Motif 43

I made this doily again, Pretty Petal Doily from Traditional Tatting Patterns by Rita Weiss. 

Before i started, I knew I was going to enter it in the state fair. Also before I started I had to learn the magic thread trick so I wouldn't have any visible knots. 

Also brushed up on my down joins so all my blips would be on the same side. 

I've never entered anything in the state fair before so I was very excited to see the best of show ribbon. 

Round 13 of the big big doily.

This is round 13 of my never ending Jan Stawasz doily. Only 2 more rounds to go. I'm about half way through this round.

His diagrams are a bit hard for me to read so each round I rewrite in my own notation along with when I finish each round, how long a repeat takes and how long the round takes. I finished round 12 back in July and it took about 32 hrs. Set it aside for about 9 months. It shares a train case/cosmetics bag with what ever other WIP I have going on. Oddly I never felt guilty for ignoring it as I dug around it looking for an empty shuttle or crochet hook.

Right now I'm also working on a doily for the state fair. And when I'm not in a perfectionist mood I work on my JS doily. There is something about the size of it that takes the stress of being correct away. Because it's 24" at last measurement, the mistakes seem to disappear in the crowd.

Motif 39

This is Frosted Star doily from Traditional Tatting Patterns by Rita Weiss. The colors were inspired by one of @lakesuperior_beachglass stacked seaglass photos.

I've been wanting to do a seaglass inspired doily for a while. And this pattern with its little inset flowers reminded me of seaglass on a pebble-y beach.

When I lived on Whidbey Island, WA looking for seaglass was one of the precious few things that made me happy and peaceful to the core of my soul.  I enjoyed every cold, windy and sometimes rainy minute of it. Now I'm landlocked 2300 miles away but have my little jars of seaglass to remind me of the Pacific Northwest.

Motif 36

This is the 5 rounds of Rectangular Luncheon Set from Anne Orr's Classic Tatting Patterns. 

 This is another project in my resolution to make something from each tatting book I own. I have never made a single color doily. They have all been multi colored or made with variegated thread. I was doing pretty good until I got to the little trefoils in the corner and a little voice said, 'those would look nice in white'. That was a tough voice to ignore. Then the voice said the rings in the last 2 rounds needed to be white as well.

Jan Stawasz doily in progress

Completed round 12. There are 3 more rounds to go! From Tatting Theory and Patterns by Jan Stawasz. It's about 24" across at this point.

Motif 32 Springtime Doily

This is Springtime Doily from The Tatter's Treasure Chest edited by Mary Carolyn Waldrep. This is another one of my paint color chip projects.  My tatting group loved the colors. I'm not sure if I like the silver on the outer round. I went back and forth on doing the last round with purple rings and green chains, or doing them both in the same color. 

I have two purples in my stash that I could have gone with, the one I used was a bit on the redish side, and the other one was a bit more blue. Neither one matched the color chip, and I could have used either one as they both looked good with the green. I went with the purple I did because I already had an almost full shuttle of it loaded and ready to go from a previous project.

The photo has a bit of a blueish cast to it, the colors are lavender, mid-green and silver/grey.

Motif 30 triangle motif

  
This is from Tatting, A Potpourri of Patterns. It is 5 individual triangle motifs joined together. I made it in size 100 which taxed my eyes a bit but I love the delicate lacy-ness of it.  The pattern required different lengths of bare thread depending on if you are working on a side or corner. I did the best I could considering I didn't use any kind of guage.

Here is an individual motif. I thought about pressing it before taking a photo, but with something that small I'd probably just burn myself so I flattened it against the table and hoped for the best.

This pattern is also a part of my resolution project.

Motif 29 Pretty Petal Doily

Pretty Petal Doily from Traditional Tatting Patterns by Rita Weiss. 

For the new year I've decided to tat at least one item from every tatting book I own. I have about 50 books. The books I haven't worked from (about half) will be the focus of this undertaking. I don't expect to finish in a year but I do expect to seriously bust my thread stash and maybe learn a technique or two.  

This doily is the first of resolution projects.

And keeping me company is my faithful tatting buddy, Whiskey, who turns 12 today. Happy birthday, Whiskey Dog, at least one of your hairs is (accidently) tatted in all my projects. 

Motif 27 and 28 Cobweb Doily

 

 I tagged along with The Hubs to Home Depot a few months ago. While he was doing his thing I entertained myself in the paint aisle. I love looking at the paint cards. This one caught my eye as I have thread similar to those colors. At one time I probably did hold the balls together but wasn't thrilled with the combo.

So I brought the paint card home, dug out those threads and made a pair of Cobweb Doilies from Tatting Doilies and Edgings by Rita Weiss.

I had two colors that sorta matched the lighter mauve so figured a little color play was in order. The ecru-y color on the card has a weird green tint to it but regular ecru looks just fine.

Since then I've picked up another card and as soon as I finish a few things I'll find a pattern for that.

JS doily round 10

This has not been pressed or blocked so please look past the twists and ruffles.
According to my notes, I started on this doily Sept. 14, 2014. I work on it in bursts and complete several rounds at time. Then I'll set it aside for awhile to work on something smaller that can be completed quickly or I take time to ponder what color(s) the next round should be.
At this point you're looking at 101.3 hrs that are completed. There were 11 hrs of work total that I had to cut out. Six and a half of those hours were from misreading the pattern on round 3. The rest of the time is from false starts on other rounds due to trouble I had reading his pattern and my work not looking right.
I'm thinking of doing the next round of a single row of split rings in a dark brown. The points that come next I want to do in the same ecru, sea green and dusty lavender that I've already done and worried the thin round of brown will be distracting or create an odd visual barrier that breaks up the doily into two parts. But at the same time the brown could add interest and a bit of contrast.
Now I'm wondering if introducing a new color in the outer points will look weird, like I ran out of a color and had to throw in brown to complete the project.
Now I'm wondering if I'm over thinking this.
Five more rounds to go.

