"Vision" in HDT

A big thank you goes out to Marilee (YarnPlayer) for her sharing her pattern for the necklace she designed called "Vision". I made this for my daughter for Christmas using Tourmaline HDT and Fluorite and Amethyst beads and Swarovski crystals. This pattern is wonderful to tat and as you can see the finished product is spectacular. My daughter was very pleased.

Garden Tour GIVEAWAY-UPDATE

Hurry, hurry, If you have not taken the time yet You only have 2 days left to enter the draw for the bookmark drawing, so please enjoy the tour and then be sure to leave your comment along with contact information by September 3, 2009. The prize is a bookmark and now for more details on the bookmark it is going to be tatted using Marilee's (YarnPlayer's) Lavender Orchid HDT size 100. Yes I said size 100, after all it had to be a special bookmark.

Good Luck everyone.

Life Is Full Of Bumps And Bruises

Well I am working on Robert's heirloom doily/runner. It is the Pattern called the Grid from Tatting Patterns and Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson. It is tatted in YarnPlayers Fern HDT size 80. As you can tell I have not made a lot of progress since my last post but with good reason. Since Gregg and I have been decorating our bedroom a lot of odd jobs where put on hold and I have been trying to get them caught up. In the middle of this I had two falls and I managed to cause a hairline fracture in my foot. I am now hobbling around in an air-cast and although this gives me time for tatting, with the pain I am in I just do not feel like concentrating on it. Hopefully this week will be better and I will be in a tatting mood as I would hate to see all the time go to waste.

The Start of Roberts' Heirloom Piece

Well we have finally finished the work of redecorating our master bedroom. I must say it looks very rich now that it is decorated in Royal purple, cream, gold. When we get all the artwork in place I will have to post some pictures to give you all an idea of how you can paint your walls a very dark colour and still have a room that looks very elegant. The best part was the bedspread we got for the bed was on sale for $212.00 when it regularly costs $720.00.

This is the start of the Heirloom tatted piece I am making for my son Robert. It is the Pattern called the Grid from Tatting Patterns and Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson. It is tatted in YarnPlayers Fern HDT size 80. If you have not had the opportunity to tat with some of YarnPlayers HDT yet I would highly recommend that you treat yourself to some as I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. It adds a whole new flavour to your tatting. I am making one small change in the pattern and that is I am rotating the center of the motif one picot as I like the way it lines up better. Let me know what you think if you are familiar with the pattern. I would be interested in your feedback.

Matching Dolies and Heirlooms

This cute little Party-Time doily is a match to the larger one I made and posted about a little while a go. It is the second in a set of doilies I am making for our front sitting room furniture. It is made following the pattern, Party-Time Doilies from the book Traditional Tatting Patterns edited by Rita Weiss. The thread is YarnPlayer's Tourmaline HDT size 80 which is my all time favorite thread.

Now I am going to take a break from the doilies and set to work on a heirloom project. I made the following heirloom doily for my daughter a while a go.

At that time I promised my son I would make a heirloom piece for him. Well he has picked his pattern and when I showed him today that I had started it he got excited and now he can't wait to see what the finished project is going to look like because I am taking a small pattern and adapting it into a large piece of tatting. It is going to be tatted in YarnPlayers' HDT Fern in size 80. It is really nice to have children that appreciate the tatting that I do. I know that they value it as much as I do. Well time to tat. 

My Favorite HDT

I finally managed to get a piece of tatting completed. I have realized that I just cannot put a piece of tatting aside to work on another project. I am the type of person that needs to finish one project before starting another or it drives me crazy. Here is my latest project, a doily, the pattern comes from Traditional Tatting Patterns by Rita Weiss and is called Party Time Doily. It is tatted in Marilee's (YarnPlayers) Tourmaline HDT size 80. This colourway of HDT is my favorite of Marilee's. This is what the thread looks like when it arrives in the skein form. ( Note your skeins will be thinner. These ones are extra big as it was a large order )

This is how it looks when it has been tatted into a doily. Isn't it beautiful.

