite blog posts from the past week. (Or however long it's been since the last time I posted my favorite blog posts.)


From The Craftiblog:
Drawer Box with Easel Card Topper 
This is on my list of projects to make someday. It would be perfect for storing my calligraphy pens.
Delighting in Life in Pink & Orange
I liked this card because of the elements made with a Cuttlebug. When we first bought the Cuttlebug, I didn't use it very much, but I use it nearly every time I scrapbook.


Making Tea the Old-Fashioned Way
This post is from An Herbal Bedfellow. Tea is one of my favorite winter beverages. In the Summer I like to make herbal iced teas. I have not tried this exact method of making tea, but have done the two pots method a few times.

Circle-y Granny Tutorial
From Jelly Wares. If you've followed this blog for a while, you know I'm not a fan of crocheting. However, these are really neat, and I may give them a try...maybe after I finish my never-ending afghan. (There's a picture of it at the end of this post)

The Knit Princess is having a contest!
What's your knitting horror story? The top five stories will be illustrated in the comic.

Flowers on the T-shirt
The Tattingplayer: A bit of tatting for the neckline of a t-shirt. I've seen tatting on shirts before, but it never really appealed to me. This is different because it's not monochromatic, and I think that's why I like it.

25 Motif Challenge...
Tat's All She Wrote is tatting covers for glass balls. They look a lot nicer than mine did. If you look at some of the older and newer posts, you can see a few more of the ball covers.

Drawing Templates for Tatting Diagrams
Jon at Jon's Thread Escapade is always designing lovely bits of tatting. In this post she explains how to design a tatted piece.


Not Spinning but Plying
From the Knitted Bear. This is what I call "yarn p0rn" (yes the 0 is there on purpose - I don't want my blog to become x-rated or anything). I love everything about this yarn - the color makes me think of eating sherbet in the summer.

I will be on vacation next week, but I will try and schedule a few posts to be published while I'm gone.