Scrappin' Saturday XX

Welcome to Scrappin' Saturday - take a peek into the pages of my scrapbooks.

Picking up from where I left off with this series, this is my second page of tatting. The upper right design is from Glass Christmas Balls by JoAnn Stearns. It is the top half of design #4. After that, I went with a few motifs and edgings so the ornaments would be done in time for Christmas. I used satin covered balls from Handy Hands and straight pins to hold the pieces on. The square medallion on the green ball in the center is a pattern I got from freepatterns.com. They credit it as being from Old Time Crochet Magazine, Summer 1998. The pattern for the green ball on the middle left is from Handy Hands Fall 2004 newsletter. The upper left ornament has the Trefoil Edging from the Big Book of Tatting . I'm not sure why I included the ornament in the middle on the right side - that was made with my Mom's embroidery machine. The two bottom pictures are of some other ornaments I've tatted. The green one is from the Big Book of Tatting, Christmas Tree Motif. I used DMC #5 pearl cotton in a medium dark green color. The round motif is from Tatting for Today, Motif #25.

How I Made It

Background:  Decorative Scrapbook Paper by Paper Pizazz. "Holly on Green" HOTP-20222
Borders: Cream colored cardstock and Spellbinders Grand 12" Classic Lace Border.
Photos: The photos were cut using Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Ovals Die Template , and were mounted on cardstock shaped with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Ovals Die Template .
Journaling: Sizzix Tags, Scallop Combo #2, with bits of thread through the holes. 
Other Embellishment: Snowflakes were punched with a Hyglo 6-in-1 craft punch. I used glitter glue to add sparkle, and scattered them around the page. 

Tatting Tuesday

Confession: This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for a very long time. Since 2011, to be exact. Why? Because I haven't taken a picture of my completed project.

Way back in August 2009 this dragon made an appearance at the very bottom of a post. While I love the way the pattern looks, it was a lot of work. My biggest problem was using poor quality thread; also it was size 50, which I had never tried before. At the time of the post, I think I had broken the thread at least 5 times. Someone suggested thread conditioner, which made a huge difference in keeping the thread from breaking. 

Minor Norwegian Ice Dragon

No amount of blocking or starching could convince him to be a free-hanging ornament, so he is in my Finished Objects Scrapbook. If you decide to try this pattern, be sure to...

• Use thread you are familiar with
• Make sure you know how to make SSR (Single Shuttle Split Ring)
• Know how to make a twisted picot; I didn't, and it shows. 

Someday I would like to try this pattern again, but for now I'm participating in a TIAS (Tat it and See) hosted by Lady Shuttle Maker. A TIAS is a mystery pattern, released one section at a time.  Here is my progress so far - any thoughts on what it might be? I'm leaning towards flower pot. The thread I'm using is Lizbeth Red Burst, size 20.

Scrappin' Saturday XIX

Welcome to Scrappin' Saturday - peek into the pages of my scrapbooks. 

Tatting Page: This is the first of several pages of tatting projects. Details are below the picture. 

Background: I used one of the sheets that came with the scrapbook.  
Photos: The photos were cropped to the desired size, then the edges were rounded.  
Die Cuts: The die cuts on this page were made using Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One and Labels Two.
   
Other Embellishments: I traced both a tatting shuttle and a tatting needle using a sharpie pen. I used the computer to journal a paragraph about tatting, and the photos on the page, printed it onto a decorative paper, and used the cuttlebug with Labels Two to get the desired shape. I also took several of my tatted 'scraps' and glued them onto the page.
Projects Pictured: Medallions The pattern for the square one is no longer available from the site I downloaded it from. If anyone knows where to find it, leave a comment so I can update this post. The other medallion is actually a failed attempt of the Pearl Accent Earrings from the Big Book of Tatting. I blogged about the bookmarks here and here. They are the same pattern, just with different ribbons. The pattern is Ribbon and Lace Bookmark from the Big Book of Tatting.

February Tatting Challenge

In February I participated in a tatting challenge with one of my Facebook tatting groups. The challenge was to make at least two pieces of jewelry. I made a pair of earrings, and a ring. The ring pattern is from YarnPlayer's blog, and is available here. Apparently my method for hiding ends is not very good, because both ends pulled out. This picture was taken before the ends pulled out.
The earrings are from the booklet Beaded Tatted Earrings Set 2. I purchased the booklet from Handy Hands. I did have a little trouble with the last motif or ring. (It's been a while so I can't remember exactly) Other than that, I don't recall any trouble with the pattern.

Tatted Heart

A dear friend of mine had her birthday in early January. I wanted to do make something special for her, so I pulled out my tatting shuttle and my favorite "I need a gift in a hurry" pattern.

