I too have joined
tatting the Spring Napkin doily by Renulek. It must be a huge tat-along since there are lots of pictures of wip both at Intatters and on Facebook. So I have decided to do mine too, even though from the start I know I will only do some of it because the big doilies are so fiddly to do. And I can see a good place where I can stop, lol.

The thread is Flora size 20 where I use a variegated combined with a white - like I do with most of the doilies I have done in recent years. It just feels good for me to do them this way because I would get a bit bored doing larger doilies in just one colour.
So far no problems, the design is just rings and chains which is the kind I like and do the best.

A minor disaster
I have been working on this doily almost all week. I was on the last round when I discovered a mistake on a previous round which meant that the last round would not work, so I cut that off at once. Now I am not even sure I want to finish this one because it has been such a pain doing it and then I can also see that it probably wont lie flat without ironing.



While I consider if I will finish this or not I have decided to join the Renulek doily at Intatters. I do not think I will do all the doily but stop at a appropriate place where it will work and it wont be too big for my liking, lol. I also have some Easter ornaments to finish within the next 2 weeks.

Late Easter but starting early

I have always loved tatting stuff for special occasions like Christmas and Easter. This year Easter is a little late but I have started early with the seasonal tatting. It is a runner so you can actually do it as big as you want, mine measures 12.5X20 cm.

It was published in my latest Guild magazine and it is an easy one to do and quite quickly too. The designer is Kirsten Wind Hansen. The thread is Flora size 20, one of my favourite threads ever to tat with, unfortunately it is not available anymore.
Now I am off to figure out what to do next.

From a runner to a Square

In my guild magazine from last summer is a runner designed by Anna Maria Hansen in green and yellow.
I intended to try that design  but the yellow center is so fiddly to do that I decided to just do the square in the picture.
It comes directly from the shuttles and I used my new Manuela threads, size 20. It is too soon for me to judge the thread really, but it took some getting adjusted to working with it.
I am not overly happy with this square, my next project is looking more promising.

Once upon a time .....

 

Every good fairytale starts this way, but this is not a fairytale but have turned into a UFO - and perhaps almost into a nightmare. I was looking through my blog and stumbled over this doily which I had completely forgotten.

This was a challenge given to me in 2009, yes almost 5 years ago.......

It looks like I have done almost a round since I last posted a picture of it here, so I have not been totally idle or lazy during my blogging break, but it's been more than a year since I last worked on it.

I have no idea when it will get done because I still think it is cumbersome working with stuff larger that 20 cm i diameter. But I hope it wille be finished one day because I do prefer to finish what I have started.

Design by Jan Stawasz and thread is Flora size 20.

Manuela, Aida and me.

I am back from the Danish-German tatting weekend and what a time we had. When time permits I will write a longer post about it, but right now this is what I will share from the trip.

A year ago - or maybe more - my friend Anna phoned me from a shop in Flensborg asking me if I wanted some balls of Manuela thread which she had found there. And I said yes please do buy me some because I have never tried that thread but heard a lot of good things about it. So she very kindly did that but unfortunately we did not manage to meet untill this weekend and I think that since then she had bought the rest of the stock (140 balls) so we could buy it at this meeting. Not sure how many were left over, lol.
Above are the colours that I bought and I am definitely looking forward to working with this thread, I only tried it a bit during the weekend but it felt like a dream to work with. Pity it is so hard to get for tatting. But for the workshops I used my Aida thread so I would not waste any of my new threads during the 4 workshops we had.

One of the workshops we had included making a celtic motif and that was really a challenge for me. But afterwards we were told that we were supposed to design some sort of outer round or whatever we wanted to develop the center motif. That was another huge challenge to overcome. :-)
To the right is what I was able to do. My celtic center is not right, I made mistakes early on and challenged myself even further, but I learned from it so I guess it is the important thing. The outer round is what I designed and it was not really a struggle to do that because it is just ordinary rings, chains and clovers, the stuff I do best.
Inga asked us to send our patterns to her and she would collect them in a small leaflet which all the participants will get a copy of. I can not wait to see it because there were some awesome designs.

Knots and Contacts

I am away for a weekend of great friendships and tatting. The suitcase is ready and I am catching the train in a couple of hours ready for some "Knots and Contacts".
"Knuder og kontakter" is a Danish-German weekend of tatting taking place near Flensburg in Northern Germany, a first time ever.
There will be 4 workshops but apart from Inga Madsen I am not sure who will teach there. But I am sure it will be great anyhow.
Will also be lovely to see some of my great friends and have some laughs. And maybe make some new friends.
Have a lovely weekend - I know that I will, lol.