Piney Woods Tatting

Celtic Dragonflies & Celtic Butterflies

I like to use these as earrings, but have also used them to accent crazy patchwork quilting and other various fiber arts.  My daughter likes to wear them in her hair or on the toes of her shoes.  I hope you will enjoy them!

Celtic Dragonflies~  you will need 3 seed beads and 3 bugle beads for each dragonfly.  Begin by working off the ball. Thread needle and put the beads on in the following order: 2 seed beads, 3 bugle beads, 1 seed bead.  Run needle through the 3 bugle beads and situate the seed bead below them with your fingers.  R11- (slide 1 seed bead onto -) 5 - (slide last seed bead onto -) 11 Cl.  R 21 Cl. R 21 Cl. At this point, cut a fair amount of thread off the ball as you will be weaving the thread to form the Celtic looking wings. R 41 Cl.  *NOTE* Before you close the R, run the needle through one of the smaller rings you previously tatted.  Pull working thread through. R 41 Cl.  Be sure to follow the same procedure for this ring as you did for the previous longer ring.  Bring the thread ends around to the back, tie & cut.

Linked Chain Ring Celtic Butterfly~  Cut a generous length of thread, thread needle and begin.  R9 then do 7 graduated picots, 9 cl.  ChR7 then do 5 graduated picots, 7 cl.  Repeat the ChR you just did. Then ChR 9, do 7 graduated picots 9, cl.  Tie thread ends together and cut.  Leave about an inch or so to pull through the picots of the first & last ChR to form the antennae.