angels needed

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 Tamie Montgomery who has taken over the baton from Georgia Seitz and has been successfully conducting classes through The Online Tatting Class (TOTC), has organised a Heavenly Angels Challenge for a charity drive. She is looking for angel patterns and designers who can share their patterns for the drive. 

She has been asking in several FB groups, including in our Endrucks group. So when I contacted her, this is what she wrote to me some days back - 

"There is a charity foundation that I am trying to get involved with to share tatting around the world. I have students from all walks of life and different countries. I thought a good way to get everyone involved in sharing their love of the art is to open up a charity drive and make it a challenge.

The rules are this. I will start the challenge off by nominating 5 tatters and they each have to tat 5 angels. Each one must be different. Then once they tat their 5 angels and send them to a local branch of this particular charity then they nominate 5 tatters to tat 5 angels. Where the designers come in is we need more angel patterns to choose from and I am asking designers to design 1 angel then everyone can choose from the patterns listed on the website from each designer. The patterns will be located on the designers page. This will also drive traffic to each designer's website who participates. So if they are monetized then they will make a few dollars for their time and effort.

The charity is Angel Tree Foundation. They put paper angels on the Christmas trees and people pick an angel off the tree and the angel will have a child's name on it. They will then purchase a gift for that child for christmas and it will be a gift from an Angel. Churches and childrens hospitals all participate in this charity all over the world. The children that the Angels on the trees in Churches are underprivileged Children. Children's hospital's participating are children who are very sick and may not see another Christmas. It gives them hope and love. The person donating the gift keeps the tatted Angel as a thank you for being an Angel.

Now for the overseas people we want them to give to the local children's charities in their country if there is none then give a sick child an Angel to watch over them. Small things to sick little ones are big to them.

 The Challenge's name is Heavenly Angel's Challenge."

She has now opened a dedicated page for the event with details and links to patterns/sites and you can read about it here - https://www.theonlinetattingclass.com/tatting-angels-tribute

- 3D model only -

On behalf of the Endrucks 1920 Project, we are offering the patterns we already have. You can find them in the Angels and Tree Ornaments from Endrucks directory here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MVEEhKE79euDmOY65Es95rYihb5P9UcqmAJWG5qw4Ws/view or scroll down for individual PDF links.

E7 The Slim and The Chubby Angels by Ninetta Caruso (2022) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sHQfHC2Al-o5dGE0tTRhuhwajN0QRB5D/view

E12 Angel in White (one pass) (page7) and its coloured version E12 Sky Blue Angel (page11) by Krystyna Mura (2021) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E26K3FFgHygdkEKUvVHn-f0MFlENDsqA/view   

The 3D model of E12 Christmas Angel at the lead is also part of this document but without a dedicated pattern. 

E22 Eleonore's Li'l Angel by Muskaan (2015) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5MqI5ByadI4RmRhS3ZBeDVjcnc/view

E37 Endrucks' Angel n Bell by Margaret Davies (2022) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aq202-ESOzP_DLlA1bQ1mz3unyTTrpwr/view 

For different versions of this E37 Angel with beads, halo, etc., scroll through the images in these posts -
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/12/tagme-roundup-1.html 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/12/tagme-roundup-2.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/03/tagme-roundup-3.html

All the above patterns are free to use but please give credit to the designers and use the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project if you post online. 

Many thanks to all designers for their willingness to share.

With best wishes ... keep your shuttles busy ...

flowers and fire

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a tatted piece by Donna McDade (2024) 
Temperature Tat-Along designed by Helga

I first came to know Donna McDade when she participated in the DAL Celtic Snowflake challenge in 2024, designing the 3rd round in Five versions! We've been communicating off and on since then. And last year she participated with 7+1 versions of the 2025 DAL! Her twin passions include quilting and tatting and a lot of her tatted pieces get appliqued to her quilts as you witnessed with motifs from both the design alongs.

Below is her 3D Ruched Flowers quilt top and ... 

"I received the first place award in the national American Heritage fiber contest. There were over 3,000 entries in all the categories. The award was for "3D Ruched Flowers" unquilted top."
She is actually a descendant of George Washington!

Below are some close-up pics of three blocks to show some ruching details ...

Basket 1 - Sunflowers

Basket 3

Basket 4 - Cactus

This was the Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) 2025 event and she also won the state level award for the same quilt top!