I also found a nice pen and notepad in my gift stash. The heart pattern is from a free project sheet by Lizbeth Thread, and available at Handy Hands Tatting.  I didn't have time to starch the piece, so it's not quite as heart shaped as usual. The thread is Lizbeth, size 20, in Caribbean (122) and Purple Dk. (633). The inner rings and outer chains were done in Caribbean, and the outer rings were done in Purple. I've made this heart several times, but it never looks like the picture - at least not without some serious starching. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing that makes it not-so-heart-shaped?

Tatting; Motifs & Bookmark

Here are pictures of my most recent tatted pieces. The motifs were for the birthday tatting club, and the bookmark was for a friend.

These two are the Seed Bead Earrings from the Big Book of Tatting. I have made them several times, and prefer to use them as motifs, rather than earrings.

This heart pattern is from a free pattern sheet, published by Lizbeth Thread. I have also made this pattern many times. It is fairly quick and easy, although the first try gave me quite a lot of trouble.

I found this pattern on Be-Stitched.com. It is called "Tatted Flower Medallion." I made two of these. The pattern seemed to have been made for the thread, or vice versa. I used Lizbeth Springtime. The pattern was easy to make, although I did have to think through some of the instructions several times before fully comprehending what I was supposed to do.

This is the same pattern as this cross bookmark. (Last picture in post) The pattern is from Elizabeth's Lace. She uses "front side/back side" tatting, which I taught myself the first time I made the bookmark. This time, I was in a hurry, and I just tatted the way I normally do. Next time I try this pattern, I plan to leave myself enough time try a split ring 'tail' as seen in this post by UMI and TSURU.

Happy Tatting!

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.

Tatted Tidbits

A few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to find Lizbeth tatting thread at JoAnns. I used the color "Caribbean" to make this tatted snowflake from the Big Book of Tatting. It is the Dancing Snowflake on page 26. Lizbeth is the nicest thread I've ever tatted with, and I'm looking forward to using it again.

I finally starched this little bit of tatting. It's the Seed-Bead Earrings on page 24 of the Big Book of Tatting. I didn't actually make a pair of earrings - I just wanted to practice tatting with beads.

Little Projects

Last year I bought a Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar. One that intrigued me greatly was the Dish Scrubby from Monday, May 11. I made it in a couple hours, with Sugar 'n Cream, Potpourri. I gave it to my Mom, but haven't heard if she likes it or not. If she does I will make more for her, and for my hope chest.

Remember Paprika? Well, I made him again for the little boy I babysit who loves dragons. I tried pulling the chains tighter, as I recommended in my previous post. It didn't work so well. I had a very difficult time getting the starch to keep him in the right shape. So, tighten your chains, bit not too much. Here's the original Paprika. I didn't have time to photograph the latest one.

Various Projects

I've been writing this post in my head for several days, and figured it was about time to blog it.Warning: this is a picture-heavy post!



For starters, I'm planning on an Etsy update sometime this weekend. All my listings have expired, and I have some new items to list. These fan pulls will be among the new items.

My latest knitting project was this reuseable Swiffer cover. It's made with The Original Sugar & Cream yarn, the colorway was 'Potpourri'. The pattern is from Ravelry.







A couple of weeks ago in this post, I set a goal to finish the yellow rose and fabric in Lady of the Thread. I was able to finish the rose, and got the two bits of fabric connected, but not finished. In other cross stitch news, I finally took Ruth 1:16 to Hobby Lobby to be framed.

 

A while back I joined the Rochester, NY Crochet Group on Ravelry. I've been going to the bi-monthly meetings, and have progressed slightly on my Never Ending Granny Square Afghan. The afghan consists of 70 squares, and I'm doing one color at a time. There are 7 rounds to each square, and the white makes up the third and fourth rounds. After all the squares get sewn together, there are four border rows.
I  got the pattern from freepatterns.com and it appears to be copied from Crochet World Magazine Vol. 19, page 40.



I made two of these bookmarks for the Summer Missionaries that came to minister at our Church for the month of June. The pattern is one of my favorites for quick gifts. It's the Ribbon and Lace Bookmark from the Big Book of Tatting, page 14. My current tatting project(s) are the Facebook July TAL motif (the theme is Christmas in July), and finishing my second cross bookmark. The reason I have two is that I broke the thread on the first one and couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I started over. By the time I finished making the second one, I had figured out how to fix the first one.

I think that's everything I've been working on while I haven't been blogging. Hope you enjoyed the crafting gallery!
~Sarah

June TAL

I recently joined a tatting group on Facebook, and we're doing a project a month TAL. The project for the month of June was a bookmark. I chose Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark. Part of the reason I chose it was so that I could learn to make split rings. I also got a good deal of practice hiding thread ends, since my thread broke several times. Using a thread conditioner helped keep the thread from breaking so often. The thread is size 50 Omega. The pattern was easy to follow, and I will probably try it again.
~Sarah

Tatted Bookmark

I have this really bad habit of spending way too much time on Facebook. About two weeks ago, I found a tatting group. Of course I had to join it. The person who started the group wondered if anyone would be interested in doing a project a month. There must have been enough intrest, because the project for June is a bookmark. This is my progress so far:

 

I would be farther along, but when I started I didn't realize that it was done with CTM (Continuous Thread Method). The pattern is Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark. Incidentally, this will be the first bookmark that I've tatted for myself. Every other bookmark that I've tatted has been given away.

