For a long time I wanted to make this pattern.  It's from Jan Starwasz, a great Polish designer.  He has his own way of tatting and sometimes I don't get the project as it's supose to be.  But tyhis basket worked perfectly!  I need to balance better the colors of the flowers but that's usually my problem when I'm working with the same color range.  I used the reds/pinks only intead of using more colors. 

The flowers were made with El Beida, the stems were DMC Pearl and rhe basket DMC Petra.  All of them pearl cotton #8.

Click on the photo to see it in detail.

Well, I'm back as mom's official flower photographer.  lol  Mom loves flowers, specially roses and orchids and have a pretty good amount of them at home.  She loves to take photos of the flowers but she's not a good photographer and Naida don't care too much about it so when I'm here mom always ask me to take photos of her "babies".  This little beauty bloomed this week.  Mom had to cut it from the plant because the branch was very thin and the flower heavy and couldn't stand straight up, so before it died on the floor mo cut it and put it in a little bottle.

I think it's a "Confetti" rose.  The rose is pale yellow with bright pink on the borders.  It's one of the most pretty, I think.  She have some lavander roses but I don't like their form, not mentioning that they have a gazillion thorns.  This one doesn't have as many thorns.

I took the photo on the "Honor" table in the living room.  The doilies you see on it are some of the ones I made last year and mom already washed them and kept them.  The yellow doily is a gift from Aileen Chia.  I'll scan it later and talk about it.

Now back to tatting... 

Today I made this flower to continue with the 25 Motif Challenge.  I'm trying to catch up in this one.  The flower is easy to make.  There's only 1 ring and it's in the center, the rest is made with chains.  I called Aquamarine because the petals looks like little seashells.    The pattern for this one will come later also and will be on my web site.

I used Coats Dual Duty (T3) in White.  I never worked with this thread before.  Naida got it for me like 2 weeks ago, in white and royal blue.  The thread is a polyester/cotton mix and it's not so bad to work with.  The only thing that is a little annoying is that the thread's twist is altered (too tight or too loose) when doing big rings or long chains and I have to "drop" the shuttle or the work to get the correct twist back.  I "walk" the shuttles when filling them, so I'm not adding twist to the thread and also I "walk" the ball when working, but the twist problem continues.  Anyway, the final result is a crisp motif and I like it.  The thread is cheap and comes in several colors.  I think I'll get more colors and play with it, may be using another thread as a core.  It tat's like a #50.

A few weeks ago someone post in a blog (Blogger site) this pattern that she found but didn't dare to make because it looks very complicated.  Today I was looking something to make and remember the pattern, which I saved.

The pattern is really simple.  The only "tricky" part is the last round because is a little ackward the joining of the chains to make the overlay petal.  The original pattern has 1 ring only, the one in the center.  The rest of the motif is worked on chains.  I changed it a little and instead of making the "petals" as chains I made them as rings.  Also I made like 3 rounds less because the threads on the shuttles where finishing.

I used Altin Basak #10 in white and pink and measures like 3 inches.

Here is the pattern if you want to give it a try.  Click on it so see it bigger.

Mom wanted a hat and I finished one today.  The hat pattern is from Patterns by Dot.  I used Red Heart yarn in white.  The flowers and butterfly are my original patterns.  I used El Beida cotton perle #8 in different shades of pinks and reds.  The patterns will be on my web site soon.  I made a smaller version of the hat in "Watercolors" for my sister Letty's niece.  Tomorrow I'll take photos of that one.  I made it with a smaller hook and placed one butterfly on it.

You can find the rest of the photos in this photo album.

This one is basically the same as motif 14.  It has an extra round.  The scanner flats it, but the flower stand very pretty in 3-D.  Tonight I will finish the hat and will sew the flowers and post the photos.

The threads used are El Beida in red and light pink.  It's  a super quick pattern.  I'll write it and share it later as with the Patty flower.

I have been busy this week tatting some flowers for a crochet hat that mom wanted me to do.  This is one of the flowers I'm making.  It's an original pattern.  I called it Patty because I made it Monday (St. Patty's Day).  The pattern is pretty simple and I'll share it later on the weekend.

The threads are El-Beida cotton perle #8 in light pink and bright pink.  Measures like 2 inches.

Today I was looking for some links about how to make split rings for a person that wants to learn and I came across this pattern at Bella Online. 

It's pretty simple and a great exercice for those that are learning split rings. 

I made several changes.  First the central flower is suppose to have 8 petals, but the thread on the shuttle was finishing and I made 7.  I didn't want to add thread for just one ring.    Also I added beads to the picots on the flower and the picots on the split rings. 

I think this pattern will be now in my "Favorites" list.  So easy and quick to make.  Lovely!

For the last 5 years I have been posting a pattern on my BD.  This is like a thanks you to all my tatting friends who put with my frantic design boosts and strange ideas and challenges.    This year pattern is the Taina Flower and Snowflake.  Hope you all enjoy it!  It's also attached as a PDF for easier printing.

   





















Taina Flower & Snowflake
©2008 Wally Sosa


Materials:
1 Shuttle (Round 1-2)
2 Shuttles (Round 3)

Instructions:


Round 1: (1 Shuttle)
R: 6 ± 3 - 3 - 6.

Repeat until 6 petals are made.  Remember to join petal 6 to the first one.

Cut.














Round 2: (1 Shuttle)
Join to middle picot on ring.
R: 5 ± 3 - 5.  Join to the same picot and to the picot between the rings.
R: 6 + 6 (- 6) x 5.  Join to the same picot and to the next picot.

Repeat from beginning around, until 6 big rings and 6 small rings are made.  Remember to join the last big ring to the first small ring.

Cut.






