What a Loon!

Card #: US-1194620
From: AshleyDePover
Origin: Minnesota
Caption: The common loon is Minnesota's State Bird, and is well loved as a symbol of the state's wilderness.

Note: Greetings from Minnesota. This bird is the state bird of Minnesota. I have only ever seen it in the Northern part of our state. They can be kind of hard to find."

Card:

Motif-ated

Thanks to dictionary.com, further research has revealed that a Motif is "a distinctive and recurring form, shape, figure, etc., in a design, as in a painting or on wallpaper." ...or tatting.

One motif...

 

linked together with other motifs...

becomes addictive. Before you know it...

 you have something really cool. Almost done. Maybe by Saturday?*

In spite of the definition, I am opting to only count this piece as one (not eleven) motif for the challenge. It wouldn't be much of a challenge if I could complete almost half of it in one afternoon. Especially since you have a whole year to mess around on this.

*Or maybe today...

The chain around the outside edge didn't take long at all. The finished piece is 2 1/2 inches wide. The pattern is Jon Yusef's Heart o'Daisies. The thread is Yarnplayer's HDT "Knitty Gritty" in a size 30.

Disappearing Act

Card #: UA-110971
From: Tatiana09
Origin: Ukraine
Caption: Bukovel, Carpatians

Note: "Hello! I live in Lvor not far from mountains named Carpatians (in Ukraine). I like nice cities and nice nature, I like animals. I wish you a lot of nice postcards from all over the world!"

Stamp: No stamp. Neat trick. Maybe the stamp is with all of the missing skiers. There is a picture of a black bear on the back of the card. Maybe he ate the stamp. And the skiers.

Card:

25 Motif Challenge

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of seeing nothing but postcards here. Time to fix that.

You may remember that several months ago, I took up the challenge to learn how to tat with a shuttle. This after needle tatting for the last year or so. Let me tell you right now, shuttle tatting is a completely different animal. So forget you know anything about tatting at all and it will go better for you. Yeah.
We're going to skip the frustration, temper tantrums, and tears of despondency (yes, all over string) and move right to when the rays of sunshine pierce the clouds and the angels sing at the moment of triumph. Ta-da!

And because enough is never enough, I had to go and join the 25 Motif Challenge. Basically, you challenge yourself to tat 25 motifs within a year. While I am still unclear as to the precise definition of "motif", I'm pretty sure that bookmarks and doilies will count. So far, I have 5. I guess to be official, I should declare that my start date was August 5th.

This first bookmark was part of a "Challenge Yourself" exchange done through the In Tatters community. The idea was to stretch your ability in tatting. My goal was simply to master shuttle tatting enough so that I didn't feel like throwing the project across the room five minutes after picking it up. After three false starts, I managed to complete Kersti's Floral Bookmark again, using a much smaller thread (breaking it twice and forgetting everything I had figured out the last time notwithstanding). I used Yarnplayer's "Sugar Maple" HDT (hand dyed thread) in a size 30.

 

The other four bookmarks above are:

• Kersti's Floral (again), done with a crochet thread from Michael's
• "Jane in South Africa" bookmark, done with DMC perle cotton #4065, variations "Morning Meadows". My repeats are slightly different than the pattern because I was tatting in the car without the instructions. This was also before I learned how to hide my ends. To cover that up, I made a tassel for each end of the bookmark. This weekend, I talked with several girls who insist that their bookmarks be long enough to hang out both ends of the book, which makes this piece perfect.
• I have no idea what to call this one. It's just the result of messing with my own ideas and trying to use up the thread on a couple of shuttles.
• "Jane in South Africa again, but this time done with Yarnplayer's "Sugar Maple" HDT.

Now on to the next project!

Hole in One

Card #: NL-700449
From: Marlissa92
Origin: Netherlands
Caption: "Groeten van de Velnwe" or Greetings from the Veluwe (National Park)

Note: Hi, J. My name is Morlissa and I live in the Netherlands, in a region called "Veluwe". There's a lot of forest with animals around. Like deers, wildebeasts (what we'd call wild pigs, I think) and foxes, as you can see on the postcard. The tree on the card is a very famous and old one."

Stamp: repeat

Card:

The yellow circle is a cut out in the card.