Inspired to Tat

I've been inspired to tat recently, by this lovely heart that TattingChic made, and those little spinning wheels that Lace-Lovin' Librarian seems to turn out every week. (How could anyone tat that fast?) I ordered the book with the heart from Handy Hands Tatting. Since they were having a spring cleaning sale, I ordered some thread, too. When the order came, I liked the thread colors so much that I promptly ordered some more, and a beaded tatted earrings booklet. I'm still trying to figure out how to tat without breaking the thread. (It's size 50) Any suggestions would be appreciated. The yellow thread in the picture on the left is from JoAnn's; I bought it for a special bookmark design, along with some extra tatting shuttles.

 I'm planning to make several Minor Norwegian Dragons with the thread. The link should take you to the PDF file. Last week I made this little dragon. I got to learn a few new techniques, like tatting with beads, Lock Joins, and Lock Stitches. Where the pattern says 'tension to curve', pull the chain tight so that it will curve as much as possible! I had to do a lot of starching on this little guy. Before I starched him he looked like a cow with wings. After I free up a couple of shuttles, I'm going to try him again in a gold thread.
~Sarah

Tatted Trees

These were some quick and easy gifts for people who have everything else. The thread is DMC Pearl Cotton, (art. 115) size 5, color 699. One skein made 4 trees, and there is enough left for 2 or 3 more. To keep the thread from tangling, I cut it in half and wound 2 shuttles with it.
The pattern is from the Big Book of Tatting. It has a couple of mistakes, like nearly every pattern in the book, but as you can see, I figured it out.
~Sarah

Altered Notebook

I've been intending to write a post for a while, but good intentions don't get you anywhere unless you act on them. I made the 'altered notebook' (as opposed to an altered book) below for a friend who's leaving the area. I covered the notebook with postcard scrapbook paper, and added some definition stickers, and some 'stamps'. The stamps are from a sheet of paper and are embossed a little. The top pictures are front and back and the bottom ones are inside front and back.

























I tatted this bookmark for another friend who has left the area. The pattern is from 'The Big Book of Tatting'. Unfortunately, it is out of print.
I'm currently focusing on two projects; a quilled picture for some friends who are getting married, and the Mary Jane Socks from the May issue of Creative Knitting. Pictures coming soon. :)
~Sarah

Tatted Medallion...Finally Finished!

*Due to lack of a picture, this post has been a draft for nearly a month a really long time.*

Don't faint or anything, but the medallion is finally done! I sat down in front of the TV on Wednesday, popped Pirates of Penzance into the DVD player, and started tatting. I had to stop to make dinner, but managed to finish it while watching Phantom of the Opera. On Thursday I took it to Crafter's Circle, and pinned it to the ball.




One of the ladies gave me a crocheted ball cover - she couldn't find a styrofoam ball to attach it to. Isn't it pretty?

Weekly Goals

I'm starting to think I should pick a day other than Sunday or Monday to do my weekly goals. But maybe I'm trying to be too organized. I've been reading a book titled 'A Perfect Mess', and the idea is that extreme organization can be less beneficial than a small amount of disorder. Or something like that.
Here are last weeks goals and the results:

1. Find yarn and finish shawl. I know I promised a picture, but it's so close to being done I might as well wait until it's finished. It's finished! Click here for a picture and details.
   
2. Finish the candlewicking. All that's left are the leaves, border, and French Knot branches. Halfway through the week I changed the goal to finishing the French Knot Tree. I am nearly done, and would have finished it on Sunday. However, on Sunday I came down with the second worst migraine of my life.
   
3. Work on tatting. Maybe if I don't use the word 'finish' I'll accomplish something. Guess what happened? Nothing.
   
4. Get started on squares for Warm Up America. I want to try and use up the ball & possibly start the skein. My gauge is normally almost perfect, so I didn't check the gauge before starting my square. Several rows in, I discovered my gauge was wrong, and had to frog the entire square. I'm currently in the midst of a gauge swatch.
   

And now, I have a confession to make. I started another knitting project. I couldn't help myself. The yarn is so pretty and soft and sunshine-y, don't you think? This is the Crime Scene Tape Scarf for my sister. I've been bribing myself - for every square I finish for Warm Up America, I can knit one letter.

This week I plan to:

• Finish the candlewicking.
• Finish my gauge swatch and finish (or at least start) a square for Warm Up America.
• Tatting- guess what I'm taking to craft night this week?
  
• Anything else that strikes my fancy.

Happy Crafting!
~Sarah