Gerbera Daisy

This piece has been in progress on and off (mostly off...) for about 4 - 5 years.  In addition to several relatively minor mistakes, there is a major mistake in the outer round which is the main reason work on this piece stalled for a long time.  (Hint - you can see it on the left hand side)

If you look closely at the picture above, you will see the reason for the mistake.  I ended up flipping the piece on the scanner, so you have to look on the right hand side.


Yes, one of the center rings opened up on me.  I noticed this when I was about half way through the outer round.  I could not bring myself to cut off the outer round and start all over.  If I did that, I would never finish this!  Initially I had planned to maybe add the inner ring after removing what was left of the opened, ring, but it would have been difficult to do so, since there are no picots to connect it to.

I keep telling myself the missing center ring is not so noticeable but I don't really believe it.  I will say though, that my husband could not find the mistake.

This piece was made with sewing thread which was not easy to work with.  I think if it was made with any other thread more suitable for tatting, I would have restarted the outer round!

Working notes:

• Made with sewing thread.  I don't have the spools in front of me, but I believe they were some variety of Coats and Clark thread.  I used three colors - two solid (dark and light green) and one variegated.  The variegated was easier to work with in that it did not break as easily.
• I didn't look at the penultimate round too closely before I started working so I didn't realize that I would have to keep using the shoelace trick if I wanted to use different colors.  I forgot to switch out shuttles a few times...
• One of the center rings opened up after the outside motif was done and I see another one is close to opening up.  I think the reason maybe the thread I used.  The sewing needle I used to work in the ends may have been too thick and I inadvertently damaged the ring while working in the ends.  Whatever the reason, I am now super-paranoid when I made center rings.  I really do not want to see this again!

This was mainly done as an experiment in using variegated threads.  I really do think it looks better when paired up with a solid.  If I had to do it again though, I would chose only one solid shade of green rather than two.  Dark green would probably look nice.

Overall I am just happy it's done.  I guess I like the finished piece, but the missing inner ring bothers me.  For a while I considered taking out all the center rings in the outer round and I may still do that if I have to pull out another one.  That would be very depressing to do though, since making the center rings was a pain the neck!

This doily was popular on the blogs when I started it (~ 4 years ago).  The pattern was available on the internet, and I printed it out at that time.  Unfortunately I did not save the link.  Googling "Gerbera daisy" or "First place doily" may come up with the pattern.

Diameter: 6 inches