Author: admin

I love quilting (mostly as an admirer) and tatted lace, but beneath the beads and baubles is the basis of our craft—thread. Harriet Hargrave’s book, From Fiber to Fabric: The Essential Guide to Quiltmaking Textiles has an entire section dedicated to thread.

Did you know thread can be balanced or unbalanced? Balanced thread hangs in a U-shape. This produces a smooth fabric. Unbalanced thread will untwist, then retwist on itself creating a textured fabric like crepe.

Another property of thread is the amount of twist in it: low, medium, or high. Fine threads need a high twist, 30-40 twists per inch, to make them strong. Medium twist gives warp thread its maximum strength. Threads with low twist are used in fabric with nap like corduroy. The low twist makes it easier for machines to tease out the fibers.

The chosen fabric determines which thread is best. The strongest thread is not always the best. Strong thread which is highly twisted sets the fibers at right angles. This works like a saw, cutting against the fabric. The best thread to sew with is weaker than the fabric in which it is used. The fabric can move and flow without being caught up by a single thread.

It is a comfort to know, on those off-balance days when things aren’t going well and my response to a situation is worse,  it is okay if I am not the strongest person in the fabric of life. I will live another day to tat.

One of the reasons I learned to tat is to help ensure this method of lace making is practiced by future generations. I think tatting can enhance the beauty of any project. Tatting has been added to crochet, used by scrapbookers, placed in oil paints and used in grand scale art installations. I tend to add tatting to my fabric art and quilts.

The following quilt block is another one of my UFOs. Originally, it was made to enter a contest. I never got back to it.  The circle is made of simple tatted rings. A bare thread space was substituted for chains. I wrote the little saying in the center and embroidered it. And oh, I didn’t win. But I did get my block back which makes me feel like I won a finely embroidered quilt block.

 

This leads me to my next three pieces. One of my favorite verses is appropriate for all needle workers: tatters, embroiderers, lace makers, and quilters, etc.

“From the fruit of the mouth one is filled with good things and manual labor has its rewards.” Prov. 12:14 (RSV)

This little pink girl is surrounded by a flurry of free form tatted flowers. She is feeding baby chicks. When I was growing up the adult chickens would flock out to be fed while the chicks were more timid. The baby chicks were cute. The adult chickens would chase me and try to peck me. In the end, I was afraid of (chicken) of chickens.

I was inspired to create more fabric art after reading Fabric Art Collage: 40+ Mixed Media Techniques by Rebekah Meier. (I got this book for free because I traded some old books for store credit at Hastings Bookstore. It pays to recycle.)

In the Path of Life artwork, both the grass and the imaginary plant are tatted. The verse written on the quilt is Ps. 16:11.

Teach Me Your Ways has tatting at the top, left hand corner. I used three colors of  Paintstik oils to draw the curved designs on the right side of this piece of fabric art. The written verse is Ps. 86:11.

 

 

 Dresden Flower

Last month I taught my first tatting classes. Sixteen wonderful women attended. I want to publicly thank them for taking a Beginning Tatting class.

I spent several months writing my lesson plans and preparing my samples.  I was so pleased (if not somewhat surprised) when the plans actually worked! The women were amazing in how quickly they learned to make the double stitch.

The other thing I learned is how much I enjoyed teaching women. (I have taught children for about 24+ years.)  One woman, without any knowledge of tatting, joined the class only because a friend brought her along. By the end of class, she had adopted tatting as her new passion.

Tatting is the only needle art I was unable to learn by reading a book. (I learned knitting, crochet, hardanger, cross stitch, and Mountmellick embroidery by reading various books.) When I began tatting, I was unaware of any tatting videos on the Internet. Instead, I read several tatting books. In these books, the double stitch “flip” was often indicated by an arrow. I did not understand what the arrow meant. I thought “reverse work” meant: turn to its opposite side.

