Another Giveaway

I've got too much stuff, and I'm trying to thin it out before I move. So, here for one lucky winner is a set of magazines with at least one tatting pattern each. I have 2 Popular Needlework (Sep 68, Apr 69), 2 Old Time Crochet (Spring 95, Spring 99), and 3 Needlecraft (Sep 22, Feb 23, and Aug 24). Two of the Needlecrafts are missing their covers and the other is a little beat up, but still so much fun to look at.

To enter the give-away, simply leave a comment on this post, just once please. The deadline to enter is midnight, Sunday April 3. I can cover domestic postage, but I would ask anyone outside the US to cover part of the mailing expense. (The package will weigh almost 2 pounds.)

Good luck to everyone.

Shameless personal plug: I have a lot of non-tatting craft books & magazines on ebay, see them here.

Meditative Tatting

When you feel all tensed up, with too much to do, or too much on your mind, sometimes the best thing to do is let it all go, and pick up a piece of simple tatting. Working easy repetitions lets you empty your mind and find a quiet place to get away from it all for a little while. Just when I needed something like this, I was lucky to have such a pattern appear in my inbox, courtesy of Nancy Tracy's Bestitched newsletter. You can see her pattern here, and while you are there, you can look around her site for many more nice patterns, or shop for supplies.

She saw this medallion as a spring flower, but since it had six petals, I worked it in white to use for the new Palmetto fundraiser. Yes, there is to be another group project quilt. This time, instead of quilt blocks, they are asking for white snowflakes in all sizes. See Georgia's site here for all the details.

Not too Late to Sign up for Mary's Travelling Book

I've had a goodly number of people sign up for Mary's Travelling Book. Oddly enough, some of those totally innocent emails turned up in my spam filter. If you have tried to contact me about the book, and have not received an email in return, please try again.

Introducing Mary's Traveling Book

Mary Konior was one of the greatest tatting designers of all time. Her book Tatting with Visual Patterns is available from several online tatting shops. (If you don’t own a copy, you should get one.) Her earlier books are out of print and becoming increasingly rare and expensive.

Since these books may be beyond the reach of many tatters, and inspired by Fox’s generosity in offering Angeline’s Traveling Book, I propose to launch Mary’s Traveling Book, using her Tatting in Lace. I will send this out on loan, for each person to use for up to a month and then mail to the next person. Before mailing, I ask that you contact the next person in line to confirm their mailing address. Since I am moving soon myself, I am somewhat preoccupied with the notion of changing addresses :)

If you would like to be included, please email me with your mailing address. If the link won't work, just send to essm at bellsouth dot net


By the way, I think I have remembered the origin of the little heart motif from the last post. (I have a mind like a steel seive.) Back around 2001, I participated in a tatted heart round robin, one of many organized by Maus. For each member, I designed a heart motif and a pair of coordinating earrings. These patterns eventually made their way into my book, Tat's Amoré, except for one set. The month I had surgery, I did not design a heart from scratch, but rather made one adapted from Mary Konior's Maid of Honour edging. I think this little heart was a draft for the accompanying earrings. So, mystery solved, and everyone who was reminded of Mary Konior was correct.

Home Buying & Decorating

The blog has been quiet lately. We are all wrapped up in the adventure of being first-time home buyers. We have found a roomy townhouse in a nice area and are very excited. On our first visit, we noted it was in near move-in condition and lovingly decorated. On our most recent visit, we realized some of those styles are just "not us." We cannot live with green and red chickens on the dining room walls. The master bedroom has different wall papers above and below the chair rail, with borders on both. It looks like a picture from "Good Housekeeping", but for us, it is too busy, too dark, and the colors don't go with our stuff. First we heard the way to deal with bad wallpaper is to cover it over with new wallpaper. Then we heard that doesn't work with the modern latex papers and must be stripped. What to do? What to do? I think I will paint the master bedroom and put one border along the top, but not sure whether to use different colors above and below the chair rail. I want wallpaper downstairs in the higher traffic areas, but no luck yet choosing anything we both like. The store had hundreds of sample books, and we just got fatigued looking at them. The dining room wallpaper must be replaced, and the living room might be. So here I am gripped with indecision. Plus, I have all this sorting a packing to do....

So meanwhile, only a small amount of top secret tatting has been going on. But here's a question: whose heart is this?


I found it in a bag of UFOs and rough draft tatting scraps. It bears a resemblence to Mary Konior edgings and Riet's angels. I honestly don't know if this is someone's pattern or one of my own doodles. Does anyone recognize it?