Christmas in July

I am in between projects and had not tatted in a while so I picked up some number 10 crochet cotton and my shuttles and started making some snowflakes. I will tell you about my grandmother below. I watched her tat as I was growing up but never tried to do it. In later years, my mother gave me my grandmother's shuttles and I ordered a book to teach myself. I bought Tatting by Cathy Bryant. This is a great book with good illustrations. The snowflakes above are from the book, Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman.

Grandmother Thompson
1887-1962

The above picture was taken when my grandmother was a student at "Normal College". She met my grandfather when he went to the college to visit his sister. Grandmother was always doing some needlework. This is the grandmother who gave me the desire to learn to tat. She helped me make a quilt when I was 12 years old. It was simple--just small squares sewn together, but I have the memories of the time we spent together.
Below I want you to see the book and shuttles that belonged to my grandmother. I watched her make the most beautiful lace to be placed on handkerchiefs. She used very small thread and sometimes sewing thread. Wow! I do good to get it done with size 10.

This book is STAR BOOK No. 41 - cost-10 CENTS
AMERICAN THREAD COMPANY - Copyright-1946
This book has crochet and tatting edgings. The tatting edgings
were suggested to be used on slips.

This is the caption above the tatting patterns. It amazes me that
my grandmother went to all this trouble for something that would
not be seen. My Grandmother Thompson did handkerchief edgings
and a lot of crochet.

One of the first attempts I made at tatting was
the snowflakes I used on the tree in our bedroom.
The tree has dolls, snowflakes, antique balls, and
white lights. These are the same snowflakes
that I am doing now.