One look at the proudly prancing pony on the cover of Martha Ess' new book, "Toys for Tatting," shows us that these are going to be playful patterns with many uses. Martha based her patterns on traditional toys. Familiar favorites such as rubber duckies, teddy bears, rag dolls and even trolls will bring a smile to the tatter as well as the wearer of the lace.
Clothing, blankets, and soft accessories will sport all kinds of tatted lace. Little overalls and princess skirts will shine with the tatted sun and the moon, Pegasus and unicorns decorating them. I just fell in love with the rag doll. Reminiscent of "Raggedy Ann™", this sweet pattern will charm you with her smile, her flirty eyelashes and her red and white striped blocked tatted stockings. And her white pinafore will be an excellent exercise in split ring tatting.
All the photographs in this 8.5" x 11" spiral bound 38 pg. book are in full color as are the diagrams. The diagrams such as this one on pg 8 are large and easy to read. It is an example of block tatting also.
However, it is the big, bright and boldly colored illustrations for the technique tutorials that really awed me! The shuttles and the threads are color coordinated so that you can easily follow the core thread and see how it interacts with the ball or shuttle 2 thread in each maneuver.
This illustration shows the end result of the Catherine Wheel Join.
Martha Ess is known to tatters for her many books of tatting patterns. Two of my personal favorites are "Playing with Picots" and "Tea is for Tatting." Martha also participated in the 2014 Palmetto Tatters Guild Tatting Scholarship Fundraiser. She donated the use of a lovely tea pot pattern from the "Tea is for Tatting" for the tatters to create and embellish this extraordinary quilt.
Each new book from Martha Ess is a delight to tat. You will love this one.
Note: This book was a gift from Martha.-G Seitz.
Here's the latest article from the Tatting site at BellaOnline.com.
Tatted Leaf Forms Perhaps the most common type of tatted leaf pattern is the tatted cluny leaf aka petal or tallie and the cloverleaf.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art303381.asp
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http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=39
I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback! Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!
Georgia Seitz, Tatting Editor http://tatting.bellaonline.com One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com
