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?

And the Winner Is...

This was fun! I had lots of nice comments all week. I used an online random number generator and was full of suspense as I counted down the list to see who it would be. The winner is.....Rainbow Rose Connie! Please let me know your mailing address. Congratulations!

Tatting Give-Away Time

OK, folks, I promised you a give-away this month, so I'd better get going. No special occasion to celebrate, just my feeling that I've won enough times that it is my turn to pass it forward.

Here we have: "The Craft of Tatting" by Bessie Attenborough, a nice little book with lots of traditional pattens. (The book itself is in good condition, but has only part of the dust jacket remaining.)

"A Book of Edging" from Coats & Clark, a leaflet from 1982, also a bit worn.

A half-ring braid bracelet kit that somehow showed up extra after I taught that class at Palmetto last year. The kit includes a Sew-Mate shuttle.

A floral design wooden shuttle by Georgia.

Byzantine chain maille earrings by Jeff, known as Redeye on Etsy.

A tatted teapot with buttons by me.

A ball of vintage Star tatting thread.

A pill keeper good for storing beads, (or pills, I don't care:)

Maybe some more stuff I find later until the box is full.

To enter, simply leave a comment to this post. I will select the winner by some random method a week from today, on February 5th. So did I meet my deadline by posting in January, or miss it by drawing in February?

Pretty Shuttles

A little while back, I treated myself to some beautiful shuttles from La Cossette's Etsy shop. Quite a few tatters had been showing off theirs, and I decided to get some for myself. I liked these floral designs from previous sales better than the ones currently in the shop, but she was happy to take a special order and had them ready very soon. I miss the posts on the back a little, but these shuttles are a pleasure to tat with. The surface has just a little texture which is good for a firm grip, and I feel a bit elegant when my tools are nice.



Here are a few more pictures of the apple wood Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle I received from Sally. I already thought this shuttle was lovely, and then later I was really touched to find out that the wood was special, having come from a tree that belonged to her father.






At last, pretty shuttles for bobbin shuttle tatters!

Thank You, Tatting Fairy Godmother!

I have a mysterious anonymous benefactor (benefactress?) Not too long ago, I began to get intriguing messages through a third party asking about my likes and preferences. Next, this secret person sent gifts, commissions from Jane and Sally and a gift certificate from Marilee. I certainly feel blown away and very honored. Since this began too late for Santa Claus, I have dubbed this mysterious wonderful person my Tatting Fairy Godmother.

Look what I received:
An apple wood Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle. Isn't it pretty? It feels so nice in my hand. Presently it's dedicated to the TIAS project.

My choice of some Yarnplayer threads. I got an assortment of sizes and colors. One of these I think is the same thread as a much admired snowflake Miranda gave me.

One of Jane's new magnetic bookmarks. The butterfly on top is so colorful. I love it. These magnets really are strong for their size. I had the hardest time making this scan because the bookmark kept following the scanner bar, dragging everything else along behind it.

Thank you so much, Tatting Fairy Godmother, whoever you are.