lounging by the sea

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...if only ;-D But one can always bring the sea home or a friend can send us the sand and waves, sprinkled with pearls!  

This is a slight adaptation, in trying to manifest Ninetta Caruso's Heart by the Sea in thread, which is the reason for this unusual colour combo. An island surrounded by the sea and pearls, and palm trees!

It'd been ages since I picked my shuttles and you can see how my first attempts failed due to uncooperative threads. The yellow one is in metallic-wound size 20 which was no fun this time. The beige one got stuck while closing! 

So, in my 3rd attempt, I worked the hearts as mock rings (SCMRs). Worked. Notice the extra hearts? I wanted to show partially open oysters with a pearl inside. Not my best effort, but Dr Downplay came out to play :-) I really just wanted to enjoy some tatting time.

And for fun, I used a CWJ to join the small heart to the lower large one. Hmm, please don't, unless the picot is long! While the small heart had a smooth outline, it distorted the large one slightly.

I love the flower she inserted! I chose tinted green to represent a palm grove and the brown crystal could be coconuts?

The tiny seed beads represent the frothy waves on pristine blue waters, hitting the shores! The almost white sands and brilliant blue sea is an image stamped in my mind from the outskirts of Perth (Australia).

TIP: If you start the heart frontside, the pattern will move counterclockwise unlike that indicated in the diagram (starting with A). I was following the diagram only, and hence all my subsequent rings were worked backside. It is only now that I noticed her stepwise pics showing her counterclockwise WIP pics!

In Anchor Pearl cotton size 8, the heart measures 5cmsx5.5cms.

TIP: I started the green motif at the ring marked E in diagram, moving clockwise, so that there was more open space to close out the motif in the end.

Beads used - size 10/0 pearls (rescued as can be seen in their darker tinge!); 2 pearls - 4mm; crystal size 9/0; silver seed beads size 26/0.

For all pearl beads, I used my Floating Beads method - no need to load beads on a shuttle! However, I added one more step - capturing the bead within the first half stitch as in this onion rings method. It was Kathleen Minniti who captured the 'floating ring' in our round robin doily instead of simple FB method. 

This lovely pattern and instructions can be found here - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2021/02/hearts-friends-and-flower.html I had not realised until I read her post, that the heart is derived from her doily - one that was already on my to-tat list! 

Many thanks to Ninetta for sharing her pattern and also for creating a lovely pictorial for my Block Heart ( I need to update the post). Both were chosen for the Un Coure Per Te event in the very active and inspiring Italian facebook group - Chiacchierino:Filo, Amore e Fantasia. My heart is late for the event, but I'm happy to have tatted something! And there's an event every fortnight, so join in!