a chained heart

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I fell in love with it right away. It is such a wonderfully elegant heart with a bit of freeform thrown in – just the way I like it. So it had to go to The Most Special person in my life for our very special day.

This is Renulek’s Serce Od Serca or Heart from the Heart. Such a beautiful conversion of a bobbin lace heart to a tatted lace heart. The pattern is free here.

Made with Anchor size 40, it is <7 cms high and 8½ cms wide.

I must apologise to Renulek for bungling up. Despite frequent referencing and such clear diagrams, I ended up joining the last chain on 1^st round on a picot rather than at the base of ring. Realised only when I reached it after the 2^nd round. Had to wing it, which is why you see a long chain and no small ring.

My eye keeps getting drawn to it ;-(

TIP : Notice how the orientation of my heart is opposite to that of Renulek’s? In traditional tatting this wouldn't be a problem, but with directional (fs/bs) tatting, there is only one distinct front side.

TWoT (This Way or Tat?) Notes - The reason lies in the very first ring. I followed the pattern, and tatted the ring frontside, starting with 8ds. Realising it was going to face the other way, I peered closely at her photos. Huh, her rings were backside, and chains frontside - knotty naughty ;-D. This same orientation was used in diagrams, hence the confusion.

However, if you want the heart to face like her’s, in frontside/backside tatting, 

start the ring by reversing the order of half stitches (shs then fhs), 

OR,

start the ring as 5-5-3-8.

It seemed a bit forlorn all alone on the card. These S-chains made with scrap threads, saved the day. There’s more tatted lace and stuff inside, but that’s our secret ;-P

Meanwhile I’ve been hooked on the S-chains, clearing out my scrap lengths. I have a few ideas to cook them in SOUP* when I have a good stock ;-P (This is how the S-chains look with picots)

Many many thanks, Renata,  hubby loved it !

impeccable timing

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We all know and admire Judith Connors’ impeccable tatting, but her timing is, too! Remember how her dictionary arrived on International Tatting Day?  

This time her newsletter, ‘Talking Tatting’, arrived on Valentine’s Day! And a complete surprise since I was expecting a digital copy some day, not a physical one.

She has made certain I remember exactly which days her gifts arrived ;-D

What is even more special is that my pattern is part of their 10^th anniversary celebration. It is an honour in every which way, isn’t it?! Can't blame me for wanting to shout from the rooftops.

I enjoyed reading through the entire newsletter. Informative, interesting, inspiring.

I rummaged through my numerous containers/envelopes to locate all the clover wreath lace I had made and used them to cover up the text. A few words/sentences in both images are blanked out.

The printed medallion on the left is tatted by Judith, the mat on the right is an image of the actual ecru mat you see below. She drew a diagram along with the pattern (in her own words). 

Many thanks, Judith.

I had started a border/edging for the mat, but haven’t gotten very far. Only thing I am certain of is that I want the 6 ring florets to be complete around the border. For the rest, I’d like to keep it simple and a bit airy to counter the relatively dense look.

I’m eager to get started on this again and finish it off. I’ve shared the beaded poinsettia pattern, but not the actual medallion. Thought I’d do it along with the completed edging. But if anybody wants the medallion pattern, let me know and I’ll release it. I merely need to rearrange and format the diagrams, etc.

All Clover Wreath posts, pics, & notes 

the very first one

playing with the medallions

the poinsettia with pattern

Clover Wreath mats 

dress my heart

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design along (DAL)

What bug have I caught?! And why am I trying to spread it around? But then we are already 'suffering' from ATS - Addictive Tatting Syndrome, so what’s one more play-along?!

Recently I revisited this NeoVintage Heart. I gave the prototype pattern in 2015 – a 2-round continuous pattern. This time I ran out of thread after the 1^st round and it struck me that there are So Many possible designs that can go around those chains! Since I cannot do them all, here’s a design-along (DAL) for you. You can choose to create your own outer round, although I have given my 2^nd round pattern in the pdf

SCROLL DOWN FOR PDF LINK.

In Anchor Pearl cotton size 8,  it measures around 4cms×4 cms

I’d just like to state one rule : Keep Round 1 essentially the same (although you can add beads, etc.). Design Round 2 or more as you wish. It will be interesting to see the variations.

Kind of reminds me of this make me pretty please butterfly and the wonderful diversity that flew in!

Please do share your work either here (comment) or tag me on facebook , on Instagram, or email a pic that I will then upload here.

click to download the one-page pdf - NeoVintage Heart DAL 2020

TIP : Dora Young Join (Knot) is exactly the same as what we now know as Catherine Wheel Join,  except that it is made with the same shuttle and no thread is encapsulated. .

And before I leave you to play, here is Elisabetta De Napoli’s beautiful version of Sway My Heart. All set to be a pendant on a necklace !!!

Sue (His Kid) also added a 2nd round using treble tatting – check it out!