#5 of The 2012 UIU Project

My next installment of my self proclaimed UIU Project is a pattern that I found at Be-Stitched.com it is called Tatted Rose Heart.

It was made using the thread I had on my shuttles from my last post "Not a UIU Project", size 30 Peaches 'n Onions from Yarnplayer. Since I'd already confessed to purchasing this new thread and I used it once already, I figured I can now count that thread towards The 2012 Use It Up Project.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that at the bottom you can see a Josephine Ring, it was made using Jane's alternative way.

Tat On,

Bonnie

#4 of The 2012 UIU Project

This is Irene Woo's Butterfly Heart, the pattern can be found here using the wayback machine. It was made using Yarnplayer's Garden Afternoon, size 30 HDT.

I messed up the bottom and gave it an extra picot on the left, so I had to try it again. The blocking on this one isn't as good, but still it turned out nice.

One of them I sent to my sister, Nancy in Montana, the other I added to the front of a card to make a thank you note for my friend, Mary.

Lovely Pattern, Thank you, Irene.

#3 of the 2012 UIU Project

Here is my #3 of the UIU (use it up) 2012 project.

Sorry for the bad picture, as usual I forgot to scan it before I left home, so had to take a picture with my cellphone.

The close up picture is better. I found the pattern on Jane's blog a few years ago, but recently was reminded of it by Michelle at Tela Magistrae. The original pattern is from Anna Burda magazine, May 1984, page L14, but Jane in South Africa converted it to use split rings. The pattern can be found at Jane in South Africa's bookmark.

In the spirit of my UTU project it was made using size 30 (which is my favorite thread size) HDT, Roses, dyed by yarnplayer.

I forgot to mention the tail, I took a close up picture of it, but it was to blurry to share. Wendy at UMI & TSURU sometimes makes her bookmark tails like that so I had to get some charms to try it also. I love the creative freedom it gives. (yes, I had to purchase the charms because I didn't have any but the thread I had, so this still counts for UIU, right?)

I'm still on track for my UIU project since it's been just about 2 weeks since my last post. So far so good :-)

See you in 2 weeks if not before.

Bonnie

Crosses

My Friend, Flo's Mother recently passed away, so right away I got out my cross patterns and went to work on a couple of them.

Both were made using Yarnplayer's size 50 Nicobar Pigeon HDT.

The first one is from Wendy's Crafty Hands. It is her Split Ring Cross. I don't mind making split rings, so it was quite enjoyable.



The second one is Elizabeth's Lace's Tatted Cross Pattern.

Sorry for the bad quality pictures. They were taken with my camera phone.

Happy Tatting, Happy Life.

Bonnie

Happy New Year

Happy 2010! Has it really been 10 years since the Y2K scare?

Dare I say YES ....... Where have the last 1o years gone?!

As you are aware my Great Uncle Francis, the person who inspired me to tat, passed away this year. So when I sent Great Aunt Myrtle's Christmas card

I wanted to send her something extra special........

Marilee, Yarnplayer, shared her "Remembrance" pattern with us. The pun of the whole string around your finger made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. I HAD to make it for Aunt Myrtle. It is made using Sherry, LadyShuttleMaker's size 20 HDT ..... I'm pretty sure it's Peach Pandorea.

I also sent her this motif, called Daisy Heart.

It is made using YarnPlayer's size 30 HDT Roses and Leafy.

I'd seen this motif when I first started tatting, but had a hard time finding the pattern. According to what I'd written down it was in a Workbasket dated February 1988. I must have every Workbasket they made except for February 1988. However about a month ago I was looking thru my other pattern books and found the pattern!

VicTats asked about our favorite Christmas tatting patterns, although this isn't a Christmas item, it has become my favorite to tat over the last few weeks.

I fell on Monday and cut the palm and finger tip of my hand pretty good, I'm praying it will heal enough before we leave for the cruise next week so I can tat on the plane ..... and well I'm enjoying a life of leisure :-)

My goal for the year is to remember to take pictures of my tatting to show you before I give it away.

My New Year's wish to you is for a

Happy and Safe 2010!

Bonnie

Rosette Motif & Doily

When we were in Texas earlier this year I blogged about Jon's Rosette Motif & Doily. I showed it to my friend, Mark (different Mark then my husband) who was able to turn it into this awesome paperweight. I asked him to be sure it was made right side up when he made it, which he did.

