I thought I had posted this in the past, but I guess not. I know that it has been posted to Georgia Seitz's Online Tatting class and I even found it on Pinterest. Son will be adding it to my website where I have other free tatting patterns. www.ginabea.com ..read more

This is a planned thread addition.  I even did a shoelace trick to make the thread from the shuttle and the ball run out at the same time.  There is no need to tie on the new thread - it will merely be trapped in the base of the last ring.  The tatted lace yardage is rolled on an empty reel and kept from unfurling with a plastic hair band. This pattern is one I call "FleaMkt"  I found an example of it tatted with a lightweight yarn at the local Flea market several years ago.  I have never found the exact pattern in any books.  ..read more

So this idea has been "baking" in my brain for several years.  There have been several books printed now about tatting over cabone rings, and I had seen several gals tatting over large polished stone ring beads.  I wondered if it would work as a pin keep to tat over a rare earth magnet.  I  bought magnets in several sizes and there they sat on my shelf ; /  I finally remembered to pack them to ship to meet me in Montana.  Sadly, they didn't show up until a day before I was leaving.  But! I had bought new 'Lizbeth size 3 thread from Deb Arnold of DS9 Designs ..read more

Single Shuttle Split Ring Headband Matthew Takeda came up with this novel way of making a single shuttle split ring.  The technique is shared with his permission on Bina Madden's Paradise Treasures site:  http://www.paradisetreasures.com/pdf/takedasssr.pdf What may not be clear in the diagram, is how to close the ring. (at least I was missing it...)  I have uploaded a video to YouTube to explain this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXvNRaaxV14 The FREE! pattern for my floral headband using this technique can be found on my website: http://www.ginabea.com/docs/SingleShuttleSp ..read more

A friend is studying the art of Carrickmacross lace.  I had read that this was the technique that was used for the appliqued lace of Kate Middleton's wedding dress. This reminded me that I had made a sample of the technique on the sewing machine many years ago. The ground is two layers of fine poly netting turned cross grain to each other.  This was a happy accident.  Back in the days when I had a monogram shop, I was working away and was distracted by a piece of netting that I had haphazardly thrown in a chair.  I glanced across the room and saw this sweet floral netting ..read more

We all collect thumb drives. How do you keep track of their content? I have a friend who puts different colors of ribbon on hers and keeps a notebook with their contents. I'm fond of little "do dads". Something quick and easy to jar my memory of their content. Some are decorative paper clips - I have found a heart (lesson plans), a foot (delivery scheme maps), and even a guitar (music).  I have a tiny FSL angel on my thumb drive that fits my embroidery machine. Can you guess what is on this latest thumb drive with a tatted heart? **Addendum** I was asked to teach this little ..read more

The basic stitch for Silk Ribbon on the sewing machine is the padded straight stitch. You will use it to make leaves and many of the flowers and butterflies ..read more

This is a slide show of examples and step by step how-to of Silk Ribbon embroidery on the sewing machine. This is a great lesson for those who are new to freemotion embroidery. Notice in the bottom right corner of the video block that you can make the images large enough to fill your computer screen. You can pause the slide show or fast forward or reverse using the slider at the bottom of the video ..read more

Someone on the InTatters tatting list http://www.intatters.com/content.php was researching edges on hankies. I thought my page of wing needle stitches that I designed for my Bernina 1630 years ago may give her some ideas of what to look for in a modern machine. If anyone is looking for instructions about how to use the built in Stitch Designer of the Bernina 1630, my book can be found at http://www.ginabea.com/heirloomstitchesbook.php ..read more

I used Patti Duff's beaded lanyard pattern to make a lanyard to hold eyeglasses. My beads were not uniform in size. Irene Morgan suggested that I string them by twos (that were similar in size and color). YES! that worked out nicely. I used a bracelet closure rather then using the eyeglass findings that I had first intended. You know the ones that are like a double eyelet of vinyl rings? They hold the earpieces of the glasses around your neck. I decided that I wanted this to have more of a necklace appearance. The lanyard will still slip over the head, but the eyeglasses earpiece will slip do ..read more