Lace Mat Poll - details coming soon

Here is a collage of 21 out of 26 Lace Mats that I have received so far,

In preparation for the poll, I am removing the names of the tatters of each Lace Mat and only assign a number.  That is to ensure that there are no undue advantage to any tatter when the polling starts in ealy January.

You may still submit a picture of your Lace Mat until 31st December 2012 be included in the listing for the poll.  I will add it to the Gallery but will not include your name with it.

I have not put together the goodies for the winner.  When I do, I will try to put together things that appeal to tatters.  Who knows, I may decide to have more than one winner, ;)

Raspberry Pink Doily Done

Finished the raspberry-pink doily that I started here.

There are nine rounds in this doily. I tatted with size 40 Lizbeth and ended up with a doily measuring slightly over 7 inches.

I was contemplating adding a 10th round, an all-chain round of arches over each small ring. But I want to get started on the next design so I think I'll leave it as it is for now.  Maybe I'll come back to it later and if I feel like adding that 10th round.

Now, on the demo/workshop.
I only managed to get two students that day.  there were many interested to see how I do it but not enough to pick-up the shuttle and attempt it themselves.  But, the two that did managed quite well.  One progressed up to making joins and finished one half of a butterfly in the two hours allocated.  The other was slightly hampered by sweaty hands and had trouble closing the rings, but showed real interest to learn.  They went home with a shuttle each and some thread for them to continue tatting, and I hope they will keep up with it.

There will be another workshop on Saturday and I hope the turnout will be better.

As requested by Fox, here is the pink doily with against a white background.

I have to agree with Fox on this one.  The white background is more pleasing to the eye.

I forgot to mention earlier - I tatted this without cutting after rounds.  I worked with two shuttles and utilised the split chains and split rings to jump to the next round right up till the end. All in, I used up five shuttle-full of thread.  Any thread ends at the point of adding new thread are tatted over.  The only ends that I need to hide are the two at the end.

Don't you love split rings and split chains ;)

Butterflies: what became of them

Here is the answer to what I am doing with the butterflies,

These flat shuttles are made by sandwiching the butterflies between clear plastics.  First, I printed shuttle shapes on a piece of paper.  One page of A4 gives me 14 shuttles.  Then, I place the shuttle template under a clear plastic and glue a butterfly at the centre of each shuttle shape. Using spray glue, I glued two clear plastic together with the butterflies in between.

To cut out the shuttle shape, I placed each butterfly over a template and trace the shape out with a craft knife with only enough pressure to cut one layer of the clear plastic. The second layer is cut by using scissors following the cut mark of the first layer.  I did it that way because I don't want any ink mark showing if I were to trace the shape with a pen.  To finish off, I punch holes and snip to the edge for winding the thread.

The shuttles worked fine, though it slowed me down a bit.

And all this is in preparation for a tatting demo/workshop that I will be conducting two days from now.  I would really like to be able to use actual shuttles but I will not be able able to get enough in time for the event.  I need to place orders for them.  But, I will bring some real shuttles for them to get the feel of it.

My next post will be about the workshop.

Butterflies

What am I going to do with these butterflies?  I need to tat about 50 of them,

You will know in a few days, ;)
I took about 10 mins to tat each one, in between watching the telly, which will make it 500 mins or about eight hours if I don't do anything else.

Starting on a new piece

I decided to listen to the advice of a good friend and put aside the large NB doily for  a while and start on a new piece of tatting.  There are a number of pieces that I have tatted along the years but never got round to doing up the chart or write out the instructions.

Thread is Lizbeth  #623, size 40

The picture above is the first three rows of one of the first doily that I designed, that I am tatting again for the purpose of preparing the chart/instruction. I have often read other tatters commenting that they can see the difference in the tension when comparing their work now to those done much earlier.  I can see that in mine, too.  Comparing this with the original, I don't think I would be happy with the loose tension of my earlier works.

Working on the next NB Pattern

I've been quiet in recent weeks because I have not been tatting much and there isn't much to share anyway.  I did put up short posts in my Facebook page though, (also named) Tat-a-Renda.

My progress with the large NB doily has been slow too.  This is the latest picture of it.

I thought I can be done with the mesh or rings before I start on the next drawing of another NB's pattern but it is not moving fast enough.  So, I decided to work on charting the NB medalllion pattern from the Trove site, linked here.

I have tatted these medallions before and wrote about it earlier. I decided to tat them again because I did not finish tatting all three.  I need to get them done and post the pictures together with the charts before sharing in my blog.  I have finished the largest of the three which is this oblong shape shown here, and have started on one of the squares.

Lace Mat poll

As of now, there are 16 Lace Mats in the Lace Mat Gallery, with the latest entry from Katherine B.  I think you will agree with me when I say that each one is unique on its own even though they are all tatted following the same pattern.

As I admire each one, I had a light-bulb moment! What if I hold a poll to pick a favorite Lace mat from the Gallery?  And the tatter who tatted the mat will get some goodies from me.

This is how I plan to do it.

1. For this poll, I will continue to accept photos of the Lace Mats up to 31st December 2012.  This will still give ample time for anyone who is still working on the Lace Mat, or yet to get started, to get their Lace Mats ready to be displayed in the gallery.
2. Please e-mail me a picture of your Lace Mat with information on the thread used and the final measurement.
3. I will put up the poll in my blog after the closing date for the entries.  Details on how the poll will be conducted will also be given at that time.

I have not been tatting much, so there are no pictures to share in this post.  I hope I can get something done by the next post.