This tatted quilt block was just cut fresh off the tatting shuttles and then I plopped it down on the couch cushion and took this photo (so it is not blocked in any way, shape, or form). 

The give and take about my designs is that you get to use alot of color in a piece.  I usually grab whatever shuttles/colors that I have wound and really don’t put alot of thought into my color selection.  I just want to get going!!!

However, the down-side is that you have alot of ends to deal/contend with at the end of the tatting process.  I always use Continuous Thread Method (CTM) to start my motifs….I have several procedures/techniques to make that happen. 

However, the ENDS are still an issue.  So I thought I’d show you how ‘ugly’ a piece can be and describe what I’m going to do about it.

I am on the hunt for a finely woven piece of cloth that I can mount the piece on.  The procedure will be to use a fine crochet hook to bring the ends to the back of the fabric and tie the ends in a square knot.  To do this I need a high thread count fabric because I want to use white fabric and don’t want the thread ends to show/’ghost’ on the frontside of the fabric.  When I stopped off at a needlework shop two days ago looking for what I wanted, I realized that I needed at least 32 count fabric.  Of course the higher the count (more threads per inch) the more expensive the fabric.  This particular shop didn’t have what I was interested in but I also realized that I don’t need pure linen fabric either (cost goes up!).

There are a couple more needlework shops in Omaha that I’m going to visit this weekend (can’t wait!).  I think that a fabric called Jobelin or Lugana will work well for me.  Both are cotton/synthetic blends and not as costly as linen.

I’ll let you know more about what I find and show you the mounting procedure and final product when I’m done.