It is always nice to get surprise packages in the mail but when they focus on tatting it just makes them that much more special. It is always nice when a fellow tatter shares some of there hard work with you but they get the pleasure of knowing that it will be truly appreciated. Laura surprised me with this beautiful butterfly in wonderful colours and a snowflake with beads. Laura you do very nice tatting and thank you very much for the surprise.

Sunlight

This is the start of a doily from a pattern from the book The Tatter's Treasure Chest by Carolyn Waldrep. I decided to use a pattern because the thread that I am using is Marilee's (Yarnplayer) tourmaline, size 50 and I think it is the nicest HDT that she makes. I just love the colours so I wanted to make something that I knew I was going to like the look of and not waste the thread. Thanks Marilee for once again creating a HDT that is almost to nice to be real.

SUNLITE

This is number 2 in the series of doilies that I am designing. I am happy with how it turned out except the outer rings are woven picots and they do not work to well with the fine thread. I think the woven picots will turn out nicer with a thicker thread. The doily is 6 inches across and is made of Marilee's (Yarnplayer) Tiger Eye Hand Dyed Thread size 80 and I used about 35 yards of thread.

Waves,
I was playing around with the pattern for the waves doily and came up with some numbers that may be of interest to a few people. This doily was made from size 80 thread and measures 8 inches across. It consists of the following elements 280 joins, 2,104 matching picots and finally 10,040 double stitches. No wonder these things take so long to make.

WAVES,

Well it is now finished and has a name. It has taken a while but I am happy with the result and it is the first finished pattern of many that I am working on. It feels good to finally get one down on paper and tatted and believe it or not the second one is already on the way it seems the creative juices are flowing so I will work on patterns till I tire of them and then go about tatting them in different size thread to see how they work out. It is exciting to know that you designed it yourself and it turned out okay.

Hand Dyed Threads

This doily may not be the prettiest but I have to keep in mind that it is a work in progress and I am happy with how it is turning out and it is teaching me lots that I will use when doing my other designs. The thread is Tiger Eye from Marilee (YarnPlayer) and is size 80 and to give you an idea of how much you use when tatting this doily is 10 rows or about 6 inches across and I used two 50 yard skeins and had about 2 yards left over. For those of you who have purchased HDT and are afraid to use it I would strongly encourage you to use it and not wait for the perfect pattern as I am not sure there is one. Besides then you have an excuse to buy more. To those of you who have not tried HDT you are in for a treat if you give them a try. They are stronger, more colourful and a real joy to work with. If you give them a try I am sure you will love them and find them a source of inspiration.

This is my third go at this doily which I am designing. It still needs a little fine tuning but it is almost there. The one thing about designing with size 80 thread is it takes a lot of tatting to amount to anything. The thread I am using is Tiger Eye from Marilee ( YarnPlayer ) and I just love the way the colours blend in together.

No pictures this time but I just have to let you know that I am busy tatting. I am working on designing a doily and so far it is going well but I have been so busy lately I just don't get as much time as I would like to tat. It is also taking a long time to get this doily to a decent size as I am making it in size 80 thread. I like this size of thread as it looks so delicate and lacy but my patterns are going to be in size 20 and size 80.