Friday, February 27, 2015

Brilliant Sunset


 A new hand dyed thread batch, "Brilliant Sunset" has been added to my Etsy shop. These bright colors really cheer me up while I'm getting very tired of these dreary cold winter days. Usually about now I do my annual "Extremely Very Early Spring" giveaway, but since I've seen absolutely no sign of spring whatsoever around where I live, it'll have to wait a little longer.

Meanwhile I can't resist leaking just a hint of a few "spoilers" about what I've been quietly working on. I have a very big project in the works that involves designing and writing up several new patterns, so that's why I'm sort of quiet lately. Can't say what they're for yet and can't post photos until closer to summer...spoilers! ;)

The butterfly necklace in progress below is my own design (well, actually inspired by a vintage pattern but I added changes and the beads to it). If you would enjoy the challenge of tatting your own, the pattern is in my book Boutique Tatting. I will post another photo of the necklace when it is done, It's for a custom order. I don't do many custom orders, because hand dyeing thread for my shop takes so much of my time, but occasionally someone makes me an offer that I can't refuse. 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

New free original pattern! "Melt Into Spring" snowflake tatted with daisy picots


Click HERE to download the PDF of my "Melt Into Spring" snowflake pattern, it's a free gift for you!

This original design uses the techniques of ring, chain, join, lock join, picot, daisy picot, reversing chains, shoelace trick, and Josephine knots. 

I used a colorful thread and white because it seems to give the effect of spring colors breaking through the snow, but of course the design can be made in any colors. My sample in size 20 measures about 4 inches (10 cm) from tip to tip, and another in size 50 is 3.25 inches (8.2 cm).

I hope you'll enjoy the pattern! I worked very hard on it. Feel free to post photos of your finished snowflakes online, I'd love to see them! But to share the pattern itself, please link to this blog post. Thank you!