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.

Celtic Button Teapot Pattern

Do you remember this teapot I showed you once?

The pattern appeared in the Feb 2011 issue of Tatting Times.  Apparently, a lot of folks don't have a subscription (why not? you should!), because I get a lot of requests for it.

I have taken the original pattern and added diagrams and in-progress pictures.  Thank you to Jane, Sherry, and Stephanie for thoroughly test tatting.

I will put it for sale in my Etsy shop as an instant digital download of a pdf file to print. (Yes, that poor neglected shop that went on vacation mode when I moved and stayed that way until now.)

I haven't used Etsy in sooo long, and I haven't tried the digital download feature before, so I'm a little afraid of messing it up.  So here's the game plan:  I will start with listing one copy.  Will whoever buys that let me know if it worked OK, and then I will list more copies.

Update: Margaret assured me I was worrying for nothing, since she has sold with this service with no problems.  Isdihara bought the trial copy and says it worked fine.  Yay! I am open for business.

Merry Christmas to All!

In case you were wondering, yes, I did fall off the face of the earth. Or maybe it just feels that way.

Despite all the real world fiascos I won't bore you with, I did get in a little Christmas tatting. For the girls at work, I made Jane's Flurry Snowflake set in bangle bracelets. I forgot to take pictures of them, oops. I admired the pattern from the start, but did not realize how really clever the constuction was until I made some of them.

For some other friends, I made the teapot above. It didn't start out as a Christmas pattern, but the Christmas colors adapted rather well, I think. There were several versions, but I forgot to take pictures of them too, except this one. Organization has not been my strong point lately, and I was in a big hurry to get them in the mail. Some should reach their destinations by Christmas, and others will arrive late, I am sure. The pattern is destined for an upcoming issue of Tatting Times.

I wish everyone peace of mind, hope for the future, comfort of friends and family.

It's Tea Time!

In honor of International Tatting Day today, I am pleased to announce I am now taking orders for my new teapot book! It's printing right now and should be ready for mailing this weekend.



Gina Brummett, Jane Eborall, Pamela Myers, and Sherry Townsend were my test tatters. I could not have done it without their help.

Please see my website http://home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-tatsamore for ordering information. By the way, if you want more than one book, be sure to let me know and I can give you discounted combined shipping. I can send a Paypal invoice with the discounted shipping rate or tell you how much to send as a check or money order. If you want just one copy, you can use the Paypal buttons on the website.


Yes, I will be bringing copies to Hector in a few weeks.


Here's one of the teapots I don't think I've shown you yet:



Have a Happy Tatting Day and remember to eat lots of chocolate!

Looking forward to Hector

I am looking forward to the 11th Annual International Tatting Seminar in Hector, NY, sponsored by the Finger Lakes Tatting Group under the leadership of Karey Solomon. Classes will be Saturday and Sunday April 18-19, and on the Friday before, there will be tea and snacks at Karey's shop in the afternoon and an informal bring-a-dish supper at the Firehall in the evening.

This Maltese Teapot is the project for the class I will be teaching. It begins with the Maltese ring in the middle, and then it's downhill from there, with just ring and chain in the outer rounds. The cup pattern is provided as well, should anyone want additional practice with the Maltese ring in a smaller piece. The cup does have split rings.

I teach the Maltese ring using the modern method rather than the Riego version. When I figured out how to make the ring that way, I thought I had made a revolutionary new discovery, but then I learned that method had been discovered before and was already in use by the Shuttle Brothers, Mark, and others.

For the class, you will need 2 shuttles and 2 colors of thread. I told Karey that I recommended size 20 or size 30 thread since I find those sizes easy to work with and big enough to see what you are doing. But if size 10, or 40, or perle cotton is your favorite size, I am sure that will be OK. It is important to use good quality thread. Maltese rings can be difficult to close since they have a lot of stitches. If the thread is not smooth enough to slide well, it may break when you close the ring.

I hope to see many of you there.

Motif Twenty-five -- At Last

I haven't shown much tatting lately since most of it looks like this:

But once in a while, it looks like this:

But what to call it? Crazy quilt teapot? Flowers of Spring? I'm not so good at coming up with names.

I claim this as the final entry in my second pass at the Twenty-five Motif Challenge, though I am months behind my year's deadline. After a bit, I expect to start up again.

Motif Seventeen--More Tiny Thread

Here is another teapot, this one worked with King Tut quilting thread. I wish I had measured it or put something else in the picture to give an indication of size before I gave it away. It's probably 2 1/2" wide. This thread isn't quite as forgiving as the cordonette for retro-tatting, but it is still a great thread to work with.

Tatting with tiny thread isn't as hard as you might think. (I remember my trepidation the first time I decided to try size 30 after learning how with size 10.) For these tiny threads, I need my reading glasses to count the stitches, but, heck, I need them for most "average" threads now too. Joining into a tiny space like a lock join requires a very small crochet hook, but for routine joins into picots, the hook on the Aero works fine. For making your tatting, you are working around the thread wound over your left hand, so that part is the same no matter what the thread size. It's much easier than crochet with small thread, with trying to stick the hook into each tiny stitch. If you can work with size 30, you can probably work with size 70 too, and if you can work with that, then the size 100 and quilting threads shouldn't be any problem either. Try gradually stepping down in size and see what you can do.

I got my King Tut from Deb Arnold at DS-9 Designs: http://www.ds9designs.com/index.html

Motif Fourteen--Maltese Teapot

It took me nine tries to get this one right. Since I knew this would be the last one (no matter what), I worked it in size 100 thread just to see if I could. I went to bed that night (er, um, morning) a tired, but happy, tatter.