Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day! Motifs #12, 13 and 14

Happy Valentine’s Day to all !
And a Special Happy Birthday Greeting to my sweet niece, who is 21 years old today!

MOTIF #12: 3-D VICTORIAN HEART (made from two fans)

Here’s one of my 3-D ‘designs’ from around 1993, where I used a published ‘flat’ pattern and molded it into a 3-D shape. It is made from two fans (see below) with an added chain on each fan to make a ‘heart’ shape.

I used Alene’s fabric stiffener and draped each fan over a plastic 3-D heart form to 'puff' them out. Then I sewed the stiffened rounded shapes together with sewing thread, also incorporating pearls on the sides as I sewed along.


I hung a large pink ‘crystal’ bead on a chain in between the two halves, and also wove gold beads (the plastic ones that can be cut to desired length ) in and out on the sides (no sewing). Then I glued the flowers on top











This is a rather blurry ‘photo of a photo’ of the fan, as I no longer have the original fan ornament.

I have it pictured here upside down so you can see the ‘heart’ shape. Not shown here, of course, is the long chain (plus picots) between outer rings 4 and 6 to give the fan a ‘heart’ shape. (Hope I’m explaining this OK!)

I know I've seen this pattern while going through my books, but, of course, I can't find it at the moment to give credit to the designer.

I know I made many of these fans. If you want to stand on your head, you'll see that I added a little
crystal under the silk flower and bow!




Interestingly, I made only one of the 3-D hearts, partly because during my tatting frenzy years of 1990-1994 I was trying to make a lot of ‘quick’ items to sell, plus I was coming up with several different ideas for other 3-D items. The finishing for the 3-D heart was a bit labor intensive (for me), and I didn’t want to take time back then to make more of them. I always intended to make more, but haven't made any others so far!

MOTIF #13: ‘REGAL HEART’ by TERI DUSENBURY,
with pearls sewn to the tatting afterwards


This heart may look familiar to you, as it was almost a year ago that Sharon so kindly posted a photo of it on her blog (along with other photos I sent her by mail) and introduced me to the 25-motif tatting group before had a blog. I never dreamed that I would actually start a blog – and it took six months for me to get up the ‘courage’! Thanks so much, Sharon! This is my E-Valentine greeting to you!




I pinned the heart to the padded top of my favorite burgundy velvet heart box (easy to remove), which I purchased at one of the craft stores several years ago. I think tatting and velvet go well together!
I have it displayed in the curio in my living room, where I keep anniversary keepsakes and gifts









This pattern is in Teri Dusenbury’s excellent book “Tatting Hearts” – a VERY IMPORTANT PUBLICATION because in it, Teri explained (and revived) the split-ring technique, and used it to great effect in many of her beautiful designs in that book, published by Dover Publications. It was amazing to see rings floating around with no chains between them.
However, her Regal Heart pattern above does not use split rings, which is why I chose to tat it, back when I bought the book around 1994. At the time I was intimidated by the split-ring idea and didn’t fully grasp it. Happily I am no longer intimidated by split rings, since I discovered they weren’t that difficult! The split ring certainly opened up new and unique design possibilities for all tatting designers. THANK YOU, TERI for reviving the split ring and for your many other contributions to the tatting world!

MOTIF #14: QUICK AND EASY HEART PENDANT



This admittedly is not the greatest photo, nor is it representative of my best tatting, but I enjoyed rediscovering this very cute little heart pattern, and I tatted up these samples quickly today to see how the pattern would look in both DMC’s perle cotton size 8 (color 498) and DMC’s gold thread on a spool, which makes a smaller heart. The red one is only an inch high.




The pattern is by Kim Goetz, which appeared in “Victorian Hearts and Flowers,” one of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest magazines (1995). She made it with size 80 thread for use on note paper.
* * * *
I thought I'd add a weather note here, to record the fact that there is a dusting of snow on the lawn and trees, with temps in the mid-30s on this Valentine's Day 2009. Amazing to think that on Wednesday it was 65 degrees, but I knew it wouldn't last!

4 comments:

  1. I love your blog posts, Kathy! I'm so glad you started a blog. You are such a talented lady with tatted lace! We are lucky to have you in the online tatting community. I cannot get over how gorgeous that Valentine's ornament is in the first photo. I love Aleene's fabric stiffener, too! That is what I use. It works very well.
    Happy Valentine's Day!

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  2. Love that 3-D Victorian heart - wow! Your 3-D items are just so lovely and still what impress me the most. Wonderful post for Valentines Day!

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  3. You've posted so many beautiful pieces today! I feel like such a slacker! Thanks for sharing the pics and the stories that go with them!

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  4. Hi Kathy, I love your 3d victorian heart. I don't think I ever saw this one. It is beautiful!

    I can see you are enjoying blogging about your tatting. I enjoy all your posts. I wish I had more time to post all that I tat. I am tatting, but haven't had time to blog about them.

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