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.

2 More from Priscilla 2

Here are two more antique motifs from a different collar in Priscilla No. 2. (See previous post for links to download the book.)  Again these are chain-only designs with lots of picots. These use lots of Victorian sets, also called rickrack tatting, made by making several of the first half stitches followed by several second half stitches.  It makes a nice texture.  I had to pull my rickrack chains very tight to make them fit the space to match the illustration.  Perhaps this was because I used the same weight thread for both the shuttle and ball threads, though the original pattern called for size 40 core thread and size 60 ball thread.

PS.  The Palmetto TatDays call for teachers and logo designs is now out.  Don't worry, there's lots of time before the deadlines.  Click Here for details.

Three from Priscilla No. 2 -- A New Challenge

I'm starting my new Challenge with 3 motifs from the Priscilla Tatting Book, No. 2 of 1915.  These pieces are actually part of a very ornate collar, but I am using just parts of it to make flowers.

These are all chain-only designs, which meant I could use one shuttle and the ball thread and not have to reload, even with all those picots.

The pattern said to join the chains only on the side that would curve inward, but that led to an unruly mess with this purple motif.

With the dark pink motif, I joined the chains on both sides and was still able to block it to curve gently.







I'll show you what I'm doing with these later.










You can easily get your own copy of this vintage book.  It is available as a reprint from Dover Books as this book:

Even better, you can download it for free from the Antique Pattern Library. Click HERE for a list of their recent additions to their collection, including this one.  You can also get it from Georgia's Archive of Tatting Books in the Public Domain, but note that she has a later edition that has fewer pages (and horrors, cost 10 cents more).


Thanks for the advice on the free patterns last time.  I'll quit worrying about standardizing the notation and put the abbreviations back in.  Whenever I find time to work on it again....