Bookmarks

I've been tatting a lot of bookmarks lately.  I think bookmarks are my favorite thing to tat.  They don't usually take long, so I get a feeling of accomplishment in just a few days.  They don't require the months of commitment (and sometimes frustration) that a larger project, like a doily, demands.  And I get to try out new colors and patterns frequently.  The only down side to bookmarks is that they are almost becoming old fashioned like the doily (I love doilies too, but they are old fashioned.).  Nobody reads hard copy books anymore, including me.  Bible bookmarks, on the other hand are still very useful.  Everybody has an actual bible, not an e-bible.  So for my first bookmark, I present to you a bible bookmark.

Motif # 1

This little beauty was done in Lizbeth Scottish Thistle and Country Grape medium, both in size 40.  The pattern is from Lene Bjorn's Tatted Bookmarks - Cross-shaped.  I"m sending this cross half way around the world to my friend in Santiago, Chile.

My husband still reads real books and has been asking me for a while to make him a rainbow bookmark.  I've made several others and he wanted one too.

Motif #2

This is one of my favorite patterns and it is so fast and easy to tat up.  The pattern is Jane's bookmark and can be found here.  The thread is size 20 Rainbow Splash by Tat-ilicious.

Since Spring is almost here (it is here in Texas), I decided to make this lovely flower/butterfly pattern that I found here.

Motif # 3

I used Lizbeth Sea Island Citrus in size 40.  This bookmark was a joy to tat and I'm keeping it for myself for the moment, but I'm sure it will come in handy as a last minute gift one of these days.

And finally, in order to empty my shuttles of the Sea Island Citrus thread, I tatted this little butterfly.

Motif # 4

 Martha Ess shared the pattern on her blog, so I thought I'd try it out.  I think the picots are a little too big on mine and it loses the butterfly shape.  I want to try it again with smaller outer picots.  But I like the pattern and it's great for emptying a couple shuttles.

I've decided to take on another 25 motif challenge since I have such a great start just on this blog post.

Hard Heart

I saw this motif on Ninetta Caruso's pattern page and fell in love with it, especially the hearts in the center.

But this was not an easy tat by any means.  Each heart had 64 double stitches.  After about 20 stitches it got hard to pull extra thread through to continue the ring.  And then pulling the ring tight without twisting it was a real challenge.  Luckily there were only 4 hearts.  The rest of the motif was a real joy.  And I must say I am happy with the results.  But this motif did not go well from the beginning.  My original plan was to make the center hearts and rings solid pink and the outer rings and chains the variegated Girly Girl color you see in the picture.  But when I started winding the shuttle with the variegated thread, I turned off my brain and started thinking about how I hated sewing in ends...and about how pretty the colors were...and a million other things that were going through my mind during the mindless shuttle winding process.  Before I knew it, I had a second shuttle half-way wound CTM with the same thread, so I figured why not tat the whole thing in variegated.  The heart motif on top is by Anne Bruvord and is found here.

Speaking of Anne Bruvord hearts, here is the completed heart bookmark that I showed you in the last post.

I love how this picture turned out.  I put the shuttle on the scanner to show scale, then put a blue piece of construction paper on top as a contrasting color so that the bookmark would show up.  But there was so much space between the paper and the scanner that it shows up as black with just a little blue around the edges.  But I love how this bookmark turned out.  It is tatted in vintage Coats & Clark size 70 thread in white, shades of pink, and solid pink.

And finally, I'm a little behind on the TIAS.  Here is what mine looks like after day 9.

I'm still seeing some kind of character with a pointy had and beard, like an elf or gnome, but it is still way up in the air.  It could be anything.