'tis the season to be jolly!

...and boy, do I feel jolly! Look what arrived in the mail yesterday...

two new Pop-A-Bobbin shuttles, and one of Jane's wonderful button brooches... in blue! I can hardly wait for school Monday, when I will wear my new brooch. Thank you, Jane!

I finished my snowflake for the day, Kira's Star by Birgit Phelps, beaded this time. I decided that I needed to use one of my Christmas Origami pouches with matching shuttles for this project. There's nothing like combining tatting and suitably decorated holiday tools!

Doesn't it look pretty on the tree? It won't be staying there long. This one is a gift. I may have to make another beaded one for me. Blue maybe?

Speaking of blue, Fox the Enabler forced me to go thread shopping today. She just had to post about a pretty new blue thread she found. I admit, I am drawn to shiny, glittery objects, especially blue ones. After seeing Fox's new thread, I just had to have some beautiful new playthings. I'm not sure how these threads will work, but I'm willing to give them a try. Wouldn't they make pretty snowflakes?

Snow Crystal

I had an idea for a snowflake...

but I'm not very good at envisioning my ideas, and I'm terrible at math! So, instead of a snowflake, I created a snow crystal.

I read Snowflake Bentley to my students every year, and we spend time looking at snowflakes and snow crystals online. Luckily, I remembered that there are images of triangular snow crystals!

What do you think, Allison? Can I count this as a snowflake for the challenge?

December 6th Snowflake

So far, so good! I'm keeping up with Allison's Snowflake Challenge!

Can you tell that I really like the first round of Kira's Star by Birgit Phelps? I'm thinking of trying it with beads. I know... very daring!

I really like this Boysenberry Dk. Berries and Christmas trees seem like a natural pairing to me!

Doodad Snowflake #3 ~ Boysenberry Dk

Here's my snowflake for the day! I do like my little doodad snowflake patterns... they're quick, easy, and achievable... important for this time of year!

The shuttles are two of the first ones I blinged. I love the jewel tones, but my decoupage technique was not as finely tuned as it is now. Still, I do like my shuttles!

Lily's Choice

When everyone was here at Thanksgiving, granddaughter Lily chose this thread for snowflakes... DMC Light Effects Classical Blends, Midnight Madness #E133. It is a gorgeous thread, but a real pain in the finger tips for tatting! I used three strands, which made it a little too big for my doodad centers. Maybe next time I'll try tatting with two strands. Thread Heaven did help a little bit, but not enough to make this a thread I really enjoy using.

Again, the pattern is the first round of Kira's Star by Birgit Phelps.

So far, I'm keeping up with Allison on the snowflake-a-day for December... but, what's that I see? A plain shuttle? Blasphemy! I think I may need to break out the Mod Podge and glitter over Christmas break. I think that if I'm going to work with glittery thread, I must have glittery shuttles!

Keeping up with Allison

I decided that the first round of Kira's Star by Birgit Phelps makes a beautiful little snowflake by itself! Again, Lizbeth Grape Splash... trying to use thread already on the shuttles. The shuttles are two Clovers that I blinged. Apparently I didn't use enough glitter. ;-)

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

...or so I've been told!

This image was posted on Facebook. I was intrigued, so I followed the link to Pinterest, and then on to an embroidery site. It looks like tatting, but it's not.

I decided to try and tat the design from the image, and this is how it turned out. The thread is size 20 Lizbeth, Grape Splash #165. For this post, I wanted to give credit to the person who created the machine embroidery, but of course I couldn't find either the Facebook or the Pinterest post, so I Googled and found a tatted image of the same snowflake...

by Birgit Phelps! I hope the person who "imitated" Birgit's pattern gave her credit. I will not be posting a pattern for this snowflake. It's Birgit's pattern from 2002, Kira's Star.

Birgit, if you're reading this, I would love to hear from you. I don't know if this is a pattern that was for sale, or even if it was ever offered to the tatting community. If it is a pattern for purchase, please let me know so that I can compensate you, and thank you for designing such a beautiful snowflake!

Update ~ I just found Birgit's pattern here. My stitch count is different, and my second round is different, but it is still Birgit's pattern. Thank you, again, Birgit!