Then I saw a live tatting demonstration. Finally, I understood how to make the “flip.” This motion looked like a tiny jump rope–swung up your backside and halted above the head. Or, in tatting terms, to make the flip the shuttle thread is transferred from below the left hand thread to above the left hand thread.

Anyway, I want to thank you again, ladies, for taking my classes. I hope to meet you again in future classes.

Lincoln Lacemakers
Valhalla Honey Lace
4713 Hartley Suite 2
Lincoln, NE

Owner: Jane Nelson
Date: 1st Tuesday of each month*
Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Jane says there is no need to call in advance. Just come on over and try a meeting or two. Each meeting includes a program.

* If this date is rescheduled, they will let their members know.

For the tatting proficiency pin, it is required that I come up with a glossary. The posted terms are not in any way endorsed by the IOLI, nor is it a complete list of terms used in the tatting world. This is merely my current understanding (which is subject to change), of common terms. (More will be added later.) And these terms will appear in ABC Tatting Patterns. Please note some are listed as common terms only, not with particular abbreviations.

My goal is to make my abbreviations and tatting vernacular as accessible as possible to beginning tatters. At the same time, I would like my patterns to be compatible with other patterns. Therefore, I’m opening this dialogue in hopes of finding a common tatting vernacular.

I invite other tatters to express their own opinions. Please leave a comment or contact me through e-mail by clicking on “Contact Laura” on the sidebar. Thanks! I will get back to you as soon as possible.

May you be blessed; and tat through the rest.

Laura

Just wrote my entry for the History column. I learned quite a bit about this, but found many more resources to read than what I got done. (I had about 10 references.) I will update it as I go along. For now, enjoy a pleasant read by going to my History page.

February 1, 2011

I’m reading Tatting: Technique & History by Elgiva Nicholls. This is a fascinating history of tatting. It was published in 1962 and some of social mores of the 1950s and 60s no longer apply. Today, June Cleaver would never be nominated for a role model–vacuuming her house in heels and a pearl necklace. Our enthusiasm for doilies may be waning and we don’t tat antimacassars anymore, but we still love to ornament our Christmas tree with tatting or send a card with tatting to a friend.

But I digress. Nicholls’ book has loads of information about the history of tatting. What surprised me about this book is it also contains many suggestions about designing tatting patterns. For example, the chain, by nature, is a curved element adding a graceful rhythm to a design.

Through the IOLI Library Loan program, I have ordered the following books:

The Dictionary of Needlework by S.F.A. Caulfeild & Saward,

A History of Lace by Santina M. Levey

The Identification of Lace by Earnshaw

I can’t wait for them to arrive. Can you guess my first assignment? I need to write a short history of lace. Stay tuned.

Tatting is a very old form of lace making. In ancient Egypt, funeral cloths were trimmed with knotting. (One theory is that tatting developed from knotting.) A combination of rings and chains create various edgings and motifs. The tatting stitch is actually a Lark’s Head knot which is transferred (flipped) along a core thread. This flipped Lark’s Head knot is called a double stitch—the basic stitch used in tatting.

The double stitch is manipulated in a variety of ways to produce different effects. (There are a few other knots or stitches that play a supporting role in tatting such as the square knot and lock stitch.) Yet, the double stitch makes up the bulk of tatting patterns.

The easiest way to make a double stitch is with smooth, round thread. Round thread makes it easier to flip the Lark’s Head knot along the core thread. If a flat ribbon were used in place of a round thread, the flat ribbon would buckle. Buckling prevents the flipping of thread when making a double stitch. Any round thread can be used for tatting including kite string and copper beading wire. Most often, 100% cotton thread is used.  If you use a shuttle to tat, then your thread shouldn’t have much “give” in it. On the other hand, if you use a needle to tat, then you can tat with any round fiber which includes yarn.

Historically, tatted lace graced table tops (doileys) and trimmed Victorian collars or quilts. Today, tatting is used on hair clasps, bracelets, ear rings, tree ornaments, and motifs for cards or a scrapbook.