Fleur finished.

Well, that's finished!! Taking out the silly little 1 ds chain, shortening two SR's slightly and adding two picots to two chains to stabalise the feathers seems to have done the trick. I shall put the web page together over the weekend and then test tat the whole thing again next week to look for further mistakes.
Glad this is finished - I'm going to make some badger bookmarks to sell on ebay and then get back to the bookmark that needs tweaking. I think I'll try some different colours and take on board some of the suggestions kindly put forward by people.

Nearly, nearly, nearly

I think this is nearly done. There is no way that I can make this in one piece so there will have to be a T & C after the lower half is done.
I've made the chain leading up from the central feather much shorter. Down to 1 ds. I'm going to try it without the chain altogether today which will bring the central feather slightly lower. I'm also wondering if it will then allow me to put in a joining picot between the central feather and the two outer ones to 'stabilize' it. All comments welcome .........
If you look at Mark's splendid Fleur de Lys http://www.tat-man.net/patterns/fleurdelis.jpg you will see that he's done his in two or three parts. If the maestro has found that this is the only way of doing a piece like this then who am I to argue!!!! Hi Mark!

Nearly there!

A good evening. As usual at the last minute and without me really noticing it all fell into place!!! The picture is a bit lopsided cause I haven't pressed it or anything! The bottom part (end of the feathers) needs something different but if I use 'just a chain' it doesn't work! I'll have to fiddle around with this. Also the 2 chains leading into the central feather need either drastic shortening (1 p only) or getting rid of completely. I'll also have to re-draw most of the diagram too which should keep me out of mischief for a while!
I still cannot see a way of making the Fleur in just 'one hit' unless I find a 'returning' way round those lower feathers. There - just set myself another challenge. Whoever said designing was easy should have my convoluted brain! Why can't I just be satisfied with it 'as is'? Trouble is that I'm now itching to get back to the bookmark and I want to make some badger bookmarks to sell on ebay - oh, and what was that other idea that jumped into my head while I was talking to Hope yesterday?

I didn't get much done yesterday evening due to several phone calls. I did get the base of the Fleur de Lys done, however, so this afternoon/evening should see a good attempt at the upper part. I cannot see a way of making this in one 'hit'. Dissapointing!
I was also monitoring my ebay stuff yesterday evening. I've listed a few tatting items - some of those earrings which are SO hard to assemble. I shan't be making any more of those in the future. There's also a clown, sunflower, tatting needles etc. I do hope I sell some more of the stuff as I really need to re-charge my Paypal account so I can start shopping again!!!!
Oh, my ebay ID is simply janeeborall!!!!

Finally the right shape!

This is the right shape but there's still a LONG way to go. This has been worked in two parts (darn tying and cutting) so I've got to start again and try to eliminate that problem. I also need to 'design out' the hole in the middle.
Now a bit more about 'why a Fleur de Lys'. My sister (also a tatter) is a Beaver leader here in the U.K. Here's a useful link http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/6to25/beaver/ Next year is a big anniversary for them (can't remember which one!) and she asked if I could make a Fleur de Lys as that is their emblem. She wants to make some as giveaways.
First of all Sally sent me their logo and I pasted that into a lower layer of Serif DrawPlus in order to 'trace over' it on the layer above. I then did the first two attempts as posted on previous days. It then occurred to me that this was getting me nowhere so I tried popping some rings etc over the top of the logo. I've added that to the blog too. I'm hoping that this will show my many and devious ways of designing. I can't say that I have any particular way of doing a design or that any of it is 'set in stone'.