Butterfly Tatted Using Both Needle & Shuttles

I've been working on a butterfly and was surprised at how much trouble I had selecting just the right pattern. I love all the little butterflies that you can make to use up extra thread on a shuttle, but I was looking for something with a little more substance. I wanted to challenge myself and be able to post it on the 25 Motif Challenge as well as send it off to it's new home.

I finally decided on the Green Butterfly pattern by Martha Ess - yep that's the name of the pattern. I chose some pretty Lizbeth thread and started tatting. If you've read the post about this butterfly on my 25 Motif Challenge blog, you know that I used both shuttles and needles to tat it.

Once I selected which thread to use, I wound my shuttles CTM to get started. When I read the pattern, I realized that the center rings are the first sections to be tatted. Well, I had already wound my thread for the larger sections of the wings and didn't want to have to cut it and start the wings with two ends to hide.

That's when I decided to needle tat the center green rings. It worked out great and I didn't have any extra ends to hide on the larger sections of the wings.
 
There was a challenge to completing the butterfly because there are five sections to be joined together. Even though the pattern directions are clear and easy to follow, I somehow always manage to flip things the wrong way or join something upside down. Joining sections or smaller motifs into a larger piece is definitely something I should continue to practice.

The butterfly is actually rather large compared to the pieces I've been tatting. It's about 5" wide and 4" tall and if you click on the picture, you'll get an idea just how big it is. At the bottom of the picture, I included the colors of thread used.

Now the butterfly is complete and it's been blocked and photographed, so I'm sending it to the Palmetto Tatters Guild as my membership fee for the 2010.

[Note: 3/2/10 added link to Green Butterfly pattern]

Superbowl Tatting

I wanted to watch the Superbowl game today and tat but I didn't want to start anything that required a lot of concentration. While surfing the web one day I came across these adorable burp cloths and baby blankets that are hemstitched and ready to be edged from Ammee's Babies. It was the perfect project.

The burp cloth is really soft flannel about 8" x 18" and because they are already hemstitched, all I did was crochet around the edge once and then add a tatted chain (3-3-3) to finish it off.

I enjoyed the game and was able to finish a cute little project without having to do any untatting today!

Introducing Norman, the Rooster from California

I would like to introduce you to Norman. He's a beautiful rooster born and raised in California.

Norman was a wonderful  Tat It And See pattern created by Jane Eborall. For 11 days Jane taunted and teased us with small portions of the pattern to tat Norman. When we began, we had no idea what he would turn out to be. All we knew was that we needed three coordinating threads, a small bead, and time to have lots of fun!

Jane does a fantastic job with T.I.A.S. and not only provides the pattern, she includes helpful tatting tips and techniques about joining threads, adding beads, and other ideas along the way.

Once Norman was completed, Jane even provided patterns for the rest of his family, his chickee wife Aileen, and their two chicklings.

Thank you Jane. I'm already looking forward to the next T.I.A.S.

Note: I changed photos because I thought the first one was too dark 02/03/2010