DAL2026 roundup 3

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Blogger is refusing to update our blog feed so I can't say how many in blogland will be able to see this post. But let's focus on the beauty that has been pouring in, requiring a 4th roundup post, soon, after which I will make the patterns public! Relevant links at the end of this post. As usual, the order of presentation follows the chronology of who started the design-along DAL 2026 Challenge first. 

There's a lot happening like when I woke up this morning there were 3 new participants along with a couple of patterns from earlier participants waiting for me!!! Oh, what fun! 

And you might recognise the individual motifs in the lovely mat below? This is Linda Mazerat's Arborea, made by joining 9 of her motifs! She received lots of accolades and requests for the pattern. I have been working on the English presentation and should be able to upload it soon. 

Donna McDade - is back with the rest of her motifs!!! Some of them were sent at 4-30 in the morning - does she ever sleep?

Version 5 - has a 3-D center and a chains-only outer round!

(pattern ready)

Version 6 - has a nice colour-play and another chains-only round!

(pattern received)

Version 7 - Donna felt this was a very simple round with only a split ring braid. But I like the shape that emerged and the potential to add more if picots are added.

(pattern ready)

Version 8 - Now isn't this just too cute with a great shape?

(pattern received)

15. Sue Bradham (His Kid) - added 3 rounds, two of which involve a repetition of the center rosette with a very floral appeal overall! 

(pattern ready)

She has been sharing her progress in her blog - 

https://hiskid66.blogspot.com/2026/08/tatting.html

https://hiskid66.blogspot.com/2026/08/muskaans-daldesign-along.html

https://hiskid66.blogspot.com/2026/08/muskaans-dal-continued.html

16. Jon Yusoff (Tat-a-Renda) - True to her designing prowess, Jon designed a single round covering a large space, seamlessly  moving in and out!

(pattern ready)

Check out her blogpost - https://tatsaway.blogspot.com/2026/09/muskaan-ms-dal-design-along.html

Her first attempt was the one on the left which is also pretty, don't you think? She worked the 2nd version in variegated thread which she felt masked the design. Hence the final model in pink.

17. Sara Dougan - This is Sara's very first attempt at designing! The picot flowers really perk up the scroll.

(pattern ready)

18. Paola Bevilacqua - has given staunch competition to Ninetta's model by designing 8 rounds! She also added a bit of dimensionality with curled rings. 

(pattern ready)

As you can see, most patterns are already completed in PDF form with inked images as well as short notation text. A few have diagrams. The previous two roundup posts are also being updated as and when the pattern is ready. My aim is to release the document by the end of this week, after the 4th roundup.

Hope you are enjoying scrolling through these lovelies!

... to be continued ...

Related Posts
Muskaan's DAL 2026 Challenge - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/time-to-play-again.html

roundup #1 - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/dal2026-roundup-1.html

roundup #2 - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/dal2026-roundup-2.html

Many many thanks to all participants ranging from budding to experienced designers, playing with such enthusiasm and determination! 

DAL2026 roundup 2

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 So let's just continue to enjoy what emerged from Muskaan's DAL 2026 Challenge where you have to design additional round(s) on the given base/foundation motif. Details: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/time-to-play-again.html   

Continuing from https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/dal2026-roundup-1.html 

7. Anita Barry - She has played so many of my games! And this time she has remembered Frau Endrucks through the little blocks in her round.

(pattern ready)

8. Donna McDade - the one who put it into my head about the next DAL and because of whom this 2026 challenge came about! And as always she tatted 8 starter motifs to add rounds to, 4 of which she has already completed with patterns! She says her motifs are not blocked yet.

Version 1 - her upside down clover round.

(pattern ready)

Version 2 - Using up some of her leftover stars from her award-winning quilt.

(pattern ready)

Version 3 - Clever application of colour with frequent use of the shoelace trick! I call it the Mind-Twister motif.

(pattern received)

Version 4 - Snail!!! Who would've thought to use the square motif to create a snail?! And she has something up her sleeve which will be revealed at the very end .... curious.

(pattern ready)

9. Ninetta Caruso - If Donna takes top position in the number of versions she is tatting, Ninetta is at the top for the number of rounds she has added - 9 rounds!!!

(pattern awaited)

10. Linda Mazerat - created 2 rounds for this very elegant motif with 'trees' in the corners. But guess what? She only learned tatting in February this year!!!! And this is her first attempt at designing. Could've fooled me - it is so professional and masterful.

"I had a great time participating in this challenge. That's when we realize that creating a pattern is not that easy." 

She has also started tatting more of this motif for a runner. She uploaded a video on Instagram.

