Tatting bookmarks for teachers

It's hard to believe, but school will be over for the year this coming Friday! Where has the time gone? We're going to have a staff cookout on Thursday and say farewell to four of our colleagues. The high school principal is taking on a new post near his family home in western Illinois. Our high school business ed/home ec teacher is moving to Arizona to be near her mom and brothers. One of our middle school resource teachers is also moving closer to family. One of our kindergarten teachers is moving closer to home and has accepted a position as a middle school language arts teacher. I sense a theme here... there's no place like home!

I'd like to do something special for these dedicated educators, and I've decided on bookmarks. This is the pattern I made for Mom (No. 36: Insertion from The DMC Book of Charted Tatting Designs by Kirstine Nikolajsen & Inge Lise Nikolajsen). This is a very easy pattern to follow, and it tats up quickly. The thread is LadyShuttleMaker's Purple Lime Tie Dye, size 20. I love the way this worked up. The sections of green remind of grape seeds next to purple grapes.

I haven't decided yet if all four bookmarks will be the same. After all, variety is the spice of life!

Girls just wanna have fun!

...and since I needed to have some mental down time this weekend, I chose to do some tatting yesterday. It's amazing how much I can accomplish during football season! I watch the games with Dave, but I keep tatting/sewing/knitting/crocheting while the game is on. I consider it to be guilt free "me" time!

My granddaughter, Eva, started kindergarten this year. When did I get this old? Anyway, last week a couple of kindergarteners showed me where they had lost baby teeth, and I decided it was time to start working on a tooth fairy pillow for Eva. We just used a sealed envelope when I was little. The great mystery was, how did the tooth fairy take the tooth out and put the quarter out without tearing the envelope? A friend of mine made Alison a tooth fairy pillow when she was in 1st grade. That pillow made the tooth fairy's task much easier! I decided that a tatted motif on the pillow pocket would make the pillow extra special. So now my quest is to find the perfect motif in the perfect color to decorate that little pillow. Of course, I was too lazy to choose material and coordinating thread yesterday. I just used what was in the basket next to my chair! I'm not sure how I'll use these pieces yet, but I had fun making them!

The blue variegated is size 20 Flora #55; the design is Nr. 2: Lille krans from page 24 of Orkis by Kirstine Nikolajsen and Inge Lise Nikolajsen. This is one of my favorite designs from one of my favorite books. I think this is the third time I've made this motif, and I finally put it together correctly!

The pink motif is size 20 Coats #403; the design is Eightsome Reel from page 50 of A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior. I love this book also! I just purchased it recently on the Internet. It's in amazingly good condition! I think this motif would be wonderful done up as a multi-colored mat similar to Tattycat's (see Laura's Tatting Muse link on the right side, August 2007 archives).

The multicolored floral motif is Anemone from page 73 of A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior. The thread was leftovers from lace sock edgings. I know the purple is Flora, and I think the blue is Hakelgarn. I was attracted to this motif because it reminds me of the Jacobean flower designs I used to love to cross stitch... I haven't done cross stitch for probably 15 years!

I'm leaving lengths of thread attached for now in case I want to use them to sew the motif onto the pillow. I think I'll just keep tatting these little pieces until I'm inspired to make the pillow. What a good excuse to keep trying new designs with different threads!