![]() The thread, including a ball of DMC Cordonnet Special size 150, belonged to Charlotte Sedwick Nicolaides. Shuttles from the author’s collection, vintage thread, and examples of Charlotte Sedwick Nicolaides’s tatting. As a child, I used to like to go to his basement workshop and play with the paper templates that he used to rough out the shuttles before carving them into boat shapes. I don’t know how or when he learned to make tatting shuttles. They suit my hand as they did Grandma’s.Ī native of the remote town of Rapsani, nestled on the olive-laden slopes of Mount Olympus in Greece, Grandpa immigrated to Monmouth, Illinois, in the 1910s. Forty years later, I am still tatting and using shuttles that Grandpa made sixty years ago. ![]() I began collecting patterns from books and shared my limited knowledge with schoolyard friends. If I tried to break off a ring that was not going well, perhaps coughing to cover the snap, she’d say, “I heard that.” There was no fooling Grandma. No snapping off of mistake-ridden thread was permitted: I was to pick out my mistakes with a pin. When I was eight years old, Grandma sat me down with one of her wooden shuttles and size 80 thread and began teaching me to tat. She had dozens of balls of DMC thread in wondrous colors. (IOLI, an international organization for lacemakers), and she bought books, experimented with patterns, and filled notebooks and cards with original patterns. Grandma was a member of the International Old Lacers Inc. Shuttles from the author’s collection and examples of Charlotte Sedwick Nicolaides’s tatting. I find the bold colors and three-dimensional designs of the latter pieces particularly fascinating and amusing. She tatted sweet, simple, blue-and-white edgings to adorn my nightgowns she also tatted vivid, variegated aqua and hot pink antimacassars for her 1940s-era overstuffed chairs. Her favorite wooden shuttles, crafted by Grandpa, ticked rhythmically in a soothing, hypnotic tempo. Without looking at her work, fingers flying, she turned out yards of edgings that she rolled into a ball in her lap, securing her work with a giant safety pin. Fifty years later, she tatted like a machine. Needlework publications were filled with patterns for this particularly feminine art-tatting was a graceful pastime, its swift, rhythmic movements resulting in yards of beautiful lace. At its peak in the nineteenth century, tatting embellished the edges of cuffs, collars, and undergarments, as well as constituting the fabric itself of such three-dimensional textiles as baby bonnets, purses, and booties. The lacemaking technique of tatting began in the sixteenth century as an elaboration of simple knotting, and it evolved over the next three centuries. In my case, they are wooden tatting shuttles that my grandfather Anastasius “Tom” Nicolaides (1890–1966) made for my grandmother Charlotte Sedwick Nicolaides (1901–1984). All rights reserved.Many of us treasure special needlework tools that have come down to us from our ancestors, perhaps an unusual bone crochet hook that our mother used or handcrafted knitting needles inherited from a great-aunt. We also accept layaways, call or e-mail for details.Ĭopyright © 2022 by Dawn Lewis. Personal checks are accepted, but items will not be shipped until the check clears. For immediate shipment of your purchase, please send a cashier's check or money order or, for your convenience, we accept Mastercard, Visa and Discover Card. If we don't have what you want, we will be happy to keep track of your "wish list".Į-mail or phone for further details concerning payment and shipping. If you don't see what you are searching for, please e-mail or call us with your requests. We are happy to show you a "sampling" of the items we have available for sale. We offer a selection of sewing tools including chatelaines, etuis, necessaires, scissors, needlecases, tape measures, pincushions and silkwinders as well as an extensive collection of antique samplers. Specialize in antique samplers and needlework tools from the 18th and 19th centuries. Charles, Illinois.Ģ023 - March 3 - 5 Nashville Needlework Market, Embassy Suites, Franklin, Tennessee. If you would like to be notified by e-mail when I add new items to my Gallery of Antique Samplers and Needlework Tools, send your e-mail address to Schedule:Ģ022 - June 25 - CSADA Antiques Show at Garfield Farm, St. Be sure to check to see if we will be doing a show near you!
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