JS Doily I

This is the cover doily from Jan Stawaz's Tatting Theory and Patterns.

I'm just now starting the medallions for this round. Well, actually I started a while ago, I can't seem to make them right and have cut off 2 of them already so I could start over. His doilys require a lot of attention and patience as the notation on the graphic isn't always so easy to follow. I have both of his books and his work is beautiful, but not always for the faint of heart.

So far these rounds are made with DMC Cebelia in ecru and Lizbeth #640, Antique Violet Medium in size 20.

For the first time I'm keeping track of my time in a larger project. So far I've logged at least 34.5 hrs on this. And 8.5 of those hours were cut off because I misread the pattern for the violet petals and was over half way around before I realized I wasn't supposed to join those petals like I did in the first round. It was frustrating, but at the same time a bit of a relief to finally realize that my mistake was the reason it was cupping.

Snowflake

This is  "Sahmura" from Jon Yosoff's Elegant Tatting Gems. It is made in Lizabeth size 80 color #163 Blue Ice. About 1 1/2" wide. My first snowflake of the season.

A new doiley

This is Doily 8 from Tatting Patterns and Theory by Jan Stawasz.  The center is made up of 19 of these little motifs joined together. Each one takes about an hour to hour and 15 to make, depending on how coordinated I am at the moment.

I'm using size 40 Lizabeth in Latte Foam.

Wedding garter

This is a wedding garter I made for a coworker of Scott's. It started out as Gina Butler's Wedding Garter. No matter how much I practiced, I could not get the dimpled ring to look right. So I modified it to a simple ring with 3 picots at the top. On I went until it was long enough, then I rounded the corner and started back up with the lock chain. Me and lock chains do not get along. Again, no matter how much I practiced I could never get the chains to be the same length even though I figured about 16 lock stitches was about the correct width. Oh, did I mention that the bride gave me 1/4" wide ribbon. (Note to self: next time give a width).

It got to the point where I stopped working on it and put it aside. I debated on starting a new one from a different pattern. Finally I couldn't wait any longer and ran out of time to start from scratch. In the mean time I saw someone else's garter on facebook where they just used a satin ribbon and attached the lace like an edging. So off to the craft store for a premade garter. I get it home and out of the packaging and it looked really small. I put it on and it almost cut the circulation off just above my knee. I wasn't sure if she wanted this as a keepsake or to actually wear on her wedding day.

So back to the craft store for ribbon and elastic.

I studied the premade garter and it looked like they just folded the ribbon in half and stitched very close to the edge. So that's what I did and then threaded through the elastic. Now what? How do I close this up? So I just sewed the ends together and hoped the seam wouldn't irritate her too bad if she did end up wearing it. After hand sewing the edging on, I used her ribbon to make the bow.

The bride loved it and I still don't know if she wore it for the ceremony.

Different color way

Hello from Meridian, ID.  The Hubs is off at a Dyno Days/swap meet thing.  I walked across the street for a pepsi and have spent the morning sitting outside, enjoying the sun and tatting.  Whiskey alternates between the sun and shade.

After finishing the second round on Renulek's Spring Napkin, I decided I didn't like the color choice. So I restarted using white for the chains and different pastels for the rings. So far I like this a lot better.  I missed a few joins so I'll take care of those later.

Spring Napkin 2014

I recently started Renulek's Spring 2014 Napkin. So far it's done in Lizabeth Lilac Med #642. I know I want to make it in white and lilac but not sure if I want to throw in a green or yellow round for a truly spring look.

11-21-14 Updated to add: I didn't care for the solid purple so I finished that round and called it done. Now I can't find it to add a final photo.