Wednesday 27 June 2018

exciting new projects

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Couple of days back my Mum-in-law asked for some tatted motifs for a new white Kota cotton saree. She needs 40 such motifs to be sewn all over, or a narrow edging along the lower edge & pallu.
No hurry. But I got excited and immediately sketched a few ideas. Finally settled on flower sprigs – simple flowers attached 2 or 3 together with some leaves. I’m hoping to make each one a bit differently to keep up my interest.

Here’s the first of Alibaba's 40 thieves !!! 
Blossoms Motif #1
  
Working with Lizbeth 20 threads, this is 2” long and 1” wide.

Hubby didn’t like the colour placement – perhaps the orange flower should’ve been on the yellow side. I’m keeping this for now and can choose the better ones later.


The pattern is notated if anybody is interested, and as a personal reference. My notes/jottings get scattered… plus here I can see the model alongside.

This is a single shuttle motif.

I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions – plenty of room for improvement at this early stage.

Blossoms Butterfly wannabe ....
Leading up to the sprig, I did a trial with some scrap thread. Adjacent rings joined only 2ds from the base, causing the rings to fan out.
Design TIP: Attaching towards the base causes rings to spread out; for closely placed rings, attach higher up.

I stopped after 4 rings, but still had a short length of thread left. So I worked a smaller ring, folded it over the center, and lock joined back transforming it into a butterfly! I’ll try this again with 2 broader wings.

Treble Tatting - first attempts ...
And another source of excitement – Ninetta’s latest Treble Tatting ! Comments on her post give you a slice of the reception this technique received – need I say more ;-D

My quick first attempts… A couple of times the core thread got stuck while snugging the treble. I haven’t yet figured out why.
But the process is such a great combination of crochet (chain at the beginning) and roll tatting. I cannot fathom How her brilliant mind works to even think of something like this! It is the best crochet-to-tatting transformation I have encountered so far.

I tried to do it with a larger picot & more rolls (4 & 5 instead of 3) aiming for a double treble, but was not successful. Another idea is to make more chains and see what happens. I’d like to explore it further; but I’m sure Ninetta will come up with more variations :-D


wonder how the next thief will turn out  ;-P
stay tuned with tatting in hand

16 comments:

  1. Lovely Alibaba's first thief! :D Thank you a lot for trying the treble tatting! You're doing the same journey as me, I also tried with larger picot & more chain stitches & more rolls (just like you said)! But no luck, I didn't like them, or maybe it's just me :)

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    1. okay, so I am in good company, Nin ;-P may be some techniques have inherent limitations? Time will tell. Thanks for sharing all your expertise :-))))

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  2. I like the color placement in the first motif, no problems with it at all! The butterfly is cute and the folded over ring is a simple yet effective way for portraying the body.

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    1. Thanks Robin :-) I realized that hubby didn't 'understand' the variegated thread - he thought I had used multiple threads or something ;-P
      Yes, I do like the butterfly body - and all because I had a short tail left !

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  3. I love your flower sprig!!! :)
    And your butterfly is fabulous!!! :)
    Great trial on the treble!! :)

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    1. Thank you so much, Sue :-))) It seems someone has successfully tried the treble in needle tatting as well!

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  4. That’ll keep you busy for a while. I hope you’ll show us the completed saree.

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    1. It sure will, Jane ;-P About the saree, let's see if I can manage to have her send it across to me so that I will sew down the motifs, in which case I will share the completed work definitely.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks, Anetta :-))) Pretty simple, too, to use up scrap threads.

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  6. The 40 thieves seem off to a good start. I personally like the colours on the first sprig, but I guess it also depends on the colour of the saree. Please show us more :)
    The treble tatting looks like a revolutionary idea, especially for people who already know how to crochet and want to combine it with tatting.

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    1. The saree is white, which gave me a wide berth for colours, Lavi.
      You know me - I cannot not share ;-P
      Ninetta has revolutionised tatting - she comes up with so many techniques and variations that it is mind-boggling! And she shares freely of her talents!

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  7. I love the butterfly with that flipped ring super cute idea, and I so going to practice that treble stitch you got right to this 😃🌻😃

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    1. Carollyn, I don't know whether this flipped ring has been done before or not - it just flipped out of that short thread that was left ;-P But I do like 3D & layers !

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  8. Oh, my! You are giving me ideas! I recently read a piece that said you shouldn't waste your time on small pieces; instead, work a little each day on something worth showing. I was momentarily crushed! I love tatting small pieces, because they give me a feeling of accomplishment. The first of Alibaba's 40 thieves started me thinking about decorating some of my plain t-shirts. Why shouldn't we use small motifs? I love the idea of a saree decorated with tatting, and I'm really excited to see how it turns out!

    I'm going to have to check out treble tatting. Can I do this? I'm still struggling with split rings!

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    1. I totally disagree with that statement, Diane, and am in sync with you. And all sizes matter! If I hadn't done small pieces, I wouldn't have learned so much about tatting in such a fairly short time ;-D
      Decorating your T-shirts is a great project :-)
      Treble tatting is not related to SR at all, so do go ahead and try it. Ninetta's videos (a new one today) are very clear.

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