Round 3: (2 Shuttles)
R:  6 - 3 ± 3 - 3 - 3 - 6.
*  Ch: 5.
R: 6 + (to the last picot of previous ring) 3 - 3 - 3 - 6.
R: 6 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 6.
Ch: 5.
SCMR: 6 + (to the last picot of previous ring) 3 - 3 [R: 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3] 3 + (to the last picot of ring) 3 - 6.
CH: 6 + (to 3rd free picot of big ring) 8.
TOR: 3 + (to last picot of same ring) 6 + (to 1st picot of next big ring) 3.
CH: 8 + (to next picot on big ring) 6.
R: 6 - 3 + (to 1st free picot in small ring on SCMR) 3 + (to same ring) 3 - 3 - 6.

Repeat from * around.

Cut.

This is a cute little flower I came up from one of my digital tatting designs.  The color thread is Valdani and the cream is Miquita.

I don't have a name for over 2 dozen of the new designs so if you would like to help me naming them I'll appreciate.   

I'll post the pattern for this one later.

This cute little flower is a pattern from Jan Stawasz.  He is a great Polish tatter.  Yes, a man!!!  Recently he publish a book with his designs.  You can visit his web site for information about his book and his tatting method.  There are 2 pictorials with flowers.  I want to make them.  So I'll be doing the flowers and use them for the challenge.  I'm not in a good mood to design.  Well, more of a lazy mood here.    But at least I'm tatting.

This is a classic 1-shuttle flower.  This motif is used a lot in different patterns and in different ways.  I used Miquita in the light ecru I have been using lately.  It measures around 1 inch.  Here is the pattern:

Center Ring:  2 (- 2) x 7.  Mock Picot.
R:  5 - 5 - 5 - 5.  Join to the next picot.
*  R:  5 + (to previous ring) 5 - 5 - 5.  Join to the next picot.
Repeat * until 7 rings are made in total.
Last Ring:  5 + (to previous ring) 5 - 5 + (to the 1st ring) 5.  Join to the Mock Picot and cut.

Yay!  It's done!  I'm still hitting myself why I didn't added the between ring from the beginning.  *sigh*  But at least now is done and I think that the ds counting works fine.  Now I'll write the pattern.  So now from a flower it became a snowflake. 

I'm already starting in another design.  Also I have to make a new "schedule" to use my time better because I'm spending way too much time on the 'puter.  I want to publish my new books and I have to start from zero because all of them got lost in the last reformatting of the HDs due to a virus.  But I have all the patterns and diagrams on my notebook.  It's just that is SO BORING to write again everything and make new diagrams on the 'puter.  At least I want everything ready for when I travel back to PR.  I want to see if it's easier for me to sell my books from there.  From here is difficult because of the shipping and the postal service is crappy.  That is IF people want to buy my books.  The 1st one was a hit, selling over 100 copies but the last 4 books just flunked.  May be I'm not that good... 

Okay, back to my tatting!

Well, it's almost done. I haven't gone to bed yet working on this.  But I managed to make the center without mistake and the 3rd round is almost perfect.  I had to cut the picots that joined the rings on the ends because the motif was cupping.  Why I didn't followed the original digital tatted motif?  Just stubborn Wally!

In case you're wondering what I call "digital tatting", this is it.  It's a motif that I make using Paint Shop Pro.  I take a scan of a motif and using the Kaleidoscope Effect I can transform it into another motif.  It helps me to design new patterns.  Not always I get "tattable" results but they look pretty good and I can make variations from them.

This is the original motif I used to make the digital tatted motif.  You may remember this one.  I did it a few nights ago.

This is the final result.  This is not the only one I made.  I have other 6 variations from the square motif. 

As you can see from this one, there is a ring between the rings that makes the "end".  Why I didn't follow the original designs beats me!  But now I know what I need to do.  Will fill the shuttles again and will finish the last round.  Then write the pattern and publish.

Later I'll try a beaded version because the little yellow dots inside the big blue ring screams "BEADS!"  lol

It's been a long time since my last motif for the 25 Motifs Challenge.  Tonight I was playing with some "digital tatting" and came with a design that I really like it.  I was thinking it was going to be easy, but geesh!  I'm out of form!  I had to make it 3 times and even this one have a mistake.  I made 2 of the big rings with 5 free- picots instead of 4.  So I couldn't make the last round.

Anyway I think it's pretty and looks like a symbol used by the Tainos (Puerto Ricans native, who are now extinct).  It's not exactly like the symbol but I associate this with it, so there's why the name Taina.

The thread used is Miquita, a Peruvian thread similar to a size #20, a little thinner, in light ecru or cream.


I will writing the pattern and will post it here.  It will take a couple of days may be.  I need to come back to designing.  Soon is my BD and I need to make my BD pattern.

Excellent blog from a fellow tatter/sister.

Here is a better photo of the tatted mini irises I made yesterday.  Hubby left the camera here in the house and didn't told me!  I was thinking it was with him!    So now in the morning I took a better photo.  The windows are totally open and the sunshine is entering.  Today is going to be a cool day.  Next week I need to buy 2 heavy blankets.  Winter is almost here!

I have this mini vase that my SIL Mona gave me from her baby's naming day.  It's like 4 inches tall.  I wanted to fill it with mini tatted flowers and last night class was about 3 flowers that will be perfect for the vase.  This is the 1st I made.  It's a mini Iris.  I used variegated pink Altin Basak #10 and the flower it like 1 1/2".  I didn't tat the stem just cut a piece of green chenille and stick it in the middle of the flower.  No glue or nothing. 

Here is a detail of the Iris. 


Sorry the pics are a little blurry but it's night and the light is not the best to use the web cam to take the pic.  Hubby has my cam again.  I'm seriously considering getting a new camera so my hubby has his own and leave mine alone.  LOL  But I'll get the new camera, he can take mine!