Oh, Canada...

OK, the title may be a couple weeks late, but it seems appropriate for what I made, finally. I'll made this post short as I really can't wait to share.

As I think I mentioned in my last post, I've been wanting to make this for a while, but I never got around to it. Till now. And here it is:

Yup. It's the Canadian Flag. It measures 3 inches by about 6 1/4 inches. Not quite the proper 2:1 proportions, but close enough. Except for the 6 regular rings, the flag part is made solely using split rings. Lots of split rings. The maple leaf was designed by Frivole. It's in her free pattern section. Though, I found in on intatters. I hope she doesn't mind I used it for my flag. I did make a few small changes. She used Josephine knots on the points of the leaf, and since I'm not particularly fond of JKs, I made small regular rings instead. Thread stats: the white thread is DMC Cordonnet size 20, the leaf was made using DMC Perle cotton size 5 and the red part of the flag is DMC Perle cotton size 8-both colour #321. Despite being the same colour, the leaf is a bit brighter in colour.

In order to get the leaf sizing right, I had to make a few leaves.

The top leaf is the first one I tatted. The small red leaf is the second one I made. I experimented a bit with the points and made small rings with a picot instead of the JKs. The large red leaf is the final version. I might remove the maple leaf from the flag and resew it back on. I'm not entirely happy with how I sewed it on. I had thought of joining the leaf to the flag as I tatted it, and I could make another one and try it. Other than that, I've very happy with my Tatted Canadian Flag.

That's it for now. Well, I did have one idea that I thought would be cool:

Hope you like it! Till next time.

Test-Tatting For Linda, Part 1

As I mentioned in the previous post, Linda Davies asked me to do some test-tatting for her. Actually, I think I offered first, but anyhow, I have been working on tatting a couple of Linda's new flower patterns. These are, I believe, for a new book Linda is working on.

I started with Linda's very pretty Daffodil. Here are a couple of photos of the finished pieces. I have kept the images small to help protect Linda's pattern.

The top photo shows the individual parts of the flower. The second photo is, of course, the completed daffodil. I used some of the pearl cotton that my brother got for me. It worked very well, and the cream colour makes a very nice looking flower. I really like this pattern. Linda's methods for creating the different flower parts, and her construction methods (layering, usage of beads, etc) make for some realistic flowers. I liked the pattern so much, that I made a second flower:

This daffodil is made using a "modern" pearl cotton, ie: one that I bought a few months ago. The pattern is straight forward and many flowers could be made is a fairly short time. A whole bouquet would look awesome (I know what someone is getting for Mother's Day next year! Or for her birthday in a few months).

I am currently working on another of Linda's new patterns. I should be done tomorrow, and after I send her any errors or changes that I feel need to be corrected, or made (don't worry Linda, I haven't found anything major), I will post about it soon after. Well, that all for now, I'll leave you with a photo of the two daffodils together. Until next time.