Slightly Stuck

Hm, two "help me" posts in a row...yikes! Sorry 'bout that :)

So. I am a little stuck on another pattern!

I am working the "Rose and Thistle" mat from Lindsay Rogers' "Mastering Tatting," a book I really love and a pattern I have been wanting to work for quite a while...but especially since being very inspired over the summer in the UK:

One of many Tudor (English) Roses at Hampton Court Palace

and a Hampton Court Thistle

Here is a "thistle" I found in Scotland

After a recent thread infusion (because you know, I really needed more thread ;) I found I had all the right colors to make this mat using DMC size 80, and I made it through the first few rounds without incident:

Round 1: The yellow color is meant to represent the daffodil of Wales, a place we did not get to this summer but is on our short list to visit on our next trip.

Round 2: Seven Tudor (English) roses

Round 3: some greenery to tie them together

Round 4: Scottish Thistles and Irish Shamrocks, and a problem...

OK, here is where I need your help!

The thistles tat up just fine (eventually I'll snip the tips and fuzz the tops to make them appropriately thistle-y) but look what happens when you get to the shamrock:

Do you see the problem? Look at the way the green thread is pointed...

The shamrock is made with a ring surrounded by chains to make the shamrock. If I make the ring here, then RW to make the leaves of the shamrock, the green thread ends up pointing back to the previous thistle, not on to the next one...if that makes any sense. (?)

The first chain of the shamrock leaf is supposed to join the previous small purple ring, but to do that, the green thread needs to be pointing the other way...and if I just force the thread to go where it want it to go, the chain twists...gah.

Maybe the solution is simple...maybe as simple as executing the shoelace trick before I make the ring??

Any other ideas? The pattern doesn't specifically say how to deal with this, it just says to "Repeat around them mat, starting again at the shamrock". (Not helpful.)

So, as I'm stymied on the last round of that mat, I have been working on a couple other projects.

Thanks for everyone who weighed in on my Stawasz Conundrum a week or so ago, I did decide to continue on and finished it:

 I do like the finished project, even though it definitely won't fit inside my hot plate any more :)

I also worked up this White-Striped Golden Minor Flying Norwegian Dragon as a goodbye gift for a departing officer who loves fantasy stories:

Thread is Perle 8, purchased in Honduras. I have so much Perle 8 thread, I decided I'd better use it for something! If anyone wants/needs Perle 8, please let me know! I have plenty to share!!

 The original pattern by Anne Bruvold called for SSSRs up the tail, body and neck, but I honestly just couldn't be bothered to review the technique, so I decided to go with traditional split rings and it worked just fine. I actually think he's pretty cute in two colors.

He even got in some flying practice courtesy of Christopher :)

So anyway, that's it.

I just realized this is my 99th(!) blog post, I'll have to come up with something spectacular for the big 100 :)

A Conundrum (Kind Of)

Well, I have finished the next round of the Stawasz doily but have run into kind of a conundrum. 

The photo in the book shows the completed doily encased in plastic, used as a hot plate for a cup of coffee. I did a hot plate a few years ago, and have a few empty ones left that I was going to make and give as presents...someday.  

And guess what, after round 4 the unfinished doily fits the hot plate pretty much perfectly (ps: please ignore the strings, I have been making this doily using up half-filled shuttles so there are a lot of places I have had to add thread)...

The problem is, there are still 3 rounds left to finish the doily. And I am using smaller thread than Mr. Stawasz called for, so his hot plate must be larger than mine! :)

The conundrum is, of course, whether to continue on and finish the doily or to leave it as-is and give the hotplate to someone as a gift. 

As an anal perfectionist (and one who likes to finish things once started), I am pretty sure I already have an answer to the conundrum--I will finish the doily, considering it a practice piece, and then make another, better one as a gift...someday.

That is what I will do, but it is awfully tempting to snip the theads and leave it, I think it looks so nice...

But then I wouldn't have finished my first Jan Stawasz doily, and that would be a conundrum in itself. :)

Small Somethings and the Iowa State Fair

Oh, hello:

After the "Ferns" I decided to slow down a bit and give my brain a rest. I kind of putzed around with a couple of patterns that didn't amount to anything, then remembered I needed to make a couple small gifts:

Today was my boss' last day at work, and she is quite a reader, so I decided to make her the small flag above (the larger one below was one of the first things I shuttle tatted when I taught myself last summer--it's fun to see how far I've come in a year!) The large one was done in Perle 8, the small in size 30 Cebelia and the pattern is from "Tatted Bookmarks". 

I also made this little motif, which is the first two rounds of a doily with the word Summer in the title from the booklet Doily Delights. I made it for the nice lady who picked my tatting up from the Southern Iowa Fair when my mom wasn't able to. 

Speaking of fairs, I am very pleased with how I did at the Iowa State Fair this year, and I hope you won't think I'm bragging if I share...

