motif #6 & 7

Up first is another try at Martha Ess's Dragon Paprika. I am pleased with this try. The joins are closer and the face came out better and I was right if you do the face in one pass instead of putting it down while doing it, it works out much better. I used the left over thread on my shuttles from the first one I did and ended up finger tatting with the last 6” from shuttle 1 and 8” from shuttle 2. I would not have been a happy camper if I had needed to add thread at the very end. The thread that I used is a nice saturated red, but this scan still looks brown. I left off most of the beads as this is to go to a 3 yr old boy who is into NASCAR and other busy stuff.

The second motif finished today is a fairy. This fairy is going to the 5 yr old sister of the dragon boy.

This is a pattern by Jane Eborall, http://www.e.n.e.btinternet.co.uk/ This was done in size 10 J. & P. Coats Knit-Cro-Sheen. It is a crappy thread for tatting but the only thread that I had in a varigated color way in a size that I wanted to use. The beads for the skirt are white pearls and the beads for the wing are 12/0 lustered beads both from http://www.tatsall.ca/seedbeads.htm
I had a spot of trouble and had to cut and add thread when I started the wing. I had counted the beads for the skirt wrong and had an extra, I tried to take the easy way out by smashing the bead with a pliers but cut one strand of the thread and it wanted to shred, so had to cut out the damaged part and add the rest of shuttle 1 back in.
As for the amount of thread used in this fairy, I had wound about 4-5 yards on both bobbins for my Silent Shuttles. And having to cut out the damaged part and to cut and tie at the end of the wand and start and end the legs, I had about 1-2 feet left on my shuttles. My measurements are not exact because it is about 3' if I hold the end of the thread in my right hand, stretch my right arm out all the way and measure the thread to the left shoulder.

Gale Marshall's site has a lot of good stuff for tatting. She even offers additional time at $75,000.00/hour however she is sold out at the moment. I have been saving up my pocket lint to buy some time, but it looks beyond my reach at any time soon.

I ordered some more HDT threads this week, I can't wait until they come. When they do, I will post a pic of them.

The first football game of the season is on and it is only 9 p.m. So I will see if I can get a pair of earings done yet tonight, that will give me one more thing on my list. By the time I decided what thread and beads to use and found the hoops that I wanted to mount the tatting in, and wound the skein of thread on a spool, it ended up being 10 so I will work on the earrings tomorrow. I am planning on using the earing pattern from Nancy Tracy's http://www.be-stitched.com/ Her earrings were patterned for a 1.25” hoop. My hoops are 1.75” so I will need to adjust the pattern. Her's used only 2 rows but I am thinking that 3 might work better, although if I make the space threads longer using beads I may be able to get by with 2 rows.

The thread that I am going to use, is a varigated green I picked up at Nordic Needle in Fargo. The tag on the thread says #239 (color number) and the other side says LEAH'S. I just checked their website and it is a pearl cotton size 8 but it is a crisper pearl cotton then the DMC threads. It feels and tats up smoother . http://www.nordicneedle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc? Has anyone had any experience with this thread?
Happy Tatting
Ladytats