Heart No 7

Gosh it's getting hard to keep up posting a heart a day, even when I already had a lot finished.

Today's heart is another small one, a practice for something bigger, tho' it wasn't a practice piece for me as I was thrown in at the deep end test tatting the biggie for Martha, and it was only afterwards that I got to see and tat the smaller ones. She gave me a choice and I chose the most difficult one...was that a big mistake or just a challenge.

It's Smallest Crewel Heart and this is my first try...



Martha says that the central lattice is based on the texture of crewel embroidery.

It's quite difficult to get this lattice looking good and even and I recommend doing several practice pieces. You need to get the lengths of thread (picots and mock picots) between the rings the same length. I used a gauge 7mm for the picots but found it better to eyeball the mock picots as it was very difficult with the gauge.

The lattice on this one was made with a variegated flora 20 but I was inspired by the silver lattice on Martha's examples.
This you really do need to practice as the silver thread refuses to lie flat.
Here is a practice lattice.



Not bad so here goes...



You can see how the springyness of the lattice makes it difficult to block.

Oops looking at this more closely, I see LOTS of mistakes in there, maybe that's why I didn't show this one before, have to admit it looks most original tho'!!!

This one looks much better...just like it should look! I think I should be satisfied with this!!



The silver thread that is my favorite to use is Coats Ophir.

MY Thread amounts
Lattice Sh1 90cm, Sh2 70cm

The heart measures about 5cm.

The result is well worth the effort and becomes a lot easier with practice.
Outline Sh1 1.75metres, Sh2 1.25 metres

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