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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tatting Tea Tuesday -- Goodbye July


Let's kick off the last Tatting Tea Tuesday for July with a photo of my pretty new teacup. It's perfect for steeping loose leaf teas and comes with a handy lid.

It's hard to think about hot tea when the thermometer is once again threatening triple digits.

Is it just me or is this scorcher of a summer spinning out of control? I was hoping for a few cool barbecues, some front porch tatting and hammock time by now. Would someone kindly stop summer from rushing headlong into the fiery arms of Autumn?


Motif #11 - Spinning Wheel Glass Mat
Summer may be spinning out of control, but the glass mat I have been working on reeled off without incident. It is tatted in Heather, the Tarnished Tatter's Bali HDT in size 30. The pattern is from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. It measures 4 inches (10 cm.) across.

This will be motif #11 for my 25 motif challenge. Now that it is finished I wonder if all the central rings could be tatted in yellow. Or . . .

How would it look tatted with a stained glass effect?

A Tatting Lesson
While in my home state last week, I started teaching my niece Jalice (not her real name) to tat. Want to see photos of our first lesson?


Jalice getting acquainted with her purple Sew-Mate post shuttle. She picked up the flip in 2 - 3 minutes. That's the fastest I have seen anyone leap that hurdle.


Jalice picking out her first knot. Alas, she did a lot of this during the first lesson. If she got discouraged she didn't let it show.


Here she is showing off her first double stitches. She picked up the basics quickly, but didn't close the ring (5-5-5-5). An impromptu lesson over the phone (using YouTube videos) served to illustrate the process.


Motif #12 - Queen of Hearts
Last but not least is my latest bit of tatting. Mary Konior's Queen of Hearts in Lizbeth size 40, color #139 Fruit Fizz and #696 Autumn Orange medium.

This heart measures 2 3/8 inches (6 cm.) at its widest point and counts as motif #12 in my 25 motif challenge.

I like these two colors more than I expected to. The Autumn Orange medium looks like a fresh-cut jack-o-lantern. The Fruit Fizz looks like something straight out of a Nigella Lawson recipe. (Enlarge the recipe image to see what I mean.)

Thinking I was being clever, I employed shoe-lace tricks to alternate the colors for each big ring. Don't know how it affected the color flow. Will have to tat one without the shoe-lace tricks for comparison. I am beginning to understand why Tatskool makes so many test tats!

This heart is not error-free. The first chain, at the bottom tip, is inward-facing. It is supposed to curve outward. Oops! I didn't even notice until I got the whole way around and began tatting the last chain. What could I do, but tat it backwards to match the first one? The final join had to be altered because of this error.

Fox made me feel a little bit better about getting the first chain going the wrong direction with her post: It's All About Karey. At least Fox fixed hers...

There is one more error where I joined a four-picot chain in the wrong place. Can you spot it? I didn't even notice until I enlarged the image 150% in PhotoShop.
Ah well, c'est la vie.

Wishing you all more me-time to create something beautiful.

See you in August for more communi-tea!

11 comments:

  1. As much as I love that heart, it's soooooo easy to join the wrong picot or have a chain going in the wrong direction. Definitely keeps you on your toes!

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  2. Your Spinning Wheel Mat is lovely and the heart just love those colours, are they the new colours from Lizbeth?

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  3. Gina, wow, are you ever on your toes. You posted your comment a few secs after I finished "tweaking" it.

    FªÎЋ * ځ£я®¥, so glad you like it!

    Typs, thanks so much! Yes, both colors are from the new fall line-up. If you hurry, you can still get in on the summer discount!

    15% OFF good ONLY July 23 - July 28, 2010 -- email me privately for the coupon code.

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  4. Your spinning wheel glass mat reminds me of autumn and it's awesome!
    Congratulations to your niece!!! My niece is still working on rings, but doing ok.
    And I love the heart!!! I saw the Fruit Fizz color online and fell in love with it and now I see it in a project and can't wait till I can get some too!

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  5. Soooh I have turned you into a test tatter!! no bad thing. Look forward to stunning colour combos as they come into your mind.
    The reversed chains at the bottom give the heart an interesting point!

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  6. Good for you to learn the trick of test tatting.

    I do not test tat and I should. It makes so much more sense. Too impatient. Oh well, One day!

    Your tatting is divine! The Spinning Wheel Mat is wonderful in that thread and I love the Queen of Hearts.

    Had forgotten I had a post about that pattern and I went to check it. Beside yours, the shape of mine is sorely lacking! I will have to do a "test" of that pattern some day soon!

    Your niece is adorable and she is a fast learner. Yahh, another tatter among us!

    ♥ Fox : )

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  7. Hurray! Another new tatter! Congratulations on teaching your niece how to tat. She's off to a good start from such a talented teacher.

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  8. Your tatting is so beautiful, your niece definitely had the best teacher she could have ask for. Congrats!!!

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  9. The Glass Mat is finally finished? It's so cool to see it complete... I will have to save the photo and put it as my desktop background (Right now, I just have your incompleted Glass Mat set to Desktop, which is still neat, but I'd rather have the complete - hey that rhymes!)
    Now that you mention it, it would have been awesome to see all the center rings in 1 color
    My Glass Mat is coming more in to shape, I'll have to post another photo soon... odd color combo, but I'm happy with it!

    About Jalice, that's great that we are getting more and more young-folk in on this craft...really keeps things alive! I remember when I was learning... it took me about a week to get the flip right!! 2-3 minutes... WHAT?!?!? :-)

    I absolutely LOVE the color combo on your Queen of Hearts and No, I did not find the flaw you were speaking of... sorry! hehe

    Take care!

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  10. Your Spinning Wheel glass mat is beautiful! I'm glad to see another tatter in our midst, and your heart is delightful!

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