Fergal & Miss Scarlet Found

Great news!  Fergal and Miss Scarlet have been found safe and sound.

CelticDreamWeaver has put them up for an extended, restful holiday, complete with a view of Canandaigua Lake. (Click on the link to see the gorgeous view.)

They have even been enjoying tea time!

Fergal and Miss Scarlet having tea
with CelticDreamWeaver's leprechaun Fergus

Sherry has been making them feel as welcome as can be. After seeing the photo above, Ciarran was jealous he hadn't gotten an invite for tea. Poor chap will have to make do having tea with me.

Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief.  Thank you, CelticDreamWeaver, for sharing the news!

L&MBER ALERT #2 - Fergal & Miss Scarlet

A second L&MBER alert has been issued in the case of missing leprechaun Fergal and his traveling companion Miss Scarlet. This is not a test.

Fergal, age 7, was last seen in the company of Miss Scarlet and Training Academy mate Killian at the home of Lace Lovin' Librarian Diane.

They have since moved on, possibly headed east. If you have any information concerning the whereabouts of these two missing persons, please REPORT SIGHTING.

Pin Cushion Jars and Flags

Pin cushion jars made at the May 2015 Tatting Social

In May, my LYS (Local Yarn Shop) hosted a Tatting Social for which I was an Evil Taskmistress a teacher.  We made pin cushion jars and used our snippets of tatting to decorate them.

Since then I have gone a bit barmy for pin cushion jars.

Hello Kitty 4 oz. pin cushion jar.

No Dull Pins

Here's my dilemma: the metal lid keeps the pin cushion from "popping" like a weasel out of the top once the rim is turned onto the jar. Pushing the pins down to the metal lid dulls them.

Peacock pin cushion

Hot-gluing into the rim is messy and hot-glued cushions dislodge after a few opening turns. (What's the point if you cannot use the jar for storage?)

What's a girl to do? I have read that steel wool keeps pins sharp. But I suspect I will have done and move on to more conciliatory pursuits.

EDIT:  Just to be clear, the pin cushion jars work GREAT when you use the metal lid in the bottom. They turn on to the jar smoothly.  They don't pop out of the lid.  The only downside I can see is that the pins get dull if they are pushed in as far as they can go.

I have extra long pins, so I am guilty of pushing them in farther than the average person. It is a habit I developed when Sapling was small and his curious, wee fingers got into everything.

My latest pin cushion jar has steel wool in the bottom with poly-fil batting on top.  It assembled easily with the lid and (while not as poufy as the ones with a felt disk) works well.  If my pins dull, I will get new pins.  I love having a peacock feather pin cushion jar!

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Stars and Stripes at the June 2015 tatting social

The June Tatting Social was all about patriotic tatting.  In honor of the sweet land of liberty we celebrate every July 4th, we tatted stars and American flag bookmarks in different sizes.

HandyHands, Inc. graciously granted us one-time use permission to share Dee Powell's American Flag pattern from the pattern book "Tatted Bookmarks Needle & Shuttle," edited by Barbara Foster.

My flag is the "medium sized" one at the top right in the photo (10 rings wide).  Fellow teacher Sw4nkyL4c3r  needle tatted two red stars and the small flag pendant in bottom right of the photo.

It was a truly wonderful day spent tatting and chatting. Cannot wait for the August tatting social!

Motif 6: Ribbon Candy Christmas Tree

Ribbon Candy Christmas Tree
Ornament © 2014 Bonnie Swank
Tatted by IsDihara

Since it is Father's Day weekend and "da boyz" are engrossed in father/son activities, I finished up an ornament that Sw4nkyL4c3r (link takes you to her Facebook page) designed for our neighborhood Tatting Social group.

Ornament hung from a vintage
style ceramic Christmas tree

The tatting is a simple ring-and-chain edging strung to resemble ribbon candy. My ornament measures 2 1/2 inches (roughly 7 cm) in length but that measurement would change depending on your bead choice.

I used opaque white seed beads prestrung on Lizbeth® 20 Burgundy #672 thread.

These ornaments look especially nice when strung with pearls or Swarovski crystals.

A snapshot from Sw4nkyL4c3r's Facebook page shows how adorable these ornaments look in different threads and beads.  Isn't she clever?

This was a fun tat for a social setting because tatters of every level could do it. I will be making more of these to hand out as holiday gifts.

If you would like the pattern for this fun little ornament, please contact Sw4nkyL4c3r either through her Facebook page or her email address.

Tell her you saw her Ribbon Candy Ornaments on IsDihara's blog and Facebook!

Motif 5: ENCHANTER-Inspired Heart

ENCHANTER-Inspired Heart (original design © 2010 Jon Yusoff)

This beautiful little heart flew off my shuttles today. It measures 1 5/8-inches wide by 1 3/8-inches tall (4.5 cm by 3.5 cm) and is tatted in Lizbeth® 20 Boysenberry Dark #644 and Flora 20 #238.

It was inspired by Jon Yusoff's ENCHANTER heart that was offered as a Valentine gift to the tatting community in February 2010.

As I emptied two shuttles of leftover thread (as tatters do) Jon Yusoff's "Enchanter" came to mind. Two minor modifications have been made to tweak the heart shape.

Profuse thanks to the versatile and talented Jon Yusoff whose elegant style and generous spirit have inspired us all since her tatting debut.

Her designs are unquestionable in their elegance and grace, and always a joy to tat. This design is no exception.  The modifications arose from playing around with starting points.  (...'if I start from HERE on the diagram, what would I have to do to climb out to round two?')

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A Trio of Tatted Crosses

In May I tatted three cross bookmarks from the marvelous pattern by Grace Tran: Jane's Bookmark Cross © 2013 Grace Tran

The first one, admittedly my favorite of the three, was gifted to Sister Mary Seton whose favorite color is purple. Tatted using Flora 20 #64 -- I just love how the dark purple falls at each end of the horizontal bars and the whites seem to stripe down the center.

Jane's Bookmark Cross
Tatted by IsDihara 2015

The cross measures three (3) inches in length (7.62 cm) and two (2) inches wide (5.08 cm). Grace Tan cleverly adapted Jane McClelland's bookmark pattern into a cross, which itself was adapted by Jane from a braid that appeared in the May 1984 Anna Burda magazine.

Isn't teamwork wonderful? The evolution story of this cross is quite good too. Without the Internet bringing these people together would this cross have been created?

Jane's Bookmark Cross

Tatted by IsDihara 2015

Crosses two and three (from top to bottom) were gifted to Sapling's Teacher Assistant and his Reading Resource Teacher.  Top one is tatted using Lizbeth® 20  Caribbean #122
and the bottom cross is tatted using Lizbeth® 20 Summer Fun #104.

So, I have been tatting, even though I haven't been blogging.  Keep the faith!

Organza Bag - Peacock

Organza Bag with tatted peacock
Decoration by Wendy, who authors the blog UminTsuru

I received this lovely organza bag from a tatter in Singapore back in late November/early December 2014 and am just now scanning it in. Such lovely tatting!

Here is a link to the UminTsuru blog post:http://umintsuru.blogspot.sg/2014/…/organza-bag-peacock.html