Motif 31 edging

This is Lace #9 from Tatted Handkerchiefs by Kirstine Nikolajsen and Inga Nikolajsen. The thread is size 80 DMC.

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.

Motif 26 Lavender & Lace

This is Lavender & Lace from "Tatting Doilies & Edgings" edited by Rita Weiss. It's 4 of the motifs joined together.

The thread is vintage Star brand in a peach varigation. It came from a bag of tatting threads and shuttles my sister-in-law picked up at a thrift store. I used up pretty much all of what was on the ball.

An adorable heart.

This is Susan Fuller's Heart's Desire pattern. I used DMC size 100.

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.

JS Doily I

This is the cover doily from Jan Stawaz's Tatting Theory and Patterns.

I'm just now starting the medallions for this round. Well, actually I started a while ago, I can't seem to make them right and have cut off 2 of them already so I could start over. His doilys require a lot of attention and patience as the notation on the graphic isn't always so easy to follow. I have both of his books and his work is beautiful, but not always for the faint of heart.

So far these rounds are made with DMC Cebelia in ecru and Lizbeth #640, Antique Violet Medium in size 20.

For the first time I'm keeping track of my time in a larger project. So far I've logged at least 34.5 hrs on this. And 8.5 of those hours were cut off because I misread the pattern for the violet petals and was over half way around before I realized I wasn't supposed to join those petals like I did in the first round. It was frustrating, but at the same time a bit of a relief to finally realize that my mistake was the reason it was cupping.