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This year again her quilt titled 'Words Catching Fire' placed first at the Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) at the National level! She had sent me the story as a PDF file several months back at a time when she was uncertain if her quilt would be accepted or not! However, time slipped by and I couldn't blog about it and now her article is published in the latest IOLI Bulletin! The symbolism and acute focus on the topic is worth reading about to fully appreciate the thought and work Donna put in. Here is the link to her original PDF - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ABNIRSEKrfwj4lzuy-RgTBKDIZxFXX80/view  

As you can see in the images below, there is ample use of tatting, besides embroidery, applique, quilting, etc. and her choice of colours and shapes provides an additional layer to the entire story of the 250 year celebrations this year.

bird's eye view of the quilt 

embroidered crown of King George III

each piece here, each colour here, has a reason, a purpose.

words scattered around, but not randomly!

tatted words catching fire!

tatted impression of the Stars and Stripes 

This quilted montage is a passionate representation of the role of women in the revolution. I hope you read the detailed story in the link above to understand and appreciate why she won the top award... how could she not! 

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Yet another feather in this unstoppable and ever-young octogenarian is her newsletter! She started the  Queen City Lace Makers (Ohio) Newsletter (a chapter of IOLI) late last year and has sent me 5 out of the 7 published so far! Within the first couple of newsletters one could see how much she learned and improved the presentation, layout, and format! From absolute novice to professional in a matter of 7 newsletters!!! 

Her group works on several different types of crafts and laces such as bobbin lace, crochet, knitting, and tatting, too. There is always lots of practical and inspirational information in the newsletters and often a pattern as well. In the latest issue #7 (June 2026), she included a pic of my Buttercup Trellis bracelet that applies the split/SCMR technique.   

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Congratulations, Donna ... well-deserved!

incredible spirit

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Indomitable, indefatigable, inspiring spirit! This is how I see Donna McDade, my incredible 86 year old friend! You might remember her previous participation in my DAL 2023 where she belted out 5 Celtic snowflakes. This time she broke her own record. Read on to be impressed again .... 

All the DAL 2025 challenge entries can be found here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQmdXWXQmcbXQ48nRz9FBeTJf_DoJqKz/view

This post is long long long delayed! My main delay was because I wanted to diagram all her versions for clear patterns. Unfortunately only one has been done so far. But the task is still in my to-do list, just pushed further ... And then I couldn't get my head to cooperate and so many other distractions kept creeping in. There is also lots of celebratory news from Donna's creativity, too, which I will share in a 2nd post. 

Donna started by tatting 6 DAL 2025 motifs as seen below ... Note that there are only 6 motifs here while later she added a 7th and a larger 8th, too.

And following is how the outer rounds designed and tatted by her turned the basic motif into such lovely versions!

Version 1 - Curled Ring at Chain

This is very interesting. At first glance it looks like a repeat of the previous round. However, using two shuttles, she makes two rings one of which curls over the previous ring. I think it is a clever application. 

Version 2 - Topped with Trefoils

I was able to complete the diagram for this single-shuttle round that she designed.

Version 3 - Spot Me

I chose this name because I couldn't really spot the 'mistakes' which had Donna cursing the 'Evil Tat Demon'! The pink shade, though, is the red bleeding into the white. 

Version 4 - Flower

The model says it all!

Version 5 - X & O Rings

 

This is what Donna called her 5th version (A and B) with simple split ring round and then weaving another split ring braid through the former. It suddenly gets uplifted from a simple split ring round, doesn't it.

Version 6 - Curls and Folds

Can you identify the variety of rings used in this version? Besides the normal rings in the center, there are curled, split, and folded rings and well as folded chains! Some of the folded rings didn't quite measure up since it was her first attempt at them inspired by my Folded Fun motifs published in the IOLI Bulletin.

Version 7 - Beaded

Quite festive! With plenty of potential for more embellishments.

BONUS! Curled Rings Cross

Donna increased the repeats from 6 to 8 enabling her to design the cross with lots of curled rings. The cross is already sewed on to fabric. 

And all the 7 versions together. These motifs also found their spot on a quilt as seen in the lead pic above! Donna's twin passions - quilting and tatting. Most of her tatted motifs are appliqued to her handmade quilts.

I would like you to return to read my next post and see the creative talents of this incredible lady. Adding it here would not do justice to her work and accomplishments.

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If you wish to try your hand at designing more rounds, jump in any time and contact me with your version.
Pattern: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/02/dal-2025-challenge.html
1st round-up: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/03/colour-me-happy.html
2nd round-up: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/06/design-tatting.html

All participant patterns:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQmdXWXQmcbXQ48nRz9FBeTJf_DoJqKz/view

Many many thanks for your enthusiastic participation ... hope your indomitable spirit rubs off on me, too!