Thursday, August 28, 2014

Off the Shuttle: Yet Another Tatted Hanky Edging


Another tatted edging for a handkerchief from my (vast!) vintage hanky stash. The hanky is white linen. The edging is a simple ring and chain pattern (R=5-5-5-5, Ch=6-6). The grey is DMC size 8 perle cotton color #415. The variegated is Valdani perle cotton in colorway M32-Jewels. The heart applique is once again Rosemarie Peel's heart pattern, which I guess must be my favorite heart pattern based on how many times I've tatted it.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Off the Shuttle: Pink & Blue Tatted Hearts


I whipped out these hearts to put on birthday cards for two friends who have birthdays this week. It's probably the tatting pattern that I've made most in my life since I've done dozens of these hearts for Valentine cards. The pattern is Rosemarie Peel's heart pattern and is available for free on the Ring of Tatters website. The pattern works up super fast. There are only four rings at the beginning and all the rest are chains so little thread is needed on the shuttle. The thread is a size 8 variegated Valdani perle cotton in colorway V108-Sparkling Stream. 

Monday, August 4, 2014

Off the Shuttle: A Banner for My Tatting Group


This is a project that I've been wanting to do for a long time. I belong to a local tatting group called Tri-Tatters. Our name comes from the area of NC that we live in. It's called the Research Triangle because of a research park surrounded by a triangle formed by Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, NC. Most of our members come from these and other surrounding towns. 

I've looked a long time for a tatted alphabet that would be suitable for a banner, but never found one that I was satisfied with. Then a fellow tatter brought Rozella Linden's new book Tatted Garden Alphabet to our July meeting. The letters looked large enough and defined enough to use on a banner. Linden's letters are all made up of a group of motifs of 6 or 8 rings joined in a circle. She also embellishes the letters with chains and cluny leaves to resemble vines, but to simplify things I omitted these. 

The thread is size 10 crochet thread in different colors from my stash. Rather than sew in any tails, I knotted the ends and used Fray Check to secure the knots. This should be fine since I don't anticipate throwing this piece into the wash. I used clear nylon thread to sew the letters on to a piece of black cotton twill fabric and added 3 plastic rings for hanging the piece.

I'm so excited to finish this before our next big demo day in October.