beautiful hearts

First, erratum in Heart Square pattern : I have updated the pdf and also written it out in my previous post here. If you have printed, add the ‘cwj’; otherwise please download the pdf again.

Usha sent me this quote after seeing my heart square :

Y One beautiful heart is more  important than a million beautiful faces. Y

This post is all about beautiful hearts in the tatting world. I have been fortunate to share their special friendship as well their creativity, making tatting that much more pleasurable.

So dedicating this to All my tatting friends, many of who have a presence in this compilation. 

Rose Bookmark

by Coretta Dee Loughmiller

I had the pleasure of testing and diagramming it for her. It is such a fabulous adaptation, extension & application of Vicki's original. In one pattern you have a bookmark, pendant and earrings! 
In diagram – change in colour denotes turn or reverse work. and switch shuttles. The accompanying pics of tatting steps further clarify the process in her beautifully laid out pdf.

Judith reminded us of the reverse join instead of lock join. With the former, the rose can be worked with ball & shuttle instead of 2 shuttles.

I added a bud and some floating twisted picots for thorns. 

The bud needs some tweaking.

In answer to a question in class – We are using 3 threads for pearl tatting the stem, adding the third thread as directed.

‘Pearl tat in sets of 6’ means you make 6 unflipped stitches with one shuttle then 6 with the other shuttle, over the 3^rd core thread (thus encapsulating it). This tutorial & this stepwise pictorial show how to get the sets to face in opposite directions. 

This time I cheated making sets of normal 6 ds by using the ‘encapsulated’ thread in shuttle and alternating the green threads to form the stitch. This made it easier to twist the picots for thorns.

The stitches should’ve been snugged closer to make the chain more compact and stiff. I needed to stiffen it with diluted white PVA. It does work!

I would’ve loved to make a Josephine chain with thorns, but using finer thread for the stitches.

The pattern is free on her blog.

UPDATE : Check out Coretta's tutorial on the multiple ways in which this rose can be worked, not including all-chains (starting with a mock ring).

YYYYYYY

I chose to do the rose in yellow again for my niece for her book.

YA friend is the best gift ! Y

The collage shows the other bookmarks that will go into her big book of 

'what happens after' in popular fairy tale stories ! Clockwise from top left, - 

my Better than Nothing bookmark ; 

Morning Glory bookmark (my virtual soulmate, Eliz) ; 

Rose bookmark (creative Coretta from Craftree) ; & 

Jane's bookmark (my hands-on inspiration Jane McLellan)

YYYYYYY

Rosebud  Heart

The little rosebud effect in this Rose Circle doily posted by Ka-ryun intrigued me. You know I love layers! Initially I mistook it for some kind of onion ring. However, these are simple rings that are inserted inside one another before joining on the way back. I worked a heart shape around it.

This was a quick trial. The ring size needs tweaking to better resemble a rosebud. 

Heart

by Anita Barry (my tatting mate)

This belonged with her tip in previous post. But I deliberately saved it for now.

However, I will now add the pic there as well. You can clearly see how the picot between 4 first half stitches (seta) & 4 second half stitches (setb) creates a pronounced dip.

Heart Square

Usha Shah's red heart model!

See the heart square in red & pink, worked by Usha (the friendly dot picot tatter)!

I was sick of working with pink after my 5-day marathon and had opted for a gold and purple combo. I'm glad she did the work for me ;-P

There are so many others, not named here, who have immensely enriched my tatting life in these few short years. Y My thanks to each one of you for your beautiful heart. Y

Y wishing you many happy hours of hearty tatting  Y