Freestyle...

I think I've become addicted to just tatting without patterns!  New threads came yesterday and I dove right in and just started tatting.  I'm not sure if this is just to see where I end up or just to test the threads to see how I really feel about the colors, but I enjoy it nonetheless. :-)  

First to be played with was Color 625 (LizBeth).  

Just a little, bitty thing.  When I set it down as it is in the scan, I saw the top of a lady's head with a flower at her hairline, and then I saw the eyes... The bottom ring is a mouth should be... Do you see it too?  Either way, this all ended up putting Little Guitars by Van Halen in my head, so I'm calling it the Senorita doodle. LOL.  I might toy with her more at some point... Maybe?

Then, I opened up Color 665 and began freestylin' again...

Definitely needs to be played with, but I kind of like it.  

The last thing I have to show is from two days ago...

It's an atrocious scan, sorry.  This is Flopsy the butterfly. {e:laugh}  She's done in LizBeth 20, Color 135.  The pattern is designed by the wonderfully talented Jane.  It's a surprisingly simple pattern, though I did somehow leave out a picot on the center ring. >.<  I didn't notice that until the end, so I just went through a stitch --no way as I starting over for such a menial reason! LOL.  Poor Flopsy is all sorts of out of shape from being crumpled up in my hand as I tatted!  I was so afraid of the bead's weight stretching the thread, that she spent her birthing all bunched up in a ball.  Methinks I may venture into stiffening to see if I can't restore some of her dignity!  Another thing is that the backsides of both wing sets are facing each other.  I don't think that's how it's supposed to be, but I don't know what I did wrong either. LOL.  Oh well, Maybe when I make a sister for Flopsy (Will it be trite if I call her 'Mopsy'?) I'll get it right. ...And now I'm thinking I should follow that with two rabbits named Cottontail and Peter. :-D  Oh, how I love Beatrix Potter!!!  

Well, that's all I have for now.  We went to a fundraiser breakfast in support of a No Kill animal shelter, so my belly feels full which means I feel sleepy. ;-)  Pancakes = Belly sinkers!

Love and happy tatting to all!

♥,
Stephanie Grace
P.S. Eliz, thank you!!!  Not only for your constant encouragement and support, but for your feedback on the anchor.  Another friend thought maybe I should lengthen the longer chain.  I'm definitely going to be toying with that and making several versions.  Since they'll all at least somewhat resemble anchors, at least they can all decorate cards! LOL.  :-)   ♥

TIAS?

I'm sure that everyone knows that Mrs. Jane Eborall has announced the next Tat it and See.  I have a tendency to sit out, usually terrified of a technique shared before it starts.  Well, I'm sick of missing out!  Once again, Mrs. Eborall put up a technique to practice prior to TIAS starting and, once again, I felt sad because she only gives instructions for shuttles (I understand that completely and I don't mean that in a negative way. LOL).  

I looked at it, though, and thought, If I'm not afraid to try older shuttle techniques and figure them out for the needle, why should this be any different?  So, I grabbed a needle.  

I'm not incredibly sure that it's done right, but this is what I ended up with.  It's done in LizBeth 20, color 144.  So, here's what I did:

My brain already translates shuttle thread as needle thread and ball thread as ball thread (see how smart I can be? LOL), so I brought the ball thread UP through the picot and then simply ran the needle through.  Repeat for the other picots and you're done.  

Here's a closer look:

 Again, I'm not sure if this is right.  It appears to be right to me so I'm sharing it.  If it's wrong or Mrs. Eborall would like me to take this down for any reason, just let me know.  :-)  If it is right, I'm hoping it will encourage at least one needle tatter to tackle a shuttle trick today!  (Or tackle a shuttle!).  ;-)

Other than that, I haven't anything to show.  I don't know where my day went yesterday and, since I have nothing to show for it, I'm pretty sure it never happened. ;-)  

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Two posts in one day? Wow...

I was going to let this sit around until tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait.  LOL.  I played more with the doodle that made me think of an anchor... I still need to play with it more, but I can't figure out what's bothering me about it... Have you any thoughts about what it could be?  Perhaps a bigger bottom?  I just don't know...

Well, here it is with one of the cards I mentioned earlier.  I didn't attach it and it decided to put itself at more of an angle when I flipped it onto the scanner, but you get the gist... I hope. ;-)

Hmm... You look silly tilting your head like that... Perhaps I should scan it straight? LOL. ;-)

Love and happy tatting to all!

<3,
Stephanie Grace

Here's Goes Nothin'...

The new modem arrived yesterday, so I'm hoping to get things on track.  (With the old modem, it wouldn't cooperate with my wireless router and to go from laptop to desktop, I'd have to plug in which one I wanted and call ... then call again when I went back to the first one.  It was irritating as anything!). 

Back to tatting... I've been just toying around.  All the patterns I have and nothing was screaming out, so I grabbed threads that I don't care much for and just had fun... 

The navy blue one is designed by Mary Konior.  It's around page 70, I think, in Tatting With Visual Patterns.  I want to say Masquerade, but I could be wrong (okay; new goal... write down the pattern information when it's complete in case I'm feeling lazy when I blog about it. LOL).  The final chain got twisted, of course, but when I did it again in obnoxious green, it came out fine, so go figure...

