design tatting

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 Its been a while since I updated the entries that came in for my DAL 2025 challenge. I shared the first 7 versions (with patterns!) here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/03/colour-me-happy.html. Now, the next one to start the challenge was Donna McDade who made 8 versions (3 up from last year's DAL)! I will dedicate an entire post to her next time, since there is a lot of good news to share and celebrate. Meanwhile, these are what my other wonderful participants sent in .....

All versions of Muskaan's DAL 2025 Challenge can be found here -https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQmdXWXQmcbXQ48nRz9FBeTJf_DoJqKz/view

Anita Barry 

See the dense 3rd round? Those are Louise Uteg's stacked rings from her 1970s original doily!  

I think this 4-round version looks like a nice Christmas wreath.

Padma Mandayam

Round 3 was inspired and adapted from Lella Loops' version, with the addition of a 4th original round.

Written pattern is shared in the google doc.

Janet Crow

A colourful spring version with inclusion of butterflies and more rounds. She graciously presented the pattern in a PDF. https://drive.google.com/file/d/16wfGTDxjNovnfWMYmZfqIgn1tmwDzIgY/view

The motif glued to her hand-sewn bag in which she carries her tatting supplies to meetings, etc.!

Lillyan

Janet's 14 year-old talented granddaughter is trying her hand at many crafts, including tatting! Her version is like clubbing where she adapted and applied Karey Solomon's Cat & Mice pattern. Pattern will be shared if they get due permission.

 Margaret Davies

Despite all the curve balls life throws her way, Margaret has valiantly participated again. She shared her WIP here - https://margaretsdesignercards.blogspot.com/2025/03/happy-international-tatting-day-and.html

Her 5th round ruffled and she decided to cut it off. While this modification lays flat, she might tweak the stitch count at a future date. Hence no pattern shared yet.  

Elisabeth Dobbler   worked the initial 2-round motif but was discouraged with the way her picots came out. Shelved for the present. The WIP pic is in the doc.

Join in whenever you can! This is open-ended. Perhaps I will also climb out of my limbo to add another round or two to my own version.

Words fail to express my gratitude and happiness to all participants! 

Related Posts
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/02/dal-2025-challenge.html  Start the challenge any time you wish, and send me your version!
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/03/colour-me-happy.html  First batch of DAL 2025 versions

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search/label/DAL  Previous DAL challenges

neovintage beauties

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A few days back this beautiful gift arrived from Bandini Maisheri who I've known for a few years through FB and our collaboration on the Bandhan Butterfly pattern. Her mother, Harsha, is the main tatter (Harsha's Creations). You might've come across her extensive works in some of the FB groups and on Instagram. 

Like these doilies above, her USP is combining and arranging vintage patterns into new beauties. And doing what is necessary to fit the purpose, eg. adding a corner for an edging or mat, and so on. The gift was a commemoration of 40 years of Harsha's tatting journey and an appreciation of some little help I might've provided to them whenever approached. I love the coasters and they immediately made their way to my dining table!

Now I think these coasters are unique. We've all seen tatted lace around or encased within acrylic sheets for coasters, key chains, etc, like the one I received from Anita. This set, however, is customized acrylic with a tatted doily covering only the top surface. The doily fits snugly and can be removed, washed, or replaced. 

Curious, I asked my friendly group - Anita Barry and Ninetta Caruso for an international perspective, and Madhur Dadlani for an Indian perspective. Madhur admins a WhatsApp group of talented Indian tatters who also sell their creations and she said she'd ask them if anyone has made something similar. Neither of the three have come across something quite like this and do consider it to be truly unique!

What about you? Have you come across tatted lace covers for acrylic mats? Or something along the same lines? Do tell.

There's a ton more tatted stuff they do and sell, including complete table linen sets, saree and blouse laces, bags, scarves, etc. etc. Mind you I am not mentioning Harsha's Creations for any kind of returns. It was a way to satisfy my curiousity and appreciate the immense work Harsha has done. Wishing her several more decades of happy tatting and spreading beauty from old to new.

Many many thanks, Bandini and Harsha, for this wonderfully unique handmade gift, and to my friends who responded promptly with their thoughts and observations.

hits and misses

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Early last year I had bought variegated thread online, and though the colours were gorgeous & thread good to tat with, it turned out to be thicker than even size 10 – probably a size 7 or 3? Nevertheless, I was impatient to tat with it, having used only one of the 5 variegation thus far. Both coasters were tatted in 2015 & some parts of the post may appear dated due to my subsequent learning. I have given away all my circular coasters (tatted up until July 2016), so I don’t have exact measurements or photos after blocking.

Melt into Spring Snowflake * ‘coaster’

Marilee Rockley 

Started : 15 Feb 2015

Challenges come in many forms, when/where least expected !

I was so happy when Marilee posted & shared her latest Melt Into Spring Snowflake pattern here. Daisy Picot was on my to-learn list. So the snowflake came at just the right time. Also, since it is a 6-point pattern, it could work well with the Chicken Wing Coaster I had recently made. So off I went & printed it out.

Materials : Bliss (India) variegated thread (no colourway, dye details or size mentioned). Probably a size 7 or 3.

South Maid Mercer Cotton (USA). Art. D-54, White. Size 10.

2 shuttles

Techniques : directional tatting, daisy picot, thrown rings (Josephine knots/rings)

Now, one would expect all the challenge & difficulty to lie in the daisy picot round. But that went off quite nicely ! What with her instructions & pics, as well Riet Surtel’s technique posted by Jane Eborall here, it was a very smooth & enjoyable round. No mistakes, no unpicking & retatting. Perhaps working with a large thread helps when doing a new technique.

