PATTERN: Small Rosette, page 13, from Easy Tatting book, by Rozella F Linden.

I had this thread I didn’t really like because I didn’t like the way the colors progressed in the variation of it. It was mostly blues with just the tiniest amount of pink, to make it look wrong(Lizbeth size 20, Denim Whisper #120) :( I decided to try to tat something with it, that I didn’t care about, just to see if I could stand it, and add some pink (Cebelia #818 Baby Pink, size 20)to help even it out. Well, I find that I really like it now, and since I made one simple motif, I decided to make more, and join them as I go. I don’t know if I’ll stop at 3 or keep going, but it seems that not caring that much for the thread, it made me less scared to ruin it! That’s really weird.

I have 6 and know I will go to 9, but don’t know if that will be the end, or if it will keep growing!

June 17, 2019 Joining these together is trickier than originally thought. I do frontside tatting, so I put a jewel on the front to always be sure which side is ‘up’. The thing is, sometimes you have to turn it over to join from the back, depending on which picots you started joining at. I thought I knew what I was doing, but after joining my one recent one, I was AMAZED to see the motif was not even in line with the others. (pale pic on white background
with the motif on the right, up above the others!) Honestly, I have no idea! I untatted it and put it in the right spot, but it is not as simple as I would have thought. I suppose if I joined right off, I could always be sure I was joining on the right side, but I HATE fighting the whole piece of tatting as I work.

The close-up pink rings & chains are a sample of frontside/backside tatting that I learned during this project. The lesson to be learned here is that eventhough you may be doing frontside/backside tatting, if you don’t mark the front, you will find your motifs are attached to the front or back of the project, willy nilly, and still not have a clear front of back! grrrr….. MARK YOUR FRONT ON MAKING THE FIRST RING AND CHAIN, WITH CHAIN GOING RIGHT!

UPDATE FEB 1, 2024: I haven’t tatted for several years, due to so many other things I’m learning and the struggles of life. I saw someone share their motif runner on FCBK, and it remember his project. Only 2 motifs left and I will have 4 by 4 motif rows. I took my tatting back out Tues, Jan 30 and am finishing one of those motifs - one done Feb 1, in the wee am hours. I had to play around to remember how to do simple things, but finally got it. I still don’t know if I will stop with 4 x e4, but at least it will be a suitable even ending as it is pondered. Pic when both motifs are added.