Palmetto Pictures Part 1

Well, I've been home from Palmetto Tat Days for a week now. As usual, the Palmetto folks did a wonderful job taking care of us and providing a wonderful experience. Looking at my camera chip, I feel like I didn't take enough pictures. I was often enjoying the moment too much to remember to get out the camera. Here are a few of the highlights.

We got to see the group project quilts up close.  Everytime I looked, I noticed some new detail.  Isn't this clock teapot clever?

And if you looked real close, you could see Georgia's picture in one of the squares.

There were lots of wonderful pieces of tatting on display.  This little tea party table was precious.  In the center of the table are little dishes of candy to complete the Tatting, Tea, and Toffee theme.

A friend of a friend of Georgia's asked her to find a good home for a vintage table cloth tatted by a deceased family member.  It was raffled off to go home with someone who would appreciate it. Not me, darn.

Here are Erin and Sherry up to some silliness, something that happens a lot.

Another bit of silliness, well you just had to have been there for all the laughs.

Back to the Challenge

You may recall that my current personal 25 Motif Challenge is to complete motifs from vintage patterns from prior to 1925, so here are some more.  When I made that quilt block for Georgia, I had some pieces left over. The top 3 are all from Priscilla Tatting Book No. 2.  (You can get a free download from Georgia, or the Antique Pattern Library.) 

The top one is from another of the elaborate collars in that book.  The next two are from a handbag.  The bottom one is a part of an edging in Buttericks Tatting and Netting (1896).  It was to have gotten a bit of a stem to make a nice flower.  It looks rather too unfinished in its current state though.  Maybe I shouldn't count it as one of my motifs yet.  (Free downloads of that book also available from Georgia and the Antique Pattern Library on the same pages linked above.)

All the thread ends are left loose, since I had planned to pull them to the back of the quilt block.  That's one of the nice things about tatting for applique projects.

Here is my current vintage WIP.  Can you recognize it yet?  I hope I have the fortitude to finish.  Working with size 100 thread periodically is good for the soul, if not the eyesight.

Meanwhile, registration for the Palmetto TatDays will open sometime soon.  They've been adding more pictures and more information every few days, so keep checking back.

Out of my Mind

Sure, it was lots of fun to make all those 1915 Priscilla motifs.  And in size 20, they make nice big pieces.  But I must have been out of my mind to decide to sew them onto a quilt square.  I've been at it ever so long.  I kept hearing Carl Sagan's voice saying, "billions and billions of picots."  All done now, thank goodness.

More About the Palmetto Quilt Project

I've been talking a lot lately about my quilt blocks for the Palmetto fundraiser project. Georgia says there are indeed more quilt blocks waiting to be adopted.  Click here for an update on blocks waiting to be embellished with tatting.  It's a lot of fun to participate in a group effort like this.

I designed my "Anything Teapot" especially for this project.  Everyone who came to this year's Palmetto TatDays got a copy of the pattern.  Since there may be a lot of folks interested in joining the quilt project who didn't make it to TatDays, I've added this pattern to my fledgling Free Pattern section on this blog.  Look up at the top of the page for the link to free patterns.  While I was at it, I put in the "Pumpkin Teapot" too.

Quilt Block and Antique Pattern Library

Here is my last Palmetto Quilt Block (unless I get some more from Georgia).  Here are the pattern sources:  The pink flower on the left is another from Jan Stawasz's Tatted Treasures.  The large medallion with rick-rack is a vintage pattern from the February 1927 edition of Needlecraft magagzine.  I got the pattern from Georgia's site here.  The small white rick-rack flower is from the book Vintage Tatting & Crochet Book 1, edited by Barbara Foster of Handy Hands.   The larger white flower I just whipped up to fit in.

You've probably gathered by now that I love vintage patterns.  One of the best sources, besides Georgia's Tatting Archive, is the Antique Pattern Library.  Clicking on their name there will take you to their home page and you can branch out to see patterns for embroidery, knitting, crochet and lots more crafts. Or click here for a list of their tatting publications.  I have downloaded quite a few of them.  You will see many that say "to scan" or "to edit" and those are in progress and coming soon.  My mouth is watering over some of those.  They have a Yahoo Group too.  The Library is run by a non-profit organization and they could use your help.  Here is a recent message from them: 

"Our finances are not in perfect health, to say the least, but thanks to the recent upswing in donations, we're improving a bit, THANK YOU! To keep our non-profit status, we need not just money, we need money from the public. The way it was explained to me, one third of our income has to be from small donations. So even if someone donates a million dollars, this will not save our non-profit status.

Therefore, we have agreed on the following:

*** ANY (small, less than 200 USD) financial donation you, anyone,
*** sends to New Media Arts either by Paypal, cheque, or whatever
*** to support the Antique Pattern Library or another project
*** will be matched TWICE by our board members
*** (until we are broke, of course)."

A two-for-one match makes even a small contribution like mine significant. Please consider helping them out so they can continue to provide this fine service for all us needlecrafters.

Another Palmetto Quilt Block

I mentioned last time that Georgia is planning 2 quilts for Palmetto next year.  The quilt block I showed you last time was for the flower quilt, and this one is for the teapot quilt.

The teapot is my own pattern, and the curlicues are inspired by the Flower & Vine pattern Ruth Perry/Rozella Linden shared with the online class, that I mentioned in the previous post.  I'm trying to decide if this block is finished.  I had originally planned to add more to it, but now I think more stuff will make it look too crowded.

It looks a little lopsided, I hope that was just the way I put it on the scanner.

Quilts & Flowers

Georgia is organizing another fundraising quilt (or two!) for next year's Palmetto event.  At this year's convention, she handed out quilt blocks to be decorated and sent back to her.  She may still have some blocks left, you can ask her.

I adopted a problem block where one wedge of fabric did not extent all the way to the edge.  I solved that by sewing ribbon over the gap. I added another stripe of ribbon and a ribbon flower to tie the look together.

You may have seen on other blogs, such as Tatting Fool's, that Jan Stawasz's Tatted Treasures includes lots of flowers.  I used those for the 2 white flowers and the rose colored one, so I'm counting those toward my 25 motif challenge, when I get around to counting them up.  The pink edging from the left came from a book, but I can't remember which one, sigh.  The rose and green trellis-y bit came from a pattern from her new book that Rosella Linden shared with the On-line Class.

Coming soon, I found the doily I lost, so you'll see that once I've got it blocked, some more quilt squares, and a knitted shawl from yarn I hand spun with roving I got from Karey.

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.