new learning

The variety and application of techniques in many vintage books is truly impressive. I hope to spend more time browsing through and working some patterns from them.

The Priscilla Tatting Book #3 (free download from Antique Pattern Library) is one such.

Tatted Medallion with Woven Center (Fig 69)

This square medallion is inset in fabric and also linked into an edging for the ‘Centrepiece in Tatting and Weaving’. The weaving between adjacent medallion in the circular edging is even more impressive. 

I chose to tat the square with 3 strands of Anchor embroidery floss. 

The sides are just over 2 inches long. 

There is a central picot common to the 3 large rings at each corner.

Isn’t it a beautiful arrangement?!

But what interested me more was the woven center - something I hadn’t attempted. I chose 2 strands threaded through a tapestry needle for weaving.

Found this interesting and informative article by Georgia Seitz - Tatting with Needle-Weaving Centers  

I tried to follow the Priscilla instructions as well as those in the article, but somehow couldn’t figure out where the needle 'returned to' for the support lines.

So here’s what I did :

1. First, I pinned down the square in order to keep it taut.
2. Then inserted a pearl-headed pin in the center of the negative space.
3. Now, starting with the tail in the center, I went through a picot to create a support beam, and back around the central pin, before moving to adjacent picot in one direction….
4. After the last beam was done initial weaving was easier with the pin still in place. After a couple of rounds, I removed the pin and continued the under/over movement.

This is my one-n-only first attempt at weaving outside of embroidery and will take some practice to get it tidier. But I’ll get there some day!

Combining tools and techniques creates interesting texture and designs, and widens our scope.

hope your new year is off to a creative start!

weave dreams into tatting !