Tatman's Chatline

lacing with 4 pair braid

Tatman — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:43:04 +0000

Working on my Arachne Christmas lace exchange item. I am working on a 16 inch polystyrene pillow(only one I had available, other pillows are full), but I don’t recommend that size. Not enough room for bobbin space as you can see. Use 20 inch or larger. The bobbins I am using are Belgium style continentals and one lone Bayeux bobbin. The thread I am using is Oliver Twist varigated for the leader pair and two passives and gold metallic Oren Byan for the left hand edge pair.

A Nice Surprise

Tatman — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:21:50 +0000

A nice surprise welcomed me this morning on my desk at work. I opened the plastic bag to find a clear box of varigated tatting thread in size 70. Star brand and Coats & Clark. Then in the cardboard box was a nice treasure: 4 heaps of already tatted “Hen & Chicks” edgings! The white and pink ones are 2 yards long and the red and teal/yellow are 18 inches long. I would say someone likes to tat that kind of edging

Also inside the box are two balls of red C&C tatting thread and teal/yellow and varigated yellow. Presumably the thread used to make some of the edgings. Then the glimmer of shiny metal shuttles caught my eyes! One is a Susan Bates and the other an older, hardly used Boye metal shuttle. Funny thing about them was there wasn’t a bobbin to accompany any of them HAH. Good thing I have extra bobbins! Also in the box were some needles and an antique manicure stick(for lack of a better word). And lastly, two celluloid items. One looks to me to be a thread winder and the other I haven’t a clue. The thread winder fits inside the side slots, but loosely and the color of the celluloid is different. So I don’t think they go together.

The curious item has me stumped! It has a half dome hole on one end of the flat side and two molded, curved slides or arms on the long ends, as if it was to hold something.

If you have any idea what this could be, please let me know.

Making Lace at Lincoln Log Cabin

Tatman — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:44:52 +0000

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful weekend! The weather was a nice cool high 60s F with some breeze and not a cloud in the sky. We had fun socializing with our heritage friends. Here is a slideshow of pics I took.

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Lacing the Flax Spinner

Tatman — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:50:34 +0000

Today at lunch I started on the spinning piece. I utilized my Honiton and Bruges skills to start the top of her cap. I used cloth stitch with “4 about the pin”(pin under 4) edges. I plan to keep the shapes simple with no fancy stitches. I want to keep the lines clean and make sure that it looks like a flax spinner. So far looking like I hoped!

Flax Spinning

Tatman — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:35:21 +0000

Just to show you how my friend spins the flax/linen thread that I will be using, I found this video:

note: this isn’t my friend spinning. I will be starting to lace with the thread on the project during lunch today. More later!!

Designing Bobbinlace from a Picture

Tatman — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:23:15 +0000

I am embarking on an interesting journey in my lace. I friend of mine who spins flax(who also is a beginner bobbin lacer) spun some linen thread out of her stock. She gave me a hank and I told her I would see how it laced up. Mind you, it is very rough thread, yet fine enough(like 50 weight cotton). I found this picture of one spinning flax. I plan on using the picture as my design and lacing directly from it. In the photo attached you can see I have pinned the picture to my bolster pillow and wound some large bobbins waiting to get started. After it is finished, I will give it to my friend, the spinner/lacemaker. I will keep you posted on my progress.

3 Event Weekend

Tatman — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:42:36 +0000

Below are 3 slideshows of pictures I took at the 3 demonstration events this past weekend. It was a lot of setting up and tearing down each day, but the social life was a blast!

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Demonstrations this weekend!

Tatman — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:25:57 +0000

This coming weekend we have triple the show time. We have scheduled to demonstrate lacemaking and silk ribbon embroidery at three different places Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Are we nuts????????

No……..

Here is why……….It happens that the Friday event is here in downtown Greenville. It is put on by OCG – Our Common Ground and is a social event to showcase local artists, wineries, musicians, etc. Saturday we set up our heritage tent in Vandalia at Grande Levee. It is a one day event and they usually host it in June, but they changed to Sept. Which puts a damper on another historical event we demonstrate this weekend which is a two day event. That is Heritage Days on the Goshen Trail in Godfrey, IL. But they must be hurting for vendors because they are allowing us to come for just Sunday to set up and demonstrate. ISN’T THAT NICE OF THEM!!!

Hope to have loads of pictures to show you of our 3 day demonstrating weekend. Stay tuned!!!

Sterling Silver Tatting Shuttle on Ebay

Tatman — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:05:40 +0000

I just listed an exquisite sterling silver vintage/antique tatting shuttle on ebay. On one side is engraved the date of “1915″ and the other side is engraved with the initials “L. G.” Toward the tip along the side is the sterling silver mark that reads “Sterling .925″. This shuttle has a very sharp pick for joining and is a post style shuttle. It has some thread wound around it with some tatting in progress.

FINALLY FINISHED!

Tatman — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:31:36 +0000

This was supposed to get done back in June……but you know how that goes I finally put the last touch to the Rose Floral Spray design adding a bow at the junction of the stems. It measures 18cm(7in) done in 160 Coron Cotton with a size 5 cotton cord for the core thread. Here it is in all its glory!

And with the magic of Photoshop and repeating the design, imagine this motif creating a large edging to go all along a wedding dress or fancy skirt?? HAH…..not in my lifetime Maybe with the help of hundreds of lacemakers.

Now on to another project that was waiting for this to get done. A hankerchief edging that uses the same pearl tatted technique with padded cord as my core thread and rings thrown off both sides.