Little Horse Earrings

Our neighbor asked me a few months ago if I would make a pair of earrings for his granddaughter.  She likes horses and the color turquoise. Oh, and a halter on the horse would be nice.

I immediately thought of Debbie Arnold‘s Seahorse pattern. I’ve made it before as a horse head bookmark and thought it would work well for the earrings as well. I also wanted to make it in a small thread, as they are for a little girl. Oh, and get the right color turquoise!

Horsehead earrings in size 80

I tat front-side/back-side, so I also had to make sure that I made them facing opposite directions. Between this and the small thread, I had some troubles making these. And then making the harnesses! I spent a lot of time dreaming of how I was going to do this.

My neighbor likes these, but the reins not so much. (I thought this was an excellent way to not have to hide ends of the black thread!) I’m thinking to knot the thread at the ring on the bottom with maybe a touch of glue.

The color was acceptable but I put the ball away and can’t find it to say what it is. I know that it’s Lizbeth size 80.

I’m happy with these earrings, even if I have to get rid of the reins. Maybe I’ll make me a pair…

“What if the blue I see is not the color blue you see?” Neo Shamon

Tatted Horse Picture

I finished the horse picture, yay!

After much thought and trial I finally decided on Kraft paper as the background.  It was very hard to come up with a background that showed off the silver horse and the brown saddle without making one or the other disappear.  This choice looked the best of all the colors that were tried.  

Then, of course, what to put with the horse?  Flowers, yes, but how many and what colors?  How about grass? Yes, but long strips? short strips? Critters?  And then how should they be put together?

A lot of time was spent debating and trying out different ideas.  Some worked, some didn't.  I finally took a break from it all and just worked on my vest.  Which really helped, as when I went back to the horse things came together a lot faster.

This picture was taken before the glass went on and I debated about leaving it this way.  But putting the glass on would keep the dust off the tatting, so on it went.  

I'm very happy with the results.

Now I just have to give it to the planned recipient.

About two months late.

Horse (Foal) by Inga Madsen from "Tatted Animals" in Lizbeth  Silver #605 and Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20

Lady Bug by Sue Hanson in #671 Christmas Red, size 20

Bunny doodle* Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20

Dandelion and collage ideas from "Tatting Collage" by Lindsay Rogers

*can't remember where I saw this. If anyone knows, please let me know!

"The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip"

Henny Youngman

www.brainyquote.com

Not much done

I haven't gotten much done on either the triangle doily or the horse picture.  I've thought about them a bit, more the horse than the triangles, but no progress on either.  The doily still taunts me from the blocking board where I've been ignoring it.  The horse has been teasing me from several possible backgrounds to give it a pasture to run in.  I've played around with tatted flowers and birds, bunnies and grass, background colors and frame sizes, and still haven't made up my mind.

We've finally been making progress on a house project that's been put off for a long time, which is now taking up some (okay, a lot) of my time.  I think most of my creative thoughts have been funneled into this instead of my tatting.  Instead of trying to come up with ideas for the doily or the horse I worked on my vest Sunday night.  I'm at a place in it where I'm just repeating the same thing over and over for a while so I didn't have to think much.  It was very relaxing.

This is a doily I gave to my mother several years ago.  I noticed that as it aged it looked like it was stained.  I brought it back home and washed it.  It now looks good as new.

A cup of tea

A ball of thread

A shuttle close to hand

A little time

A plan in mind

A tatter's wonderland

Tatted horse

Horse (Foal) © Inga Madsen

From Inga Madsen's book "Tatted Animals"

Made with Lizbeth Silver #605 and Mocha Brown Dk #692, size 20

I tatted this horse over a month ago for a niece's graduation present - and I still have it!  I want to make this a tatted scene, with flowers and  - stuff.  The horse itself wasn't hard, though I did do a little unintentional change in the saddle right at the start.  I also took off the last chain of the pattern because I didn't like the look.  In the book all the animals are done in one color and look great, but when done in two colors that last chain just didn't look right. 