(pattern received)

11. Marie-helene Longau - She readily 'accepted the challenge' and added 3 rounds in this beautiful motif!

(pattern ready in French & English)

12. Silvana Buonvino - has been quite active in our Endrucks group and here she added several rounds to the base motif. The 7 additional colourful rounds create a rangoli or mandala effect.

Silvana let her shuttles do the work and is regretful that she does not remember the counts.

(no pattern) 

13. Muskaan - I've already shared my thoughts here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/my-round-3.html and no progress on the pattern presentation. Got busy with all the rest that have arrived ;-P

(pattern in the works)

14. KRine créatif - This is KRine's first attempt at designing, too! I think she did a really nice job and I love how well her colours fit. She even sent in her diagram!

She tried many and finally chose this as her last model for now. She has decided to train on patterns shared by professional designers to understand and learn and return to improve on the above piece when she has gained more experience. We wish her well!

(pattern ready)

There has been some incidental consequences and learning pertaining to this challenge. I have already touched upon some and will share more in the next post. 

... to be continued ...

There are no words that can fully express my gratitude to each of you for participating so enthusiastically and creating more beauty!

DAL2026 roundup 1

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 So many DAL 2026 models have come in that it is better to start sharing in batches than to wait till the end. Fewer pics also mean you get to enjoy and admire each one at a better pace. For now I have arranged them according to the designer who first uploaded an image whether it was competed or not. But for the roundup, I chose only the completed projects. Plenty of time for the WIPs to work on their designs and/or tatting. 

I have privately shared the Google doc with all participants - it contains all details and entries and pattern links, but will make it public at a later date when more patterns are converted into PDFs. So let's just enjoy what emerged from Muskaan's DAL 2026 Challenge where you have to design additional round(s) on the given base/foundation motif. Details: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/time-to-play-again.html

1. Sheetal Kakodkar - Her very first time designing and after her 3rd round design she was so motivated that she added two more and was happy with the result!!! I'm happy, too.

(pattern ready)

2. Carolyn Craig - went on a spree belting out Five additional rounds, one of them with 'flat solid tatting'. Then she thought that since the center motif was square, perhaps I was looking for an ultimate square. So, she got to work again with another round and also filled in the large open space with pretty motifs. And now she has gone back to her 3D birds, refreshed with this break. 

(pattern ready)

(pattern received)

3. Barbara Arango - tried out her round in one pass but later modified the design and added two rounds. She even tatted this twice since the first piece had some experimentation.

(pattern ready)

4. Jagruti Joshi - quickly worked a 3rd round which imitated the 2nd round. Her use of vibrant colours makes it look like a flower in full bloom.

(pattern ready)

5. Julie Villegas - created a nice square motif with lots of thrown rings.

(pattern ready)

6. Wanda Salmans - was in a tatting slump and this challenge brought her out of it! She created two versions and shared her thoughts in her blog here - https://wandasknottythoughts.blogspot.com/2026/08/muskaans-2026-dal-design-long.html

(patterns awaited)

As you might have noticed, several patterns have been received and are in the process of being presented as PDFs. Instead of putting all patterns in the master doc, this time I am creating separate PDFs for each and sharing the link there. I think it looks more organised and focused and tatters might also find it easier to download and work with it. 

to be continued ....

Many many thanks to each and every one of my dear participants!!! You make these challenges worthwhile!

my round 3

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I started and finished tatting the 3rd round of my DAL 2026 Challenge yesterday morning. Gave it a simple damp, rolling pin block in the evening and took pics at night. Today I started to prepare a presentation for the pattern (as a PDF file) and finished diagramming and also notating and uploading the pics in this post. But writing the blog post could only be accomplished now at night. Happy to present my swirling type of motif...

In Anchor and Red Rose size 20, the final motif is a bit more than 8cms across, tip to tip.

While I worked it in 3 separate rounds, it can be worked continuously with split rings and a split chain.

 For a long time I couldn't get my head into designing mode for the DAL 2026 challenge. Ruth Perry had suggested adding the inner motif and then filing up the space between them. I decided to give it a go.

Ugh, I didn't like my working one bit! Snipped it off and sketched the base motif on grid paper and tried out a simple round.

Mind you, there is two models where these rosettes have been used very effectively! So the fault lies in me.

I tend to sketch with a light hand which is why this is the best I could achieve in a photograph.

I laid the base motif on the grid, aligned it such that the center point was on a point on the paper, etc. Then I made points with the pencil through the picots - notice dark dots? Then I roughly drew the rosette and scroll. Thus this sketch was to scale and it was easy to draw the 3rd round and guestimate the size of the rings, etc.

