My nine days are almost up and I return to work tomorrow. I could use days and days of vacation, but couldn't we all?

I was doing a lot of blog surfing earlier today. One of the tatting blogs is in Italian and most of the time I just look at the photos and try to figure out the gist of it, but today I used the translator and looked through all the pages, a luxury, indeed!

The translated name of the blog is Grandmother's Tatting. I bet you didn't know that. I knew the word "tatting" was in the title but that's all. I came across a two-colored rose motif, which I believe is the owner's design. She usually states where she got the pattern from so I'm assuming this is hers. I was intrigued by the use of two colors to begin with, although they were ecru and white. The use of split rings set up a pattern of color, which I didn't really even recognize until I tatted it myself. Can you see what I discovered after I tatted it?

See those pink bows all around the center? LOL! I'm sure that wasn't the intention and even when I tatted it, I was thinking how the green would bloom into a pink flower but the ribbons stood out instead!

This is my second one. I made lots of mistakes with the first one. I didn't put enough green on the 2nd shuttle. I made the center ring and then hid my ends, adding in the two colors after and hiding the ends of the joined threads. Then I had to add more of the green and that meant more ends to hide. THEN, as I got to the very end, I realized I was short ONE split ring! POOH! And other expletives I can't put in print. So for the second one, I just joined the two colors together, left a short space before starting the center ring, long enough to be the same as the other picots since when I closed the ring, I would have to make a mock picot and I didn't want the mock picot in two colors. Didn't know if it would work, had never tried it before, but it did!

She (I think her name is Carla) called it a bicolor rose but I'm inclined to name it Ribbons & Bows. It would make a nice Christmas motif too in Christmas green with Christmas Red bows and maybe a few sparkly beads like lights on a wreath.

Now see.....another name for this motif could be "Inspiration Motif" because it's already fired off two ideas. Here are a few other ideas that came up as I was tatting it:

This shape made me think of a cat. You could make double picots in place of the regular ones at the top and block them so they are pointy. Add a tail and you're done.

This one made me think of a bunny. Add a couple of beads in the center ring at the top, make the ears longer and more pointy - and add whatever else tickles your fancy.

When I added the 3rd arm of the outer segment, I saw a face with a hat in the middle. With the 4th one, I began to see a person. I made myself stop scanning and continued to tat. This was tatted in Venus size 40 for both parts. I'm not sure of the colors.

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Part of my surfing today led me to an older site, the Bead Prayer Project. It was completed in 2004 but I thought it was a nice idea. Sometimes you just want to make a little something for someone,offering a little bit of help or encouragement, and you might call it Beaded Prayers or Blessings or Inspiration. You put the written thought in the container you make and embellish it. Beads were the focal embellishment of this project, but I think a bit of lace would be welcomed too. Just an idea.

Hope your weekend has been as beautiful outside as mine has!