what were the thieves up to?

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(scroll down to see what Alibaba was up against!)

Boy, am I glad about not posting the 31-41 combo ideas in the unmasked post! Guess what, I found more combo ideas from 21-30 that hadn't been published after the 1-20 cornucopia display. Those thieves really like to play together coming out in different formations from nooks and crannies for Alibaba to collect and show the mutants/variants !!!

collage with motifs 31-41

Please note that these are shapes that emerge from playing with motif placement - possibilities that can turn to reality when joined properly and with a bit of cleaning up for greater definition of shape. And if worked in one colour and 2 shuttles, the shapes can be tatted in one pass - trace the path for another layer of fun! The motif number is indicated in each image. Blossoms Motifs patterns can be found under Nature 2D here. For shapes/ideas with motifs 1-20, see this post. Imagine the possibilities if I had played with all 41 motifs together instead of in batches!

Blossoms Heart #2

While the outline is mostly fine, the tip and inner dip should have more of a point.

Blossoms Butterflies #7-#10

 

 

Blossoms Wreath/Garland #7

 

This is among the smaller ones. There are medium and larger sized wreaths/garlands in the 1-20 post.

Blossoms Bookmarks #1&#2  

                    

With or without a tassel or tail, these make cheerful bookmarks. Rotate them and we have edgings! How cute would a single floral spray look as a tail for some bookmark?!

Blossoms Edgings #1 to#3

The vertical is now horizontal and becomes a meandering edging!

The above scalloped edging was shared earlier, but not clear enough. This time I have cropped and filtered the image and notated the number beside the respective motif. What a difference a simple enhancement does!

Blossoms Square/Frame #3

Blossoms Birds - flying or perched!

These might take a bit more imagination and shifty-eye ogling for the shapes to emerge. And of course a bit of tweaking to enhance the shape when actually tatting them. 

To me #25 looks like a a bird swooping down. Could work well as angel wings, too.

#23 could well be a bird in profile, just as the yin-yang combos below, especially #4!

Blossoms  Yin-Yang Bracelet/Pendant #3 to #6

This #4 really should've been under Birds, if I hadn't inked in the name.

A few beads in the right places, findings for attachment, and we have ourselves some beautiful bracelets or necklaces to suit a range of dress colours and seasons!

Blossoms Spinning Wheels

Motifs #21 to #30 arranged in a circle with curves of each motif parallel creates this spinning wheel effect. 

There are several gaps between adjacent motifs that need to be filled in order to make this coaster/doily stable. One reason for the gaps is that many of the motifs have been rotated so that their fronts are facing the camera...narcissistic much!

This is the same as #2 above, but I spot a heart in encasing the center space.

Besides all the above, 4 bouquets and a corner also emerged. And this butterfly and Blossoms Heart.

Phew, that's it for now. It took tons of time to locate and notate each motif but I kept the wind at my back to sail ahead instead of delaying further. Alibaba has to stay on top of his game!

So what was Alibaba up against ??? 
The 40 ingenious thieves (okay we now know there were 41!) had drawn lines in the sand within which Alibaba had to strategise. Following are the broad thematic parameters for Alibaba and 40 Thieves in Lace aka #BlossomsProject (2018).

• 40 motifs of overall similar size, using Lizbeth size 20
• single-shuttle motifs with thematic similarity
• no identical twins allowed!
• about half the motifs curving to the right and half to the left
• 5 colours for rosettes juggling each for combo, position, spread, size, number of petals, overlap, etc. 
• single shade green leaves ranging in number, placement, overlap, etc.