This bell is my personal tribute to Mary and is displayed here, along
with Mary’s classic and very popular
‘Queen of Hearts’ motif, which I finally got around to tatting recently, using
Lizbeth Vintage Harvest, size 20. ( I had
some problems figuring out where to
connect the picots on the heart pattern and had to really concentrate on where
I was going, but I love the pattern.) 
It is a special bell that I gave as a 25th wedding anniversary gift to
my brother-in-law and his wife back in 1998. (They celebrated their 40th anniversary several months ago!)
I recently asked my
sister-in-law if she would mind sending the bell to me (they live 300 miles
away), as I never photographed it properly, and I want to put together a photo
gallery of all my different bells.
Fortunately, it arrived safely in
the mail last Saturday. ( But I plan to
return it to her in person!)
I was delighted to see it again, and it’s in great condition! It’s good to know that the
stiffener I use (Aleene’s Fabric Stiffener)
does not yellow over the years. I had also sprinkled some fine silver glitter on it before the stiffener dried, and it still sparkles in the light!
I recall I used size 30 Cebelia thread. I knew my SIL would take good care of it. She appreciates all the things I’ve made for
her, and she does excellent needlework herself.
She always displays the bell on her Christmas tree!
I know I could have tatted a bell for myself ( I
still have my ‘chicken scratch’ notes), but for inexplicable reasons, I never
did.
History of Bell and Some Surprises!
When I bought Mary’s
Visual Patterns book in 1994, I fell in
love with her ‘Maids of Honor’ edging, and I tatted up some samples. But I very much wanted to make a bell using her
pattern. Between 1991 and 1998 I created
at least eight different bells using edging patterns that appealed to me, and I
knew that Mary’s ‘Maids of Honour’
design would make a beautiful bell. I
believe I was successful on my first try
(I seemed to be lucky that way, with all my bell designs!) and I even incorporated her ‘Beauty Spots’ pattern into it. However, I had some surprises in store when I
studied the bell again.
It seems I made things much more difficult for myself, as I tatted the 'Beauty Spots' pattern without the Josephine rings (beauty spots)!. That's kind of important because the Josephine knots go inside the two bottom rings and cleverly hide a single bare thread which leads to the next motif and eliminates the need to cut and tie, as I did. (The Beauty Spots pattern is on page 31 of the Visual Patterns book.)
And I was also amazed that I individually tatted each simple clover leaf motif above the ‘beauty spots’
motifs! I
didn’t know how to do split rings yet!
It was fortunate,
however, that the six repeats of the
Maids of Honor pattern worked out perfectly to form the bottom of the bell,
over the Styrofoam bell form.
A glue gun always comes
in handy for attaching flowers and other elements. These days I would use a wired ribbon, so
that it could be ‘curled’.
I also gave the
recipients of my bells a large, clear plastic cup with a lid, to store the bell
safely.
Mary Konior’s Legacy
It’s difficult to believe it’s been four years since Mary’s passing in
January 2010. However, it’s wonderful that
tributes to Mary continue to be seen .
She was an exceptional lady, and I’m so glad for the technology of today with the internet and blogging to remind us of her many achievements and the tremendous impact she had
and will forever have on the art of tatting.
Her books were a spectacular achievement and are a fabulous legacy of
her talent. We are the lucky beneficiaries
of her total dedication to tatting! I particularly appreciated her decision to put diagrams in two colors in her Visual Patterns book. Putting color into diagrams very much improves an understanding of tatting patterns - at least it does for me!
