Stick-to-it-iveness: colloq. (orig. U.S.), dogged perseverance.

 The Pay Off

#3 Motif Challenge

I started this many times.  Is it the weather?  Everything I do is wrong - sloppy - uneven - cut picots -  knots where they should not be. You get the picture.  I should have stopped after one wasted attempt with this wonderful ( Thank you, Suneeti!) Garden Afternoon by Yarnplayer  HDT.  But, no.  Snip, cut, tear, growl, pull and stomp. Cry. Pound fists.

I did not give in to temptation. No short-cuts.  I took the high road and tatted the best that I could.  I have a long way to go, but this is the best yet.  The tension still sucks, however. I know, Gina!  It takes time, but I am really noticing it now and it is frustrating!  The muscle memory is just not developed enough.

As a reward, I allowed myself an hour in a cool coffe shop to bring down my body temperature, high already because of the weather, and higher still due to the Battle of the Threads. 

Sitting there, in the cool, sipping hot coffee, I realized that, 

beyond a doubt, colour is happening...

#4 and #5  Motif Challenge

I am so encouraged by your comments about my use of colour, that I have been experimenting beyond my comfort zone.  Example:  the yellow here, I bought because I was doing the  T.A.T.  course and I needed #20 flower colour.  The DMC Cébélia is available in Toronto, so no postage fees; I bought  a number of balls. Not wild about the colours and thought the thread would languish in a box forever.

Enter The Thread Exchange!  I have sent off yards of the stuff! I am playing with the colours I have, and being - for me -   very adventurous in the combinations.  Sometimes they do not work, but so what! For the first time in my very disciplined and unadventurous colour life (aside from the stained glass work, years ago) I feel creative. The new sense of freedom  is a very good feeling. 

So, folks, thank you for all the wonderful comments and encouragement.  You may have unleased a monster - in technicolor!

 Remember, I tatted this a few days ago?  It was to be the last one for a while...  Well. I was having my lunch break at a Czech Deli near my work place  - always wonderful soup -  when the waitress came over to check out  what I was doing.  She loves tatting and has told me she has seen lots of it in Poland where she grew up. She always comes to look!

Impulsively I handed her this dangle, which was in with my tatting gear and said,
" This is for you."  Well... she looked astounded and said. "For ME? Thank you .  Thank you so much. Thank you."  She must have thanked me twenty times.  And, it was genuine!  I got the gift.

Anon,