Tatting Callenge 14 & 15/rug

I have not done tatting in a while so I thought I would post it today. This is also one of those things I do while my husband drives the first and last parts of our daily commute. The pattern is 3 picot term 5 joins at first and last picot.I am doing these for the 25 motif tatting challenge this really has been a challenge for me to work this into my life so I have done simple patterns I wanted to do more complex but life is to complex at times and I just needed easy mental release when tatting lately. As you can tell from the photo I just started one and one has about 5 yards thus far. I have more of both of these vintage threads somewhere in my stash so I may dig more out after I run out of this thread to add to the length of these edgings. The red shuttles a gift to me by a friend on the internet. I think that is sweet of her this is my first time using them I am trying to get use to their quirks every new tool has quirks some good some bad still figuring these out.
If you like tatting also check out the mad tatter group on flickr.

Also in the top of this photo you can see the start of another project a red black and brown rug for my sister in law. I know she reads this blog this is not a surprise to her.

The other rug is done I just haven't had a chance to edit photos and make the tutorial yet. But here is a picture of it for you all to see what it looks like. I hope my kids piano teacher likes it.

This rug is over 5 feet across I am standing on a tall chair with my arms as high as I can reach in the air trying to take this photo. It is a good thing my camera has a viewing monitor that pivots so I can do this.

Felt Ornament Heart

felt ornament heart, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

If you are thinking of Valentine's Day and want a simple ornament or gift tag, you can always make one of these hearts; follow the last link to the tutorial. If you do make one, please feel free to join flickr felt creations group and add your photo; I would love to see them.

This would be real cute with tatted flowers, too, instead of embroidered ones. I may have to try that. If you make a tatted version, join "the mad tatter" group on flicker and add tatting ones there. If you have no idea what tatting is, check out this site the 25 motif tatting challenge.

Item 13 in 25 motif challenge

2 inch wide tatting, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

This is a ruffly, two-inch wide tatted edging; this is one of my favorite motifs. Everything is a count of 4 double stitches, that makes it easy to remember. The only exception is the two picots on the chains at the bottom where you attach to the fabric that has two double stitches between them; same goes for the three picot in the top large ring on the trefoil. Check out the 25 motif tatting challenge; there is some real cool stuff that has been made. I guess that puts me at the little over half-way mark.

Item 12 for 25 Motif tatting Challenge

Above is motif 12 for the 25 Motif tatting challenge. This was put on hold while I worked on the advent calendar tutorials. I was reminded that I was doing this and hadn't posted in a while. So, here is the piece I have to post at the moment. It is a mixture of ring-only tatting and crochet. The top photo is true to colors of white and raspberry pink. The other two photos are not accurate for color; I had a hard time getting two more good images.

The second photo is so you can see the pattern, and the last photo is so you can see some of the edging. All laid out, there are about 24 inches of lace. I made it as long as the pink would let me; because it was a piece of scrap thread from another project, I didn't have much of it. Also it really isn't good for tatting, the pink that is. It was South Maid crochet thread, which isn't a very good quality thread, but I liked the vibrant color so I used it any way. However, I made sure it was for the crochet part of the piece. I have made a similar pattern in the past; I like mixing crochet and tatting. I think it is fun when the two textures meet and even neater when there are two or more colors to show off the color and stitch change.

Probably only another tatter would notice, but I didn't pay attention to my photos and my tatting is wrong side up!
rings are 3 picot term 4

25 motif challenge cont..

Here is the next little bit of this challenge; it's not as big as the other items I have done. I really haven't had much time to work on this or the butterfly room as of late, so I combined the two. Here are two butterflies that I tatted out of antique size 10 crochet thread. These are actually the size of quarters; I just took my photo in macro mode so these look much bigger than they are. Together I will call them item 11 for the challenge.

Z is for....

ZZZZZZ...... I finally caught some Z's the last two days. With school starting, and it being so far away, I spend most of my day driving to and from school or running errands in the other county. I have been getting about 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night. I made that up yesterday, and I will get some more tonight. I also did a little bit of tatting.

This is copy of a piece of tatted lace I saw at an antique store on Friday. I bought the spool of thread (at the same store). I just love the size of that wood spool of thread. Anyone who knows what size a shuttle is knows that that is very big spool of thread for $3.00, and I decided I would tat the pattern I saw instead of buying the lace. For some reason, I kept making mistakes on my rings and chains; I think it is from lack of sleep. Hopefully, the rest will look much neater.

