This is a piece of my early tatting from the summer when I first learned. So if any beginners out there are having a hard time, believe me, it WILL get better.One important lesson here: good threads do matter. This mess might have looked better if I had not been working with some sort of cheap bedspread cotton. Even today, I have difficulty making neat, even stitches if I work with poor quality thread. Good thread will both look so much better and be easier to work with too.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
Absolutely right, Martha. Never use bad threads. Wish I could remember what I first tatted and even better - wish I could find it!!!!
ReplyDeleteAre those split rings on that last round??? It was awhile before I did split rings. I just love it that tatters have so many resources these days and can learn so much in a short period of time. Amen on the good thread. I was amazed at how my tatting improved with a quality thread.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, Martha! Good threads DO matter! I, too. have learned that lesson. But sometimes good threads go bad!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Lisbeth had that bad run in the beginning and even now, a good thread can be suspect. I have some #40, gorgeous to look at, but a tad twisty.
Your early work, after an intense inspection. is quite amazing for a beginner. Obviously, as now demonstrated by your considerable talent, the signs were there at the start!
Fox : )
I share my 'oh crud, I screwed up' stories, partially for humor & partially to reassure new tatters that everyone makes mistakes.
ReplyDeleteThe outer round is rings thrown off chains, not split rings. Since I would have had to go buy a second shuttle to do this, it was not one of my very first attempts, but still pretty early, since I had not yet read closely enough in my library book to learn how to work in ends. I found this in my Mom's sewing cabinet, along with a few others of equal awfulness, which I have already misplaced.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to post my beginning tatting that I did in the 1960s and 70s. Very, very simple stuff and just bits and pieces. I found it recently while organizing. Yours is marvelous....
ReplyDeletedeanna in Texas
This piece looks quite advanced to me! My learning pace was so slow that I didn't even learn chains for six months, let alone rings thrown off chains! I WAS doing other crafts at the time, especially knitting, so that's the only way I can explain the time lag. !
ReplyDeleteThis piece could easily be used in an artistic way, such as on a small fabric heart box, with flowers and beads sewn on. No one would be the wiser, and you'd still have the 'memento' of those early days!
I DID save my first fragments of tatting, and proudly put them on my 'new' (1989) quilted Victorian Fan tree skirt, where everyone can still view my truly wobbly and uneven spacing in the Hens and Chicks sample. I was very proud of it at the time!