The paperweight was made in layers so that the motif is suspended in the layers of hard plastic. He did an excellent job, Thank- you Mark.

This is a Christmas gift it to my friend, Rose. She will recognize the thread as Yarnplayer's HDT "Roses" because I have gifted something to her in the past using this awesome HDT.

I forgot to mention that I stuck a piece of white felt on the bottom of it so it's not abrasive to a desktop or any other surface.

Super neat, I think she's going to like it.

Happy Sunday, Everyone.

Bonnie

Austin, TX

Greetings from Austin, Texas. My husband and I are here visiting family. My husband's family actually but since I've been a part of this family for 25+ years they are my family too :-) We arrived yesterday evening, Sunday, and will return home on Friday.

My family is currently on a tubing river adventure. I asked to stay behind so I could try to nap away the headache I acquired yesterday. It did not help and my eyes are "fuzzy" too, so I think I'm dehydrated. Now I'm trying to drink a bunch of water to see if that takes care of the problem.

Regardless this is the perfect opportunity for me to do a blog post.

In September 2008, Jon gifted us with one of her patterns, Rosette Motif and Doily. I fell in love with the pattern and searched for just the right thread to complete the project in. I used Yarnplayer's Roses and Leafy size 30 HDTs. The first one I made is on the left. It is the way the pattern was intended, with 6 flower petals. The one on the right was made while we were outside enjoying an evening with some of my husband's local family members. I was chatting and tatting and found that in the end I only put 5 pedals on it.

See how small they are in comparison to the quarter. Well that got me to thinking that I'll have to make "a million" of them to make a decent size table runner, so I'd need more Roses HDT. Because I know that HDT is different from batch to batch, I decided I would start over using Lizabeth threads.

Currently I have 4 roses made, 1 of them is completed with leaves, and the rest are waiting for leaves so they can be connected to one another. I am unable to show you any progress right now for a number of reasons which you won't care about, but since they are funny I will share them anyway.

First off our new cruise camera found itself in a fishing boat's live well, ruined - not so funny at the time. Then a few weeks later my husband's fishing camera got wet, it was old and again was a freak accident, so deal with it. A couple of days later our printer/scanner combo died. None of these things are funny, but together they have to be considered as such because the only other option isn't worth it :-) (see it really is *kinda* funny)

So began a mad scamble to get a new camera before our Texas trip. We couldn't figure out what to get so ended up getting the same camera we had for our cruise. Right now the new camera is with my husband ... tubing ..... on the water ............. :-)

Happy Labor Day!!!

Bonnie

Another Spinning Wheel Glass Mat

When I posted my original Spinning Wheel Glass Mat here, Marge asked about the error. Now that I have made another error free one to show you, I feel comfortable showing the error. Note how in 1 of the set of squares there is only 2 picots, there should be 3 like in the rest of the motif.



So Sad. However here is a corrected one.

See all picots present and accounted for :-) It is done in Marilee's HDT - Vibrato, size 30. I started work on this right after the first Spinning Wheel Glass Mat fiasco and completed it a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the pattern alot more the second time around, but can't say that I'm eager to make as many as my Friend - Diane, Lace Lovin' Librarian.


Happy Tatting, World,


Bonnie

Happy Easter!

Easter Greetings, Everyone,

I would like to share the Easter "card" I made for our Daughter.


The pattern is Mark Myers, aka Tatman's Bunny. The pattern is located in the online class projects hosted by Georgia Seitz. My Bunny is tatted using Sherry, aka LadyShuttleMaker's, size 20 Coffee & Cream HDT. The rose is done using Marilee, aka Yarnplayer's, size 30 Roses HDT. (Note: click on their proper names to visit their blogs, and their akas for their Etsy shops.) Sherry's shop is closed while she attends Shuttlebirds and her family completes their exciting move.

I am *happy* for everyone who gets to attend Shuttlebirds. I hope that there is alot of blogging done about it. If I remember correctly it starts this week. Maybe I can go someday .......... LOL! Who am I kidding, I could have driven to Hector this year but was to nervous to go without someone I know going along, I'd never be able to attend Shuttlebirds alone.

On a side note I would like to thank everyone who comes back to visit my blog and doesn't give up on me because I don't blog very often. I actually tat (and sew) many things I give away, but I forget to take pictures of them first. I'd like to say I will blog more often, and I'm sure I've said that in the past, but now I realize that is just setting myself up to fail. So Thank You, yes YOU, for continuing to visit when I do post. I enjoy all of the comments that you give me, so please don't leave now without commenting.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#21 of 25 Motif Challenge

Happy 2009 Everyone!

