Two Christmas presents :)

Wow! Can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post on this blog! November just flew by... I haven't really tatted much during that time, because I've been busy crocheting and making some patterns for the holidays that I wanted done before the beginning of December:

Well, life calmed down a bit when these Dudes were finished, and I've had time to make a few Christmas presents :) First I made a cell phone bling for my mother. She loves pink and purple, so I made a butterfly with Lizbeth 20 "Sea Shell" (#114) and added some pink beads for sparkle:

Haven't quite figured out what's the best way to attach the butterfly to the phone yet, so I have left the antennae uncut in case that works best. I'll have to see what I can find in the craft store tomorrow... The pattern is "Birte" from Adelheid Dangela's Tatted Butterflies.

One of my aunts said she wanted a beaded angel to hang in the window of their new cabin, but I couldn't find a pattern that made an angel large enough (and for which I didn't have to buy loads of expensive new beads), so I decided to tat one and add as many beads as possible:

I need to weave in the ends, but it is done. I may need to stiffen it with some glue to make it hang straight, because it's quite heavy with all those beads.  The pattern is Marjorie's Angel by Martha Ess, and the thread is Puppets Eldorado (size 10-20) in white. I strung the clear beads on the thread and tatted them in, while all the blue beads were added for the joins.  I decided to make some changes to the head and halo to avoid doing split rings. A couple more ends fo hide, but worth it! I'm quite pleased with how it came out, and I hope my aunt will like it too :)

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 :)