Tuesday, December 31, 2013

С Новым Годом! (Happy New Year!) Two Final Motifs of 2013!

Oh, come on, you knew the self-imposed tatting break wouldn't last long, right?! :) (Although I have read 2.5 books in the past two days!) :)

Plus it would have really bothered me to stop at 59 motifs...so, I did one more, plus one to grow on. :)
Motif 60
I didn't follow a pattern for this one, but nor can I claim it as my own design, as I've seen large mats made up of this kind of thing; it's simply small flowers made from thread leftover on shuttles...this is all 5's, but next time I think all 6's would be better, as this cupped really badly (you can tell it's all stretched out from trying to lay flat)

Not satisfied with this as my final motif of the year, (really, it's not worthy) I decided to try a pattern that has been catching my eye all month, "Ten-Pointed Snowflake" from Christmas Angels and Other Patterns by Monica Hahn.

I didn't tat this before now because I wasn't sure about the Josephine chains (spiral chains to some of you out there) in shuttle tatting.

I was actually quite fond of the Josephine back in my needle tatting days, so I was disappointed when I tried it with the shuttle--with the needle it was so nice an curly, but the way I originally saw to do it with the shuttle (make a number of the first half of the stitch, then an equal number of the second half of the stitch) looked like a wavy mess.

So, like so many other things I'm interested in learning...I Googled it...and gosh darn it if good old Lady ShuttleMaker didn't have an amazing tutorial right there on her blog!

And so, following her carefully written (and illustrated, thank you very much!) directions I was able to complete my FINAL MOTIF OF 2013!! :)
Motif 61-That's all, folks!
Yep, it's the last...it is currently 11:41 PM of December 31 here in Vladivostok.

(Funny, because it's only 4:41 PM in Moscow, 12:41 PM in London, and my parents in Iowa are still sleeping (at least I hope so, they're both on Christmas break!) at 6:41 AM...heck, it's just 2:41 AM in Honolulu!)

SO, I'm out of time for tatting in 2013...luckily 2014 is right around the corner and I have a lot to strive for improvement...2013 set the bar high!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's celebration (ours was pretty low-key...Chris is actually already asleep and I'm writing this sitting in bed next to him...I'm going to wake him up at midnight, though) and an even better 2014!! I can't wait to see what we all achieve in the coming year!

Thanks for all the comments, compliments and encouragement this past year...it's been amazing! :) :)

8 comments:

  1. It's funny to say in one country it's passed midnight and they have celebrated and in another they are about to, while parts if the world are still a day behind and asleep.
    I wish you and your husband a very happy new year, I can't tat at the moment but I hope your tatting will grow again next year, I look forward to seeing all your new items and hearing about Russia. At least the Winter Olympics will give you more time to tat.
    Stay safe as we hear things are not good in one part of Russia .
    Margaret

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    1. Yes! We will not be going anywhere during the Olympics and I will be parked in front of the TV enjoying the coverage! I love love LOVE the Olympics! :)

      Happiest of New Years to you Margaret! :)

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  2. Yes I heard the News, and was hoping you were fine too! happy New year! and I also helped flood the You tube with a Josephine Knot demo you may still want to watch in all your spare time! Look for "Madtatter80" channel that's me and then Josephine knot I make them looser than most. I am also glad you finished your challenge! Margaret challenged me to the 24 snowflake and it was work but had to Finnish, so know the feeling ha ha!

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    1. Yes you did! Thanks for the YouTube demo, very good! I love people like you who put up demos! :)

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  3. Congratulations on finishing all your motifs! Looking forward to seeing what you do in 2014. Happy New Year!

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    1. Thank you very much! :) Happy New Year to you as well!

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  4. Your flower motif is nice!! :)
    I really like your snowflake!!! :)

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