Strivers (Stitch Place Holders)

Have you ever run into a pattern that calls for a Paperclip but when you get back around to the paperclip and join to the held stitch you find that your piece doesn't "look" quite right?  Paperclips are just TOO bulky!  One of the lady's over at InTatters showed us these Strivers and I just HAD to make my own!

All you need to make your very own Striver is an Earring Finding (I used a French Hook here, but other styles can be used too...I just added more "curl" to my hook), a small length of wire to hold a few beads on, some beads, a charm and a pair of Needle Nose or Jewelers Pliers.  How easy is that?  Much more elegant looking than a Paperclip as well!  I've used this Striver with thread all the way down to size 30 with great success and think it will even go down to smaller thread just fine.

Hope you all make some pretties for your tatting box now. ;-)

Life Has a Bad Habit

Life has a bad habit of getting in the way fo the Creative Process...or at least the sharing of that process with my friends here.  I'm very sorry it has been so long since my last post.  I've been fighting some major depression brought on by some things that are going on in my life right now.  Hopefully, soon these will be over and I can get back on an even keel and get back to posting regularly.
Now, our Tatting Design Course is over, and I have done all but the last 2 lessons....yup, I even fell behind in that as well, but I have a LOT to share with you today.  Gonna catch you all up with my tatting work since I last posted at least.  Tatting brings me peace, so I do it a LOT!  ;->
Lesson 6:  We drew out the Pattern for Lesson 5 and my version can be found here: http://www.4shared.com/document/WEn0zCxb/Lesson_6_Drawing.html


Lesson 7 and 8 were more working with the Graphic's Program that we were learning, so nothing to show for it, but Lesson 9 was (in my opinion) the MOST fun Lesson of all!  We got to take a clip art drawing of a Snowflake and, using the Graphic's Software, create a pattern for a Snowflake using Tatting.  Well, I really enjoyed doing this one!  Here is my pattern for Lesson 9:

There is nothing to show for the next Lesson and I haven't finished the last 2 Lessons.

However, I have done more tatting and another design project as well.  I took a Design Challenge by one of the members of InTatters and came up with this lovely Snowflake Pattern.

This one was a very fun one to work!  I showed the first row finished, because I think that would also make a great looking ornament on its own as well.

I've also done some Motifs for a Summer Challenge on InTatters.  Here they are:

And a Doily designed by Yarnplayer.  I simply LOVED working up this lovely!

Well, that is all of the completed work I have to share with you today.  I hope to start posting more regularly again very soon.  Thank you all for being patient with me and sorry for taking so long to catch you all up with me.  My "head" knows that a problem shared is a problem lightened, but when it actually came down to coming here and posting, I just couldn't find the "umph"  Hopefully, I have broken that cycle with this post! :->

I'm SO bad!

Sorry I keep falling behind!  See my post here for more expaination...

We have finally taken our Tatting Designs to the point where we have drawn the whole design out!  Here is mine!  Hope you all have fun with it!

Here is some more tatting that I have been doing.  These patterns come from Lyn Morton's book, Tatting Jewellery and are tatted with a single strand of Gold Metallic DMC embroidery floss and size 8/0 seed beads.

Lesson 5 and Another of My Crochet Patterns

Well, it has been some time...sorry.  We have actually done Lesson 5 and Lesson 6, but there is nothing yet to show for Lesson 6.  Life kind of got in the way and I got behind on a lot of things...blog posts seem to always fall to the bottom of the To-Do list for some reason...sorry.
Lesson 5 was a total Blast for me!  I hope you all enjoy the pattern that I have written!  I have included the full pattern for the medallion I made in the previous lesson Here.
I am also sharing another of my Crochet Designs with you.  This one is called Dee's Hospitality and is a wonderful doily that I designed in honor of a very loving Aunt who helped me out several years ago.  Here is a (not so good...sorry) picture of the doily.

If any of you make any of my patterns up, I would really love to see them!  Just send me a picture to the email in  my Profile and if you will allow it, I will post the picture of your work here on my Blog too!

Latest Tatted Jewelry

This pattern comes from the book Tatted Jewellery by Lyn Morton (not yet available her in the US, but available in the UK)
I used a single strand of DMC Metallic Gold Embroidery Floss to tat with and large seed beads.  I added a very tiny (2-2) ring at the base of the earrings to accomodate the erring wires.

The patterns in this book are stunning eyecandy and I can't wait to tat up some more!

Doily from 1946 Magazine

This doily (#9083) is tatted from a pattern from the 1946 edition of the J & P Coats Tatting Magazine #229.  I have tatted this up using some very old thread (don't know whether it quilifies as vintage itself) that I got from a lady after she died.  The ball still had the price tag on it of $.25 USD! :-O  It is Clark's Big Ball size 30, color #37.  The finished doily measures 10.5" across.

Whoot! My FIRST Design in Design Class!

Yeup, you read right!  We got to do some designing for our 4th Lesson!  SO cool!  Sharon gave us the first round, the medallion of Chains and Rings, done to specific stitch count.  OUR job was then to come up with the Second Round!  The one constraint we had was that we could ONLY join to the first round at the Picots on every other Chain.  Well, this is what I came up with.  What do you think?  A keeper?  Should I keep going and go for a 3rd Round?  ;-)  For those interested in what I did for my second round, I've included my directions.

The main idea of this lesson was to learn about Negative Space and the impact it has on your design and how to use it.

You ready for another of my Crochet Designs? (sorry for the quality of the large picture)

This one is David's Ring Mail and was designed for a very special friend who passed away many years ago. One of his favorite things to do was to make Chain Mail, so in honor of his memory, I made this Doily and sent it to his mother several years ago around the Anniversary of his death. I still keep in touch with her as he and his family still hold very special spots in my heart. I hope you will all enjoy the very challenging, but truely pretty pattern.