Inspired by Allison

I was looking at Allison's Facebook page recently, and I thought I recognized a Mary Konior pattern. Allsion confirmed that the piece I saw was indeed a Mary Konior pattern. I felt so proud of myself! I did, however, guess the wrong color of thread. ; )

Anyway, I decided to look up the pattern, "Flowerpiece" from Tatting with Visual Patterns. My first practice piece was with some Sulky thread left on the shuttles. I probably will tat this piece in tiny thread eventually, but for right now I want to make it in size 20, so I decided to practice with the thread that was closest to me, Lizbeth #107, Tropical Fruit. The center piece was my first attempt. I realized as I was sewing in the ends that I had forgotten one section of the last chain. Can you see where the 7 ds are missing where the chain joins the flower? This one will go in my box of tatting for crazy quilting, something I plan on doing in retirement!

The fragment on the right (I love that Mary called individual elements fragments) is done correctly. My next step will be to determine how much thread to wind on the shuttle for each fragment. I'm guessing that two yards will be sufficient. I'll save that experiment for tonight. I know from when I tatted a similar piece a year or two ago, that I will want each flower fragment to start in about the same spot in the thread color. I'll have to look in my thread stash to see if I have one of the solid colors from Tropical Fruit. I know that I won't like the color changes in what Mary calls the chain trails. So, multi-color for the fragments, solid color for the chain trails, and I'll have a beautiful doily in no time!

Thanks for the inspiration, Allison! Maybe we could arrange for The Tollway Tatters to meet up your way sometime this summer. It would be great fun to meet you in person!