Around forty years later, I found the photocopy in one of my many collections of patterns, notes, and papers. The time was right to give the pattern a try, but not the whole trim, because we don’t use fancy centerpieces at my house. I decided to crochet the rose motif as a doily, with the possibility of updating the pattern and making it available as a free pattern for members of the Center for Knit and Crochet.

A pink version (not shown here) was my first attempt at working through the written instructions. I wrote updated instructions and crocheted the cream, yellow, and pink-burgundy versions of the doily to check and refine the new instructions. All were worked in No. 10 crochet cotton.

That was going to be the end of it, but I happened to notice a jumble of thread in various qualities of red in my crochet cotton container. They were the inspiration for the last American Beauty Rose Doily I made. The border color was more difficult to decide. Orange? Green? Black? On July 24, 2020, I asked for advice from CKC’s Facebook and Instagram followers. Among CKC social media followers, friends, and family, black was the favored border color.

A pdf version of the American Beauty Rose Doily pattern is available for CKC members to download free of charge

As of 12/01/2024, you can download the entire pattern book, where the original American Beauty centerpiece trim appeared, from Antique Pattern Library, www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/pub/PDF/Dvorak17AmericanBeauty.pdf

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