Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Look what Wendy did with the design from Marvellous Motifs

When I created the Irish Rose Motif in the Marvellous Motifs book I knew that it and the companion design would fit together. The original pair shown on the front cover made a pretty little pin cushion so I knew the motifs would fit together but I didn't know how they would look done as a checkerboard style mat and I was really curious, but didn't think I had the time to tat up a sample for the book so I asked some of the folks on the tatting lists if they would like to try it out. Wendy was one of those brave enough to give it a whirl. She chose 3 different yellow/gold colours for the roses and a pale variegated green for the background colour.

While everyone was busy tatting away, it occurred to me that I tat pretty fast and maybe I could tat it. The other thing I realized after I had sent out the appeal for help, was that if it needed adjustment I wouldn't know where or by how much unless I did it myself. So I started whipping through the design, just doing the base rose so that I could see the shape/size results.

Once I had the 9 motifs completed, it kind of looked unfinished so after a couple of tries I worked out a finishing row and sent it out to the various test tatters so they could have nice finished pieces too. Wendy sent me a picture of her partially completed piece and we discussed using the background colour or the rose colour for the edging. I used the background colour for the model I did. Wendy used the rose colour and I like hers better, but you can judge for yourself. Mine was filmed sitting on the rock outside which isn't flat and explains it's less than square appearance. Here's a picture of mine so you can compare.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

That is beautiful!

Kathy Niklewicz said...

This is outstanding!

Please tell me this took you four years to tat! And all those connections! Is there any 'easy' way to do this? Most blocks look like they're connected to two sides as you tat. I'm afraid this would do me in!

I'm seeing a subtle circle in there radiating out from the center rose. Wonderful design!

Wanda's rendition is fabulous, too!

You are amazing in all that you do! Congratulations on finishing the beautiful book!

Kathy Niklewicz said...

Oops - just realized it's Wendy who did the mat, and she did a beautiful job!