Lace - but no tatting

I got word from Lenore that she received my RPL piece to her. Remember I based it on some henna designs I've seen, taking one of the most basic shapes to work with. Even though my needlelace stitching needs more practice (poor tension and spacing) I love the way it looks overall. I'm anxious to see Lenore's to me which should arrive by tomorrow.

One of the cool things about Romanian Point Lace is that you can change the look by using different needlelace fillings. I made another motif for me and used the same interwoven circles here as well as the same backstitch center although I did it backwards so it shows the backside on the "front". I also used a different netting for the bottom of the heart shape. It's 2 buttonhole stitches per loop and I didn't include a bar thread like I did with the first motif. I also used a different filling for the heart arches. That's the part I'm not happy with. I need to either use more strings (and the loop wasn't big enough to provide more) or somehow adapt it to not look so stubby.

My 2nd watercolor brushwork class was last night. I really love seeing how everyone does the same thing differently. Same way with tatting. Take the same pattern and 6 people - you'll see 6 different threads, some will add beads, some won't. Some will change the picot count on purpose. There will always be one person who completely changes the pattern and one person who follows it exactly. It's our nature to reinterpret design to match our own preferences. That's how the universe evolves. I really don't understand people who get upset when someone interprets their pattern differently and ...well, we won't go there.

The instructor had already applied the miskit to each paper before we started so each person's daisies were going to be a little different anyway. Still...the application of color, brushstrokes, intensity, additional techniques....incredible differences. Mine probably had the darkest background and seemed more "Autumnish" compared to the others which were lighter and more delicate overall.

Here's some Irish Crochet I'm working on with only 2 more leaves and an edging left. It's a free online pattern from Piecework but I'm not happy with it. I've done Irish Crochet before with much clearer instructions. The "picot beads" on this are too big, IMO, and I don't like the way each round slipstitches in so many stitches to get to the next round. It's a pincushion and I think it will look fine when it's done but my feeling is that there is an easier way to accomplish the same thing.

And we shall return to our regulary scheduled tatting blog following this impromptu break.........