Ankars Earrings

I had a bit of thread on the shuttles and tried out these  Ankars earrings by Kelly Dunn.  She taught this as a needle pattern at Fringe this fall.  I was not in her class but Fringe provides all patterns to registrants.

You will see a seed bead at the loop of the earrings. I have not gone through a ring rather through a picot and hope that seed bead will prevent the thread from working its way loose.

I also added the larger blue beads on both sides, that is why they are not laying flat for the photo.  

You can make this as a shuttle only pattern  by pulling some  thread off the shuttle before you start.  Then just finger tat the few chain stitches.  You could also plan a bit ahead and put the centre beads on the thread before you start. 

Silver Bells

These earrings are a surprise birthday gift for my Aunt Donna. She loves silver jewelry.  I used a Lizbeth Metallic Frappe thread and blue beads. Just another Joyful Bell pattern by Marilee Rockley.

I made her the name tag too. I had made her one before but it didn't match her personality so I now she has one made with Rainbow Splash by Lizbeth.  I hope she likes them.

I just used the end of my steel crochet hook to make the picots all the same size.  The pattern is by Kathy Lowe and can be found here.  There is a pattern for five or seven letters, using split rings with the beads in the center, You could add a bead  or use initials to get to the five or seven ring combination.

Honeycomb Charm Kit

Wish you were at Palmetto Tat Days?

Inside my goodie bag at Palmetto was this package with  thread and a hexagon shaped piece of wood; called a Honeycomb Charm kit 2019.  The gift was donated by Viki Clarke and the pattern available on her blog here.  She also has other free patterns too.

I tatted up the charm and was a bit nervous as I neared the end and wondered if the honeycomb would fit inside the tatting.   Yes it did.  I used the leftover thread for the fringe. 

Blue Bells

These little blue bells are done using a lovely 12wt Wonderfil thread.  I really should have bought less than the 400 m spool.   I guess you will just be seeing more of these earrings.  The pattern is Joyful Bell by Marilee Rockley and available free on her blog.

I used a little trick to end these by using a single shuttle split ring (SSSR).  When you wrap the thread just wrap twice being careful not to cross the threads. This gives more stability to the last ring.

I tie a knot before starting the SSSR and hide one thread in the first half of the ring.  The second half is padded from the SSSR thus the ring looks equal and no ends to hide.

 I have already gifted a pair to my niece but I see the earring bends when worn so I may need to stiffen them a bit.  Remember to wipe off the beads before the stiffening dries to keep the beads shiny.

Onion Ring Magic Square

Just a little practice piece.  The design is by Robin Perfetti and a free pattern on her  blog, Tatting by the Bay.  She recently added an edging to the pattern.

This is good practice for the Catherine Wheel Join.  Don't look too closely as this was also an attempt to do frontside backside tatting.  

DinkyThe Cat

Dinky the cat is a design by Erin Holloway  and taught at Palmetto Tat days in 2012.  Once again it was taught at Camp Wanna Tat in October of 2019. 

I gave the Dinky some tufts of hair at the top.  We used a unique technique to make those legs. I also used CWJ to keep the spine neat as I joined all those rings.

You may find it a challenge to find those marquise beads with holes in each end for the eyes but bugle beads or small shirt buttons would work too. I used 4mm bicone beads for the feet. 

This was a fun pattern to make and can easily be finished in a few hours.

Thirty minute earrings

I have a new tatting tee shirt and wanted some  red metallic earrings to go with some of the red bling on the shirt.  We were off to see some local sites and Jane K. tossed a ball of thread at me.  So we are in the car. I had an empty shuttles but no scissors, now I needed to come up with an earring design using one shuttle.  I had to be able to make both earrings.

So here is what I came up with.  I made eight daisies,  (7 picot)  then a ring of 8 ds then 5 daisies.  Leaving a space of thread I repeated for the second earring. Once we returned to Jane's  she gave me access to her basket of beads and I added a bead to the end of each line of daisies and earring findings.  I call these my 30-minute earring.  Simple but effective.

Truth is these would probably take less than 30 minutes to make.

Fringe Classes

Well well, this could be a first, I finished all my class projects from Fringe.  Below are the the projects,

Simple Shell taught and designed  by Lauren Snyder.

Second up is a Tatted Coin Enclosure, design by B. Dillon, taught by Lauren Snyder.

Now some practice with cluny tatting.  Design and class taught my Mimi Dillman. 

Finally I did this heart using Treble Tatting, design and taught by Kaye B. Judt.

Thanks to the Fringe Element Tatters for another great workshop in 2019.