No Tatting Post This Week

Well, at least not for the next several days. Due to a death in the family, I will be away until Wednesday sometime. My paternal Grandmother lost her battle to cancer on Friday. I may try to do some tatting while I am away. Grandma would have wanted me too; she was very supportive of my tatting, and proudly shared this fact to her friends.

Later.

Chinese Dragon Invasion!!!!!!

From the title, I'm sure you can guess what I tatted lately. Yup, you would be correct to assume it was the newest dragon pattern to enter Tatland.

Please click on the photo to enlarge it. This is Anne Bruvold's Chinese Dragon. See the blog post here for the pattern. This is a magnificent piece to tat. The instructions were easy to follow (my "guy" mind skipped over a few critical parts, but that's me and not the pattern). I stayed up late a couple nights in a row so I could keep working on the pattern. I loved watching the dragon take shape. I did make a few mistakes, er, design variations. I seemed to have skipped over the sentence in the pattern where it states where to begin joining onto the Sun. It should be rotated 90 degrees. But I like the way it is. I also skipped over the part of the pattern where the second leg was supposed to be tatted. I happily tatted a good 4 or 5 rings and chains past the point. I had to cut 4 or 5 rings and reattach the thread. I fortunately didn't have to cut the second shuttle thread. I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour # 142 (Turquoise Twist). In size 20 thread, the dragon is about 8 1/2 inches long from the nose to the tip of the tail, and about 4 inches tall. I plan on tatting the dragon again. I think it would look gorgeous if tatted with a metallic thread. I'm thinkin' Oren Bayan metallic thread in green, red or blue. I'll have to order some in one or more of those colours. This will be Motif #3 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

I know. I was going to post about the new tatting book I got, but it will have to wait until next time. On the plus side, I can also blog about the new thread I purchased recently, and about the two tatting books I found on ebay this weekend. Till next time.

Test-Tatting For Linda, Part 2

Howdy. I finally got around to posting about the second flower that I test-tatted for Linda Davies. This time, the flower is a freesia. If you're not sure what a freesia is, here is a photo from Wikipedia:


As with the previous post, here are a few photos of the flowers in various stages of construction:


As always, Linda's sense of realism is impressive. She didn't make just one size of flower, but three plus an unopened bud. Many of Linda's patterns contain flowers of different sizes. When put together, the finished flowers look quite realistic. The finished freesia is no exception:

Here is the finished freesia flowers (posing with my young date palm seedlings). The individual flowers are quick to tat, and is simple enough for beginner tatters. While each flower is pretty on it's own, the beauty of the flower comes from the sum of its parts. Once put together, the freesia looks much more beautiful than the individual flowers and it looks far more complicated than it really is. The flowers were made with Flora size 20 thread in colour numbers 204 (yellow) and 221 (red). I am going to call this motif #2 of my Third(!) 25 Motif Challenge. The daffodils were number 1.

I'll leave you now with a pretty plant photo. It is a small variegated vine, and I have no idea what it is. If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments. Thanks. I should be able to post again early next week, since I have a new tatting book in my possession. Till next time.