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Tuesday, 29 October 2019

beady-eyed

Some patterns are meant to enjoy! That is precisely how this vintage butterfly felt when Georgia announced it for this week’s class.
The Deaconess Butterfly 1916, re-written by Carolyn Groves in 2002. When I went hunting for a Deaconess butterfly, I found her old site!
It is a well-written pattern, with clear instructions. But I also kept referring back to the model image(s) frequently, to stay on track. It is worked in one pass. A very clever presentation by Carolyn Groves.
I decided to play with beads. Small projects are ideal to try out ‘new’ stuff. And not everything was planned ahead. I unwound the shuttle to load seed beads, etc.
The ‘stuff’ that went on here –

  1. Black and orange beads pre-strung on yellow thread and the green seed beads on blue thread.
  2. Twisted (floating) picots for antennae. 
  3. Eyes and orange beads are ‘up’ beads- they need to go in the ring loop before starting the ring.
  4. Long beaded picot –On the tail ring I made a very long picot. After completing the butterfly, I put 4 black beads over it with a hook, then snipped the picot in the center and tied a knot to keep beads in place. Snip off excess ends.
  5. Rhoda Auld’s method for bead in center of ring. This was new to me. I Love it for various reasons and am eager to try out a few more ideas with it. I used it for all 4 wing rings.
The collage shows how the bead is hooked over blue thread and the loop is held with a holder pin/paperclip. This pin passes through both the loop And the picot. When it is time, a loop is pulled through both simultaneously to make the join. The bottom left is a back view to show join.

  1. Frontside/backside tatting meant I used down and up picot joins respectively. 
  2. Avoiding colour blip in Lock join – I did try my own method, but the thread is just too thick to hide it completely. And I was colour-blinded ;-P I thought the yellow blips could camouflage as tiny beads! 
  3. Ninetta’s blipfree join was used in a couple of picot joins, and as usual I counted the join as 1ds. 
  4. Elaine Gan’s Reverse join came in handy thrice, to switch threads/colours. 
  5. Green seed beads in place of all the picots on wings.
  6. In Anchor size 20,  the  butterfly is 2½” wide and 1¾” tall. A good size for brooch, pendant, or hair ornament
Phew, that’s it. I'm happy, though - getting more confident with beads! If you like this butterfly, fine, otherwise think of me being beady-eyed at the time ;-P

Oh, and I added a center to the Wreath snowflake prototype. It looks more like a flower now! This stitch count won’t work for an ice drop version. I added a faceted glass bead and wound the threads to make a suspension loop for ornament.


Many thanks to all for bringing joy fluttering into our TatLand!


22 comments:

  1. I say you've mastered working with beads! Well done!

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    1. Getting better for sure, Mel πŸ˜„πŸ˜ƒπŸ˜†

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  2. I do like your butterfly. Sumptuous is the word that comes to mind.

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    1. I looked up the meaning coz I always associated 'sumptuous' with 'meal' and was sure you weren't hungry, Jane πŸ˜„πŸ˜ƒπŸ˜‰ Thanks, hubby liked it while it was drying, even before I asked him !

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  3. Great butterfly and wreath snowflake!! :)

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    1. Many thanks, Sue πŸŒΉπŸ’—πŸŒΉ

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  4. Śliczne frywolitki :)
    Motylek uroczy. :)
    Pozdrawiam ciepΕ‚o.

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    1. I am so glad you like it, splocik πŸ’—πŸŒΉπŸ’—

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  5. What a cute butterfly you have made and you go nicely in my collection πŸ¦‹♥️πŸ¦‹

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    1. Hope to see your version soon, Carollyn πŸŒΉπŸ’—πŸŒΉ

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  6. Wow! Both are beautiful! I love the way you've incorporated beads and your choice of colors is fabulous!

    Once again, your posts are not showing up in my feed. I think I may need to stop relying on my feed for updates. I'm eagerly anticipating new posts!

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    1. Thanks, Diane 😍 What can I say about technology....sometimes it likes to play truant πŸ˜„ But I appreciate whenever you stop by to comment despite your creatively & edu-socially hectic life 🌹🌹🌹

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  7. Beautiful butterfly, beautifully tatted πŸ’• I also like the centre you added in the wreath snowflake.

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    1. Grazie, grazie, grazie, Ninetta πŸŒΉπŸ’–πŸŒΉ

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  8. Cross-eyed Tatter12 April 2022 at 00:12

    Hi, The Deaconess Butterfly is so pretty, but I can't decipher the order to work the chains. Can you help by numbering the order of the individual chains in your version? Thanks for any help you can provide.

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    1. Hi Cross-eyed Tatter. Give me a couple of days to go through the pattern and refresh my memory. I'll upload a notated pic and leave a comment here, when done. 🌿🌺🌿

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    2. Cross-eyed Tatter13 April 2022 at 05:42

      Hi, Muskaan,

      Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I'd add a garden of flowers to you in my signature if I knew how!

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Cross-eyed Tatter13 April 2022 at 10:24

      I got off of my phone screen and enlarged her design on the desktop PC screen instead. I think I see the path to take now for CTM. I'm not sure how her stitch counts will work out as I go, but we shall see!

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    5. Jolly good, Cross-eyed Tatter 😍 Do you still want me to upload a visual? I was thinking of doing a diagram.
      And thanks for the aromatic garden of flowers - it's the thought that counts 🀩
      Happy tatting

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    6. Cross-eyed Tatter14 April 2022 at 04:18

      If you feel up to it, I (of course) would adore a diagram of yours. Enlarging the view and comparing yours to the original really helped for finding CTM, but now I'm marking blips and joins to play around with.

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    7. Cross-eyed Tatter, the diagram is uploaded in a new post. This post is also updated with the links. Hope we get to see your version πŸ’– Enjoy

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