#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

#2 of the 2012 UIU project

The pattern for #2 of my 2012 UIU project is coincidental Jon Yusoff's Two-by-Two Bookmark.



It is made using size 20 Lizbeth thread from Handy Hands, Spring Garden and Leaf Green Med.

Recently my sister, Nancy was here visiting from Montana. A little less than 2 years ago I was able to visit her and my brother in law at their home. At some point in her past, someone had helped her learn the flip of tatting, so when I was there we spend some time refreshing her tatting skills.

When she was here this time she asked again for some tatting time to refresh her skills. Because our tatting time was limited I wanted to have some samples ready for her to see, so I sent a few evenings doing Jon's pattern in pieces. First I did a small middle section, then I did another and added the beginning of the outside section to it (which is what you see here). I think it helped her to see what it was going to suppose look like.

When she left me she was not quite half way thru the outer section. But I believe she completed the piece when she returned home.

I would recommend this pattern for someone learning to tat. The only thing I would have done differently was to start her off with a different color in each of the shuttles used to make the middle section. That would have helped her to see where the thread from each shuttle ended up when the work was reversed.

Tat On!

Bonnie

#1 of the UIU Project

This is the first post of the 2012 UIU project. (UIU - use it up)

Okay so there isn't anything like waiting to the last minute on my FIRST UIU project.

It is a pattern from Kersti and is her Floral bookmark which can be found here. The thread Lizbeth from Handy Hands. The first and third ones are done using Tropical Punch size 40 and the middle one is Sea Island Citrus again in size 40.

I've done this pattern before, but I wasn't pleased with the result. I am a member of In Tatters and someone there was talking about how the pattern is actually written from the bottom up. I thought that may help me, which for the most part it did, except the first section, I just couldn't figure it out, so I kind of gerry rigged it at the bottom here, which you can see.

It did work out okay because it reinforced the beginning where I added the tails to the bookmarks. Anyone who's able to figure out the beginning please let me know what I've done wrong.

Until the next time.

Bonnie

The 2012 UIU Project

Recently I was visiting Jenny over at Crash Test Dummies. Specifically her Crafty New Year's Resolution for 2012... etc post. When I started to comment on it, it turned into a paragraph and I felt I needed to copy it here and expound on it alittle.

This is what I wrote in her comment section. Start:

Those are great crafting goals.

I'm alot like you in the way that I save my precious stuff for just the right project. My thought is what if I use it now and the "just the right project" comes along later? But recently I've started to think what if I'm not around for that "just the right project" (or what if this is just the right time and project and I let it slip away) and my family has to deal with all of my precious stuff. I doubt they would think in it's current state it is precious, but if they had things I'd made with it, they may think "my wife made this" or "my mother made this" or they'd give my creations away to people who thought "my friend made this".

For me the year 2012 is going to be known as the year of use it up.

:End

Lately I've been thinking of the burden my "precious stuff" would put on my family if something happened to me.

I think ....... what if I'm not around some day and my family has to deal with all of my precious stuff, it will be a burden on them for sure. I can hear my daughter say "Mom, thought all of this stuff was so great, but it's nothing if she's not here to create with it." In fact it wouldn't surprise me at all if my husband's thought was "now I have to make a couple of trips to the dump" (gasp!). But if I've created something with it that they can hold in their hands or pass on to others who cared about me, or maybe even pass onto my future grandchildren, then maybe just maybe all of my precious stuff will still be precious when I'm gone.

So my goal is to break out the special shuttles (those who once they enter my display case never get touched again) and all of my wonderful HDTs (most still setting in their original sad skein form) and start using them up.

My 2012 tatting goal is to show you something I've tatted at least every 2 weeks, using up the HDT threads I have while using the special shuttles I have accumlated. In 2011 I blogged 19 times, some of which didn't show any tatting at all, so every 2 weeks is 26 posts for 2012. That seems like a reasonable goal, right? Yeah that's what I thought too. I was going to add pressure to myself of a different HDT and different pattern each time, but that seems like setting myself up to fail, so if I do yeah, if not it's still okay.

2012 - the year of use it up - The 2012 UIU Project

Wish me luck, and to you and your family I wish a Happy, Healthy, Safe 2012.

Happy Tatting and God Bless!,

Bonnie

See you in no more than 2 weeks - by 1/16/2012 (in fact to stay on track I think I need to post today... I better get started)

Playing With Picots & Bouton

Season's Greetings!

I haven't been tatting as much as I'd like to, but that's what happens when life gets busy, which is a good thing in it's own right.

I made a bookmark for my Christmas exchange person at work and as usual I forgot to take a picture, so had to take it out of the gift bag to take a picture with my cellphone. Needless to say it's not the best picture.

It is the Slalom Bookmark and is from Martha Ess' book Playing with Picots. I made some picot gages out of plastic, which worked great at keeping the picots uniform size, but really are a pain to keep track off in their current state. And since I'm sure to do more projects from this book I've got to come up with a better way to cart them around than just in a paper envelope.

Also I wanted to share with you about a cute little bear give away. His name is Bouton.

I have visited Ginger's bearbits blog before. She's a very talented artist. Even the picture at the top of her blog, the one with the 3 bears looking out the windshield, gives me a smile.

Have a good day!

Bonnie