So why is it still at my house instead of the graduate's?  I'm having a hard time making the decisions about the flowers and birds and such.  I have been going through Lindsay Rogers' book "Tatting Collage" to get ideas.  And now I have a lot of them.  I have so many ideas now I have to choose how elaborate or simple it will be. Do I put it in an 8" x 10" frame?  A 5? x 7"?  I'm afraid the one is too big but the other would be too crowded.  Decisions, decisions!

I'm still trying to make decisions on the triangle doily as well.  It is right there beside my chair so I can see it, taunting me to finish it.  But again I can't make up my mind exactly how to do that. I will eventually, probably sooner than later, but...  Decisions, decisions!

Maybe I should ask the horse.

"A horse is a horse, of course, of course,

And no one can talk to a horse of course

That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse

He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.

He's always on a steady course.

Talk to Mr. Ed.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,

And this one'll talk 'til his voice is hoarse.

You never heard of a talking horse?

Well listen to this.

I am Mr. Ed."

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/mredlyrics.html

Christmas gifts

Merry Christmas! (a little late) and Happy New Year! (a little early)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  We did, and still are.  We had lots of family get-togethers over the last week and still have one more to go this weekend.  For all that I thought I was ready for all of them, there still seemed to be a few things I didn't get to until the last minute.  How normal.

Every year I try to have one snowflake that is "the" snowflake of the year.  I posted about 2012's snowflake here. I didn't get as many of these done as I would have liked to, but that is how I feel every year.  I did get a few others done as well - mainly due to the fact that it's hard for me to do the same thing over and over.

The red and two blue are motifs/'flakes that I came up with this year.  The green one is 'Betsy Snowflake' by Betsy Evans.  I saw it on A Happy Bluebird a week or so ago and just had to give it try.  I added silver seed beads to it and left out a couple of non-joining picots.  I really like how it came out.  All of them are made in Lizbeth size 20 thread.  These were also given away as gifts. 

I gave away a few tatted gifts that I had made previous to this year.  I found these while looking through a few things and they made excellent additions to what I was already giving without me having to hurry up and make anything else. 

My Sunday school class consists of three girls. One girl is very fond of purple (the butterfly), one girl loves shades of orange (the flower), and one girl loves horses, no matter the color.  The crosses went to the pastor and his wife.  All are made in Lizbeth size 20 threads, though I can't name off the colors right now. The butterfly and flower are my patterns, the horse is a variation of Debbie Arnold's Sea Horse and the two cross patterns can be found on my pattern page. 

I still have in mind a lot of things I wanted to make for Christmas that didn't happen.  Maybe I'll stay motivated and start them now so they'll be ready for next Christmas.  It could happen. Maybe. 

"In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"

Dave Barry

I missed it! Sort of.

Yesterday I got up, fixed a cup of tea, put my feet up and tatted for a little while. In fact, I kept tatting when I should have been writing this! I did finally put down the shuttles, but then it was time for work. Which was a very long day, so I didn't have time to post after work. It was Tuesday, I had tea and I tatted, I just didn't get it posted for Tatting Tea Tuesday. So, just for a minute, pretend it's yesterday, have another cup of tea and see what I was doing.

I've been making snowflakes in both white and colors. The one in the bangle is, of course, Lizbeth thread size 20 in Caribbean (surprise!). The white one is in DMC size 20 Cebelia and the other one is Lizbeth size 20 in Christmas Delight. (Okay, the paperclip has a horse on it - they're fun to make and I had to try it in this color!)

I had a terrible time finding a background for these in the short amount of time I had yesterday -oops, that's today, I mean. At least they show up.

I have several projects that I need to start but keep on with the snowflakes and bookmarks. They are so quick I feel I'm getting a lot done with the time I have to tat. Still working a lot of overtime so I don't have a lot of energy to think up the next thing. It's easier to keep doing what I'm already doing, momentum I guess.

Thanks for joining me for my Tuesday Tea and tatting, even if it was a day late. I'll try to be on time next week!

Tatting Tea Tuesday with more horses and butterflies

It's Tatting Tea Tuesday again, and yes, I'm still doing horse and butterfly paperclip bookmarks. They've been a lot of fun and I have a lot of new colors to try them in. I'm getting quite the herd of horses and a rabble of butterflies. Debbie's sea horse makes such a wonderful horse for this, don't you think? The butterflies are my patterns.

