Free pattern! "Roundabout" earrings

This is a one shuttle tatting pattern. The design reminds me of a roundabout intersection of roads, and it's also a sort of cross. To download the PDF file, CLICK HERE.

Happy Easter!

Wishing all joy and peace, good spring weather, great friends, lots of new flowers, and extra tatting time!

Recycling an old photo here, since I've been too busy to make any new Easter things. The satin eggs are from Handy Hands. Easy to decorate - just pin tatting on.

"R" we there yet?

Not quite, LOL.
This piece requires explaining, though I'm afraid an explanation won't really help much. It's a wedding necklace in progress that was supposed to incorporate some letter "R's" since both bride and groom have "R" in their initials. So I started with a fancy "R", then flipped it mirror image to have 2 "R's" facing, then - to my surprise, suddenly a cross appeared in the middle. Now, I actually think this design is turning out to be pretty fabulous (well, I would think that, LOL) but I'm not sure how the intended wearer will react to it. I've never even met the bride - she's the daughter of a friend of a friend who found out that I tatted and before I knew what was happening I got commissioned to tat a wedding necklace with letter "R's" in it. Sigh...live and learn...just say no!

"Eternal" tatted cross with 3-D rose center

The pattern is now available as pdf! Click here.

The structure of the 3-D rose in the center was inspired by Sharon Morgan's Jessica Rose, but I didn't use the "dimples" in mine, just plain tatted rings. The design of the cross itself is very simple, only vintage-style rings and chains.

I tatted the rose first (from my own "Roses" hand dyed thread), then lock joined the white thread at a picot between petals on the back. I opted to use lock joins (shuttle joins) at the places where the cross joined into the rose. Not sure if this is "right", but it's what I chose to try this time. I guess I thought "locking" each of the branches of the cross separately this way would give them more stability.

Eager beavers who want to try making these can probably figure out how it's done from the photos - go right ahead! It's fairly simple.

Flowery cross

One more repeat at the bottom would make the proportion better. But this seems like a good design to me, and the flowery edge is an effective way to use a variegated thread, I think. The thread I used is size 20, white on shuttle 2 and my own hand dyed "Lola" on shuttle 1. The finished size measures about 3x4 inches (almost 8x10 cm) The written pattern is still in the works...I have quite a few in the "works".

Bag #4 has been started on the loom. I used a little of the "Spicy Hot" hand dyed pearl cotton in the border of the bright rusty orange oval motif on the right. As with the previous bags, a polymer clay button and tatted loop is planned for a closure.

Easter Eggs

This is my attempt at doing tatted Easter eggs. The green one with the yellow cross I just finished; the blue egg in the background I did last year. Both are done in size 20 cotton pinned to satin eggs purchased from Handy Hands.

There are many beautiful eggs shown by tatters on the Internet. I very much admire the ones that are done using real, blown eggshells. However, in my household, I think real eggshells would get broken very quickly! So it's good that satin eggs are available.

By the way, the cross pattern is pretty much the same as the center of my shamrock pattern listed on the Tatting Calendar for March 11. I just used a smaller stitch count.