Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Motif No. 7/25 - Lucky Sequin Clover

Another 2 colleagues are leaving. I love to make the 4-leaf clover bookmarks to give away since it is a symbol of good luck. The leaves of 4-leaf clovers are said to stand for Hope, Faith, Love, and Luck, so I hope my Lucky Sequin Clover will bring them luck in love, happiness, success and fortune. These will be Motif No. 7/25 for the challenge. The centre piece already went to Eileen, the other bookmark will go to Kim next week:

I have the pattern in written form already, but as I am not well-versed with drawing programmes, Jane Eborall has graciously agreed to help with the drawings. Just one catch to the pattern, I used heart-shaped sequins in a certain size I found in my stash, and I'm not sure if they are easily available. I didn't start off with using sequins, but as the design evolved, I remembered Jane's Share a Tat challenge and decided to check through my stash to see what I have. I didn't join Jane's challenge earlier as I have problem finding the sequin size called for. But we can adapt patterns to whatever sizes we have, can’t we ? Well, the pattern will be up on Jane's website soon.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Gift for Regina, Tatting Meeting and Motif No. 6/25

Last Wed was Regina's last day with our company. Here's my tatted gift for her: Dimpled Cross, pattern of Joy Botchlet found in her book Tatting Dimpled Rings.

And on Fri, we had dinner with Sheila Dutton (my tatting teacher), Julie and Agnes. Sheila brought and showed us plastic shuttles and handsewn silk flowers from Taiwan. Also, there were beautiful handwoven cords. They were eye-openers for us. A pity we forgot to take any photo of our meeting. Anyway, my girls, Joey and Kristine, were simply delighted with Julie's gifts.

And finally I managed to finish the 1st of my animals. I'm not too satisified with it especially the head, and I took real long with this. This will be Motif No. 6/25, Barney, tatted with Flora 20 threads. Why Barney ? Well, it's Joey's favourite.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Kirigami Spider Web and Motif No. 5/25

I haven't talked much about my boy so far. Well, he is in the gifted programme, Primary 5 this year. Heavy school work, difficult is the word, but well, I'm not going to dwell on his school work. Ivan is full of ideas, he creates his own little games and puzzles to play with his sisters. Last week, he cut this big kirigami piece, it's like about 4 pieces of A3 size - a spider web with spiders on the edge. When I took the photo, 1 of the centre piece is missing.

I am still struggling with the 1st of the 3 animals I intend to tat this month. It's almost there, but I still thinking how to tat the last part. Had to take a little break and was doodling, I took whatever thread I have and intended to tat it into a heart. It ended up looking more like an apple, so the leaf was added. I was quite tired when I did the cluny leaf, it looked quite messy. I finished off the stem with a ring, intending to add a thin ribbon or a cord if it is to be used as a bookmark. So, this is an accidental small motif for the challenge - Motif No. 5/25 Apple, made up of 2 butterflies and a flower with cluny leaf and pearl-tatted stem:

Saturday, April 12, 2008

New Crystal Bracelet and Drawings

I'm not really into healing properties of natural crystal stones, but I love the colours so I hoard them. I like to match jewellery with clothing, I suddenly felt the urge this morning to take my stones to do a bracelet to match my pink T-shirt and navy blue bermuda shorts. Quite happy with the combination: rose quartz, garnet, lapis lazuli and bluestone glass.

And here are more drawings done by Joey and Kristine using magic pens:


Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Round Robin Bookmark Received From Hanna

I was not expecting it so fast, so I was really surprised when I opened my letter box yesterday - inside was a bright green envelope from Sweden! And with nice stamps on the countryside. Yes, Hanna's package arrived! First thing, Hanna has very neat handwriting. Then, Hanna included an aerial view of the place she lived, wow! And more postcards showing the countryside and the city - a good representation of the whole place, I would think. The bookmark - a seahorse designed by Mark Myer found in Dianna Stevens' book - is tatted with Gutermann Sulky No. 12. Very fine indeed and nice varigated colours! There is also a box of candies, I will be sharing that with my children. Thank you, Hanna!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

25 Motif Challenge Motif No 4/25

Before I mailed out the bookmark to Vicki, I started on the 2nd piece to make sure I have a piece in my possession so that I can write out the pattern some days. So far, I have not sit down to write out the pattern for any of the designs yet, I just go on and on with coming up with new ideas. There are still 2 more ideas on the flower theme which I think will work, but I have to leave them for a while so as to start working on animals for the April Round Robin.

Currently working on 3 animal designs in mind, they sure look much more challenging than the flowers. Not sure if I will be able to tat them out, just hoping for the best. Anyway, here’s the completed 2nd piece of the periwinkles for Motif No. 4/25 of the Challenge:

Friday, April 4, 2008

More Works by Joey and Simple Tatted Paper Clips

Look what I found when I went home today: Joey has done it with oil pastels. It lifted my spirits looking at the wide grin on the apple and the vibrant colours. Love the way she did the background.

Found this in Kristine’s drawer, a bookmark done up by Joey. Joey found all the leftover punch-out shapes and put them together in this little name card for her sister. Ha ha, a little alien on the balloon! I like her sense of colours. She once requested a tatted bookmark in 3 colours of her choice. I like the way the colours turned out. A pity she dropped her bookmark in school one fine day. Her name was on the plastic protector of the bookmark, but whoever picked it up must have love it too much to return it!

And here’s a small butterfly tatted on paper clips. Tatted them to empty my shuttles after doing the tulip and periwinkles. They make quick little gifts for my girls to give to their friends. They are forever asking me to make bookmarks, cards and whatnots for their little friends.
Well, it’s such a simple motif, I won’t call it a pattern, but rather, here’s the stitch count of what I did using one shuttle only:
1st Ring: 18 ds.
2nd Ring: 8 ds, join to paper clip, 4 ds.
3rd Ring: 4 ds, join to paper clip, 8 ds.
4th Ring: 18 ds.
Tie both ends together as antenna.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Bookmark for Mar 08 Round Robin

With the intention to come up with a floral bookmark for Victoria (Vicki) for the March International Round Robin, I did the orchid and tulip. But I wanted to give it another try and hit on the periwinkle flower while looking at our coins. Did a bit of history search, this is a brief info on the coins - Singapore’s 2nd (current) series of circulating coins bear the Flora theme featuring plants and flowers, aimed at enhancing the city’s image as a garden city. The $1 coin has a big periwinkle in the center, and surrounded by smaller ones.

Finally, here’s the completed bookmark I tatted for Vicki. Well, although I tatted with periwinkles in mind, I’m not sure if the flowers look sufficiently like periwinkles such that people can tell.