I entered seven things and got 3 blues (First Place)

1 red (Second Place)

 

Two whites (3rd Place)

And 1 pink (4th Place)

This was the first year that I have entered all categories and the first year I have gotten a ribbon for everything I entered! And, I was only one of two tatters who got blue ribbons--the woman who won Best of Show won four of the categories and I won three...so as Chris says, I was the first loser at the. Fair this year! :)

Anyway, thanks for your patience with all that...I love entering in the Fairs, the ribbons are just icing on the cake. :)

I Won! I Can't Believe I Won! :)

Amazing.

I won OneMadTatter's 200 Facebook Likes Giveaway this weekend!!

Crazy! (Of course, I was one of just four entrants, so...)

I often enter these online giveaways, but I never win...except I did win this time!!

Fiona had a fun twist to enter her giveaway...instead of just a general comment, she wanted something specific; a favorite antique pattern AND a favorite pattern from the etsy store of lacemakermom.

For my answer, I picked the pattern for The Big Blue and White Doily I made last year as my favorite antique pattern, and the Tatted Accent Doily from lacemakermom.

And, thanks to the random number generator, I won a copy of the Tatted Accent Doily! :) Hooray!

So, I know what I'm doing this weekend! :-D

Thanks, Fiona and Lori B. at Lacemakermom! I really, really appreciate it! :)

Continuing the Spring Doily, an Interim Project and a Lovely Gift

I am highly enjoying Reneluk's Spring Doily and am making surprisingly quick progress...probably because my husband has been gone the past two weeks so I've had nothing to do but tat! :)

Here are rounds Four:

Five:

Six:

and Seven:

I also decided it would be fun to work on something in a bit larger thread. This is the first couple rounds of Karey Solomon's "Plain and Fancy" from her booklet Doily Delights in size 20 Lizbeth.

I also received a lovely package from Aileen from Wicked Nothings this week.  I participated in her Secret Santa exchange, but the package that was sent to me (I like to think it was sent) never made it...even though she really didn't need to, Aileen was kind enough to send a replacement, and

I appreciate it so much!!!

Blue and white thread, rubber thimble, two decorated shuttles, origami paper for decorating my own shuttles, beads (more on that in a later post), a decorated card AND a fun cultural momento, a good luck "red packet" for the Lunar New Year. Inside my good luck envelope was a beautifully tatted bookmark! Thank you! :)

I especially love the decorated shuttle she sent, and some extra papers for me to practice decorating, too. I sense a mod podge order in my future! :)

 I enter all exchanges at my own risk and with the full knowledge that I may never receive anything-- I just think it is so fun to have the option to connect with tatters all over the place! Thanks again to Aileen for organizing the exchange!

I will leave you today with a bit of inspiration I'm mulling over:

I saw this vase at a restaurant over the weekend and thought, I can do that! So, I'll be thinking of exactly how to do it over the next few weeks. I'm thinking there will be a lot of stiffening agents involved! :)

Tatting Randomness...Motifs 6, 7 and 8

OK, before I get to the real post I have some exciting news...Chris and I were told where we will be heading after our two years in Vladivostok are done (early 2015)

We are totally looking forward to 2+ years in...Canberra, Australia!!!

So, does anybody have information on the tatting scene down under? :)

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Ook, February was not been a particularly prolific month of tatting...more just a little of this and that...

First of all, here (finally!) is my sailboat from Jane's TIAS:

Motif #6

My sister-in-law gave me the Ring of Tatters' "30th Anniversary Book of Patterns" for Christmas, and I have been mostly dabbling there for the past few weeks:

Motif 7: Buttercup by Hannah Crowle

If you compare this to the actual pattern you will find (on the outer round at least) there are a few differences...all due to user error, of course. Fox has been quite vocal about her alleged "Instructional Incompetence" and I have to admit that I, too, suffer from that disease. Oops. :)

Motif 8: The first motif of Adelheid Dangla's Doily

I've actually had to abandon this motif here--it's impossible to tell on this terrible picture, but apparently I tatted this with dirty fingers--the inner rings are new-snow white, but all those lovely chains are closer to snow after the first plowing. Oops.

Finally, another project from that same book that is just giving me fits...Jane has this adorable badger bookmark that I'd so love to tat...

 But I can't get the joins to work properly!!

The pattern calls for both up joins and down joins, techniques that I understand in theory, but have struggled to execute in reality:

The first ring does not require the down join...and the down join worked pretty well on the second ring...but WHY are there black marks on the third and fourth rings?!

 Here is the back side, which looks right(?)

Any suggestions? I literally worked on this for two days last weekend (this is the 4th or 5th attempt), and I'm stuck! :(

Also, I'm very sad because the Olympics are over, but being in the host country has some perks...like finding Sochi chocolate! Hooray! :)

Merry Christmas! (1 Motif Left!)

