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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Small Floral Cross

As I was tatting a sample for my floral doily, I noticed a small cross taking shape. I fit the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle and came up with this:


If you can tat split rings and follow a diagram, the cross is pretty easy to make. It measures 2 inches across and 3 inches from top to bottom in Lizbeth size 20 thread. Here's a diagram that I put together in Inkscape (right click and open the photo in a new tab to see a larger picture):


Just in case I missed anything in the Inkscape diagram, here is my hand drawn sketch:


Update: Click here for the PDF file with full written instructions and diagram

This little cross is made with a stitch count of 4 between every picot. In theory, the cross can also be made with all 5's or all 6's. That's because six ringed flowers are super easy to make. Just use the same number four times for each petal. Take a look at a page from my binder below:


The binder is a new side project that I've been working on. Every time I have spare thread left on my shuttles, I tat a small ring formation. I bought a pack of trading card sleeves to store the samples in. Each sample is taped down to an index card that has been cut in half to fit in the sleeve.



Right now I'm just tatting flower formations, but I will eventually expand the project into other small shapes. It's like having a reference book, and has already come in handy when creating new designs.

20 comments:

  1. lovely cross and great index card reference.

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  2. Delightful little cross! And, yes, I love your index cards, too.

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  3. Very pretty cross! I like the way you've chosen to display your samples... definitely something to keep in mind!

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  4. Great cross!! :)
    Thank you for sharing the pattern!! :)
    Great idea for the reference binder!!! :)

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  5. Wow that is a lovely cross - you are so organised!

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  6. A great practice piece for split rings! I've added the link to Element-al Design Techniques. Thanks so much for sharing. I look forward to making it.

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  7. Lovely cross, thank you fir sharing the pattern
    Margaret

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  8. Beautiful cross! What a great idea to use the trading card sleeves to make a reference binder :).

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  9. Beautiful cross ! I like your organizing skills :-) Hope some of it rubs off on me, too.

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  10. Nice pattern! The binder is an excellent idea.

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  11. Thank you for sharing the pattern, I enjoyed tatting it!

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  12. What a wonderful pattern for a beginner to practice SR's thanks for sharing

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  13. I love the way you've put in them in trading card sleeves. I used to put my trials and samples in small photo albums. Now most end up in a drawer until I 'discover' them again.

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    1. You know, I got the idea from someone who said they used photo albums. I wonder if that was you?

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  14. You have lovely patterns, but as a beginner I'm a little lost :( Are they all split rings? Any chance that you would write your patterns out?

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    1. I'll take a look at it this weekend and see if I can add some written instructions to this post. In the diagram, the rings with a line through the center are split rings. All the others are regular rings (red rings are formed with Shuttle 1 and blue rings are formed with Shuttle 2).

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  15. Very nice pattern, thank you for sharing it. I just tatted it in DMC 30 dim green and it turned out nice!

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    1. Hi Anita, glad to hear that you like the pattern!

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  16. Thanks for posting the written instructions, Robin. It's helpful to those who don't tat as often as we'd like. I wonder if anyone has tried it in size 3 thread and how big it would come out?

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    1. Not sure. I find size 3 to be really difficult to work with, more so than size 100! Another way to increase the size of the cross is to use all 5's or all 6's as the stitch counts. You could try all 7's too but at that point the rings become large and are more difficult to close.

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