Quilt Square for Palmetto

Next year's Palmetto Tat Days will feature another group project quilt.  Yay! I love the challenge of quilt squares, choosing threads and designs to complement the fabric. 

Here is one done.  I have used Yarnplayer's Ginko Leaf from her Etsy shop to go with the leaves printed on the fabric.  The design uses folded rings and Catherine wheel joins.

My little flowers in the center section don't show up real well, so I may add more to that section later.  But I've got more quilt squares I will work on first to make sure I get them all done.

The choosing and the tatting is the fun part.  Then comes the sewing on :(    That always takes so much more time than I expect it will.  But good news, I have realized that it is easy to separate Lizbeth thread into 3 strands, so I can use that for a thin matching thread for the sewing on.  Cut a piece of thread about the length of fingertip to elbow. Twist one end back and forth until you can see 3 strands and pull one out.  If you have ever separated strands of embroidery floss, you know what to do.


If you would like to join in the fun, here is message from Georgia about adopting quilt squares to decorate.  You can also send her tatted pieces to be sewn onto the quilt.

Hello, tatters!

Tatters and Quilters needed to decorate blocks for the 2018 Tatting scholarship fundraiser quilt.

We have about 70 more blocks which need to be adopted.

Please look here: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2018/quilt/adoptablockltr.html

There are 9 sets of photos. Click on a photo and it opens to an enlarged view.

There the blocks are marked A, B, C etc. Choose your favorite color block or intriguing theme.

Email me the set number and the identification of the block and it will be mailed to you.

For international addresses, please ask for an enlarged photo of the block so that you can tat the decoration and mail it to me.

I will gladly sew it onto the blocks.

For example:  please look at http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2018/quilt/set9.jpg

block DDDD has quilting and guitars and lots of color. Is that the block for  you??

Thanks for your help./

Best wishes, Georgia Seitz  

Tatting Correspondence in the 1810's

Corina kindly sent me some links to references to tatting in some ladies' letters in the 1810's.  I've done a cut and paste of part of the pages.  

Joanna Baillie was a poet and playwright born in Scotland.  Mary Cumming was an Irishwoman who had emigrated to Virginia.

Joanna had been given a length of tatting and asks her friend if she knows what tatting is.  Mary had just learned to tat and is describing how to do it as though her friend would not know how.  (Even then, as now, the beginner's difficulty in getting rings to close is noted as the hard part.)  

I can envision this as a time when the art of tatting was just starting to spread from person to person in the English speaking countries, while we know some decades were to pass before there would be published instructions.

I'm sorry the print on the clips is so small.  Here are links for closer looks at these pages:

Joanna

Mary 1

Mary 2

Hamstead April 3rd 1819

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Palmetto Pictures, at last

I'll try to get back to blogging more often, sorry for taking so long.

I'm sure I've told you enough times how much I enjoy going to the Palmetto Tatdays every year.  Those who blog more regularly have already told you lots about this year's event.

This year I didn't teach and I really enjoyed the lack of stress from being just a student.  Sometimes I was the bad student, showing up late for class and making dumb mistakes from not reading the pattern closely enough.

I'm always so busy talking and tatting that I don't remember to take many pictures.  Here are a few I managed to get.

This was a lovely shawl that was donated to be auctioned.

A few pictures of friends.

An actual completed class project.  This pattern is Kosmos, by Karey Solomon. I always enjoy her classes.