A while back, I tried tatting a flower similar to this one. I couldn't make it look the way I wanted, and I knew I had seen something somewhere. Imagine my delight when I saw what I was looking for on the cover of Mary Maynard's
Tatting Rings of Flowers! Every designer has their own little tweak, and Mary Maynard's method works best for me.
I started with size 20 Lizbeth (on the left), and I got to thinking it would make a great spool pin doily for my sewing machine. It was just a little too small. So, I tried size 10 Eliza (in the middle). It's just about right. Since I had some size 5 Eliza (on the right) on hand, I decided to give that a try as well. I'll have to give the blue and yellow ones a try to see which one works best. The picots may get in the way, so once I determine which size I prefer, I'll try picots on the front rings instead of the back rings.
Flower #57 can be found on page 35 of Tatting Rings of Flowers. As Mary states in the book, once you have the technique down, the possibilities are endless!