Victorian Lace, Luncheon, and Tea

The Prairie Mill Lacemakers outdid themselves putting on a beautiful day full of activities.

It was like being transported back in time.






They greeted us in their lovely Victorian-era costumes at the Historic Chamberlain Hotel in Midway Village, and bade us relax and do our handwork.

Many types of lace were represented: bobbin lace, crocheted and knitted lace, tatting of course, and many varieties of needle lace.



The luncheon was incredibly delicious! All made by the group, nothing catered...a superb quiche, delightful spinach salad, fresh fruit, sparkling non-alcoholic champagne.




We also enjoyed a tea with plates and cups that were collectors items. Even the sugar was shaped and colored like violets to match the decor!

There were homemade scones, candies, a cake baked from an authentic Victorian-era recipe, and other goodies.









Goodies for our lace craft stash were also available for purchase at the trunk sale provided by "The Lacemaker" shop.
We even received a visit from the "widow" in full Victorian deep mourning garb, who gave a well documented presentation on the funeral customs of that era.


















Door prizes were given out throughout the day... I won a stained glass suncatcher that featured violets and lace on it.

We were given handmade parting gifts of a pincushion with a bobbin lace flower, a cute bear pin, and violets and lace decorated cookies.

A day I will never forget!

Butterfly bookmarks

Simple and quick! I took the pink butterfly and some of my other tatted bookmarks and jewelry to the consignment boutique where I sell some of my work. The shop owner, (who loves my tatting) didn't want to carry bookmarks at first -- "I've had other bookmarks here, and they just sit..." but couldn't resist keeping just a few of mine at the shop. I got a phone call a few hours later from the shop owner, "I just sold the pink butterfly! The lady would also like one in purple!"
So I did a variety of purples!
These are done like the flower bookmark here.
R 2-2-2-2. T. Ch 5-5, sj to p of r.
Ch 7-1--1-7, sj to next p of r.
Ch 2---1---2, sj to same p. Ch 7-1--1-7, sj to next p of r.
Ch 5-5. J at the bottom same as the flower bookmark.

For a pdf copy of this pattern Click Here.

Easter Eggs

This is my attempt at doing tatted Easter eggs. The green one with the yellow cross I just finished; the blue egg in the background I did last year. Both are done in size 20 cotton pinned to satin eggs purchased from Handy Hands.

There are many beautiful eggs shown by tatters on the Internet. I very much admire the ones that are done using real, blown eggshells. However, in my household, I think real eggshells would get broken very quickly! So it's good that satin eggs are available.

By the way, the cross pattern is pretty much the same as the center of my shamrock pattern listed on the Tatting Calendar for March 11. I just used a smaller stitch count.

Flower bookmarks

Easy, beginner level project! For pdf click here.
Leave long tails when starting.

R 2-2-2-2-2. RW. *Ch 6-6, shuttle join to p of R. Repeat from * around.

Abbreviations:
R ring
Ch chain
- picot
RW reverse work

All the joins in this pattern are "locking", or "shuttle joins".

Finishing tips:
Tie the last 2 ends by taking the core thread (the one that matches the color of the ring) through the 1st ring, bringing the chain thread around to tie the 1st half of a square knot. Then gather all the ends together and tie one big overhand knot, snugging it up to the base of the bookmark. Trim ends as desired.

Tatted "Rock" Bracelet

This bracelet has tatting surrounding polymer clay beads. It's based on a very simple tatting pattern: R 3-3-3-3. Ch 5-5 (for the short ch) or ch 5-3-3-5 (for the long ch). The large beads are added during joining. So the picots that hold the beads need to be long enough -- when measured open, they are twice the length of the bead plus a bit extra.

I swirled several duller colors together and used an organic (lumpy!) shape in an attempt to come up with a "rock" look for the beads. (Actually, they came out resembling a mixture of concrete and brick -- not all that attractive, but I still used them -- tatting makes any bead look great!) After baking them I painted on a coat of "Sculpey" glaze. The glaze gives a marvelous shiny finish but tends to pool in a blob at the bottom of the bead while drying; I tried to minimize this by standing the beads on pins stuck into a disposable aluminum pan.

The way I get the beads on is, I put the bead onto a small crochet hook, then hook into the picot I am joining to, pull the bead onto the picot, and finish making the join.

The smaller seed beads were strung on the ball thread before starting to tat. Since I used a chunky thread for this project (size 10 "Flora") the seed beads were size 8, a little larger than most common seed beads.

I used a lobster claw clasp for closing the bracelet, but I'm not sure if I care for that type of closure on this bracelet. I'm going to try something different next time.

Beaded Shamrock

My beaded shamrock instructions are found on the tatting calendar on March 11. I've also done it in a darker green with some gold beads added. I've worn it as a hair ornament by sticking a bobby pin around one of the center chains.

I finally got my things mailed off to the Shuttlebird's garden party. I do hope a lot of people will enter; it isn't often that a juried show is offered for tatters.