Celebrations 3X

Eid Mubarak to my Muslim friends.  

May the month of Ramadhan that has passed been a month of fulfillment for the body and soul, and we emerge a better person from it.

And by coincidence,  today is also my birthday! he he he . . . .

The third reason for the celebration is for all Malaysians, Happy Merdeka Day on 31st August.  This year is the 54th year of independence for Malaysia.

This being a blog on tatting, I will leave you with a picture of the completed tatted star that I started a few posts previously.

Tatted in size 20 Yarnplayer's Fuchsia HDT.

The finished size of the star, point to point across, is about 20cm or 8 inches

Right on time

Continuing from here,
. . . .  I used up almost all of one skein of the Yarnplayer's HDT early today with just under 3m left in the thread holder.  All in, one skein is enough for 10 motifs and I needed 12 pieces to complete the star-shape.

Realising earlier that I will not have enough to complete the project, I ordered another skein of the thread from the Yarnplayer, and right on cue, it arrived today.   I also bought her Sue's blues with the second order, he he he . . . . just can't resist it.

Another idea just came to me, utilising this triangle motif.  I already made a bookmark with this triangle, as in the previous post  . . .  Until next time!

Updated:

I will stop at the star-shape.  Now, I am wondering . . .  should I just leave it as it is, when completed, or should I add a round of edging on the outside to hold everything together?

Time flies

I have to admit this .... I get easily distracted.  While tatting this, as posted earlier, an idea popped into my head, and I made these.

(excuse the blurry picture)

 

Not sure how to describe these.  They are bookmarks and they look like kites, so let's just call them Kites bookmark.  For the tails, I made single-shuttle split rings.  Instead of a tassel at the end I attached a charm.
The one on the left is made with a HDT given to me by Zarina and the one on the right is  Lizbeth HDT Leafy Green, size 40.

Now you know why I don't have large tatting items shown in my blog.  With all the distractions, I never get to finish them ... he he he.

Half and not quite half done

This is a shot of the full moon that I took early this morning.  That means Ramadhan has reached the half-way mark and there are 15 more days of fasting left.

Time seems to fly very fast as we get older, don't you think so?

The same can be said when I am tatting.  Before I realised it, I had been tatting for hours but not much to show for it.  Here is what my shuttle is turning out at the moment.

The thread used is Yarnplayer's Fuchsia HDT in size 20. The finished piece will be bigger than this but the amount of thread left will not be enough for me to complete the project.  Luckily, Yarnplayer had another skein of the same thread listed in her shop which I was able to purchase.

However, don't hold your breath to see the finished piece, :)

Exchanges Bookmarks and Postcards

Here are what I received in a few exchanges that I participated the last few months. Two are bookmark exchanges organised in In Tatters Forum and The Tatting Forum.
These two are what I received from my partners.

The one on top is from Prabhjyot for the exchange in In Tatters.  Prabhjyot wrote that the pattern used is the Supermodel Bookmark designed by Brooklynne Michelle made with Yarnplayer's Sugarmaple size 10.  I really admire the spiral chain attached to the bookmark.  The spacing in the spiral turn is so even.

The blue bookmark at the bottom is from Tattin' Kat which I received in the Tatting Forum exchange.  Tattin' Kat wrote that the pattern in the Floral Bookmark by Kersti Anear and tatted with needle. I am a shuttle-tatter and I can see the differences between a shuttle-tatted piece and a needle-tatted piece.  But, I have to say that the bookmark Tattin' Kat sent me is just lovely and delicate.  So, it does not matter what you use to tat, the result is still tatting.

Prabhjyot's was a little late to arrive, so Rachael (who organised the exchange in In Tatters) decided to send me a replacement bookmark, thinking that the one from my partner was lost in the postal system.  And these are what she sent me,

Rachael was inspired by my Magic Moment snowflake pattern when she designed the bookmark at the top and shared her pattern in In Tattters. You may need to be a member of In Tatters to be able to see it, but joining is free and click here to join.  The colourful Flower bookmark at the bottom is Rachael's own design and she shared her pattern here.  The thread is so fine, I think it may be size 50 or more.

