Motif #6 - Graciella Doily

This is "Graciella" from Tatted Doilies by Iris Niebach. I didn't do the last round because I liked the look of the doily at that point as the 3 little thrown rings gave it an interesting look that makes it stand out from other doilies I've made. The colors are Lizabeth 642 Lilac Medium and 154 Wildflower Garden.

I've found that half the time I often don't do the final round(s) of a doily. Most of the time it's because I'm bored with it, it's the size I want or the colors aren't what I imagined.  Other times, I choose to stop at the next to last round because I feel that the final round feels 'forced' and looks like a heavy border on what would otherwise be a light and airy doily. Am I the only one who feels that way?



Motif #5 - 10th Day of December Snowflake

This is the 10th Day of December snowflake from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn.

Tougher than they look

Anna's hummingbirds overwinter in the Pacific Northwest. There are two females that share/fight over my feeder. They fly slower in the cold and aren't as agressive in protecting their territories. What they lack in speed they more than make up for in scolding from their perch when the other is at the feeder. I guess if you have a warm spot on a twig, you don’t really want to waste energy chasing after some feathery tart at your sugar water. Besides my feeder, there's a feeder at the park office 50' away and another one about half a block down the road so they aren't exactly starving. I'd love to put out a little heat lamp for them, but the electric is high enough as it is right now.

Tatted Antique Lace Doily

This is a pattern called Tatted Antique Lace Doily by Darlene Polachic. It's made with Lizbeth Carousel thread size 20. I didn't do the last round because it was a chain and ring round and I didn't like the way the chain looked so I decided it was finished as is.

Dragon

Here is the ever popular dragon by Anne Bruvold . I had just learned split rings when I did this a few years ago. The pattern calls for single shuttle split rings for the body which I still don't know how to do so I did regular split rings.

Thread is size 20 red semi-vintage.

Maple Leaf

This is Tammy Rodger's maple leaf done in Lizbeth harvest orange medium. I tatted this sitting in the sunroom watching the birds and got a bit distracted and missed a ring. This explains the slight asymmetry, but I've never seen a perfect leaf so this goof doesn't bother me.

I recently bought Tatting Turns Over a New Leaf so I'm really looking forward to making more leaves.

My first 'real' doilies

Here are pair of doilies that I did a couple of years ago. I consider them my first real doilies because I was finaly consistant in my tension and felt ready to move on from the bulky size 10 thread.

As I was working on the top one, I wondered what it would look like with the colors reversed. The pattern is Blue Doily by Eileen Stafford. The thread is DMC size 12 perle cotton. They came out to be about 4 1/2" wide.