Anne Orr Medallion #38

Has anyone tried tatting the medallion #38 from the book Tatting with Anne Orr?

I had problems when making it the first time by following the pattern for the medallion exactly as in the book. I followed the instructions by making five repeats and the medallion cupped-up on me. So, I improvised and make it with six repeats and it turned out just right.



I made a small change to the design by adding an outward ring to each of the clovers in the last round. It now looks more like a hexagon that a round medallion.

Update on the Anne Orr 'Square'

Here it is .....


All in, there are eight repeats of the triangle motif joined together in one pass. I have decided to stop at this point for two reasons .....

# 1, I am getting bored :-( with this thread and want to move on to different type, and

# 2, the more practical reason, the amount of thread that I have left will not be enough to make the square any bigger than this unless I get some more .. and ... I am not in the mood to drive all the way across the city to go to the only shop that is selling this thread.

But, there is good news .... I have sent this out to some one as a surprise. Just look out for the mailman ... :-) It might be YOU!... :-D

Tatting and Knots

This bookmark was made using HDT in size 80 that Zarina was kind enough to pass to me. She said she was not yet comfortable using fine thread for tatting. If you visit her website, I think you'll agree with me that she has done great working with the HDTs.

This is a simple shuttle-and-ball edging design joined back-to-back. At the end of it, it was either making a tassel at the end or weaving a lace through the centre.

To make a tassel, I will have to use more of the HDT - and I felt that would be a waste of some wonderful thread. To weave a ribbon in I have to start the car and drive to the shop and get the ribbon first - and I soooo wanted to finish this as soon as I can.

Then, I remembered that I have a lenght of satin cord that I bought a long time ago when my daughter wanted to learn making chinese knots. So, I used that to weave in the centre. And instead of a tassel, I made a chinese knot for the end.

This is a close up of the bookmark and the knot that I used. The name of the knot is the Good Luck knot.

And below is a scan of one of my current WIP, using a pattern from Tatting with Anne Orr tatted with size 80 DMC Dentelle. The Anne Orr motif is originally a triangular shape. I am working it into a square working continuously without cutting the thread. I reached this far with a bobbin full of thread and scanned this in when the thread ran out and before starting again with a new bobbin.


Laura asked me to explain how I am making the square in one pass. I felt it is better to reply in the post here because it will be easier to refer to the picture above.

You can see the shape of the original triangle motif in the top left which is a right-angled triangle, starting at the pointed corner at the top and ending with the corner on the right. The pattern ends with the last two rings joined together just like at the beginning.

At this corner, I have added one extra short chain (in blue) and one extra ring (in yellow) followed by another short chain (in blue). This brings me back to the starting point for the next triangle motif. The second triangle is joined on the straight side to the first triangle as I tat.

At the end of the second triangle, instead of making short chain-small ring-short chain, I made a long chain. This positions me for the third triangle. The third triangle is joined to the slant side of the triangle (the hypotenuse).

The process is repeated any number of times until you get the size that you want by deciding whether you need to make the short chain-small ring-short chain or the long chain at the end of each triangle.

Hint: It would help if you make a sketch or plan of the shape and size that you want, using the triangle motif as a template. Mark on the sketch the direction that you'll be working the triangle. This will help to determine whether you need to make the short chain-ring-short chain or the long chain on completion of each triangle.

I hope the explanation is clear enough to follow.

An Analysis of a Vintage Design

I have looked at this design a number of times when flipping through the book Tatting with Anne Orr, but never felt like I want to tat it. I guess I was also intimidated by the way the instructions was written.

As luck would have it, I have some thread left in a shuttle with a reasonable amount in a ball, but not a lot for any big project. So, why not just do it and get it over with. Anyway, Mrs John has got me interested in trying out old designs, :-)

Surprise, surprise! I think this is a brilliant design. It is like an endless tatting. I can go on and on and on and make it as big as I want without any cutting and tying. The only time time I need to cut and tie is when I want to add thread to the shuttle.

And the stitch count for the rings and chain are consistent throughout. There is no need to go back to the pattern to check whether the stitch count is correct or not. After the first few rings and chains, I can forget about looking at the instructions page and just refer to the picture to see where to join next. And after a while, there is no need for the picture, even! To borrow JaneEb's term, this one can be made on auto-pilot.

But, can it be more than a triangular motif? Yes it can! Pardon me if I'm grinning ear to ear but I think this is beautiful even if I am the only one to say so ;-) For greater effect I may want to try again with two colours.


By adding an extra chain at the corner, I repeat the pattern for the triangle on the other side and it becomes a square. Didn't I say this is a brilliant design!

I love a Tatting Challenge

.... well, not exactly a challenge, but I was piqued by Mrs John when she wrote about the supposedly easy medallion motif from the Priscilla Book 2.

As I have some free time, and I am looking for medallions to tat anyway, I gave the pattern a try. Here it is all done -


Looking at the original pattern, there are three rounds - the small centre ring, the middle round where the long chains are, and the outer round with the clovers.

And my challenge here was to tat it from beginning to end without any 'tie and cut' in between rounds. And I did!

Rather than starting wirh the centre ring, I began with the long chain. I used two shuttle, wound CTM and slide a paperclip on the thread in between the two shuttle to hold a mock picot and start on the chain.

When I reach the part where the chain joins to the centre motif, I changed shuttle and make the centre ring. To make sure that the picots in the centre ring is long, I leave a short length of thread before starting this centre ring. And the rests of the picots in the ring will take this size. Then I continue with the rest of the chain and the small ring at the top of the chain, and follow the pattern as written.

After I have made seven of the small rings, I made the last chain, joining the length of chain on both sides, i.e to the previous chain and to the first chain. Then, I took out the paperclip at the beginning of the first chain and join the last chain to the mock picot made by the paperclip. The last small ring in this round is made as a split ring.

The last round is followed as written in the pattern.

To Mrs John, give this another try. It is a beautiful motif.

A look at an Old Tatting pattern

This is a scan of an insertion from The Pearl Tatting Book by Mlle Riego.

I took a look at it and thought - this is an easy one to try. Don't have to read the instructions in detail - make the first row, turn and make the opposite side, joining the rings at the centre. But then, I decided to follow exactly as the pattern was written and I made an interesting discovery on how the rings are joined.

I would have thought that when making the first row the two rings in the four-rings cluster are joined together first as the row is made and the other two rings are then joined to it in the second row

But the instruction say to make the first row without any joining of rings. The rings are only joined in the second row.

What is interesting about the join is that the picots cross over each other to make the join, with one picot going through the other. I hope it can be seen clearly in this enlarged scan. There is no gap or hole in the centre where the join is made - as what you'd usually get when several joins are made to one picot.

The pattern stated to use cotton No. 60 but I made this using a size 40. Even then I was struggling with the tiny ring in the middle which is (2-2), :-).
And I cheated a bit - I used a split ring to turn whereas the instructions say to cut after the first row and rejoin the thread to the tiny ring to begin the second row ... he .....he ....