 

Well, the chains arr way more curved than in the diagram but I kind of like it this way, too. I also experimented with the 2nd repeat, joining the large ring to the previous chain, but didn't like it. 

The small rings were supposed to be in line with the large rings. This would happen if there were stabilising picot(s) - joining to the large ring and to the chain. 

Again. I took the lazy way out and opted to see what would happen.

I like the slight angle! I think it adds to the sense of movement that the chains created. Which is why I didn't even try to block them straight. Au contraire ;-P

I hope to be able to share the Google doc with all participants and their models soon. Waiting for patterns to come in and do some of my own cleaning up. By the way, I am now officially 16th on the list of participants ;-P 

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A confession.

Are you wondering about the pair of motifs below? Hmm. I had made a mistake!

The one on the left is the original motif which I put in the challenge post - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/time-to-play-again.html 

However, it was only when I sat down to design the 3rd round and referred to the post and diagram did I realise that one count was incorrect! The rings in round 2 were 8+8, not 6+6! 

But nobody complained about cupping, etc. So, instead of confusing issues at this late date, I tatted another following the diagram just like everybody else.

As you can see, this one on the right is a more defined square. And it seems to have worked structurally too. 

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For previous design-alongs - 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=DAL 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=design-along

time to play again

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I wasn't going to, honestly, I had no intention of doing a design-along challenge this year! But then I made this simple motif to show the common picot and it looks cute, quick, and easy enough to work as the starting motif for a DAL, right? 

Disclaimer - The design is so basic that I did a quick image search for a similar pattern done before, but couldn't find any. I used my own count without referring to any previous pattern. Yet, if you know of any, please do let me know.

So what is a DAL, you ask? 

• Design-Along (DAL) is a little game I 'invented' where I give you a starting pattern. You tat the motif and then you have to continue by designing and tatting your own round or rounds to it. 
• In this 2-round motif no special techniques, no special effects are used, hence it can be a good stepping stone for relative beginners to design another round.  
• The motif can be tatted as separate rounds (like in my model) or you can climb out with a split ring.
• Feel free to add more picots to these two rounds if you need your 3rd round to have more attachments.
• You might even think of repeating this motif to create a larger piece, BUT you still have to design a round around them for it to be considered a DAL.
• Send me a pic of your tatted-designed piece and as before, I will include it in a Google doc for everybody to see. You can upload to Facebook (tag me - MuskaanM), or in your own blog (leave a comment here to let me know), or send it to me privately through email.
• Tatters are always looking for new patterns. Hence we would all appreciate if you shared your pattern as well in whatever way you can. All participants in my previous DALs have done so.

So here's the pattern. I hope you can find the time and enthusiasm to participate and display your budding or experienced talents! It is always such a huge inspiration to see the wonderful designs you come up with! In case of any doubts, feel free to ask.

Muskaan's DAL 2026 Motif pattern - 

Round 1 - (pink in diagram) Rosette, single shuttle. 

  NOTE: Common picot (△) - height is about 3 stitches across when folded.

  NOTE: For continuous tatting, use two shuttles and make the last ring a split ring followed by a mock picot, the same size as the common picots.

ringA: 2 - 7 △ 7 - 2. close ring, Do Not Reverse Work (DNRW).

ringB: 2 join to last picot of A, 7 △ 7 - 2. close ring, DNRW.

ringC: 2 join to last picot of B, 7 △ 7 - 2. close ring, DNRW.

ringD: 2 join to last picot of C, 7 △ 7 join to first picot of A), 2. close ring. Tie, cut, hide ends.  NOTE: This last join is a picot join to the right or a folded join.

Round 2 - (black in diagram) Scroll, ball and shuttle.

ringA: 6 join to any △, 6. close ring. Reverse Work (RW)

chainB: 6 - 6. RW

ringC: 6 join to same △, 6. close ring. RW,

chainD: 6 - 6. RW.

Repeat from A to D all around. Join back to base of A, Tie, cut, hide ends.

Round 3 - Your Design!!! You can design and add more rounds, too.

You can find links to tutorials here - http://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/my-tut.html and here https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html

Feel free to scroll through my previous DAL challenges and see what emerged from the shuttles/needles of participants.
Past DALs - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search/label/DAL
DAL 2023 - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pVqM6S5Ng49xk6erSsDyRm3y7SdV2tCIUOCgltze4lM/view
DAL 2025 - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQmdXWXQmcbXQ48nRz9FBeTJf_DoJqKz/view

Hope you join!

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.

💦💦💦

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!