Last week I read this post at C J Stitching & Blooms where she mentions velvet ric rac! Well....I've never seen velvet ric rac so I moseyed on over to macybrookboutiuqe and helped myself to three purchases!

I think I'll have to order some more next month. Isn't it elegant and plush looking? I have some vintage ric rac patterns in the left hand sidebar that I've been wanting to play with more. I already have some metallic ric rac and floral ric rac (I usually just spell it ric rac) so this is another kind to add to the mix. Funny thing is, I don't even like ric rac as an embellishment! But for some reason, this combination of tatting and ric rac or SRE/CQ with ric rac makes my heart sing.

What I haven't figured out is how to adapt or match the ric rac size to the thread size. I've always felt a bit hesitant about posting those patterns because I remember having trouble with the number of stitches and having to play with it - thread size, number of stitches, size of the ric rac. That's a lot of variables. The velvet ric rac is a bit bigger than the average ric rac.

Image from Craftypod.com

Oooohhh...have you made the ric rac flowers before? Can you imagine them in this velvety softness?

Last night I got the Home Arts Magazine from 1914 that I won on Ebay. I really didn't know what was inside although the front listed the macrame bag in bold type. I couldn't believe it when I found this fabulous tatted beaded bag!

I know the scan is a bit blurry but I'm intrigued by that fringe at the top and bottom. From what I can make out so far, it's done by tatting the 1st half of the ds for "x" number of stitches,making a picot,and then tatting the 2nd half of the ds in the chain - then there is a long chain so that it turns and as you do the same thing in the opposite direction, you join to the picots and the chain wraps around itself creating this fringe. Oh beads are involved too, but my brain could only process so much information last night.

I spent part of the evening earlier with my youngest grandson. We went out for pizza and when we got back, I helped him prepare a native dish of sweet corn bread for a class project. It did look tasty when it was done. So I didn't get home until late and my brain was ready to sleep by then. The bag was meant to put your fan and gloves in when you got to a party.

Remember my irritation with the way the crochet part of that last vintage tatting turned out? I found some information at Free Craft Patterns. They have several vintage tatting patterns and some are combined with crochet. They state that the "crochet thread is 2 sizes smaller than the tatting thread." I'm pretty sure mine was 2 sizes smaller but maybe not. Anyway, I'll make sure the next one I try is at least that much smaller. I've actually started on a project using that last pattern but haven't gotten far. I've made 2 motifs in size 50 thread. which means they are about half the size of the others. I forgot to bring the right ball of thread with me yesterday and today I managed to tat the beginning of one motif until I had to open the last ring which was a split ring. My lunch hour was over by then so it will have to wait. I should be able to have something to show soon though.

So glad Blogger is back up! I missed seeing new posts by my friends!