We are back from our cruise. We returned home a week ago today, Sunday 1-11.

(the next 2 paragraphs are blah blah feel free to skip over them)

During the cruise I started to have side effects from the motion sickness patch my doctor recommended. I tried to go one day without it but that didn't work either. The most annoying side effect was blurry vision. I ended up having to wear my glasses (only needed for computer work, reading and crafting) all of the time. Unfortunately I lost one of the screws and the lens fell out, the ship's service desk, nor any of the following ports, had a repair kit. It wasn't until the return trip and our layover in Charlotte NC that I found a kit and was able to fix them. It took a long time for the side effects of the medication to wear away and the stability of being back on solid ground to take over. I actually had to take some anti nausea medication before I started to feel better, that was on Wednesday. Thursday AM I was hit with the flu. Late Friday I started to feel better and today I feel much better. Thankfully I had taken an extra week of vacation from work to enjoy just being home, sadly it was wasted being sick.

I won't go into all of the details of the trip but for the most part we had a wonderful time being together. We went with 2 couple friends, both which were celebrating their 10th Anni, while we were celebrating our 25th (which was actually yesterday 1-17.) The last thing I'll bore you with about the cruise is we are glad we splurged and had a balcony suite. Every morning I woke up and went out to watch the sun come up........ beautiful!

As the frequent readers of my blog know I don't usually talk about myself in anyway unrelated to tatting, so the reason for the above is to explain why I still haven't completed my commitment to the Winter 2008 Tatting Round Robin Bookmark Exchange, which was due while I was away. Before I left I emailed Connie and explained that with Christmas and then the trip I wasn't able to get her bookmark completed. I worked on it on the plane on the way to San Juan, but without my glasses I wasn't able to work with the size 80 thread again after that. My goal is to have it finished for mailing early this week.

I'd hoped to type a post before we left, and although I completed this piece hours before we were picked up I wasn't able to get it posted. So here it is......... Ruth Perry's 2008 Celtic Snowflake, and my #21 of the 25 Motif Challenge. It was made using Yarnplayer, Marilee's Lola HDT, size 30. For some reason the tips on mine on rounded where her's are nice points.


In my Tuesday, December 9, 2008 post I asked about stiffening tatting. This morning I used Mike's advise and stiffened my Celtic Snowflake with Magic Sizing. Thanks, Mike it worked nicely. (I still want to {successfully} remake your snowflake, I feel like I mangled your beautiful pattern.)

I'm sure if I reread this post I'd delete most if not all of it, so here it is for the world to see.

Happy Life and Happy Tatting All!

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

#14 and #15 of 25 Motif Challenge

Okay here we go it's 6:25 AM the day I leave for Washington, DC my bags are packed (although still open if I decide to throw something in last minute) and basically I am ready to go. So before my ride comes to get me I'll spend a few minutes blogging about the items I am sending to GUF as a thank you for the lovely handmade shuttles he sent me.

I am sending the 2 Aladdin snowflakes I talked about here, and 2 more again using patterns from Jon's Snowflake Collection.

First for your viewing pleasure allow me to present Sweet Rose. It was made using Marilee, AKA Yarnplayer's, size 50 Snowflake HDT.

Next is Spring Blossom, also made using Marilee's HDT. The thread is size 30 and is made using 2 different threads, both from the same dye batch. The middle section and the outside section are Peace and the one in between is Peach.

Although I enjoy working with all of my HDT-s Peace was one of my favorite color combinations.

Another thing while I'm on a roll. Before I found the world of HDT-s I had purchased a few large spools of tatting thread size 30. Awhile ago my husband and I were making the same road trip every weekend for I think it was 5 weeks. So I started a fairly easy, but big for me, project using some of the original thread. Nightmare. About 3/4 of the way thru I found out that there was no opening those rings! I finally cut away the error and tried to connect new thread to it, but it was very frustrating. So it's gone into the UFO pile and I'm going to try to make using a HDT.

I have about a half hour until my ride arrives to take me to the airport and I just realized that I forgot to water plants yesterday so I guess my time is up.

