Jingled Up!

As I was going through our trunk of Christmas decorations I came across some tatted ornaments I had made years ago and decided to use them on a little tree, creating a centerpiece for our dining room table this season.

On this side of the tree are some of the first tatted ornaments I ever made. Seems like years ago, now, but at the time I was new to tatting and could not get the flip of shuttle tatting, so I started with needle tatting. I must have made what seemed like hundreds of this motif (a variation of Kersti Anear's Stumpy bookmark). I can remember including one in every Christmas card I sent that year. I needle tattted them in variations shades of #5 pearl cotton - who can resist the great colors and shine of perl cotton!

The other motif that figures greatly on this side of the tree is the 6 ring snowflake, another one of my beginner motifs I picked up somewhere and made oodles of.

Not to be intimidated, I did finally learn to shuttle tat and have been doing so for about 9 years now. You'll also notice a bit of shuttle tatted garland on the tree.

Here's a close up.

On the other side of the tree I put various shuttle tatted ornaments. Although I can't remember where all the designs came from anymore, I do know that the more prominent one you see came from Rozella Linden's book Easy Tatting... and it's easy to adjust into a 4- 5- or 6-pointed motif.

Another close up of the motifs used. (You might also spy a bit of garland made out of a crocheted Solomon's knot.)

I like to try tatting with various kinds of fibers (you'll notice the orange star on the top of the tree is made from rattail (satin cord). I came upon some hand dyed hemp some time back and created these rainbow motifs.

Our bigger tree in the living room is decked out with some of the larger tatted snowflakes I've made and some older crocheted snowflakes created by my mother, along with old and new treasured family ornnaments.

As my son told me the other day. "our place is all jingled up!"

Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas to one and all!