Here is the new home for the doily. I think it looks perfect under the antique cranberry glass lamp. What a fitting home for a piece of fine lace and it is just that much more special knowing that I was the one who made it. Yes I am proud.

Better In 3's

I find great joy in tatting and even greater joy in gifting tatting to those who truly appreciate the time and effort that goes into a piece of tatting and the beauty of the finished piece. That brings me to this posting. What could possibly be nicer than Jon Yusoff's "Quantiesque" Snowflake?

Give up?

I think three of them is nicer.

This pattern is getting addictive and I really like the way it looks using Marilee's (YarnPlayers) HDT Fern size 50. The really fun part is that these three snowflakes are on there way to a regular viewer of this blog who loves tatting but who has none and has never been gifted any. Now you all just have to sit by your mailboxes and wait if this description fits you. Good luck.

"Quantiesque" Snowflake

Well I am spending the Christmas holidays fighting pneumonia and a sinus infection so I am not getting a lot accomplished but I did manage to tat this delightful snowflake. My latest adventure with HDT is Jon Yusoff's "Quantiesque" Snowflake tatted in Marilee's (YarnPlayer's) Fern HDT size 50. I love this snowflake for a couple of reasons, the Celtic knot twisting between rows 1 and 2 and I love how the picots line up to present themselves as accents to the rings and the way the chains in the middle of the snowflake look like a flower. If you have not tried tatting this snowflake yet I would highly recommend it. Although it may look complicated Jon has provided excellent directions and they are very easy to follow so do not be afraid to try it.

Hand Dyed Thread Heaven

Anyone who follows my blog knows that I am addicted to Hand Dyed Thread. I firmly believe that it is impossible to have to much HDT and I get excited every-time I come up with a reason to order more. It is so much fun to open the mail when it arrives and marvel at how the thread shines and how the colour jumps from the thread, there is nothing like it.

Now imagine how happy I was when I decided that I was going to make a set of doilies for 3 antique lamps that we have and that I was going to make them out of Marilee's (YarnPlayer) HDT, Tourmaline. I placed an order for 12 skeins and this is how they arrived.

Now these are not your regular skeins. These ones each contain 200 yards of wonderful Tourmaline HDT. Well I think I now have enough HDT to keep me busy for a while although I am sure a new reason to purchase more HDT is just around the corner. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HDT heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Great Tatting Day

The Fringe Element Tatting Days where a big success. I attended the Saturday events and had a wonderful time. It was so nice to get together with a bunch of tatters and be able to talk about what you are doing and everyone understands. I attended a workshop led by Ruth Perry and she taught us a Celtic maple leaf. I will show a picture when I make one with the HDT I am expecting from Marilee. (YarnPlayer) Ruth was a great teacher with lots of patience and an easy going manner that made everyone comfortable and confident in there tatting. Lots of other classes where offered and when we first arrived we received a wonderful goodie bag. The facilitators also where prepared and had chocolate available at every table. ( a must for tatting ) There where lots of vendors and raffles and an auction. All in all it was a wonderful day.

This was the doily I was doing for the tatting Olympics but I am going to get a DNF ( did not finish ) on it as I am going to take a break from it and test tat a doily for Linda called Starburst. The doily that I was working on was Party Time Doily from Traditional Tatting Patterns edited by Rita Weiss and is being made with Tourmaline Hand Dyed Thread from Yarnplayer size 80. This is my favorite thread that she makes so far.

The Making of a Heirloom

I am a firm believer in the value of the strengths that we need to pass on to our children to help them grow up to be well rounded adults. One of those strengths is that they know that they are loved and are reminded of it often. This is the reason that I wanted to make this heirloom doily for my daughter so that when I am no longer around she will have a reminder that her Dad loves her.

This doily is made from the pattern available from the online classroom here and is made with YarnPlayers Fern Hand Dyed Thread size 80. The doily is 17 inches across and took 11 skeins of HDT to make. It was a big project to work on but after seeing it done, it was well worth it. My daughter is coming home for a visit this weekend and I can't wait for her to see the doily. Now my son has asked when I am making one for him but he wants a rectangle shape.