The pink with the heart is just a simple little thing to help me be sure I was adding a bead on the right way. ;-)  I kind of like the tiny little fella...

The other pink is just there because I wasn't sure how the color would be changed in the tiny one and wanted something to show the color.

The bright green was me just letting the thread go where it wanted to.  I think it looks like an anchor; do you see it to?  I think I might actually toy with it some more and make the bottom part bigger.  I have some nautical-themed note cards that an anchor might work well with. ;-)

This was another of me just playing around.  Of course, the stinkin' snowflake is facing the backside of the main ring. >.<  I kept on truckin' though ...then a chain didn't want to tighten enough, so I gave in and cut it off the ball.  When I went to scan it, though, I realized that I like it a lot, so I just might have to make another attempt at this one.  I like how, in the scan, the snowflake points look like they're attached to the ring --they're not, it just sits as though it is which makes me happy. LOL.  

Well, time to move on with my day.  I have a new book of patterns arriving today, so hopefully that will inspire some more playing around. 

Oh!  I'm also working on another project using the bright green Mary Konior motif, so maybe I'll have that to show tomorrow?  (I got smart with that one and, since other bits are being repeated, I scanned and planned out the positioning on the computer before tatting... I'm scaring myself with all of this playing around!  I'm too meek and mild for this stuff! LOL).

Love and happy tats to all!

<3,
Stephanie Grace

Happy New Year!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season!  I am so glad that's it all over and done with and now I can relax and work on trying to figure out my health situation (nothing serious).  


Most of my tatting in the last few weeks were these: 

I included one with every Christmas card that went out (even poked a hole in each card so just the snowflake was incorporated into the awesome New York Giants/winter field scene...).  ;-)  


I was pretty distracted after the first batch since I'd gotten that flip figured out and the amazingly generous Ms. Fox sent me Clovers, plastic bobbins, and some Finca thread!!!!  :-*  Thank you! THANK YOU! THANK YOU MS. FOX!!!!  The Clovers are a delight and feel much more comfortable than the metal shuttle I was using --especially since I was terrified about cutting myself removing and replacing the bobbin!  It feels so sharp to me! :-/  So, yes, I am still shuttling too!  :-)  Most of my rings still don't seem to want to close properly (completely, I mean), but I'm gettin' there!!  


Of course, I am still playing with my needles as well!  Even venturing into tatting without a pattern or just letting the thread tell me how it wants to be shaped.  Yup... I want to "design" at least one thing in 2012.  


Aside from all that, thanks to Ms. Diane's sharing of her beautiful creations, I've been looking into Romanian Point Lace.  That might just be another 2012 thing to be accomplished. ;-)


Well, this is getting long so I'm just going to post it.  My new modem should be here tomorrow so I'm going to try and post more frequently... I'm getting myself on a schedule in life (which is VERY good) and the modem will hopefully let my laptop online which will make blogging more frequently much easier for me, I think... We shall see, right?


Love to you all!


<3,
Stephanie Grace

Facebook Status

I just posted this as my Facebook status and realized that, while shouting in from the Facebook rooftops is lovely, this is better shared here:

I swear that the tatting community (not tattoos, LOL) is the best community in the world filled with the most caring, generous people!  They are all so wonderful!  As if creating pretty things isn't rewarding enough, being part of such an awesome community is certainly well worth the hours and hours of frustration endured in learning and untangling threads! :-)  Surely, there is no better community in the whole of the universe and beyond!

Thank you all for the inspiration both in tatting and otherwise.  You are all amazing and I cannot tell you how fortunate I feel that I was lucky enough to find my way to the world of tatting.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  


Love to all,
Stephanie Grace

Flippin' Out!

I did it! I did it!  I finally got the 'flip' down!

See that?  Those sloppy rings and chains that got tighter as I went along?  They're done with a shuttle!  FINALLY!  :-D  I was ecstatic yesterday after I'd done a bunch of stitches so, first thing today, I picked up the shuttle once again.  There are other little rings I made, but I think you get the point, LOL.  I'm getting there!  I think the "BOYE" shuttle I used may be a bit too big for me or something, but I couldn't find my other one, so I just went for it.  :-)  The pink thread seems to be a bit dry-rotted from being in storage too long at my A.C. Mom, but it worked well enough for me to start getting the hang of it.  Of course, now I'm itching to buy a different shuttle to try, but I don't think Hubby will go for that since I just put in an order a few weeks ago with Handy Hands, went to Bingo tonight, and still have to order turtle food. :-/  Oh well, I'll work with what I have and then, if I find a shuttle I'm more comfortable with, it should seem like a breeze, right?  


I am absolutely THRILLED that I finally managed to get the flip down.  I could never figure out what I was doing wrong and, well, not sure if it means much to anyone, but I think the wrapping around the pinky finger kept getting skipped.  When I read that little detail again, I got the flip right away. LOL.  Oops...  


I've tatted more things than just this (with needle, of course) and even worked out two-color split rings which I'd never tried before.  

WARNING: Stephanie Grace is getting brave. 

We should all be vewy, vewy afwaid and proceed with caution from this moment forward. LOL

Love and Happy Tatting to All,

Stephanie Grace