All of these bookmarks are made with Lizbeth thread size 20. From the left starting with the horse: horse in Caribbean and purple; butterfly in Grape Pizazz and purple; horse in Grape Pizazz; flower with pearls in Grape Pizazz; butterfly in Jewels and purple; the cross is in purple.

This morning I sat down with a cup of tea to finish off this cross that I started last night. I'm not sure who to credit the pattern to as it's so very basic. You don't so much follow a pattern as follow the logistics of a cross. I vary the count of the double stitches and picots in the rings and chains as the mood dictates every time I make it.

A family member of my boss's family died a few days ago and I thought I'd include a cross in the card for him and his family. Nice idea, I thought. But I had the most horrible time getting this one done! I was joining in the wrong places, twisting threads, tying knots - the wrong kind - left, right and sideways! There was once I tried to close a ring with the body of the cross inside! If I hadn't needed to get it done today I would have put it aside for another day. I finally got it done, in about twice the time it should have taken me. (You'd think I'd had something stronger than tea!) I'm blaming my lack of concentration on my allergies as they have really started bothering me the last few days.

I really need to get on to some other projects, but these bookmarks have been such fun! I guess if I'm going to go to a craft show this fall I'll need a lot, so I shouldn't feel too guilty staying with them. And if I have trouble with them, they're just small stuff, nothing tragic if I tangle the threads a bit - I'll just start over!

Wishing all of you a wonderful week and Happy Tatting!

More paperclips and a box of thread

It's Tatting Tea Tuesday again! That day of the week when you make yourself a nice cup of tea, put your feet up, pick up your shuttles and take a little "me" time.

This week I did have a cup of tea instead of coffee. I picked up my shuttles and tried making one of my butterflies with two colors so I could maybe write down the pattern. It ended up being a little loosey-goosey from my stopping, checking what and where I was and chasing the cat off my lap, where she insisted she should be. Oh, well, I need bookmarks, too.

These paperclip bookmarks are some of what I accomplished this week. The handy thing about this kind of bookmark is they are small and don't take long to make. I don't do a lot with beads but I thought I'd give it a try on one, and will probably do a few more as well. I'm not sure about the hearts because they loose their shape pretty easily. Hmm, they need a little work. The horse heads are getting to be pretty easy though. I like them.




These bookmarks are great for taking out when you only have a few minutes to tat. In fact my husband needed new work shoes this week and I was tatting while he tried on shoes. The sales lady was very curious as to what I was doing - she'd never seen or heard of tatting before. She thought it was very pretty. Tatting in public, a great way to introduce people to a great art.

I received a package in the mail yesterday from Handy Hands. A few days ago I decided I needed more thread (who doesn't??) And HH had sent out an email coupon so I had to buy something, right? I've noticed that I usually use solid threads, mostly blues, white and ecru, so I thought I would get some variegated threads. And a few in colors I don't usually think of, expand my horizons so to speak. They are all Lizbeth size 20.

The colors, reading across from top left to top right, are:

Mocha Swirl, Black, Golden Yellow Med; 2nd row, Denim Whisper, Marble, Jewels, Jewels (I've seen a lot of people use this and just had to have some) ; 3rd row, Caribbean, Caribbean (I really like this color!), Sea Shell, Springtime; 4th row, Grape Pizzaz, Red Burst, Christmas Delight, and Country Side.

A color chart was included in the box, so now when I need a new color I have a great place to start. They have started making Lizbeth in size 40 but I am very comfortable with 20 so this is where I've started. Maybe next time it will be the smaller thread. Another good excuse to buy more thread don't you think?

Tatting Tea Tuesday Aug 11, 2009

It's Tatting Tea Tuesday again and I even have a cup of tea today!

I have actually gotten a few more paperclip bookmarks done. The purple one is from last week, and the green is using the same modified pattern from Debbie Arnold. It's made from DMC Cebelia size 20, green #955. The two butterflies are my own pattern; the pink is DMC Perle cotton size 8, pink variegated #116 and the blue is Manuela size 20, light blue #008.



