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.