Sunday 13 January 2013

Another Primrose, More JS, and Butterflies

After tatting Primrose by Rosemarie Peel which I wanted to try because it used a safety pin to hold the picots and I was curious...  I remade the motif using a centre ring first instead and then joining to very small picots.


Here are both motifs, side by side.  What do you think?  My conclusion is that I'm not sure it's worth using the safety pin which I found fiddly to work with.  Maybe, the chains lie a bit more easily next to each other with the pin but that's about it.  The second flower looks nearly the same to me and was much easier to make by tatting a centre ring of single picots separated by one double stitch and then carrying on with the chain-ring-chain-join of the second round.  Simple.

In my hastiness I forgot to carry on and make the tail on the second motif.  It was too late, I had cut the threads.



Then I decided to try another motif from Jan Stawasz's book "Tatted Treasures.  As you may know, squares always appeal to me so it had to be this one.  In the pattern, he joins these to plain ring squares which I don't like as much so I was thinking I might try joining a few of these together.  I think they'd look interesting.  Not so fond of this colour though (another DMC Babylo).


I'm always fascinated by how different a square motif looks whether viewed on its side or on its point - don't you think?



And finally, Umintsuru said in a previous post that she'd like to see the butterflies better.  So here's a close-up that shows the 1st round of butterflies and a bit of the second round.  They are similar but slightly different.  Personally, I think the eye is distracted by the round that follows the butterflies.  If it was me, I'd have made a more full band to enclose the butterflies rather than those long chains which mean that you loose the shape of the butterflies a the top, I think.



Just realised, looking at the photos that I said above I wasn't fond of the colour for the Jan Stawasz motif and my doily looks the same colour!  But the doily is made in Lizbeth Mocha Light and in real life does look different than the DMC Babylo colour which is darker, browner and with a strange pink tinge to it.

I finally updated my patterns page.  I was trying to add to it yesterday and accidentally erased a big chunk of it and it took me AGES to find all the photos again and put back all the links.  The layout is still a bit weird as the images keep jumping about the place and wanting to misbehave for some strange reason I don't understand.  But now all patterns and all links are there.

One last thing to say for today:  I'm all excited, I've finally had a taker for tatting lessons!  A friend is coming over on Tuesday and I will show her how to tat.  I hope it goes well, and she takes to it!

Best wishes,
Frivole

18 comments:

  1. I like your version! I'm not very good with paper clips dangling while I tat, so I probably wouldn't have given this motif a second look. I'm glad you figured another way to approach the pattern!

    I love that you focus on square motifs! I enjoy seeing the motifs photographed both ways, and I love seeing the perfection of your tatting. I tend to go for swirls, probably because I think the swirls hide my tatting flaws better. ;-)

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  2. Before I forget I just realized that my cursor is a butterfly when I am on your blog page. Not sure how you did that but it's pretty neat.

    I like the idea of not having to fiddle w/ paperclips.

    I think you are right it would have showcased the butterflies more if it would have had a band type round after them. Regardless of that, it really is so beautiful.

    I'm looking forward to hearing how your tatting lesson goes. Good Luck!!

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad you like the butterfly - trying to make up my mind if he's here to stay or not...

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  3. I love browsing through your blog, it is always so interesting!

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  4. A tatting lesson could turn in to a tatting club! Won't it be wonderful to have another tatter around?

    I don't see enough of a difference between the two motifs to make the safety pins worth it.

    The doily is beautiful, the finished project will be stunning!

    It's amazing what 90 degrees can do!

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  5. How interesting ... I recently posted a star motif in my blog whose centre is quite close to the square motif, with five repeats instead of four. You can see it here,
    the Johar Star. I am preparing the pattern for it now and plan to post it as soon as it is ready.

    I don't have either of the Jan Stawasz book, so this is pure coincidence.

    I would have chosen to tat the centre ring first for the Roemarie Peel flower motif. As it is, I don't see any significant difference between the two.

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    1. Hi Jon,

      I think your new star is lovely and I don't really think it's like Jan's... There's bound to be similarities every so often between designs but no, I think yours is unique and different.

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  6. I would prefer to start with a center rings, also.

    As for the beautiful square motif, introduce a turquoise into it. I think using a turquoise for only the clovers and joining several motifs would porduce another pattern where the corners join. Or make some of the motifs totaly blue. It may change the color of the brown to be more pleasing shade.

    I feel that the butterflies are lost in Jan's doily because, if you look at it from a distance, nearly all of the open spaces on every row are similar. The only way you can distinguish the "flutterby" is if she is a different color. Or being on the outside row would bring her more attention.

    I did not mean to write one of my chapters. ;-)

    You know how much I enjoy your blog. It makes us think and consider more!

    (((H)))

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    1. Hi Marie,

      Funnily enough, I had already picked a blue to go with the brown! Great minds?... I see what you mean about the doily (from a Burda book, not Jan's that one) and the spacing. I'm not completely happy with this design, it has to be said. BUT, as previously stated, I've put so many hours already that it seems silly not to complete it... at some stage anyway!

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  7. I have to get that book! The patterns are beautiful.

    I literally said: "Biscuits!" When I saw your butterfly doily. You couldn't really appreciate the detail before, but it's incredible!

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  8. I am not sure that I agree with Marie Smith; boxing in the butterflies might have an opposite effect and the shape might be lost in the overall confined space... This is one of those situations in which you do not really know till you create it and then observe... My opinion!

    Oh yes - a centre ring! Why play with pins unless you just plain enjoy it?

    Beautiful square motif - it begs to be tatted as four, doesn’t it?

    Fox : )

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  9. J'aime beaucoup le premier motif et je pense que vous parlez d'un anneau central fendu ce que je préfère faire...
    Le carré est magnifique!!! Faites vos cours par le net aussi ce serait merveilleux pour moi!!!!
    J'aime votre petit papillon qui se promène sur l'écran....
    A biento

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    1. Dans ce cas-ci, il n'a pas besoin d'être fendu Charlette. Simplement un anneau et ensuite on continue avec la première chaîne. Facile.

      Je suis contente que vous aimiez le papillon, je le trouve bien mignon. Je crois que je vais le garder, s'il n'agaçe personne. :-))

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  10. Your motifs are all fabulous!! :)

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  11. I always love reading your blog as it is very interesting and informative. Good luck with your tatting student, I too have just started showing 4 of my friends how to tat, hopefully they will stay tatting and keep me company.

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  12. Thank you for the close up of the butterflies. They are subtle and different. Nice!! I love that Rosemarie Peel Primrose motif. I have not tatted that because I do not have that book. I have not ordered Jan's book yet.

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