Medallion round

Still continuing on with the cover doily from Jan Stawaz's Tatting Theory and Patterns. Each of the medallions takes me 1 1/2 hour to do. I also spent about 2 hours trying to figure the pattern out and cutting a lot of false starts out because I joined them wrong.

Once this round is done, it may become the largest doily I've ever done. I'm at the point were I'm worried I have the correct number of rings on the previous round so I can get in the correct number of medallions. I have always wanted to do a larger doiley but the fear of miscounting on the larger rounds has held me back.

I have enough violet thread to finish the medallions and not sure if I'll buy more or move on to different colors. I've bought a dark brown and a seafoam green to incorporated in this at some point.

Motif # 24, 25. a doily study

This trio of doilies marks the end of one 25 Motif Challenge. They are from the same pattern called Tatted Antique Lace Doily by Darlene Polachic. I did it for the first time several years ago, below, and fell in love with it. I liked the way it looked and how easy it was. I made it all in Lizabeth Carousel #112.

After I made it, I decided that if I did the chains in a solid, it would make the rings pop. 

Motif #24

It measures 5 3/4 across and done in Omega size 50 varigated burnt orange and some vintage ecru Mom gave me.The lightest color in the varigated thread is a bit peachy-er than the ecru so the chains don't stand out as I would have liked. Sometimes holding two balls of thread together doesn't always work out in the final product. I think it's still a nice looking doily, but not what I had in mind.

Then I decided to go down to size 80 and try a solid.


Motif #25

This one measures just under 5" and is the first time I had ever used thread that small. The thread is DMC size 80. I believe the green has been discontinued and the chains are in ecru.

A few weeks after I finished the size 80, I was gnawing open the envelope that contained the latest Handy Hands Catalog to see the new colors (we've all been there), saw Blue River Glades and promptly bought a ball of size 20.


This is Lizabeth Blue River Glades, #164 with the chains in ecru and measures 7 3/4". I think is this my favorite color combo of the three.

Motif # 13 - Dresser doily

This is the small mat of Dressing Set from the Handy Hands Newsletter Winter 2010 (vol 18 issue 1). The color is Lizabeth Wildflower #109 and is 7" across.

 I'd like to do this one again in either a solid or varigated and do the two little rings that go head to head in a contrasting color. I tried to make the larger oval mat that goes with this one, but couldn't for the life of me figure out the 3 rings of the 1st round. After going through an entire shuttle of thread without success, I gave up. I don't know if I was making it harder than it needed to be, or if there was a typo / info missing from the instructions, or both.

I was at my grandma's last month and gave her this doily along with a snowflake.

Motif #12 Denim Whisper

This is Design 52 from Tatting - 60 Original Lace Treasures by Christel Weidman. Although I've only done one motif from this book, it's one of my favorites as there are a ton of edgings that can be combined into rounds for custom one-of-a-kind doilies.  The color is Lizabeth Denim Whisper #120 and is 5.25" across.

And I'm very excited to announce that with Motif 11, the Diamond Doily, I have completed all of my UFO tatting projects. I still haven't been able to find the pattern for this coaster so I have decided it is done as is. As of this writing I'm done, anyway. No telling how many projects I will start and abandon for what ever reason in the next hours/days/weeks.

Motif #11 Diamond Doily

This is "Diamonds Are Forever" by Roger aka/Freedman. The link I had to this pattern no longer works. Thread is Lizabeth Country Turquoise Med #661 and ecru, size 20. I started this about 2 years ago and when you look closer, you can tell where I stopped as my tension is tighter than it was 2 years ago. This finishes to 10.5" across and is the largest doily I've made to date.

Motif #10 - Spinning Glass Mat

This is Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior made with Lizabeth Autumn Spice #136 and finishes to 4" across which is a full inch smaller than the book listed. But then it was made with mercer crochet thread which may be a bit thicker.

Motif #9 - Harvest Vinyard Doily

This was finished shortly after I moved to WA over the summer. It was for the most part finished but I had 2" left on the final round (yes, I did all the rounds on this one) when I packed it up for the move. The pattern is by Darlene Polachic and is called "Ivory Lace" done in size 20 Lizabeth Vineyard Harvest #131 and Leaf Green Med.#684 and is 8.5" across. I've been trying to incorporate a solid in at least one round of the doilys that have varigated thread to give it some interest. Sometimes it works, like this one. And other times it doesn't quite work out the way I imagined.

It was more than kinda ruffly when I finished it, which I'm assuming is because I have tight tension as the pattern photo showed a flat doily. I left it ruffly until picture day before ironing it because the ruffles didn't look good in the photo.

Motif #8 - Coaster?

I made this before my move this summer and considered it a UFO. Recently I decided to finish it, and looked through every book and printout I have and cannot find the pattern.  The colors are Lizabeth Mountain Breeze #134, Leaf Green Light #683 and Leaf Green Medium #684. So until I can find/remember what the pattern was, it will be considered a coaster.

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?



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.