Motif 1&2

I'm back from vacation and I got a little bit of tatting done. Motif one for the 25 motif challenge is a tree topper design from the book "Tatting for Today" and was designed by Marion T. Leyds. For years I had been afraid to attempt this design, it looked so complicated to me that I was sure I couldn't do it. This past month or more I've been reading up on the theory and evolution behind tatting and things clicked into place. Suddenly the pattern no longer looked complicated. It was just rings, chains, and rings on chains. The whole rings on chains thing was something I hadn't understood before. I took these pictures with my phone, so I'm afraid the quality is abysmal. My camera with better pictures is at home where I do not have internet so these barely focused pictures will have to do.
Motif 2 is really an edging for and handkerchief. They need to be attached to each other, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. It is a very simple ring and chain edging and is about 38 inches long.




I used a very simple edging in the hopes that I could do it with minimal mistakes. While there are not a whole lot of boo-boos, there is one ring that has 4 extra double stitches and one extra picot. I made sure not to get that part of the edging in the picture.

So, now I am back at work, tatting will be happening more slowly, but I am off to a decent start on getting 25 motifs/edgings/doilies/whatever done in the next 12 months.