Oh and before I forget it looks like you are all enjoying Sherry's TIAS. I don't have time to do it right now, but have had fun watching you work on it (and make guesses, because I'm sure I know what it is .... :-)

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Another Motif Revisited

I revisited #12 of my 25 Motif Challenge, so this doesn't count, but I'll show it to you anyway.

My Dear Friend, Nicole, is having a surgery done on Friday, which will put her out of commission for a few weeks. I loaded her up with books by one of my favorite authors, Judy Picoult. I haven't read all of her books yet, but the ones I have I've really enjoyed, especially My Sister's Keeper, which was the first one I read, and I would recommend to everyone. Anyway, I wanted to make Nicole a bookmark, but didn't have much time. Between work, the gym and all of my other commitments my time was limited, so I decided to revisit Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark pattern.



I did put a tassel on this one. It is made using Marilee aka Yarnplayer's size 30 Lavender, from her "Lola" batch.

I so wanted to get this completed tonight but in doing so I am now almost 2 hours past my bedtime, I'll pay for this at work tomorrow and struggle to make myself go to the gym tomorrow evening (a promise to myself). Why oh why does work (and the stupid gym) have to interfere with the fun parts of my life LOL.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Aladdian Revisited

A couple of weeks ago I some how bruised the back of my right hand between my thumb and my wrist. Although the bruise is gone the spot still remains very tender. I am constantly bumping it against something. That being said, as I am right handed it has been very painful to hold a shuttle and tat. A couple of days ago I decided to give it a try again. It's taken a few different tatting sessions to complete but here is my second attempt at Aladdian from Jon's Snowflake Collection.

I originally posted it here in Sherry's, aka LadyShuttleMaker's size 20 "Spring Poppy" HDT. It seemed to colorful to be a snowflake so I made it again using Marilee's, aka Yarnplayer, size 50 "Snowflake" HDT. In addition to the difference in size, the real difference is how it goes from "motif" like to being a "snowflake".

Off to get ready for work.

Happy Friday all!

Bonnie

#13s of 25 Motif Challenge

So far I have made 3 snowflakes from Jon's Snowflake Collection.

They are in the order I made them and are as follows:

Sunburst, made from Marilee's, aka Yarnplayer, size 50 "Snowflake" HDT

The Twirly, made from Marilee's, aka Yarnplayer, size 30 "Peace" HDT

Aladdian, made from Sherry's, aka LadyShuttleMaker, size 20 "Spring Poppy" HDT

I would recommend Jon's book to anyone who is interested. They were alot of fun to make. Because my tatting time is so limited, they took me the better part of 2 weeks to make. But seriously each one takes no time at all to make. I am considering these as one Motif as they are all snowflakes.

**TEASER*** This week I will try to make the time to do a blog post showing you something very special that I recieved in the mail last week.

That's all for today.

Happy Tatting!

Bonnie

#12 of 25 Motif Challenge

For my mother's birthday......

It is Julie Patterson's Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark pattern.

I used Marilee, Yarnplayer 's, size 30 "Roses" HTD (hand dyed thread).

I'm undecided about putting a tassel on it. I think it would look nice, but there isn't a good place to join one to.

HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY, Mommasetta! From my heart to yours, I love you!!

#11 of 25 Motif Challenge

First off I believe I owe YOU a huge

"I'm "

I haven't blogged in over a month. I haven't done anything exciting, tatting wise, although I had some fun making fabric postcard. I have been very busy but sadly not with new tatting. I did finished some tatting UFOs, and have recreated some previous works, but nothing worth blogging about.

Here is the only exciting tatting I've done in weeks.

It is the Heart Frame from Tatting Hearts by Teri Dusenbury. I did find one error in the pattern and had to start the piece over, I didn't have enough of the original thread to cut out and redo, so I had to start the piece from the beginning, using a different thread. It is a repetitive pattern, so by the time I restarted it I had the pattern pretty much down pat. I made it using a dark red HDT, size 30, hand dyed by Yarnplayer (Marilee), "A solid from the "Roses" colorway."

Our daughter asked me to make her the Heart Catcher from the same book. I'm not sure how to do the "stacked butterfly" so I'm working on that first, wish me luck. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Speaking of wish me luck........... Lace Lovin' Librarian - Diane and I are doing the T.A.T. Program, apprentice level, together. We both decided there is no pressure to hurry thru it, but doing it with a friend we should be able to keep each other motivated thru out the process. We have finished the first piece and are working on descriptions to go with it. We have a goal of working on the second project by the end of August, maybe even have it finished. See what I mean, no hurry :-), there are to many other fun things we want to do also.