The 2^nd round is simply rings & chains ….beginner level. Yet, I kept making mistakes in stitchcount, joins, horrible thread sensation, you name it ! Finally, very frustrated with all the unknotting & retatting, I snipped it off. Glad Jane had gifted us these scissors ;-)

Started the 2^nd round afresh the next morning & it was a breeze. But I learned something else about my own tatting….

The pattern indicates that the 2^nd round is worked counterclockwise. Hence the chains are tatted on the front/right side, but the rings after RW, on the reverse/back side.

I found that my shuttle movement is such that the already tatted trefoils interfered with the shuttle, coming in it’s way. That’s when I realized that perhaps I tatted more easily, more smoothly if it is clockwise ?

So, when I started again, I went round clockwise, with FS/BS tatting & it Did work ! Must keep this in mind for future.

I anchored the JRs, by adding picots on either side & decreasing the stitchcount to compensate.  

Marilee kindly permitted me to make any changes I wanted, but I am deeply unsatisfied & ashamed with what I did in Round 3. That was the reason I hesitated to post it for so long….

I loved the curves of the outer chains, but wanted the trefoils at the tips to be smaller or different. All I came up with was to make daisy picots like a corona/outline around the central ring.

Someday I will tat this again, in smaller thread. 

Triangle Motif Doily * 

Anne Bruvold

tatted on 20^th July 2015

Spot the Odd One out !!!

My notes reveal that I had taken a hiatus from tatting last year as well, for a week. I think I was sewing during that time. Anyways, this simple but lovely doily was my ticket to get back into tatting mode. It was quite a rage on Craftree at the time, where I first came across the pattern.

Materials : Bliss, India.  Variegated thread (no colourway, dye details or size mentioned). Probably a size 7 or 3.

South Maid Mercer Cotton, USA . Art. D-54, Color 430, Cream. Size 10.

2 shuttles.

Techniques : directional tatting, thrown rings (trefoils)

 

Started with this colour placement, but switched to the other because of thread size mismatch & also it seemed like the central flower effect was being lost.

This is one of those easy, almost generic, triangle motifs that can be used to create large fabric when joined in different ways. 

Very quick tat, joining individual motifs as one goes.

One realization about working with variegated threads in directional (fs/bs) tatting dawned. I had started the 1^st motif with normally tatted inner rings, & RODS for the chains & trefoils. Since this latter was a larger chunk of working, in next motif I switched to RODS for the inner rings & normal sequence for outer ecru part. This reversed the colourway (from clockwise to counterclockwise)!!!

Can you spot the odd one out ?

Again, many thanks to both designers, and my apologies to Marilee. 

Hope I can do a better job next time.

happy tatting :-)

Tatting Away XII : Jane Eborall Patterns

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Sharing a few pieces I tatted from Jane Eborall's free patterns

(click on respective titles for free pattern )

1. Chicken Wing Coaster

Designer : Jane Eborall

  

Jane has been sharing these coasters in quick succession, through the last few weeks. Each one had a singular identity with the choice of colourway, tempting me enormously ;-) Since I had recently landed myself with 5 balls of size 10 thread (the size was not mentioned on ebay, only the Gorgeous pic of 5 colourways), this coaster/mini-doily seemed a very good starting project, just the right size when completed.

And am I glad to have chosen this, coz it truly turned into a learning experience. It starts with an SCMR !!! I always start my tatting without knots, whatever be the first element. But how was I to Start the 2-colour SCMR Without knots !!! Stumped at the very first step ;-/ . I Knew it could be done in a similar manner to how I start all my other tatting elements. But it was too fiddly & I was too lazy to work it out for myself. So turned to Jane & and sure enough she has a clear Tips & Techniques download for “Starting Rings, Chains, SR’s & SCMR’s without tying any knots” . Easy-peasy !!!

This coaster now livens up my dining table, as you can see - almost custom-made for the vase !!!

Threads Used :

Bliss, India.  Variegated thread (no colourway, dye details or size mentioned). Probably a size 10.

South Maid Mercer Cotton, USA . Art. D-54, Color 430, Cream. Size 10.

My Notes :

·         Since I loaded Shuttle 1 with variegated thread, the pattern needs to be started using Shuttle 2.

·         The thread sizes were a bit off in comparison with each other, with the plain colour slightly finer. Also, the South Maid thread seemed thinner at places, if that wasn’t my imagination. The Bliss thread was wonderful to work with. Unraveling needed care, though, due to slightly less taut twist.

·         Variegated thread (Sh1) needed 4 full-bobbin refills while plain thread (Sh2) required only 2 full refills.

·         Learned how to start 2-colour tatting with an SCMR with Jane’s tut here.

·         The pattern is a tad confusing at initial stages, despite clear diagrams – I needed all my spatial perspective at command; I sometimes feel disoriented with all what goes where in case of split rings & SCMRs ! But now I am quite familiar with SCMRs – good practice !

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2. The Fandango Motifs

During last year’s TIAS (the sailing boat), I learned how to make Split Rings here. For greater practice & understanding, I simultaneously chose to tat the Fandango Coaster pattern & the Fandango Square Motif. I liked the pattern very much & I did end up with a few initial mistakes, especially with regard to Orientation. The practice helped a lot & in the process I got myself 2 glass/mug coasters ! Done in Anchor Mercer size 20 threads.

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3. Shuttle Shaped Motif

Recently, Jane posted a pic of her Shuttle Shaped Motif, here. When looking at it, I was stumped by what looked like a picot emerging from picots !!! Well, I Had to try out the pattern (she has reinstated the pattern here. And here are the 2 motifs – one complete, the other with only the 1^st round completed. I intend to use them as is …. Will share soon.

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Many thanks to Jane for sharing so selflessly !

Motifs #7 & 8 / II for 25 Motif Challenge