As luck would have it, both mail from Prabhjyot and Rachael arrived on the same day.

There had not been any problem with the post regarding the delivery of the exchanges which I am having in the Shuttles and Needle group.  It is a Postcard-a-Month Exchange where we are to send a postcard to a different partner each month.  The exchange started in May and will run until December.  So far I have received these three for the months of May, June and July.

The blue postcard at the top is from Aileen, who sent me a 'uniquely' Singapore postcard, seeing that she is from Singapore.  The one on the bottom left is a postcard from De-de in the US.  It is a yummy one with a recipe of Buckeye Candy on it.  The bottom right is the most interesting of all.  It is from Diyanna from Malaysia.  Instead of sending the usual touristy postcard, she made one herself out a photo of her doing maintenance work on top of an airplane.  How creative is that!  She even taped a small tatted flower on the reverse and it arrived intact.  I am looking forward to see what other postcards that I will be getting from my other partners, and I hope my partners like what I sent them.

To unwind after completion of my latest book, Elegant Tatting Gems, I tatted some bracelets.

The bracelet in the middle is the "Bloomer" bracelet by Yarnplayer from her book Boutique Tatting.  The ones on the top and bottom are my own designs.

That's it from me for now.

Rose Window

Another snowflake design.

Model is tatted in size 40, size is 7cm across (point to point)

This is a two-shuttles pattern worked in three rounds.  I utilised a split ring in the pattern to jump out from the centre ring. The rounds in the charts are show in Yellow – Rnd 1, Green – Rnd 2 and Blue – Rnd 3.

Round 1

Begin in the centre with,
R(2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2), make each picot about 6mm long (when open) if using size 40 thread.
SR(4-2/4-2). Make sure to leave a distance of about the length of the picot of the centre ring before making the split ring.
Make the ring on the right side of the split ring as,
R(2+[p of the SR]4-6), completing the cloverleaf.
Flip the work over and make the ring on the other side of the SR, working on RODS,
R(2+[p of the SR]4-6).
Flip back to the front and reverse work.
(*) C(6-6), rw
R(6+[p of right ring of cloverleaf]6), rw.
C(6-6), rw.
Make the next cloverleaf,
R(6+[p of pr ring]4-2), R(2+[p of pr ring]4+[skip one p, join to next p of centre ring]4-2), R(2+[p of pr ring]4-6). Rw.

Repeat from (*) to finish this round. Cut and tie to beginning cloverleaf.

Round 2 – two shuttles
Join thread to any chain after the ring of (6-6) of Round 1. Begin with a chain.
C(3-3 +[lj to p of next ch of Rnd 1] vsp 8 +[lj to base of ring of Rnd 1]), dnr.
(§) Switch shuttle (SS), Jk(10), dnr.
SS, C(8 +[lj to p of next chain of Rnd 1] vsp 3-3 +[lj to p of next ch of Rnd 1] vsp 8 +[lj to base of next ring of Rnd 1]), dnr.
Repeat from (§) to finish this round, ending with a lock join to the beginning chain.
DO NOT CUT thread, continue with Round 3

Round 3
C(5-5 +[lj to vsp of Rnd 2]7-3), dnr.
(δ) SS, R(3+[p of pr chain]5-5-3), R(3+[p of pr ring]2-2-2-2-2-3), R(3+[p of pr ring]5-5-3), dnr.
SS, C(3+[p of pr ring]7 +[lj to next vsp of Rnd 2]5-5+[lj to next vsp of Rnd 2]7-3), dnr.
Repeat from (δ) to finish the round.

Cut thread, join to the beginning and hide ends.

For those unlucky in the draw - Rose Window

For those whose names were not drawn for the book give away, I hope this will make you happy.

Rose Window

This is the design shown in the top left corner of my header, partially hidden under the shuttles.  I had planned to include this in the book Elegant Tatting Gems, but I utilised a split ring to jump out of a round.  Somehow, that does not fit in with the theme of the book.

The name, Rose Window, was chosen because another tatter, Antiquarian if I recall correctly, had commented that it looks like a rose window. 

The pattern for the Rose Window is downloadable from here.
Now there are no losers.