Hopefully it doesn't take a month for you to see my work again :-)

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#10 of 25 Motif Challenge

JAB is finally Done!

"Triangle Motif Doily"

After weeks of working on this (just because there hasn't been any time) I finally have it finished. It is from a Workbasket magazine that my neighbor shared with me, from the June '74 issue to be exact. She had quite a few that she let me look thru; I did get some really cool patterns. To bad there isn't a magazine like that any more. (There is no author listed to give credit to.)

This is done using Marilee, Yarnplayer's size 30 HTD, called "Blue Green Pastel". Because I had so many issues with it, I used a whole skein of thread. There is no way it should have taken that much thread! It is 4 1/2" across.

It truly was a painful process to create, but only because my mind has been on so many personal issues that I kept making mistakes. It really was such a super easy fun pattern to do. In fact yesterday my husband and I had to go on a road trip, so I took size 80 thread along and started it again. Wait until you guys see it in size 80, it is going to be georgous!!!

Off to get ready for work.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#9 of 25 Motif Challenge

So much to blog about today.

Thank You to everyone who commented in my previous blog where I asked is the join the first half of the ds, how to hid new threads added during a project and hiding the tails. I want to make sure I am doing everything exactly right and sometimes I second guess myself. So again Thank You to everyone.

Yesterday my sister, Anita, showed me Google Reader. I have been checking people's blogs 2 or 3 times a day (I'm not a stalker I promise, :-), I'm just afraid of missing something!) What Google Reader does is it lets me know when a new post has been added to everyone's blogs. It is going to save me hours at the computer, :-) . Seriously if you aren't familiar with this or a program like it I highly recommend it.

Also yesterday I spent a large portion of the day making jam. It was a rainy day here in Western NY, so standing over the stove wasn't so bad. I got alot accomplished though, I made a batch each of Strawberry and Raspberry Rhubarb jams. Today I will finish up the jam for this year and make a batch of Cherry Rhubarb. We could NEVER eat that much jam, so I really make it all with the intentions of giving most of it away. Although it never fails that before next Rhubarb season I will have given so much away that we go quite a while with out any until I can make more.

Anyway, I didn't get a chance to start Jane's TIAS3 yesterday. But I will do it today.

Lastly here is #9 of my 25 Motif Challenge.


This pattern is called "Heart's Desire" by Susan K. Fuller. The pattern can be found here. I made this for my friend Rose's birthday and tacked it onto the front of a blank card to use as her birthday card. I thought it only fitting to use Yarnplayer's size 30 "Roses" HDT. I first saw this motif on TattingChic's blog.

I would like to continue to invite everyone to comment on my previous blog "Tatting Question". I am very interested to hear how YOU tat.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

#7 of 25 Motif Challenge

To the right is the finished bookmark I showed a teaser of when I blogged on April 2nd about my new shuttle I received from Sherry. I must tell you it is a dream to work with!

The pattern is from Kersit, and is called Floral. I used Marilee's size 30 Deep Ocean HDT. I had a hard time getting this piece to photograph well and I'm still not happy with it, but hopefully you get the idea. And I had to include the shuttle for anyone who may have missed it the first time around.

And now .............................

introducing my second Sherry shuttle purchase. This time it is a pic shuttle.

I used it to make this bookmark. The pattern is called Heart of the Butterfly by Irene Woo. (again I must repeat what I originally wrote, "Although I made it from a picture and didn't have her pattern, so I'm sure the the stitches probably aren't the exact same as Irene's") This was made using Marilee's size 30 Peace HDT . I have done this motif many times in the past and really enjoy it. I made one for my sister Anita for her birthday, and wanted to make one for our other sister, Nancy, for her bday as well. Actually both of these pieces will go to her. Nancy's bday is April 19th, and since I live in NY and she lives in Boise ID, I better get these in the mail on Monday.

These 2 shuttles are great works of art. I enjoy using them. I do feel that as with all great works of art they should have names, though. I hesitate to put more pressure on you right now, Sherry, but would you do the honors of naming my shuttles at some point in the future? Days, weeks, months from now I don't care when. I just feel that works of art should be named by their creator. Thank you.

I am not considering this second piece as another motif for the 25 Motif Challenge, as I have made it a number of times before.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie