Last fall, my friend served as a volunteer at the Mountain State Fair in Asheville, an event that I have submitted entries for the Tatting competition in years past. She indicated that there were so few entries in the “Tatting" catagory of Arts and Crafts that she feared that category would so go away in the not very distant future. She encouraged me to find something that I could enter in the fair next year. So I set about it.
Over the years, I have collected tatting pattern books by various authors. One such author is Ineke Kuiperij, a lady in the Netherlands whose books came across the Atlantic with my friend and tatting colleague Riet Surtel-Smeulders when she would journey to the US from her home in the Netherlands to visit family, attend Palmetto Tatters Guild’s Tat Days and other area events. Sadly, Riet passed away in 2025 and the world has lost another grand master of the craft.
I looked through Ineke’s books and found one particular pattern that I felt would challenge my skills and be an appropriate entry into the competition this coming fall. It is in this book and an image of my chosen ornament is shown on the cover in the upper right hand corner.
The piece is complex and created in 4 panels. Each panel has 5 independent sections which are joined as the piece is tatted along. Beads are added at intervals. I chose Liz Metalic in size 20 and the color 313 (SandDollar) with Hemitite beads size 4 mm and black onxy beads size 6 mm. The pattern was written for size 80 thread and I knew this finished piece would be larger, but it was one I wanted to showcase.
Judging how much to wind onto my shuttles can be a challenge as well and on the 4th section of the 1st panel, I cut it so close that I had to make the last ring a Split Ring even though the pattern did not call for it:
Thank goodness for crochet hooks and split rings!
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