"But, really, why does anyone create? You feel a... a restlessness inside, a need to make something new, something no one has ever seen before. You want to add to the beauty and the richness of the world with a gift, an offering that is uniquely yours. It's an act of selfishness and generosity, all rolled into one."

-- Bruce Coville,
The Last Hunt

Sunday, August 16, 2015

I'm Back, and It's Finished

Well, when I say I'm back, I never actually went anywhere, I just didn't blog for a while.

I sort of left you hanging with that last post, didn't I? Some of you may have guessed from the timing and the secretiveness that those pink things had something to do with Mother's Day, and many realized that they were the petals for Linda Davies' Stargazer Lilies.

After finishing the tatting, the petals (and the leaves, which I added) needed to be glued to short lengths of floral wire. I used Aleene's Flexible Stretchable glue.


While the glue was drying, I used floral tape to attach the stamens (which were "boughten", as my great-grandmother would have said) to a slightly heavier gauge floral wire.


Once the glue was dry, I used more tape to attach the petals around the stamens.



So there are the finished flowers, but what were they for? My mom is very sensitive to the sun, so she wears a lot of wide-brimmed hats, and she has a very particular style. I found this crocheted hat on Amazon, of all places.


It's a very nice hat, providing good sun protection yet breathable, and with a wire around the edge for shaping; and one of my mom's favorite colors, too. It's just a little plain, though, isn't it?

So I took some plain pin backs...


...attached the flowers to them...


...and pinned them to the hat.


This looked pretty good as it was, but a little empty (this was at least partly because I used size 40 thread instead of the size 20 the pattern calls for; but size 20, I felt, would have made the flowers too big). Plus, although you can't really see it in this photo, the pins really showed too much. I realized I would need a few more "boughten" items to fill in the gaps and cover the pins, so I went to Jo-Ann's, walked up and down every aisle twice, and chose these:


The flowers have little twist-ties on the back for attaching, and the butterflies have alligator clips. I poked the twist-ties through the holes in the hat so that these flowers would be between the tatted ones and covering the pins, and clipped one of the butterflies to one of the tatted lilies, and here is the final result.


Last week, I saw my parents and was able to deliver the hat in person-- only three months late, which is pretty good in our family!

I may not have been blogging lately, but I have been tatting, so I will show some other items soon.

9 comments:

  1. Your hat is gorgeous and love the flowers, it is fun to go 3 d with tatting very creative!

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  2. So pretty ! Your Mom will wear it with a Flourish :-)
    Very inspiring .

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  3. Amazing and spectacular! Quite a saga! I know she'll love it.
    Never heard of flexible stretchable glue! Interesting!

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  4. Lovely blog post about your adventures of making the flowers, lovely hat I am sure your mother will love wearing it and will be admired by all her friends.
    Margaret

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  5. Splendid hat! Keeping the sun off in style.

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  6. Gorgeous flowers and wonderful hat!!! :)

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  7. What a wonderful hat! I love what you've done with it! My mother also wears a lot of hats, just because she likes them. This is a great idea if I would ever take the time to do it.

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  8. Aha! There you are! I have had it in my mind for about two weeks to send you an email... And now I see you're back! And with a marvellous creation.

    I had guessed correctly at the pattern and wondered what you were up to. Great idea. Your mom must have been tickled ...purple!

    Ear rubs to Squijum. xxooxx

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