I was trying to write down the pattern for the butterflies and find I'm having trouble with it. When I'm tatting my own patterns, while I'm doing them for the first time, I decide I want this element to go that way, and another element to go this way - I don't really pay attention to which shuttle I'm using, I just know which one it needs to be to go in the direction I want the pattern to go. The same way for reversing the work and keeping track of up/down (I'm very much a upside/downside tatter!), I know when to reverse and which side is up, but keeping track for writing down later..! This inattention makes writing down the patterns a bit of a challenge. I think I'm my own worst enemy!

You know, if I would make everything in two colors to start with, at least I'd know which shuttle I was using. Some things might end up looking a little strange, but I could keep those as my samples.

Or I could write down the patterns as I go along. Or not! Talk about tedious and losing the flow!

Or maybe I should figure out how to diagram tatting. So many others do that, and there are a lot of programs that can be used. I like following diagrammed patterns and I'd really like to learn how. Another something I should do that takes time, but I think would be well worth it.

Horse bookmark

I haven't gotten a lot of tatting done this week. I did start several things that were relegated to the trash, though (this is what happens when you don't pay attention to what you're doing.)

I did finally get the horse head onto a paperclip. This had been in my mind since I first started looking for a horse pattern, which turned out to be a seahorse modified, found here on ds9designs by Debbie Arnold. This is a little bulkier than the butterflies and doodles I've put on paperclips before, so I made the attachment to the clip a bit more robust than usual. The horse now holds its head up pretty well.

This one is made from HH Lizbeth thread size 20 in purple. This is the best picture I could get - all the others were fuzzy (I think it's me, not the camera). I'm planning on doing a few more of these in different colors, maybe even with a bead for the eye, okay, if I sit down long enough to try it. My sister and I are thinking of doing a local craft show this fall and I thought this type of thing might go over well, and they don't take long to make, either. And I have a box of 100 large paperclips in different colors, so all I have to do now is the tatting.

Maybe this next week I'll get a little more tatting done that's even good enough to keep!

A little bitty doily and a horse

A few weeks ago I needed an ecru doily for a gift. I had a colored doily but found out that the recipient really liked ecru as this was more in line with her home decor (I like to please). Soooo, as usual, instead of going with an existing pattern I tried to come up with something that didn't take too long. And this is the result.

I call it Arches Over Arches. This is made with DMC ecru (of course!) in size 30. I came up with this from a center I found in my old stuff that was made with size 10, which was much bigger. I think this was supposed to be an edging that went wrong. But it made a nice center for a doily.

The other two rounds I came up with this time around. I have several ideas for the next time I make it - and I do have plans to make it - and my husband has a couple of really neat suggestions, also.

There's nothing here to compare it to so you can't tell the size. It's pretty small, only about 4 inches across. So maybe it's too small to be considered a doily, but I would use it under a vase for a single rose or some such, so I call it a doily.

I've also had another idea in mind that I worked on last night. After seeing all the neat ideas of using a large paperclip as a bookmark, I thought a large paperclip with a horse head would be neat. Now, I make my own bookmarks and doilies and such, but coming up with something like this has not turned out well. I'm not showing my attempts, just say they met a quick end. But the Internet is our friend and makes finding the many wonderful people with great ideas easy to find if you go looking.

If you go to ds9designs you will find that Debbie Arnold has a very cute seahorse pattern. I saw it and thought "if you start here and leave that off, it would make a really nice horse head pattern." So last night I tried it with thread I already had on a shuttle. (The colors would have made a wonderful seahorse!)

.

This is made with Lizbeth Caribbean size 20. I think I need to make the base a little wider and the neck maybe not quite so long. Then I need to try putting it on a paperclip. Maybe in a horse-y color. And then again, maybe not. To be continued...

Most of this last week was spent finishing the butterfly for the Intatters butterfly exchange. I got it done in time (just barely!) and sent it off to Cindy in Minnesota. After I know she has it I will post a picture of it. I thought it came out well and I'm looking forward to sharing it.