The leaves are obviously just big rings. The stem is a 1/1 zigzag chain; this is slightly different from a lock stitch chain-- I might do a post on this sometime soon. I ended the chain with a mock picot secured by a lock stitch, to give myself something to join the flower to. If I were going to do it again, though, I would make the flower first and join the stem to it to avoid that extra stitch of green after the join.
I was originally planning to make a simple 5 ring flower in the purple, using dimpled rings to make it more interesting. Then I decided it really needed a pale yellow center to counterbalance those intense plum and jade colors, so I did ordinary rings of yellow in the center with dimpled chains of purple. An added benefit was that I was able to make the petals larger than I would have the other way; also I didn't have to mess around with closing dimpled rings, which is sometimes not that much fun.
The threads are Lizbeth 688 Sea Green Dark, Lizbeth 643 Grape Medium, and DMC 579, the light yellow. The green and the purple are both amazingly close matches for LadyShuttleMaker's "Marina" HDT that I used on the hummingbird.
I have also put an edging on the bag that this is going onto. Now all I have to do is stitch the flower and the hummingbird to the bag. I'll show it again when it's all assembled.
I love the idea of the dimpled chains!!! Never thought of that before, but then I haven't done that many dimpled rings. By adding the yellow rings, you've solved the issue, and the flower itself can be bigger! Your hummingbirds are beautiful, and indeed they need a flower!
ReplyDeleteBlogger note: With embedded comment forms, I'm able to comment if I'm first one in, so I'll get this in while I can (although I won't be able to see this or other commenters' comments later). If there is already even one comment, I can't comment at all. Very frustrating! We're patiently waiting for Google to fix this issue!
Very pretty flower!!! I really like the colors you used! :)
ReplyDeleteI believe Blogger has fixed the comment problem on the embedded comment forms! I'm able to see the comments above and obviously can comment again! :)
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to mention that I like your new header with the gallery of your work - plus the Spring-like scenery in the background.
Hi Kathy, yeah, it's been a couple of days since I've seen the white screen, so it's mostly fixed. I still can't use the reply feature, though!
ReplyDeleteA lovely flower. Thank you for the inspiration on another way of using dimpled rings.
ReplyDeleteI still can't comment if I use Google Chrome. This comment was made possible with Firefox.
Love both the header and the flower. Under the heading of 'nothing new under the sun' I think you just reinvented Mary Konior's 'Wild Rose' pattern. I'm too lazy to dig the book out to check the number of petals but, if you need to know before releasing the pattern, I can look it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know, Suzanne! I haven't seen that particular MK pattern. I wasn't planning on writing mine down, either-- it's really more of a doodle-- but if I ever do, I'll be sure and check first.
ReplyDeleteHaving said I was too lazy to look it up, I just had to! A Pattern Book of Tatting, p. 87. Same number of petals, but the inward facing rings are joined at the top in a 'V' configuration (one joining picot on either side of the center stitch of the ring), and each sports 4 additional side picots - R: (2ds,p) twice, 3ds, p, 1ds, p, 3ds, (p, 2ds) twice.
ReplyDeleteI love this flower. Just came across it today. Just wondering if you would be willilng to share complete instructions. You can contact me at: SusanLaVonneMeyer@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteThank you.