Motif #13 - Gloria Butterflies

Motif #13 Gloria Butterflies by Iris Niebach

Just look at these glorious butterflies tatted in size 40 Lizbeth Berry Burst. Such pretty little flutters!

The original edging pattern comes from Iris Niebach's book, Fantasia 3. It is aptly named Gloria.

(This motif is amended from Iris' original pattern.)

It measures 5.1 cm (2 inches) in diameter and is motif #13 in my 25 motif challenge.

See where I ran out of thread on the second butterfly's wing? I was using a thread sample and thought I had enough to finish. It was so close!

Five yards were loaded on one shuttle and about 3 on the other. Eleven centimters (4.3 inches) were left on one shuttle and 72.4 cm (28.5 inches) on the other.

This motif is destined to become a bookmark. Won't these two little flutters look precious flitting atop some late summer reading?

What's in a Name
I don't know if Iris Niebach names her patterns after loved ones, students, memorable local personalities or tatters who have gone before. But if I were Gloria, I would be delighted beyond words to be the namesake for this remarkable design.

To Cluny or Not to Cluny?

Apologies go to Ms. Niebach for changing the pattern. As written, it calls for Cluny leaves and a connecting chain above the Cluny leaves to be worked in between the butterflies.

You can see the original pattern on The Tattingplayer.

I tried to tat Clunies. I did.

My first attempt did not turn out well.

For starters, I wove the shuttle over and under six threads. That resulted in an even weave that didn't resemble a tallie at all. When it came time to close, I had no loom threads to pull through and got very confused. What else could I do but unweave the offending tallie all the way back to an empty loom.

Another thing I don't understand is the second, unflipped half-stitch at the start of the weaving. Is this a regular second half of a double stitch, unflipped? Or an unflipped second stitch made during the second half of split-ring tatting (which actually is the unflipped, first half stitch of regular tatting). I bet I am really over-thinking it, aren't I?

Anyway, after a much-needed visit to the online tatting class archives I have discovered my error in weaving around all six loom threads. Thank you to Georgia Seitz, Mimi Dillman, Tammy Rodgers and Wally Sosa for your excellent tutorials!

I have dipped my toe in the Cluny leaf pool and now must conquer this new technique or die trying.

Rest assured, once I get a good grasp of Clunies I will be making more of this butterfly edging pattern, exactly as Ms. Niebach intended. It's a keeper!

Flame Lantana up my sleeve

By now you have probably read Tatskool's post about the first in her new Transitions series of HDT. Code named ROY, it later was named after a lush Australian blooming plant, the Lantana.

You have no idea how hard it has been not to show you this thread. Keeping it under wraps was quite a challenge. Imagine me sitting on my hands resisting urges to madly type out my squeals of glee!

Far be it from me to pass up a "cahoot-y oppor-tooty!" It has been loads of fun pondering names and chatting about color. Here is what ROY reminded me of early on.

How boring is that? Tatskool's fiery lantana flower is so much better. Spot on!

Then the way the orange plays on and off the yellow put me in mind of molten glass^†. Here is a slide I shot in 1986 for a photography class. Tatskool thought the molten glass was better. Closer to lava. She was right again.

^†This nostalgic photo was taken at the glass manufacturing plant in my home town in Western Pennsylvania. The plant closed down shortly after the photo was taken.

Where are the Samples?
Hats off to the wily Fox for tatting a great motif that shows how well Flame Lantana pairs with black. My first thought when I saw her post was, 'Wow, that would make a lovely Monarch butterfly.'

My first sample is Betsy Evans' Rainbow Heart Bookmark.  It is tatted in size 20 Flame Lantana.

You can see that I had to tat it twice. After not following my better judgment, I left a picot open when the diagram clearly showed it joined. (The written instructions said not to join.) The end result was the glaring little blighter on the left. See it?

My second (third if you count the heart do-over) motif is from a doily by Iris Niebach. I downloaded the pattern from her free pages. Here is the border pattern.

See how the colors flow! No pooling whatsoever.

It's too bad I ran out of thread on the final repeat. Only eight inches of thread were left on each shuttle so I had to stop. (If I hadn't tatted the first heart twice I would have had plenty of thread to finish.)

Eagle-eyed readers will also surely note that my center ring of hearts are not dimpled as shown in the diagram.

Fear of breaking and wasting precious thread led me to use the dimple technique in the Jessica Rose pattern. I thought it would be a good substitution since it is worked in half hitches as are the Josephine knots. It gives the center a ruffled look, which may not be pleasing to everyone.

I found this awesome pattern on Dale Marie's tatting blog, Shuttle and Thread. She is combining seven of these heart-filled motifs into an incredibly lovely doily. Please do go visit and compliment her on her beautiful work. The tatting is simply stunning.

Apologies to Iris Niebach for turning her hexagon into an incomplete pentagon. But it was so much fun to watch the colors flow and mingle as this motif took shape.

Tatskool has another first-rate thread to offer. And if her future releases are anything like this one, [I know, but I'm not telling!] you bet your sweet bippy I'll be in first line to get mine.