#18 & #19 of 25 Motif Challenge

In September and October Aileen blogged about one of her favorite bookmark patterns. It is Tabatha by Kersti Anear. Unfortunately this pattern isn't available on Kersti's new website so Aileen emailed me a copy of it. (Thank you, Aileen and Kersti.) I thought I'd give it a try as the 2nd bookmark for the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange.

I did fine on the first half but part way thru the second half I realized I had been making mistakes since I started that half. With it being size 80 thread there were only 2 things I could do, leave it (never, it would have drove me crazy to send it out that way) or cut it out and restart that whole side, which I did. Thankfully I was able to do it without any disasters.

Here is Kersti's Tabatha bookmark in DMC size 80 red thread. It is going to my second round robin partner, Cathy. Because of the redo I am not going to meet the deadline of mailing it today, as I want to make one of the flower paperclips to send also.

Sorry I couldn't get a the bookmark to lay straighter, I tried twice and although it is my error of placement on the scanner, it is really resisting doing it's job any more. So this is what I am stuck with.

Thankfully the #3 bookmark for this challenge was the first one I completed, so it's done and ready to meet the mailing deadline.

When I made the error on the bookmark I had to give myself a break from size 80 thread for awhile, so I worked on Mike's snowflake. (Thank you, Mike!)

It is far from perfect but is was a fun pattern to do. I've only stiffened one tatted piece in the past, however I am going to try to do this one. I've got something called Aleene's Fabric Stiffener. It was the only thing I could find in my small town. Is anyone willing to give me suggestions on what works for you? And is there a good way to apply this? I assume put it on a paper towel and spray away.....?

#17 of 25 Motif Challenge

For my 1st Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange partner, Lynn, I made Kersti's Jessica Bookmark in yellow, which was her requested color, size 80 DMC thread.

I'm happy that I finished it in time to meet tomorrow's mailing deadline. I am including one of the flower paperclips that I like so much. I am also including the printed patterns for both.

Now I have successfully completed 2 size 80 projects, Yu Hoo! I hope I don't become addicted to size 80, I have very little HDT in that size, most of it is in size 20 and 30.

Happy Life and Happy Tatting everyone,

Bonnie

#16 of My 25 Motif Challenge

With everything else going on in my life I decided to join the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange. I know I know, I thought the same thing "What was I thinking!" I actually was hoping it would force me to make time to tat.

I started right away trying to get a jump start on the exchange. I took it with me when I went to Long Island, NY for a conference. People were very interested in what I was doing not only at the conference but people on the planes and at the airports. It was fun to hear people make comments such as - was I really tatting - they hadn't seen anyone do it in a number of years -they didn't think anyone did it any more, things like that. I was wishing I'd have brought some of the Flower Paperclips I like to make, it would have been fun to give them away to people.

Anyway, I was determined to bring home a completed piece. I tatting every spare minute I had the entire weekend and I did complete the piece, I was very excited. However to my surprise when I got home there was an email saying that since it's a bookmark it should be done in size 80 thread and be at least 6" in length. My Oh My, size 80?!?!? I hadn't successfully completed any of the size 80 projects I'd ever started...........but a deal is a deal. So I picked up my thread, wound my shuttles and off I went. The results are here and since both are the same pattern just one is bigger (to met the 6" length requirement for the size 80 thread) I am considering them both as #16 of my 25 Motif Challenge.



On July 20, 2008 Gina, Tatting Goddess, posted this Spiral Bookmark pattern. The purple is the original piece I did when I was at the conference. It is done in Lola and Lavender size 30 HDT-s, from Marilee, Yarnplayer.

I truly thought I was going to have a panic attack using size 80 thread but it turned out much better than I had hoped. I got the blue thread from the lady who taught me to tat, it is DMC thread.

The purple piece will go to my friend Shirley. She went to the conference with me and mentioned many times how she really likes purple and currently folds the corners of her books. (much to this book lover's horror!) The blue one will go to one of my exchange partners who favored blue. My first exchange partner, Lynn, favors yellow, so I have been working on a different pattern for a few days and should have it completed this weekend in order to meet the deadline of Tuesday, Nov 25th. I'll post it when I have it completed.

Happy Life and Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#5 of 25 Motif Challenge and Tatting Round Robin

These are my flowers for Stephanie for the Tatting Round Robin. I really had a hard time finding flowers where I could make the stems green as she has requested.

I tried many different patterns, but I haven't learned to use 3 shuttles of thread yet so when the flowers had chains I had to do the shoelace trick to keep the green out of the flower. It just didn't look right. So I adapted a pattern from Kersti (I can not get this site to come up right now so I can't show you the exact pattern), I ended up making 2 seperate pieces and tied them together in the back. They were kind of obsessive though and I have started a few more which I will use to dress up the front of plain note cards.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

PS I waited a couple of hours before I posted this to see if I could get the pattern site to come up but I am still unable to access it. Once I get it I will update this specific post.

#4 for 25 Motif Challenge and Tatting Round Robin

Happy March Everyone,

I'm just now getting over the sickness I had. According to the dr it was a form of the flu although it seemed like a cold. For the last 3 weeks I've been exhausted by the time I got home from my daily commitments so I haven't done much tatting.

Before I got sick I had started Jane's Flowery SCMR Bookmark in order to learn the SR and the SCMR. I made it in size 20 Flora thread. It was for the my first part of our Tatting Round Robin, which had to be in the mail by Feb 25th. (I sent to Connie.) I was hoping to get the 8 sections done like in Jane's pattern, but I could tell I was running out of time, so I stopped at 6 sections and added the green leaf part. I will definately make this one again.

Because I was unsure of the SR, I didn't participate in Jane's Tat it and See, but when I had it down I started her Hippopotamus. Because I have the whole pattern I haven't been doing it in day sections as most of you did, but I am currently on the Day 8 part, the neck sections. Hopefully I will have that done for next week's blog post.

I should explain the Tatting Round Robin. We each made our first piece and sent it along with what type of motif we were looking to get back from the others in our group. In the end we will receive our original piece back and an item from each of the other individuals in our group. Friday I received Stephanie's Tatting Round Robin. She made these beautiful purple flowers with green leaves and long green stems. I wish I could figure out how she made it, it's so pretty I'd like to give it a try.

She asked for flowers to put on a hat or bandana. So I am searching threw a friend's old Workbasket magazines looking for flowers. Can anyone help me find a beginner's flower pattern?

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie