hopping around

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Bunnies and Tulips for Easter 2021
pattern - Kathleen Minniti

Couple of months back I was in a tatting funk - had lost the will to pick up my shuttles. And then suddenly patterns sprang into my inbox from generous friends! One such was from the very talented Kathleen Minniti. She sent me these bunnies and tulips pattern as an International Tatting Day gift on April 1st!

My shuttles came to life! Tried these, adding a bead for nose. The one on the right has whiskers and a dense tail which was supposed to have been frayed, but haven't gotten around to it yet. These were straight off the shuttles, without blocking or shaping or trimming the whiskers (made from sewing thread)

I still have thread left in the shuttle for a 3rd one, this time with a bead for eye.

Although I made little tweaks - so many what-ifs floating around in my head - there are no notes to share. I went with the flow and pleasure of simply tatting away.....

I Love the sense of movement this pattern has. Almost as if the bunny is about to hop, or is already hopping! Above, the black-nosed bunny is enjoying the fragrance of the tulip while the red-nosed bunny wouldn't be left behind and hops closer ...

... and displaces the smaller black-nosey who switches to the other side, awaiting it's turn again.

Aha, our curious red-nosey has found a new flower to explore, so black-nosey gets right back to it's original perch!

Although tatted around 4th/5th April, it's taken me so long to take pics and post. There's a whole lot more I wish to try out which was one of the reasons for this delayed post. There are lots of little versions to choose from or to tweak for our pleasure! Kathleen's genius in designing is evident in the use of simple techniques and effects to create several versions of swaying tulips and hopping bunnies.

And the great news is that all these patterns are now public - shared with the Online Tatting Class recently - https://www.georgiaseitz.com/2021/lessons_loglinks_reg2021.html 

You can be sure I'll be getting back to this again some time to make a proper composition!

Many many thanks to Kathleen, a generous friend and constant inspiration !

joys of dancing

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We are enjoying the sights, sounds and antics of a variety of birds; including their dance of courtship or under the sprinkler or in a puddle! The kingfisher (with a few sparrows) has returned after a gap and sits on a tree in clear view!

joys of dancing with friends !

When we had first moved here over 20 years back, there used to be a couple of peacocks strutting around! They soon disappeared, never to return.

Anita Barry has been strutting my Dancing Peacocks & it's my turn to dance now :-D

She converted the medallion into a beautiful pendant and also worked out her stitch count for the earrings for a size 8mm bead. The green chain has padded double stitch!

This is another pic of her very first try immediately after I uploaded the pattern ('18) – love the vibrant colours & frayed picots!!!

While adding her count, I took the opportunity to draw some stepwise diagrams of the floating beads method, as relevant here, as well as generic. With her valuable and in-depth feedback, the notes on page 2 are more streamlined now.

And the link to Dancing Peacocks updated pattern

I will delete the old one and substitute it in my patterns page above

At Camp Wanna Tat they have a “Pattern Binder” available for workshop attendees to look through and review. This April my peacocks have been mailed to attendees.

And the same pattern will now be taught at Palmettos Tat Days in September this year! Here's a link to the inspiring class pictures. 

My patterns have made it to the Tat Days goodie bags two years in a row ('16 & '17), thanks to Georgia Seitz's initiative.  

Speaking of, she will be teaching Noorjahan's Rubies - necklace and earrings - at the Shuttlebirds event in May! She is using metallic thread, though I haven't seen it yet. I hope to do the same someday.

I have fair reason to dance despite this hot Indian summer, right ?!

All these patterns have floating beads methods! I was hoping to create more diagrams for the method and it’s variations, but doubt if it’ll get done by the end of this month. There Has been progress, though.

My heartiest thanks to Georgia and Anita for letting me dance :-))))

An update to my previous post - 2 new pics have been added - one of mimosa knot leaves, and another prototype of a rose bud. Do check them out. 


Related posts

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/01/floating-with-tatting.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/01/dancing-or-flying.html 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2017/09/eternal-circles-and-arches.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-goodie-bag-of-free-patterns.html 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/patterns-designs.html 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/my-tut.html

tatting n chatting

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You know how it is with most Japanese/Korean blogs – such beautiful tatting, yet it is near impossible to leave a comment there. Thought I’d take a few minutes to ‘introduce’ a couple of such bloggers.

Recently I stumbled upon a prolific & skilled tatter ‘moondrops’ and scrolled back to all her tatting posts. Wow! She has made so many large projects and multiple times ( Mystery Doily, many magic square patterns), too! Do take some time out to visit her blog and be amazed. And it tickled me pink to see Ninetta's treble triangle motif and also my spiral snowflake worked just as beautifully.

Then there’s sekiraralace. You just Have to see this cute yarn ball bag she tatted. Such a simple concept really – 2 small doilies/coasters attached with an insertion! Check it out. I did manage to leave a comment there by clicking on the heart sign, but it shows up only as a number….I couldn’t retrieve my text, but hopefully she got to read it.

Now here’s a site that gets me laughing. John Atkinson is just so creative with his hands, brain, words, images! Nothing to do with tatting, but a good dose of intelligent (mostly) and irreverent (always) fun. From the time I came across it a few months back, I wait eagerly for his next cartoon.

And last but not least, Helen Walters created an entire wreath of poppy ice drops (my secret fb correspondent sent me a screenshot) inspired  by my tiny heart poppy which in turn is a 3D adaptation of Mónica Manceñido’s heart!!! Isn’t it fantastic how patterns move and inspire?! The poppy ice drop pattern is now shared on the Shuttlebirds site.

I read that this year jute poppies were sold/gifted in the UK to mark the contribution of Indian troops during WW1.

I absolutely love the poppy flower - the colours, the elegance, the independence! Should really make an effort to tat this one again and diagram the pattern properly. 

till next time, then .... have a great weekend with tons of tatting for the coming season!

Shuttlebirds challenge accepted

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Shuttlebirds has started their Wednesdays Weekly Challenge after a hiatus of 4 years. I didn’t have a clue at the time, but when it showed up in my blog roll, I couldn’t stay away. Nicola’s patterns are always a treat – to see, to follow, to tat. And even though I’m no fan of tatting animals (except birds, butterflies, & bunnies) tatting long shapely chains are always a challenge.

Wednesday's Weekly Challenge #45

Cheeky Monkey by Nicola Bowersox

Techniques I used:

2 shuttles, ctm (for 1^st part)

scmr with thrown/floating rings

directional or fs/bs tatting

dimpled chain

lock join

lock join with 2^nd shuttle

switch shuttles

In Anchor size 20, the monkey stands 3" tall x 2.5" wide

As always, the images, notations, and instructions are very clear.

However, for shuttle tatters, one needs to choose which shuttle to work with, when to switch shuttles and with which shuttle to make the lock join.

I sewed in 2 black beads for eyes later, though they can be pre-strung.

My ‘mistakes’ –

For the right armpit, I didn’t make the lock join with other shuttle. The ‘twist’ is glaring!

I was so focused on the stitchcount for the long tail that I forgot to snug the stitches more compactly.

Long chains are not easy to control or hold shape, but I’m fairly happy with how these turned out. It is a very cleverly designed and executed pattern and wish my monkey was more perfect.

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I went through the list of previous challenges and chose the very first one. This butterfly has been flying around pinterest for ages and I first made it in 2013, before I started blogging. Not satisfied, it’s been in one of my to-retat boxes (don’t remember which one – I need to ‘organise’ a massive hunt!).

Wednesday's Weekly Challenge #1

Butterfly by an unknown designer

UPDATE: Pattern is by Anna G.Vecherskaya in Frivolité  1991, p19.

Read about her here - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5624.asp

The link on the site doesn’t work, but a quick search through pinterest will throw up the pattern. This is the one I followed (from a Russian book). It is a beautiful butterfly within butterfly design, tatted in one pass!

Techniques I used:

2 shuttles

scmr

directional or fs/bs tatting

lock join

slt  

very small & decorative picots

lock chain

In Anchor & Lizbeth size 40, the butterfly is 2” high with a wing span of 1½”. 

Knotted the 2 threads together and worked a lock chain for first antenna, then worked the 4 inner rings as mock rings separated by an unflipped 2^nd half stitch to secure.

I had earlier started with normal rings but horrors, the thread broke while closing the last ring.

In the 2^nd round SLT is used to keep the chain and rings of same colour.
Ended with the 2^nd antenna, knotting and snipping off ends.

No sewing !!!

I tweaked the stitchcount on the lower wings (outer round) to get this shape.

Trying to play with colour combinations, though I’m not too happy with the pink shade.

This old butterfly from 2013 is worked in South Maid size 10. 

Normal rings instead of mock rings. And it is missing an antenna. Will tackle it when I find it, and update with the dimensions. 

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Catch you later, folks :-D