Perseverence

I am almost finished with the Flower Pot project.  All I have to do is glue it on to the tile.  This is how it will look:

This size project is perfect for me.  When I start a new project, I'm on a mental high.  I get to pick out new thread colors, choose a pattern and imagine what the finished piece will look like.  The initial enthusiasm lasts until the project is complete and I can admire my handiwork with a great sense of accomplishment.

A large project, on the other hand, requires a lot of mental effort on my part to stick with it.  Take for instance, Renulek's Spring Doily.  I am currently on row 9.  The excitement of picking out colors and getting started has long since morphed into long, tedious repeats of the same ring/chain sequence and count.  Here's how it looks now.

But I am determined to not let this project become another UFO that lands in a box somewhere, forgotten.  I really love the design and am mustering all my mental fortitude to continue to make progress.  That's why I am taking little breaks to tat a Flower Pot or bookmark now and then.  I need the mental high of a small project to carry me through the tedium of this gigantic project.  It may be well into summer before this spring doily is finished.  But that's okay.  When it's done, it will be the most beautiful thing I own.

Happy Easter

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!

Magnify your tatting and use plenty of Modge Podge!

I am always on the lookout for creative ways to display my tatting.  While shopping at Michael's the other day, I found some round, glass disks in the Mosaic section.  They seemed to be the perfect size for a small motif, you know, those little ones you make to clean out a shuttle.  Here's how it turned out.

I used Modge Podge to glue it to the back of the disk, then stuck a magnet on the back and put it on my refrigerator.  See how the glass magnifies the tatting.  It looks really cool in real life.  I can see my fridge covered in tatted embellished magnets over time.  The pattern is from "Tatted Treasures" by Jan Stawasz.

At Home Depot, I spotted various sizes of white ceramic tiles, the kind you use to tile your kitchen or bath.  I thought they would look lovely with a little tatting on them, so I bought a couple (ahem, 6 or 8) and have started embellishing them.   They are quite inexpensive, less than 50 cents for a 3 inch by 3 inch tile and a little over a dollar for a 6 inch by 8 inch tile.  Here is my first masterpiece.

And when you attach a plate hanger to hang it on the wall, it looks like this.

I used Modge Podge to glue it to the tile.  Using a paint brush, I brushed a good layer of Modge Podge, to the back of the tatting, not to the tile.  I carefully positioned the butterfly and pressed it down, trying not to get Modge Podge on the rest of the tile.  Even though it dries clear, you can see little spots of Modge Podge around the butterfly.  I was able to scratch those off with my fingernail after the piece dried.  The tile has a nice glaze, and you don't want to blemish it with spots of Modge Podge.  This butterfly pattern came from Martha Ess' old blog site.  I don't know if she has re-posted this pattern onto her new site.

When a Tatter Gets Bored...

When a tatter gets bored, she loses concentration.  When she loses concentration, she forgets to join picots.

When she forgets to join picots, she has to work on other projects for awhile.  I knew when I started round 8 that I would go crazy before it was finished, and I was right.  There are like 50 flower motif repeats in this round and it gets so monotonous repeating the same sequence over and over.  About half way through the round, I missed joining the sixth ring to the first, twice.  That was when I knew it was time to work on something else for a while.  So I made this lovely cross.

It's from the book Tatted Bookmarks - Cross Shaped by Lena Bjorn.  This is the cross named Camilla.  It's done in Lizbeth size 40 Arctic Waters and Fern Green Medium.  I love the muted neutral colors and the subtle color changes.

I also worked on some flowers by Jan Stawasz from his book Tatted Treasures.

The yellow centers are Lemon Yellow light and the bright pink petals (I know it looks red in the picture, but it's a bright hot pink) is Altin Basik #358.  The stems are Christmas green.  The bright, springlike colors restored my sanity, and I am happy to report that I am finally finished with round 8 of Renulek's doily.  The only thing keeping me going on that project is the desire to have a beautiful doily at the end of the process, no matter how tedious or long the rounds get.  I am so happy with how it looks now and how her finished doily looks that I will forge ahead until it's done.  Oh, and about those missed joins, I plan to perform some minor surgery and tie them off with the same color thread and hide the ends.  I'm not a perfectionist and I don't think those minor errors will ruin the whole project.

More Spring Doily

My Spring Doily, designed by Renulek, is coming along nicely.  I am about half way through round 8.  This round goes much slower than rounds 7 and 6 because of all the rings and chains in the flower motifs.  It's too big to fit on the scanner, so here's about half of it.

Notice how I started round 8 in the middle of a flower motif instead of at the stand-alone ring.  I started this way so that I won't have to make the final join from flower chain to the stand-alone ring and then have to continue tatting the last ring of the flower and the chain that attaches to the rest of the doily after the final join.  When I get to the end of this round, all I'll have to join is rings 4 and 5 of the flower.  The last chain will be at the top of my work and I'll just have to lock join it to the first ring made.  I hate, hate, hate having to make a final join, then fold the piece in half and make another chain or ring.  It can get very fiddly and doesn't look as good as the rest of the work (at least I can tell where the final chain was).  So, if you haven't started rounds 3 or 8 yet, I suggest you start in the middle of a flower motif to end the round at the top of your work, not between rounds.

I really love tatting this with so many others in the world tatting the same thing.  I enjoy seeing everybody's color choices and progress.  And this pattern is so beautiful, I may have to tat another one in Spring colors.

Spring 2014 Doily Continued

Progress is faster now on rounds 6 and 7 since they are so easy.  Here is the doily after completing round 6.

This has been a very enjoyable project so far.  It's doesn't use any difficult techniques and it's easy to memorize the pattern of each round after just a couple of repeats.  It's all simple rings and chains with a few rings thrown off a chain in a few rounds. But the pattern is very straightforward, so join the giant tat-a-long that has spontaneously  broken out all over tatland.  You can find the pattern on Renulek's blog.  Scroll down to her earlier posts to get the beginning of the pattern.

Here is a detailed shot of my doily. This picture shows the real colors pretty well.

And this picture is for scale.  At this stage it measures about 9 inches across.  I put a 6 inch ruler across the top of the doily but it's clear, so you can't see it very well.

Slow progress on Spring Doily

I've been working diligently on Renulek's Spring 2014 doily and thought I'd made good progress until I started reading other blogs.  I have just finished round 5.  Fox is on round 8 and Sally has made three such doilies, and all three are farther a long than mine. Even Renulek, who has to design the row before she tats it, is ahead of me. I know it's not a race, but I must be the slowest tatter on the web.  I'm considering changing my blog name to "The Turtle Tatter."  Anyway, here is my progress so far.

Here is a close up for detail.

And here it is with a shuttle in the picture for scale.