The Next Japanese Motif and New Shuttles

No, I haven't disappeared, again. I don't know how some of you can post daily. Nothing really interesting happening. I have been tatting. I've done a little bit of chainmaille. It snowed, again. Yeah, we'll move on to the tatting.

I actually finished the following motif at least a week ago, but hadn't got around to posting it till now.

This is from the same Japanese book as the last motif. That book would be of course, Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. Again since I don't know if it has a name, it's on page 55. I like the way this motif looks. However, despite my best attempts I realized that I missed a join about halfway through, and didn't notice it until the final repeat. I only noticed it 'cause something didn't seem right. To finish the motif (I wasn't cutting out over half the round) I had to repeat the mistake and skip a join. So I am missing one repeat, and I think it makes the motif a bit oval shaped instead of round. I'm definitely redoing this pattern soon. Also, the centre two rounds are used in other patterns, so I may have to try them too. The above motif is about 4.75 inches in diameter and tatted using Lizbeth size 20 thread, colour #163 Blue Ice.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I ordered several of those new Aerlit tatting shuttles. But not from Handy Hands. As much as I'd like to spend $100+ on tatting stuff to make their shipping charges worthwhile and trust me, I'd like to (maybe after Christmas), I opted to purchase from one of the other tatting suppliers. I believe all the major online suppliers have the new shuttles for anyone interested. Anyway, I bought 4 of them, in three colours:

I'm sure you guys knew I would have to get a couple of blue ones. These were the colours that appealed to me the most. And among the least, um, feminine. I also bought some additional bobbins to go with these:

You had to know that was coming, right?? So far, I'm quite impressed with them, the shuttles, of course. I've been using one since they arrived. It started off somewhat stiff, but it loosened a bit and work great now. Though time will tell about how long the ratcheting action will last and we have a loose bobbin. I have to admit, I'm not used to how thin they are. I use mostly my Pop-a-Bobbin shuttles which are rather thick. I should (perhaps again) mention that I almost never use post style shuttles. I almost always use bobbin shuttles. I know this came up a couple posts ago about the Japanese motif with the overlapping (Celtic style?) chain. The bobbins wouldn't fit through the space. I had to unwind the bobbins.

I think that's all for now. I have other stuff to share, but I'm going try to split my posts up and post less, more often. I commented on Jane's blog this morning on her post about the Blogger/Picasa image storage issue that some people are having. I'm using a whopping 4% of my storage limits. Instead of resizing my images, I probably should post more often. So, I'll try. I've been working on some tatted earrings for my mom and I've been test tatting for Frivole, so I'm going to make them each a separate post, probably scheduling them to post every few days. Anyway, till next time.

Motifs # 9 and # 10

Here is my motif number 9:



It is a "Stargazer Lily" by Linda S Davies. The pattern is available in Linda's book, "Exotic Range of Tatted Flowers". The book is available at Linda's website. I really like this pattern. It is fairly simple, so each petal can be made quite fast. Combined with lily stamens, purchased or homemade (mine are homemade), and some wire, you get a very realistic lily. I used Flora thread in colour numbers 205 & 225.

My next motif comes from the creative mind of Nancy Tracy of Be-Stitched:


It is Nancy's newest pattern of the month, a Magnolia. While mine doesn't look like Nancy's, it is still a very beautiful, realistic flower. I used Coats thread in an unknown variegated pink and Coats Opera thread in white, both size 30. You will see this flower again. I plan on making the Magnolia in size 10 thread. Magnolia flowers can be up to 8 inches (or more) in diameter, and I like to make 3D flowers as realistic as possible.

And finally, I got some new shuttles!!!


The green shuttle on the left is a Sew Mate Shuttle. The shuttle on the upper right is a David Reed Smith shuttle made with walnut wood. The shuttle on the lower right is a David Reed Smith shuttle made out of Zebrawood. Even though I far prefer Aero shuttles (or almost any bobbin type shuttle) I really like these three post type shuttles. I have always wanted a DRS shuttle for as long as I knew they existed. Thanks to my grandma and the birthday money I got last month, I finally have my David Reed Smith shuttles.