Tatted Christmas Card Ornament Class

Yesterday I taught the "Tatted Christmas Card Ornament" class at the North Carolina Regional Lacers 2015 Spring Lace day. We had a lot of fun cutting and punching out paper shapes and attaching tatting to circles cut from Christmas cards.

Here are some examples that I brought to inspire the class:

Tools and materials we used:

Class participants working on their first project:

Off the Shuttle: Tatted Paper Egg Ornament

In my last post I wrote that I wished I had an egg-shaped paper punch to make Easter egg ornaments. Taking my $10-off coupon to A C Moore yesterday, I found a tool that fulfilled my wish. I thought if I couldn't find a punch, maybe a stencil would do the trick. The above shape was made using a Fiskars stencil. The package contains 3 templates: circles, ovals, and rectangles, with several sizes on each template. Of course, unlike with a paper punch, you still have to punch the perimeter holes for attaching the tatting. I used my usual 1/8" hole punch that I use on the Christmas card ornaments.

The paper is from a pack of assorted pastel cardstock from DCWV, Inc. The thread is DMC Cebelia size 20, color 210 lavender. The sticker is from a pack of K&Company's "Clearly Yours" epoxy stickers. 

The tatting pattern is one I use frequently on card ornaments:

Rings: 5ds p 5ds attach to card 5ds p 5 ds

Chains: 3ds p 3ds

I think I'll adjust the pattern on future eggs as it tended to curl up and required a lot of finger blocking to flatten out. I think lengthening the chains might do the trick. 

My tatting onto paper class is coming up later this month and I can't wait to share all the examples I've been making. Eleven people have signed up for the class and I hope to have some paper goodies for them to take home for inspiration. 

Off the Shuttle: Tatting on Silver Paper Ornament

I've been playing with paper and tatting again with new paper and a new paper punch I picked up on sale at Jo-ann's. The paper is DCWV's Cardstock Stack in color "Silver Shimmer." The paper punch is the "Chrysanthemum" punch from Fiskars.

The variegated thread is Lizbeth size 20 in colorway #175 "Scottish Thistle." The outer thread is silver DMC Metallic Embroidery Floss, which I believe has been discontinued (it's been in my thread stash for several years).

The tatting pattern is a simple ring (5ds p 5ds (attach to hole) 5ds p 5ds cls) with 2 rings per paper hole. There are 15 holes in the paper design so there are 30 rings around the edge. The chains between each ring are 3ds p 3ds. The chain of metallic thread is attached to each picot of the previous chain with 2 ds between each attachment. I wish the paper piece were egg-shaped as I think these would make nice Easter egg ornaments.