Elizabeth's Doily

This is Elizabeth's doily with the 3rd round tatted by J.B. and the 4th round just finished by me. I am having so much fun with this friendship doily! I think Elizabeth's color choices for the first two rounds are very pretty and interesting. I had a challenge trying to find colors to compliment them. I think J.B. did a great job on her round. Her work is so smooth and even. They both gave me permission to post pictures as the doilies progress. I hope you will all enjoy seeing them as much as I'm enjoying tatting them!

Madeline's Antique Tatting

This is from my friend who had the mystery lace recently that we decided was probably machine made. This towel was in her mother's hope chest and has to be 75+ years old. We just thought many of you would like to see how long and well good tatting can hold up! There are other pictures of her antique crochet on three of the Yahoo tatting groups. (Celtic Tatting, Here-Be-Tatters and Tatting Goddess.) I hope you will look at them and reply to the post.

Isaac's 1st birthday!

It doesn't seem possible, but my grandbaby was one year old yesterday and grows more dear each moment. He gives great big hugs and squeezes so tight. My heart is bursting with joy!

Tatted Motif #16 of 25

Ruth challenged us to take this arrangement and tat around it for a larger heart. I got this far, tried to finish and got so frustrated I stopped. I will get back to it when I calm down! I have so many ideas of how I would like for it to look, but I worked for hours yesterday tatting and cutting out. I went about half way around replicating the clovers around the edge and didn't like the way it looked. Then, I started with pink and then white trying to fill in the open places and tat around it. Just couldn't get it right. The two sides are the problems. The top is okay without a filler as it is the inverted point. All suggestions welcomed. Signed: Forever Design Challenged!

Tatted Motif #15 of 25

These are my attempts at Ruth's Spiral Heart from February 9th on the tatting pattern a day calendar. Sorry Ruth! I just could not get them tight enough to get rid of the "eyes" in the center. But, I still like them. One is in #10 crochet cotton and the other in DMC Cebelia.

Tatted Motif #14 of 25

Carol's Twelve of Hearts from the Tatting Pattern Calendar is so much fun. I can't wait to start adding more motifs to it. We'll see what it becomes! It tatted up quickly in #20 DMC Cebelia and I've already started the next one. I thought about using some pinks and white, but think it will be more dramatic in solid red. The pattern can be found here at the tatting calendar link on this blog. Thank you Carol for sharing this pattern with us and many thanks to Ruth for all of her hard work on the calendar every day!

My first knitted mittens

This is what has kept me from my tatting! I just had to see if I could make mittens. Tatting is much more fun, but I think these are pretty and, as my husband pointed out, at least useful. Some people just have to find a utilitarian purpose for everything! The cuffs are a 4 ply worsted weight yarn combined with eye lash yarn. Then, I switched to a different purple for the hand. I do love to knit so I will have to take tatting breaks occasionally to whip something up.

Tatted Motif #13 of 25

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I'm still design challenged, but this came from my own little head! It's not like I had imagined it when I started, but I like it for now. It needs one more large ring. Also, the heart button should be moved over. However, at the start I had intended for it to be between rings and made an extra long picot over which to add it. Alas, being challenged, as I am, it turned the wrong way! That's what I get for making it up as I go along. I had to cover up the picot so here it is. I will be the first to admit that there is a huge difference between tatting and designing tatting!

Tatted Motif #12 of 25

This is the Pamela Myers version of Jane Eborall's flamingo. Isn't he the cutest? I tatted him in size 10 crochet cotton because I didn't have any size 20. Besides, I really like him this size. He is 8" long and 3 1/4" wide. I think he will look good beside the snake with a big "F" for Flamingo. I'll work on a nice, warm water scene for him to live in. Thanks Jane and Pamela. Thanks also to Jane for standing by yesterday when I was having problems with the beak! The pattern is on Jane's pattern pages found here http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nickeb/flamingo.htm

Tatted Motif #11 of 25

I just love this pineapple heart designed by Sherry Matthews! I believe this is the best tatted heart I have done to date. My grandmother was crazy about pineapple crochet. Maybe that's why I love this one so much! The thread is my old standby - DMC Cebelia. Surely one day I will run out of this red thread and be lost. I found the pattern at http://groups.msn.com/needletattingtwo/pineapplesplitringheart.msnw

J.B's doily with the 3rd round tatted by me

I finished tatting my round last night but had computer problems and couldn't post the picture until now. I hope she will like the colors I picked and that the doily won't pucker. I tried so hard to make my tatting match hers. I think the addition of the fourth round will straighten everything out. This is my first friendship doily and I'm finding it interesting to see what each round brings and challenging to keep everything uniform. It will be off in the post tomorrow to Elizabeth for her to work her magic. As stated in a previous post, this is from the DMC book of charted designs and worked in various kinds of size 20 threads. The yellow is DMC Cebelia and the blue is Flora.

Tatted Snake Finished!

Isaac's tatted snake finally done - I hope. I'm happier now.

"S" is for Snake being redone

Being thankful for some great suggestions, I am in the process of redoing Isaac's tatted snake picture. I am taking the little snake off of the letter "S" as it seems to take away from it. I have put a braided snake around the tree and I'm going to add in some light blue sky and a few puffy clouds, (I think.)
More pictures when it is finished.

I am almost through tatting the third round on J.B.'s friendship doily. Hope to finish today and will post pictures when done!

"S" is for Snake!

This is the concept I am working on for Isaac's snake picture. Since we are going with an alphabet theme, I cut out an "s" from construction paper and made a braided snake to wrap around it from the same thread as the tatted snake. I'm not satisfied with the picture as a whole, but I do like the letter part. I didn't have any light blue paper for sky or a good color for ground cover. I might redo the whole thing and just have the snake in tall grasses with the "S" at the top. Suggestions appreciated! Here's a close-up of the braided snake. I think he is so cute!
Now, as soon as I finish my current project, I have to start tatting more animals. Who knew little critters in tatting could be so cute? Except Jane, of course!

Catching up!

I'm almost done with the current round on the friendship doily. Pictures, of course, as soon as I make the last stitch. I had to take a little break from it yesterday to refresh mom-in-law's knitting skills. While she was practicing, I tried my hand at knitting a sock. The jury is still out! It's my first time working with double pointed needles and a bit of a challenge. I think I will stick to tatting!