Just another gecko today

Well I've a bit more than that to say!!!  

On Thursday I met up with another online tatting/lace friend.  Andrea is from Wigan and was in Stratford for a few days with her husband and smashing grandson.  

I usually avoid churches and anything to do with religion but Andrea's grandson wanted to see Shakespeare's grave so that's where we went.  I don't think I've ever sat in a church and tatted before Thursday but that's what we did!!!!  I rarely set foot in a church anyway as I feel very uncomfortable in them!!!!  It was somewhere to sit on our walking tour!

The thread used for this little guy was Lizbeth 172 - Pink Marble.

Boxes again, YIKES!!!

Remember this?  

Well it's when you get to this stage (below) that you start to say to yourself - 'why DID I do that'?

Here is one of the boxes after the scissors!!!  This takes me an hour or two per box as sometimes the twiddly fancy bits are sewn down very, very tightly and the metallic cord is hard to unpick too.  I take great care not to 'nick' the fabric.  

Still, here they are ready for the next stage which is the 'what on earth do I replace those fancy bits with'!!!!!  Deciding on which pattern will fit the lid is quite a hassle but once started the OG just HAS to proceed!!!!!

I've tried tweezers to get the little thread ends out but they don't work so I've decided to mount the tatting onto another piece of fabric first.  That's the second picture which you can see below the YIKES picture.

Gecko number two!

Another gecko!!!  They're breeding like crazy over here in my part of Tat Land!!!  Isn't it strange how sometimes the silliest things can take over your life?  

I blame Tatskool for this little rampage.   After meeting her and her husband a few weeks ago I remembered that he is a gecko expert.  I named this pattern for Tatskool as I've a feeling she asked if I could do one for her and her husband many moons ago!  

I found time yesterday to update the page here so you now have a plethora of diagrams!!!  The trick, when drawing diagrams is, to draw the whole thing out first.  Sometimes I use layers and 'trace' over the original.  

Next step is to copy and paste and repeat that as many times as needed.  Each picture is then chopped up to make the diagrams needed!!!  Great satisfaction in chopping - now where's my ex husband's head?!?!?!

This little guy is made using Lizbeth Butterfly Breeze number 127.  I'm experimenting at the moment with another piece of scanning software after doing the Mavericks update on the computer.  The reason is for that is that the Epson drivers aren't yet available for the new update so I'm finding another way to scan.

Gecko improvements!

Now this is the reason for doing the new easy block tatting page.  I decided it was about time I re-visited this little gecko guy and try and improve the pattern.  I'll try and get it finished and on the pattern page as soon as possible - just need to check links and get it 'up there'.  

It was while working this first little guy that I decided to fiddle with the joins in the block tatting so here he is - gecko number 1 and he is made using Rainbow Taffy number 153 with beads in the centres of the body SR's.  

This is one of my favourite threads and I'm going to play with others so sit back and expect a glut of geckos!!!

Last 4 of the season!

I'm going to list the last four Tatting Tidy pots today here in my Etsy shop.  These are the last of this season and I'll see how they go before I make anymore!!  The sewing machine has been put away for the winter so it'll only be 'emergency' stuff made over the next few months!!!

I'll still be making the Wrap It, Flip It, and Mark It bookmarks as I still think they're a stonking GREAT idea.  In fact Nick's still using his and mine's been in constant use since BC3 invented them.

For those who haven't seen them before.  The tape wraps round the back of the book and the marker is 'flipped' in so it marks your place.  The beauty of these bookmarks is that they can't get lost and it's also very difficult to lose your place as the motif stays in place.  

I like (personally) the snowflake types myself but I can do smaller critters if asked.  Always very difficult to 'guess' at what people might like!!

'New' (?) Technique

Well, not sure if it's new but it's an answer to a problem that's annoyed me for ages.  

I'm currently testing and improving an old pattern of mine which has a lot of block tatting in it.  I'm bone, bone idle and hated the way block tatting used to be done 'in days gone by' by switching shuttles and turning the work round.  That's why the new way appealed to me greatly and it's the way I always use now.

BUT I didn't like the regular lock join on the return chain as it always seemed ugly to me.  So, fiddling around the other evening I found a better way to do it.

The ordinary lock join works fine on the 'odd numbered' rows but NOT on the even ones.  So off went BC3 with me tagging along behind to see if a better way could be found.  It worked - BC3 found the answer!!!  This new idea is SOOOOO easy and doesn't interrupt the flow of work at all.

I decided after a few false starts that the best thing to do was just start again from scratch with a whole new set of drawings and text too instead of trying to update the block tatting page.  So here's the link to the easy block tatting page with the new join.  I've no idea if this is going to be useful or not or if anybody's worked this out before but that's of no concern to me.  

All I know is that it kept me out of trouble for several hours and that's the best medicine that Nick could ask for - a quiet OG!!!