Saturday, January 30, 2010

Windmills Doily, Completed TIAS, And Another Orchid Photo

I know, I know. I said I could post last week, and I didn't. I would have, but I forgot my camera here in the city, and couldn't take any photos of my completed work. Also, I seem to have caught a cold (AGAIN!) or my first one came back. I'm not quite sure, so I haven't done much tatting this week. I'm kinda bummed out, but then again I didn't get a cold last year.

I'm sure everyone by now is aware of the passing of beloved tatter and designer Mary Konior. I too am a big fan of her and her tatting designs. While I never met her, or had the opportunity to see her tatting in real life (the latter is still possible since HBT's founder Sue Hanson was given the honour of caring for the lace, and brings it to tatting events for all to see), I am proud to own two of her tatting books, Tatting Patterns and Tatting With Visual Patterns. Since hearing of her passing, I have made it a goal of mine to find the other two books. Hopefully I can manage this without spending a large amount of money (what are those people on eBay and Amazon thinking!!!!!!!!). Anyway, Rest In Peace Mary. Hopefully you are tatting with the other tatting legends that left the Earth before you did.

As you all know, I have been tatting Mary's Windmills motif lately. I also mentioned that I wanted to make a small doily using that motif. As a tribute to Mary Konior, here is the completed doily:


As you can see, the reason Mary called the pattern "Windmills" really shows once you have several joined together. A windmill is very evident in the centre of the doily. While I said the doily is complete, that isn't technically the case. As pictured above, the doily is about 6 1/4 inches in diameter. That's too small for my purpose, so I'm going to add another round of motifs. That will be another 12 motifs to make. Of course, once that round is done, I may decide to add another. I show you how it looks once I'm done the next round. I am using DMC Cordonnet size 20 thread to make this doily.

I have also completed Jane TIAS 2010. I'm terrible with the daily progress so we will go straight to the finished motif.

As you can see, our mystery motif turned into a rooster. I was beginning to wonder partway through, but it began to look kinda bird like towards the end. For this motif, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour numbers 656 (Dark Wedgewood Blue) and 142 (Turquoise Twist), along with DMC Cordonnet size 20 (White). I'm actually quite pleased with my colour choices (especially since I didn't plan ahead and just picked a colour when they were needed). This will be Motif # 16 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Finally, I have another orchid photo to share with you. This is a relatively new addition to my collection. First, the whole spray:

Next, just a single flower:

This particular orchid is a Cymbidium. More specifically, the plant is called Cymbidium [(Via Ireland 'Delightful' x (Pendragon x Camelia 'Yellow Sunset')] 'Shamrock'. Whew. That's quite a name. I find the green colour of the flowers quite nice. While this is only my second one, I'm getting quite fond of this genre of orchid. I think it's their large size, and their relatively easy care that probably has something to do with it. I may have to get another one.

Before I forget, I would like to thank everyone who has commented over the past few weeks. I haven't had a chance to comment lately. In particular, I would like to thank Miranda for her suggestion on eliminating the little dots of colour on my colorized Windmills motif I posted about earlier. Miranda suggested using a "Slope and Roll" join. See this page: (http://www.ds9designs.com/patterns_free.shtml). Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the link. I tried it out on another pattern and it seems to work well. I'll try it out on another Windmills motif and post my results.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll post again soon. Till next time.

11 comments:

  1. The windmill is coming out great!
    You actually have to post your vision behind the picture to see the great geometrical design in this doily!
    Am I the only one with this crazy thought.......
    Love it nevertheless.
    Luv,
    Vinnie

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  2. Thanks Vinnie. I'm glad you like the doily. And no, I don't think you're crazy, I totally understand what you are saying and agree completely. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to make a sizable doily using this motif.

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  3. The windmill effect is fantastic. I love it. I wonder how it would look with the next round. The green Cymbidium is just lovely. It's too warm to grow them here.

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  4. Hope you don't mind but I've 'kidnapped' a picture of your rooster for the TIAS blog. He's a VERY handsome chap.

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  5. Hope the slope and roll works out for you.

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  6. Wow, that windmills pattern looks really cool with all the motifs together like that! Very cool!
    Your rooster looks cool in those colors and that orchid is pretty!

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  7. Lucky you having such a fab orchid. So much patience tatting that doily too. As for my sister kidnapping your rooster - hasn't she got enough?!!!!! Have a good week.

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  8. Jeff I agree what are those people on ebay thinking. I'd have to be a billionaire to afford the Mary Konior books. We will all miss her even if just by reference from others who had the privileged of knowing her. The windmills doily is awesome! Thanks for sharing and giving us inspiration. Peace, Cynthia (tattingaway)

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  9. Your rooster just happened to have perfect colouring, but then I love blue. The orchid is spectacular, but I can't find it in my heart to love a green flower. Leaves are green and I want my flowers to be some other colour. Blue is nice :-) but I know that orchids don't come in blue. Red and pink and purple and fuschia are nice too, just not green.

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  10. I really like how the Windmill doily looks. I've never seen this pattern before.

    And your Rooster is great. You did choose nice colors, especially since we didn't know what we were making, LOL!

    Awesome Orchids too!

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  11. Apparently I missed this post and the fantastic Windmills doily. It's interesting that in Mary's book she shows a closeup section of the doily, without any edges, so I didn't realize it was shaped like this, or that it would have this amazing optical effect. It's reminds me of one of those those 'spiral' drawings.
    I can't imagine doing even more motifs. It looks very tricky to make all those connections!

    Excellent rooster, too!

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