I'm just going to throw this out there, having lived in a Christmas-celebrating country all my life, it is weird to be in a place where it hasn't been all-Christmas all-the-time for the past month or so...not bad, just different. I am really looking forward to celebrating the New Year Russian-style next week! :)

Last night I watched "A Christmas Story" for the first time (yes, I know, it's a classic, how could I have not seen it before...sorry!) and managed to finish three more motifs!! :)

The first is LadyTats' Threes Snowflake, which is currently on the tree but photographed on my leaf pants from last night...Isn't it pretty?!

Motif #56 on the year and #22 on the way to 25 by the 25th

You will notice I reverted to white thread...we have no snow on the ground here (sniff!) so I'm making my own white Christmas!

Next I trolled the Internets for some other quick patterns and found Tattypatty's The First Christmas Snowflake of 2012

Motif #57 on the year and #23 on the way to 25 by the 25th

And, full disclosure, I made a second "cheater motif" (although Tattypatty does say about the above motif, "This is actually the center of the large snowflake, but is a snowflake in its own right"...I just finished it off with a second layer of pretty to make another snowflake:

Motif #58 on the year and #24 on the way to 25 by the 25th

So, it's Christmas Day (in Russia, still very much Christmas Eve in Iowa and many other parts of the world) and I'm one short of my 25 by the 25th. Chris and I have plans for the day, but I will do my best to squeeze out one more, small motif before midnight to complete the 25 by the 25th challenge! :)

Also, I have to say a VERY big thank you to Carollyn for the wonderful gift that arrived in Vladivostok yesterday (Christmas Eve) and waited patiently under the Christmas tree until I opened it this morning...I love my new handmade shuttles, and I'm told the rabbit, which was made by her husband, is made with woolly mammoth bone, which makes it extra-special!

Also the box is actually like a small book and Santa's suit is fuzzy! :)

So thank you to all of you for following and reading my blog this year, and for all the comments and encouragement!! I hope you are all having a blessed day whether you celebrate Christmas or not, and I wish you all the best in the New Year! :)

(And hopefully I get one more motif done, dusted, and on the blog before the end of the day!) :)

One New Country, Two Tatting Classes, Three More Motifs and Four Sunlit Shuttles! (Motifs 40-42)

Well, we're back.

That was a very rough, very fast trip home, but I'm glad we went...

Partly because I picked up yet another country (Japan--my 5th new country in the past two months, phew!), but most especially because we got to see all our families and meet our newest niece, Gemma...

The pink bib worked! (And was HUGE on my 6 lb+ niece!)

 I did a little bit of tatting while I was home and in the air...as per usual...

Motif 40 (#7 on the way to 25 by the 25th...yikes!) This is Perfect Quilter and DMC 80 threads combined.

Ok, so it was a very little bit...to be honest, that's about all I achieved on the trip...I was mostly too exhausted to even lift a shuttle.

 Understandably (I hope) I was pretty down after returning (and jetlagged!!) but a small package from Canada perked me up considerably on my first day back at work...four Sunlit Shuttles from that amazing Fox! Thank you again! :)

And they are great! As a semi-converted needle tatter I don't have a ton of shuttles and all my Clovers are full, so it was a very, very timely arrival! :)

 Suitably cheered and fully rested I started on one of the Shuttlebirds Weekly Challenges (I've been getting the e-mails for months but this is the first one I've completed)...

And yes, the thread matches the shuttles...I like it that way. :) It's the Tatted Roman Cross in size 30 Cebélia, and is Motif #41 (and #8 on the way to 25 by the 25th).

 As a thank you (sorry if this spoils the fun, Fox) I decided to make a Thank You mignonette AND practice a new skill at the same time:

BEADS! (Motif 42 on the year, #9 on the way to 25 by the 25th)

It took a couple tries but I managed to add beads from the shuttle. Amazing.

 Finally, I taught my second tatting class (needles, not shuttles...it's easier, I think)--it was actually a reschedule class, originally we were going to have it the Sunday I left for the funeral, but my students were patient and we had a nice time making holiday motifs this past weekend.

 So that's that...just under two weeks until Christmas and I have 16 motifs to go to get to 25 by the 25th...it might take a Christmas miracle to pull it off, but stranger things have occurred! :)

Russian Snowflake (Motif #39)

Well, winter has officially arrived in Vladivostok!

So, since there is real snow on the ground (and in the air a couple days ago) I decided to make a снежинка (snowflake)...

Motif #39 (#6 on the way to 25 by the 25th)

 Pretty! This one's headed out to someone in the US...hope it doesn't melt on the way. ;)

It's more of the DMC size 80 thread... it's amazing how long that size 80 thread lasts on the shuttle!

 I actually had some very sad news from Iowa this evening...my last grandpa passed away today. So, I'll be leaving on a jet plane here in a few days...nothing new for this weary traveler! Silver lining? I will get to meet my newest niece, celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and my nephew's 3rd birthday! Still, it's never fun to go to a funeral, especially when it's for someone you love.

Oh well, it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all...I think someone said sometime in the past. :)