Still alive :)

Hi there! Got a question in a comment last night if I am alright, because I haven't posted anything for months. So I just wanted to tell you that I am :) I just haven't been very active online this year because I'm at school for several hours a day and don't feel like doing much when I get home. I'm taking math & physics, which is really really hard and takes a lot more effort than anything I've ever done, so naturally I don't have anything to post about... To be honest I haven't tatted anything since the beginning of January (I think), which is a bit sad. I tend to do everything in periods, and right now I'm knitting. Hadn't really knitted for a couple of years, so it's been fun rediscovering it :) Nothing is finished yet, so I have nothing to show you... I have also learned to use my sewing machine, which was a new year's resolution I made. I started a small quilt, but I only finished a handbag for my mother for her birthday:

She wanted a bag to put her choir notes in, and requested that there was musical notes on it. Couldn't find fabric with notes on, so I appliqued some on, cut from an old t-shirt. I'm pretty pleased with the result, for not having sewn anything useful before, and my mother loved it :) I had planned to put some tatted bling on the bag, but in the end I ran out of time :/ I only finished putting the handles on twenty minutes before my mother arrived! Perhaps I'll make her some bling for Christmas instead :)

Anyway, that's a few reasons why I've been so quiet lately. I did a count of how many items I'm up to in the 25 motif challenge, and I think I'm at 19. 18 if you don't count the cluny attempts. So I have a few more to go, and perhaps it will motivate me to pick up my tatting again :) Right now most of my supplies are buried underneath a pile of yarn so big I haven't dared to look through it... If I tip the pile over it will completely take over our livingroom! (Alright, so our livingroom is very small, but still...) 

Since I have nothing new to show, I'll post a picture of my almost finished snail from Inga Madsen's Tatted Animals:

I turned the shell around, because it spiraled the wrong way. Just need to make the antennae and the last few rings & chains on the shell! Don't remember what the yellow thread is called, but the shell color is Lizbeth (not sure, but I think it's Razzle Dazzle). 

Well, that will have to do for now. If I go all quiet again, at least you know why :)

Some tiny tatted things

 

These bugs are made from one of these patterns. The big one is made with crochet cotton (possibly size 10?), the small bug is made with a metallic sewing thread from Gütermann. Quite the difference! For a while right after I learned to tat I made lots and lots of them to test different threads. Since they are only made up of two rings I can just use whatever thread I have on the shuttle, and I don't have to worry about how much ball thread I need... They are very cute, I think I need to use them for decorating stuff :) Here is another one:

This bug is made with the same thread as the one above, only I tried to dye it using red wine.  Yeah, the color of that thread is still fading... Here is yet another bug, made with metallic Anchor thread/yarn:

And a centipede I made from the same pattern page as the others:

Made with size 20 thread in a pinkish rust color. Great pattern for practicing single shuttle split rings! Another great pattern using split rings is one of Anne Bruvold's dragons:

This is "Ringtrim" the Micro Dragon, also made with the wine dyed thread. The tail is made with SSSRs, and two shuttle split rings on the body and head. I never fail to make mistakes following a pattern, and with this one I forgot to make his chin white...

On the InTatters forum I came across a pattern for a super cute little owl:

As you can see, my version is not exactly super cute :p I thought I was using a thick thread (I think it's 10 or 20), and I figured I would need bigger beads for eyes. Yup, it looks more like E.T. than an owl! And the picots are all over the place :/ Need to practice those a bit more... Oh well, I'll make it better next time :) Unfortunately I can't remember who made the pattern, which was posted directly in a thread at InTatters. If I can find an external link I'll post it later!

I had better luck with this tiny butterfly, made in the same thread as the "owl":

Pattern from the book Learn to Tat by Janette Baker. Now, that is what cute is supposed to look like, and my picots are improving as well :)