Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Celtic Tatting Tea Tuesday

Tatting Tea Tuesday started with me sitting down with a steaming cup of Celestial Seasonings Irish Cream Mist tea. The warm aroma suited the crisp-but-cool air. Sadly, this flavor of tea has been discontinued and my stash is nearly gone. Just like summer.

At the end of July I posted about getting a package in the mail. It included two Celtic tatting shuttles, plus a free spool of Olive Green DMC cotton in size 80. Getting free thread rocks!

What a whirlwind these last 60 days have been. My head has been spinning for weeks, and I seem to be in perpetual "catch up" mode. But I have been itching to try my first bit of Celtic tatting. So today I broke out the Olive Green size 80 to tat a Celtic top for a strawberry.

For the first sample I played around with two colors on the leaves. Do you like it? I used DMC size 80 tatting cotton in mint green for the leaves and Handy Hands size 80 Majestic in Christmas Green (color #829).

The basic berry is tatted in Coats & Clarks "boilfast" size 70 tatting cotton. I thought the bright red made the berry look perfectly ripe and ready for picking.

Birgit Phelp's original pattern page shows a strawberry with solid green leaves.

My second basic strawberry still needs to have a Celtic top added. This is how far along I am.


Sorry about the poor image quality. I had to make due with a quick snapshot using the "dinker dog" camera since The Sprout is late for his follow-up appointment with the pediatrician.

Being woefully indecisive, I can't make up my mind if solid green, mint-multi or olive-multi looks better. What do you like best? (You can leave a comment or click on the check-boxes at the bottom.)

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

10 comments:

Carla said...

Wonderful strawberry!

Tatskool said...

Its yummy. the solid green looks a bit heavy, but not sure I like the mint green tho, bit too pale for a strawberry. maybe a varig thread would be nice! something a bit subtle just to give the leaves life.

Carol Schockling Lawecki said...

The strawberry is fantastic!! I think I like the solid green on the left, the olive color would look good too.

Hope your little one's appointment went well.

Have a great week!

IsDihara said...

Carla,
Thanks! I agree.

Tatskool,
Great suggestion about using variegated thread. A green variegated in size 80 would liven up these leaves (if such a colorway exists in this tiny size).

Carol,
Aw, thanks. I will post another bitty berry photo once the olive green/Christmas green top is finished.

The Sprout is 100% healthy - hurray! No strep, no lingering ear infection. Knock on wood that flu virus isn't next.

Gina said...

I guess I forgot or didn't know in the first place that this heart was a strawberry in fact! I like contrasts in green rather than all one color myself. Lovely!

Sally Kerson said...

I've just got this strawberry heart in front of me, and I like the one you did with the multi-coloured top best, it really shows it off, particularly as mine is just one colour green. I also put a few beads on the one I tatted to make it sparkle.
The tea also sounds great Irish Cream Mist - umm lovely!

tattrldy said...

I'm undecided about which green to use, though I like the idea of a variegated green. Nice job on it - it looks good enough to eat!

Fox said...

Me - I like the two colours and the contrast as opposed to a variegated green - unless the greens were perfect.

Your stitching is wonderful - so precise. I am in awe!

I am using the Majestic - same colour - for the chain of "the "hanky". With the #80, I find it so difficult to get the stitches to be consistent both in size and also tension...

Neat pattern.
Fox : )

Unknown said...

Very cool! It's GORGEOUS, DAH-ling!!!

~TattingChic ♥

Barbara Gordon said...

I clicked on 'original pattern page' to see or maybe get the pattern for the strawberry, but I got Cash Advance/Deb Consolidation instead. Is the pattern out there somewhere?
Thanks