The pattern is as follows:

Rings are : 4ds, picot 4 ds, 4picot ( with 1 ds between each of them), 4 ds, picot, 4 ds. close ring joins on first and last picot
chain: 4 ds, 4 picots (with 1 ds between each of them) 4 ds

I will add this piece to the 25 motif challenge; this will be item 10 for the challenge.

P is for....

Pictures, or in this case, no pictures! My computer is not talking to the memory card of my camera, so this might take a little bit before I can post pictures again.
If you are into the tatting challenge, here is a site with a few patterns and lovely examples of tatting.

N is for...

antique tatting, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

Number Nine in 25 motif challenge.

This is a photo of one piece of tatting that is in a salesman tatting sampler that hangs in my front room c. 1900.
Look at that price: 55 cents a yard. Wow, wish I could buy it for that price now!

Pattern starting with chain on left:

ch1: ch 4 picot ch 8 picot chain 8 picot ( future join place safety pin here to find this spot easily later), chain four

r1: 9 picot term 1 (join 5th picot to starting point)

**ch2: chain 5ds

r2: 9 picot term 1

chain3: 5ds( future join here*), ch 4, picot (future join), ch 8, picot , ch 8, picot( future join), ch 4

3r: 9 picot term 1, form join on 5th picot to first future join* on chain3** repeat

Please look at photo to see where joins are.

My other items for this challenge are here.

I used antique crochet cotton for this. Now, I wish I had not because it is a little too floppy for my tastes. Maybe I will do #10 with this same pattern but with tatting thread.

M is for...

Motif #8 = finished

This is my edging, all done for #8 on to # 9 for the "25 motif challenge". This is just shy of 2 yards long. If you want to see the others I have done, go here.

Photos from salesman tatting sampler.
Pattern from the pink one; the blue and purple have a tiny bit different stitch count.

25 Motif challenge tatting #8 continued

#8 continuation, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

This item is still growing. It has reached 30 inches, and I plan on continuing until that ball of thread is all gone. If you are interested in joining the challenge, go here.

#8 of the 25 motif challenge started

This is number #8 in my quest to complete the 25 motif challenge. This pattern came from a circa 1900 salesman tatting sampler that I have hanging in my front room. You can see a corner of it in this post. I will make this as long as the thread will let me; I only have the one ball, so not too long. This is size 80 vintage variegated yellow tatting thread that was given to me as a gift.

The pattern is
R= 4, picot,4, picot, 2, picot,4,picot, 4, close ring make joins on 1st and 4th picot of rings
ch= 5, picot, 5

For those of you who are lace makers, yes, this doily has a coronation cord edging.

I wanted to make 25 edgings, but that may change now to bugs. My daughter, as most of you know, wants a butterfly bedroom. So the idea came to me of the curtain and now a new idea has come for a wall decoration. She is a little girl who likes bugs but doesn't want to kill them, so I am thinking I will tat, crochet, needle lace what ever I can think of to make some lace bugs for her. Then we will put a pin in them and place them in a shadow box just as you would a real dead bug collection. But in this case she gets to name the bugs and nothing dead is on her walls. If any tatters or lacers want to help me and make a bug or two for her room, we would happily put your name below that bug as the creator of it. If not, then it will just be our own bugs.

4 yards 4 inches

I finished my #7 item for the 25 motif tatting challenge, and ended up with 4 yards and 4 inches of this lace. I finished it yesterday while sitting in a class on how to teach kids to quilt. My three daughters (i.e. kids) were in the class with me. So, now I guess I am on to #8; I just haven't figured out what that is, yet.


This braided rug I made a long time ago. Since I was sitting on the floor to take the picture of the tatting, I thought I would get a close up picture of the braids on this rug.

This used to be the rug in my old sewing room at my old home. It almost never got walked on because you couldn't walk into that room, it was so crowded. Now it is one of three rugs in my family room. It took about 3 weeks to make and is 6 feet by 8 1/2 feet. Seen in bottom right of photo on this post.

Sunrise/hexes/25 motif challenge

This is the view I had yesterday morning from my back porch. It was such a red sunrise this picture doesn't do it justice at all.

The hexes seem to be reproducing on their own this weekend. If you want to make your own, the pattern is here.

I have been working on the 25 motif challenge over the move to our new house. I have achieved getting this pattern up to about 3 yards with 2 1/2 bobbins full of pale pink yet to go. I will keep tatting with this until I run out of the light pink. I know I have way more dark pink that light, so that will just go towards another tatted edging. This is my #7 item for the challenge. You can see other challenge items by going here. I am still working on 1, 5 and 6, but I am not able to find them at the moment due to the move. When I do find them, I will get back to work on them, too.

