Amanda by Iris, and the End of a Challenge

This is the Amanda doily from Iris Niebach's book Tatted Doilies.  Iris is a designer I truly admire.  She has such distinctive style you can usually know a design is hers just by glancing at it.  Reading over the pattern before beginning was confusing at first, until I realized that the first repeat was worked differently than the rest.  By doing that, she had cleverly arranged the sequence so that it could be worked all in one pass.  The long chains were a bit challenging, but over all it was a delight to make.  It measures about  7 1/2 inches across in size 30 thread.  This is another of the books from Akacia press, which I have recommended before.

I've counted up and decided that this makes the end of my current 25 Motif Challenge.  When Sharon proposed the challenge, the rule was simply to make any 25 motifs within a year, but some of us have given ourselves additional constraints to make it more, um, challenging.  My challenge this time was to count only motifs from the books on my shelf, since some of them go too long without being opened.  I'm sure I took more than a year, but I have reached 25 at last.  When I reach the end of a challenge, the only thing to do is to start another.  Next time I will do vintage patterns from before 1925.

Happy New Year