Grizzly Mountain Arts has bestowed the " Arte Y Pico" Award upon me. This is my first award and I am very honoured. The award is passed from one artist to another to honor their creativity. To keep the karma flowing and to share this good fortune I am honouring a few fellow artists with this award.

Tattycat/ Laura's Tatting Muse
A tatting friend who has joined the designers world and shows great creativity with shuttle and thread.

Marilee/ YarnPlayer
An inspiration to all of us who adore her Hand Dyed Threads. Wonderfully talented at jewelry making. Recognized and published by "Belle Armoire" magazine.

Mark/ Tatman
A multi-talented tatter who generously shares his wisdom with all tatters. Thank you for your website Mark it has helped a lot of us.

Thank you again Grizzly Mountain Arts for giving me this award today.

Yes I am still working on the doily. I just had to design a part of a motif for it as the center that the pattern called for did not look nice when I tatted it so I changed it and am much happier with the one I designed. Now about my thread problem. Thankfully Marilee (YarnPlayer) has offered to dye a batch of thread to match the Fern that I am using so I will have enough thread to finish my doily. It is by no means a small undertaking as I think I will use about 14 to 15 skeins of HDT which is a big investment but it is worth it as it is an heirloom to be passed on to my daughter.

Now for other news. We have a new member in our family. She is a 2 1/2 year old Indian Ringneck Parrot named Kiwi. She is settling in very well and is already playing favorites with Gregg. Our home is starting to sound like a jungle at times.

Well this doily has now reached the point where it is to big for the scanner and I still have 5 more rows to go. It is going to be large and I am loving it. So far I have used 3 skeins of Yarnplayers Fern Hand Dyed Thread size 80 and it is making for a very fine lace doily. I am really happy with the way the colours flow throughout the doily. When this is done it will definitely be a heirloom for one of my kids.

I had some of the Tourmaline thread from Marilee (Yarnplayer) left on my shuttle so I decided to make a treat for myself. Pictured here is a bookmark and coaster that I made from an adapted pattern from Tatting Patterns and Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson. I have really enjoyed tatting with this thread and I think it is one hand dyed thread that would look great with any project. I recommend that you keep an eye on Yarnplayers blog to find out when she does another batch of this thread I can guarantee it will go fast.

SUNLIGHT

This Doily is made from a pattern from The Tatter's Treasure Chest By Mary Carolyn Waldrep. It is made from Hand Dyed Thread from Marilee (Yarnplayer) called Tourmaline in size 50. This colour blend is my favorite HDT so far. If you decide to make this doily take note that there is a huge amount of picots to do and the last row requires a lot of blocking.

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.

H.D.T.A.

Well she has done and done it again. Marilee better known as Yarnplayer has come up with a new Hand Dyed Thread called Tourmaline which I personally think could be the best colour combination she has dyed to date. I can see the threadhttp://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/ made into a lot of different tatted items but if you want some I would suggest you order it as soon as possible because I think this thread will sell out very fast. I know I have ordered mine already. By the way for those wondering what H.D.T.A. stands for it means Hand Dyed Thread Addicts.

Well I am a true believer that for tatting there is no thread like hand dyed thread. Some would call my love of hand dyed thread an addiction but the way I like to look at it is, if I am going to spend all that time tatting something I want it to be unique, colourful and something to be cherished for years to come. I am not saying that you cannot do that with plain thread but with hand dyed thread it comes alive. As a special gift to myself I pooled my Christmas money and ordered 12 skeins of hand died thread from Marilee also known as Yarnplayer. If you have not tried her hand dyed thread yet you must treat yourself to at least 1 skein just to experience the pleasure of the way the colours blend to add extra dimension to your tatting. You will not be disappointed, but beware this thread has been known to become addictive. A link to Yarnplayer is listed under my links for handy reference.