Happy Tatting Day, and a Sampler

Happy International Tatting Day 2020!  I hope you are all staying home (unless an essential worker like me) and staying safe.

Oddly enough, I don't have a tatting project on at the moment, so I will share a treasure from ebay.  Most of us have seen pictures of needlework sampler books, some very large and elaborate, and some very humble like this one I am now fortunate to own.

The covers are a "University Loose Leaf Notebook" from Woolworth's, and there is a calendar inside for 1927-1928-1929.

The pages are hand cut heavy brown wrapping paper, and the tatting samples are basted in with sewing thread.

There is the occasional finer thread or different color, but most seem to have been made with the same white and pink threads, probably size 30 at a guess.

Someone at Palmetto last year had a nicer sampler book, but also in some sort of dime store notebook from about the same period.  While the idea of sampler books goes way, way back, I wonder if there was some common inspiration behind them both.