25 Motif Tatting Callenge and Crochet

My family traveled to Las Vegas this weekend for a Golf Tournament and Baseball Tournament our children were in. Since we traveled by car, I had 6 hours there and 6 more back to tat and or crochet in the car. I chose tatting this trip for the car part. I worked on number 1 and 2 of the 25 motif tatting challenge group that I joined last month.So I only worked a tiny bit on the pink tatted piece, which is number one for me in the challenge. It went from 4 inches to 9 inches; not much improvement there, but since that was one of the last things I did, I'm not concerned about much progress. However, I plan to keep working on that one; I think it will end up being hundreds of yards by the time I finish it. It is size 20/2 thread.The second item for the challenge is done with the size 10 thread that was vintage and damaged. It went from 5 inches to seven yards and used up all the thread; now I have a nice piece of vintage looking lace that already has age marks.The third item was just to use up a scrap of thread I had. It only became 8 inches long, but this can be used in embroidery on crazy quilts. The pattern is simple 3 picot term 4. The pattern came from a scrap that was in a ball of thread I had purchased from a thrift store. It's funny; my scrap is smaller than the one I found, but I like it and consider number three done. It is size 80 thread.The fourth item I worked on for the challenge was also to use up scrap thread. It is size 80 vintage/antique tatting thread, baby blue in color. It worked out to be 2 feet long. This also came from a piece of tatting that was shoved inside that same ball of thread mentioned above from the thrift store. It is a variation on hens and chicks: the hens are *4, picot, 4, picot, 1, picot, 1, picot, 1 picot, 1, picot, 4, picot, 4 close ring, the opposite side is 3 picot term 4 close ring; the chick on the first side is 2 picot term 4 close ring, the opposite side picot is 3 picot term 4 close ring*: continue from * to *. This one is completed, too, with joins on first and last picot of each ring.I also started a fifth item in tatting; this is just a simple single-shuttle ring edging. ring = 4, picot, 4, picot, 1, picot, 1 picot, 4 picot, 4 close ring make joins on 1 and 3rd picots. This is in size 10 crochet thread vintage thread. I'm still working on this one. I have 13 inches completed on this.I also started another tatting project with pearl cotton in turquoise while traveling. This is a typical scroll pattern. (I made a mistake on this; one of the chains only has 1 picot instead of 3-- oops. This is only 4 inches long. Ring : 4, picot, 4, picot, 1, picot, 1, picot, 4, picot, 4, close ring. Chain: is 4, picot, 1, picot, 1,picot, 4. The joins are made on the first and last picot on the rings.
So, a grand total: 3 completed, and still working on number 1, 5 and 6.

While at my sister's I noticed she had a runner our great-great-grandmother, Maria, made. So I asked if I could copy the pattern. I made two little samples of crochet --two so that I can use this pattern at my home. The next-best thing to having the item is being able to say I made it using the same pattern my great-grandmother used. One is the outside edging plus corner, and the other is the inside insertion on the runner. Mine was done in a size 20, the original was done in size 30; I didn't have that thread with me, so I used what I had.

Tatting Thrift

I like thrift shopping and finding things I can use that other people toss. This is one of my favorite places to find supplies to make things.

I found this real bright pink thread on a cone a few weeks ago and thought it would be lovely as rings and chains in tatting. It is a real soft thread, so it has a nice drape to it. It almost looks like a full cone of thread, so this will make hundreds of yards of tatted lace.


That same day I also found this very old antique even size 10 Columbia thread, pale blue in color; yeah, not exactly what label said. I always love it when I find the original papers still in them. This one had the colors of thread and styles of thread that they sold at that time. Sometimes they have coupons in them for free patterns; of course, you can't get those free patterns any more even if you sent in the coupon.

I like to hard laminate these papers so I can stop the deterioration and keep them and use them as book marks in my pattern books. With this one I even laminated the size cards so I would know what it came from.

The thread was still super strong and could stand up to tatting which can be very rough on thread when closing a ring. It does have discoloration which makes the blue travel from faint blue to a medium brown. I sort of liked that on this. I don't want all my threads that way, but every now and again it's OK. Because this does have a use this way, such as on a primitive doll or prim pincushion, it would look lovely as an accent and the technique used, tatting, would work nicely with those things too.

If you are into tatting check out the 25 motif challenge group and check out the tatting group on flickr. I joined the tatting challenge with this post this is number 1 and 2 out of 25 things/motifs I am to make in the next year.

Pattern for above just copying an old piece of lace.
Pattern is chain = 1 picot term four
ring = 3 picot term four with joins on 1 and 3 picot.