More Finished Projects!

FINISHED!  Isn't that a lovely word?  There's a lot of satisfaction packed into those syllables.  First up, Martha Ess' lovely half-ring bracelet she taught at Tat Days - this is the first one I made, but won't be the last!  She was right on target (for me) with the amount of beads to string and the length of thread to load onto the shuttle.

If I haven't mentioned it before, let me mention now - when you're loading a lot of beads, a bead spinner is a good tool to have.  I got mine on sale at Hobby Lobby a few years ago, and it's more than earned its keep!  This version of Martha's bracelet called for 260 beads, and mine were strung in just a few minutes using the bead spinner.  The thread, by the way, is Lizbeth #127 (Butterfly Breeze); the beads actually came with the bead spinner, and I'd never even opened them.  I thought they complemented the thread well, so I decided to use them.

Moving on.  I tend to like small projects, like bookmarks and bracelets, because they're usually pretty quick to make.  I have done a couple of doilies, though - here's one of them.  It's called "Springtime," and it's in The Tatter's Treasure Chest edited by Waldrop.  It's a Dover book, and full of patterns from the 1930s and 1940s. 

I found, in making it, that joining the side picots on round 3 was not going to work for me - it made the doily cup.  Not joining them allows it to lay flat.  I also am not crazy about cutting and tying after every round, so I climbed out of rounds 1 and 2 with split chains.  I climbed into rounds 2, 3, and 4 with split rings.  I didn't know how to climb into a round with a split chain, though, so I ended round 4 with cut, tie, hide ends, and started fresh on round 5.  Maybe it would work to do half the chain to climb into the round, and end with half a chain.  Something to ponder!