Thursday 13 September 2018

cornered Alibaba ropes in a ninth

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Alibaba has been cornered and held captive in the cave! But stealthily, he has been weaving a rope, using straw and stuff lying around. And when a few robbers return after a long hiatus, he ropes in one more to make the toll 9 and escapes to the wilderness! Read on for tatting translation ;-P

Cornered !
Blossoms Corner Motif #1
So here’s the pattern for the corner motif for the hanky. It is not part of the 40 motifs needed, and I haven’t decided whether the saree will have any corner motifs. Hence this standalone is Alibaba himself!
Measurements in Lizbeth size 20 : 2¼” x 2¼” x 2¾”
If desired, the leaf triad on the right can be repeated on the left instead of the 2 leaves.

 
Anita & I often exchange ideas & pics of our current projects. I sent her the above WIP pics, and asked her a few questions. She confirmed that the central negative space needs to be filled and sent me a Flower Cluster Edging pic for ideas. Wow! From 1944. It was the first time I saw this, but the similarity is astounding, isn't it?! The entire book can be downloaded from the same site.

Now I knew my flowers were very basic – deliberately so. In the last millennium, I had made these for another of my MIL’s saree – yellow and maroon flowers with greens. This pic is of the few leftovers that I sewed to my kitchen napkins. This flower, one of my favourites, was my inspiration. And you can see how old and used the tatting has become ;-P 

The Rope !
Leaf Braid
When the motifs were placed on the saree, clearly an edging was needed to 'hold' them in. What else but a 9m long rope – Jane McLellan's Leaf Braid again ;-P She has now uploaded a flowery variation with free pdf. I had chosen beige, but it was too light. This brown complements the colourful blossoms. Since this pic was taken 7+ meters have been tatted.
  
TIP : What is interesting is that this braid has a tendency to stretch due to the slight elasticity in size 20 Anchor thread. Size 40 did not have that elasticity and kept it's length for the hanky. So I’ve been manually stretching this braid every so often to get a correct final length – don’t want it to sag after sewing!

NOTE: Despite the length, and change of 19 shuttles so far, I haven't had to sew in any tails! I'll share my tip later.

Roped In !
Blossoms Motif #9
After almost a month, the 9th of 40 thieves came to fruition. Here's the notated pattern...
Measures 2¼” x <1” in Lizbeth size 20.

A couple more pics with the motif oriented differently ...
 
And finally 2 shuttles (including the green) have run out of thread. Still enough left in other shuttles to hopefully get a 10th motif in.



Back to Cluny tatting - along with a bracelet pattern :-)

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers, timeless beauty.

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    1. I like that, Ninetta - "timeless"! Anita, too, had called it "classic".

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  2. Beautiful corner piece of flowers,
    Thanks for sharing your pattern and ideas

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    1. It came out a bit more angular than I had intended, Margaret, but worked fine ;-)

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  3. Your pattern, I was wondering when you would have it ready it truly is lovely. Thank you and this will look beautiful to be worn around and a one of a kind!

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    1. Oh, I'm going to be boring you with these for a long time yet, Carollyn ;-P 31 still to go! But yes, it will be unique and exclusive.

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  4. Alibaba is spinning a wonderful tale!

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  5. Your flowers are so bright and cheerful! I love that you have taken a simple design and turned it into something really intriguing.

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    1. Diane, the bright cheerfulness is all thanks to Lizbeth!!! And I'm so glad the saree is white, so that any and all colours work well :-D
      I'm enjoying the design unfold - no repeats so far!

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