Treasures

Yes, that's right. Some treasures have come to me and I am so excited about it.
You want to see them? Really? In a while .....

First, how did I come across these treasures?

A few weeks back Karen Patten from Bartlett, Tennessee wrote in HBT about her mother's tatting stuff that she plans to offer at special prices. You see, her mother hasn't been well and is no longer able to do any tatting no matter how hard she tries. There are a number of tatting stuff that Karen is tidying away and made a list of things that she is putting up for sale. The first person to respond will get the first choice pickings.

I think I may have been the first one to e-mail her about it. There are a number of books in the list and I made a pick of these three.

A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior

I have read so many people mentioned Mary Konior and the books that she has written. I am so excited to be able to own one of her books. The simplicity of the designs in this book make me realise that simple patterns make the prettiest of designs.

The Complete Book of Tatting by Rebecca Jones

This book by Rebecca Jones contains a comprehensive description of the various ways of tatting, or rather how to make the double stitch. There are six ways to be exact, the sixth being needle tatting. It certainly opened my eyes - there are so many things that I still don't know about tatting. Another chapter that I find interesting is on Tatted Notepaper, where Rebecca Jones explained how to use tiny pieces of tatting to decorate greeting cards and notes. There is even a page of suggested sketches that can be used on the cards.

Tatting Techniques and History by Elgiva Nicholls.

There are no patterns in this book by Ms Nicholls but I already knew that before I picked this book from the list. And I did not regret getting this. This book is all about techniques, and history as well. And, I am a technical person to some point. I always want to know the how of doing things because it make me understand better why certain things are done the way they are done. And this book explains them in detail.

Besides the books I also got myself ten pieces of Susan Bates post shuttles. I don't know when I'll be using them but any tatter will tell you that one will never have enough of shuttles ... he he he.


Pardon me while I brag ... aren't I lucky or what!

Medallion

Another motif of tatting over a plastic ring. You are going a few more of this type for a while to come.


This designed caused me to retro-tat at a point when I was already at the last ring of the second round. I know it would be easier to just cut and start over, but it is not a very large motif so I took the risk and survived the retro-tatting bit, :-) Now all done except for the tidying of the thread ends (which is another pet hate)

The thread is size 20 Hakelgarn Online and the plastic ring used measure 23mm wide

I am Tired .......

*sigh* I am tired!
My parents are not well. I have been taking turns with my other siblings taking care of them since the past two months. I travel daily to my sister's, cos that is where they are now. I leave my house at 7.00am and come back at about 4.00pm or 5.00pm.

I am so tired!
I don't get to do much tatting now. I used to be able to put in a few hours of tatting during the day, but not anymore. It has turned for the worse for my mom and any spare time I had was spent taking a nap or just resting. And when I come back home, I am already flat out after dinner, in front of the telly. Instead of me watching the telly, it is 'watching' me, LOL.

I am very tired!
I bring my laptop with me everyday, hoping that I can work on documenting my patterns, but I don't even have time to check my mails. If you have written to me and not received any replies, I apologise. I will try to do it when I eventually get to read them. If it is of something important or urgent, please re-send to me so that it is back on top of the file again and there is a better chance of me reading it.

I am tired, *sigh*

Earrings Again

A couple more pairs of earrings. Both were tatted with Olympus 40. The '40' may not be indicating the thread size, because it feels thicker than the other size 40 that I have used

Earrings

My latest, hot off the shuttles,

.... or rather, shuttle because each piece is worked with one shuttle only and a little bit of finger tatting for split rings.

Made with Coral Reef size 40

I used plastic rings tatted over with double-stitches for the circle in the middle to add weight to the earrings. The length from the top down is 5.5cm and 3.5cm wide. The plastic ring inside is 2cm wide on the outside.

Here are a few more using the same design concept, but turned into a hanging ornament.