Tat's Heaven

I can never remember ever owning a rag doll but have always thought they were rather fun with their floppy limbs and big round face. Martha Ess designed this little beauty and it is such a clever pattern. I framed it straight away, no idea why as have no where to put it as yet, just did not want it thrown in a drawer and forgotten about. I have named her Betty Brexit on the day Britain leaves the European Union, something I find so sad as I for one felt we were ‘better together’,  oh well life moves on.

My son in Singapore kindly went to China Town to pick up these shiny threads, and then posted them over to me, they are very similar to the Lizbeth ones, but feel slightly softer.  On my usual charity shop rounds I found two Aero England post shuttles that just had to come home with me. They look to have been well used and I would have loved to know who originally owned them, but that is information lost in the mists of time. There is rather a gap on the tips of one of them, but they will just go into my collection and have a long and happy retirement. 

I have so much praise for tatting pattern designers as there is so much skill in getting the finished design not only looking good, but also writing it down in a format that is understandable. Personally only had a few attempts at pattern designing and the whole process drove me crazy! Martha Ess’s book Toys for Tatting is a real gem, and I highly recommend you buy it. I pick it up now and then and tat something from it. I had to do these ‘dump trucks’ in England we say ‘dumper‘ and just loved the way Martha takes you into a tatting adventure weaving in and out of her design. I really did not set out to tat two but started the first one and thought I had gone wrong, fortunately I did not cut the thread, just abandoned and started another. Found out with making a second one that I was doing exactly the same as the original so went back and completed it as well. I have a grandson in Singapore who may like these, I am sure he will recognise them as he loves playing with cars and trucks....

On the day when Christmas decorations are being taken down I have tatted a fir tree up to look like a decorated tree. The pattern is another one from Inga Madsen’s ‘12 Tatted Fairy-Tales.’ As you can see I made sure that it has coloured lights on it by included lots of seed beads.  In the book it is illustrated in white and instead of a star on top there is a bird.  I have used hand dyed thread and this one is called forest.  I am tempted to make another one as I am particularly eager to use up the container of mixed beads (bead soup) that has grown over the years, mainly because of spillages.