Happy Independence Day (sorry, England, we're better as friends)

 Fairly quiet weekend. I did some sewing, I played some Lord of the Rings Online (midsummer festival), and did some tatting. Oh, and I went to the Scrap exchange by the pound sale. I resisted buying any bolts or rolls of fabric. I got one small bag of cotton scraps, 2 packs of charm squares some buttons, and some beads. The Dollar Tree has a small stock of craft fabric and I bought some and some beads (and cookies, don't judge). I have bags to make and these are perfect.

Monday was mostly a vacation day. I did have to do about 30 minutes of work but that was late afternoon.

Tuesday, my partner and I went to the outlet mall about 30 minutes away. He needs new shoes and I wanted to hit the Hanes shop for some undergarments. We decided to leave early enough to grab food on the road. 

On the 2ndary road leading to the nearest primary road, half of it was blocked. We couldn't figure out why people were lining up to get into the gas station, and definitely not why that many people. Until we saw the sign, gas $1.77/gallon. That's just a bit over half what it's been the past few months (years). Where we ate was across from another gas station and there was no line. Only 2 miles down the road, what a difference. 

After we did our shopping (alas, he did not find shoes, but I did, really good price -sorry to all the retail workers working yesterday), we did stop and get gas. 

Later, I had to go run an errand (again, sorry retail staff), and that's when I got gas. I was down to less than half a tank and filled it for less than $15. Whoop!

I found my tatted turtle, yay.

I started a pair of earrings, using some HDT (hand dyed thread). 

I did another couple rounds on the Chinese coin and did a double loop for the hanger. Then I made hearts from the leftover linen thread. (picture next week, I want to try and shine the coin).

Here's my potential project, edging a hankie in size 80. I plan to use the daisy edging.

I thought I had posted this. It's a method, I think the 3rd, from Tatting with Beads.

Wedding and Mayberry

 Saturday was the wedding! We were cutting it close, but not too bad, until we discovered there was a walk (not a short one) between the parking and the ceremony. It was a graveled path (glad I didn't wear my heels), which is not a quiet walk, so we stopped short a distance away. We were waved on by a member of the wedding party. We circled around to the seating and were lucky enough to have partial shade. 

And I was glad to have my hand fan, which coincidentally matched the one they were handing out to attendees. 

It was lovely. They both looked so wonderful. They had a very large wedding party but the bridesmaids were not all matchy-matchy. They wore the same color (pomegranate, which was the wedding theme because they apparently shared one during their 1st date), but in dresses, jumpsuits, sleeveless, spaghetti straps, etc.

After the ceremony, we went to the pavilion for the reception. Still outdoors, but under a roof and with ceiling fans. Waitstaff circulated with hors d'oeuvres; cucumber slices with dill cream cheese and also dollops of bacon jam and pimento on pork rind. They helped stave off starvation until the wedding party arrived (from the picture taking) and food was served, buffet style. 

The music was great and it was lovely meeting some of the couple's friends. There was dancing and laughter and conversation. Guests wore everything from cargo shorts or jeans to full 3-piece suits. There was also a photo kiosk with a table of silly hats and props. Users had the option of printing 2 copies, 1 for themselves and 1 for the wedding photo album. 

I knew my dress was short, but I didn't realize how short until I sat down. I had to adjust every time I stood up to make it reach my knees. At least I looked good. Although I had to hang it up to dry before I tossed it in with the dirty clothes.

We knew we were going to be up late and it's a 2+ hour drive home so we had a hotel room. And since we were 'in the area' we went to Mt. Airy and visited Mayberry Square.

Alas, it wasn't quite noon, on Sunday. Very little was open, including the bathrooms in the park. We did some window shopping but it was ridiculously hot and humid. We made it to the Antique Mall's (lots of individual vendor booths under 1 roof) opening hour (AC!), looked around a little and went to grab lunch to eat in the park. We went back to the antique mall but the $12 jar of buttons was gone, oh well, I missed it. I did get a large jar of sewing notions (mostly thread, but some buttons, scissors, etc) and a hatpin! It's a very plain hatpin, but within my budget. I saw one piece of tatting, on a tea towel (I think). Nice enough but didn't blow my skirt up. I was flipping through 1 of the collections vintage hankies and picked up a nice linen one. Last, but not least, we stopped and got a charcuterie board. We headed home after that but I'd like to go back and see the stuff we missed.

Tuesday was dental fun. More dental fun on Thursday. It's very discouraging. I'm doing a pretty good job on dental care but my teeth are still getting worse. I'd like them to at least stay at this level of ugh. 

I tatted IOLI's tatted note, the one for the 2024 convention. But in crappy thread with crappy results. I'll try it again in better thread.

I finished my sample of method 5 from Rosemarie Peel's Tatting with Beads and the 1st project from Mastering Tatting by Lindsay Rogers (not pictured). Today, I finished (maybe) the Chinese coin based on Jane Eborall's magnet bookmark pattern. On the drive to the wedding, I finished the 2nd row of the hankie Sue Hanson sent me. I made a mistake on 2 sides, miscounted the stitch count. Now I need to decide if I'm going to do a 3rd round. It's all chain so it's not hard. I used two different variegated greens to tat hondu (Japanese turtle pattern) but I can't find it.

Oops, Been Absent Again

 Time got away from me and I didn't notice I hadn't posted to my blog. I finished a grey alien, to go with the 2 green ones, and Anitra gave me black beads for the eyes of another grey alien.

Tri-Tatters had our first meeting in 3 years, 2 months, and 1 week (so Anitra called it the Boom meeting). We did a demo at Mordecai House. Only 7 of us were able to make it, but 1 of those is a brand new tatter. She had her shuttle loaded and ready to go, just needed feedback on what was going on and how to recognize what was going on.

The banner Caroline K made and my 2019 temperature scarf

I started a new button bag (from Karey Solomon's Bring on the Buttons). And made Gina Butler's hair elastic button. I'll need to take a picture of the latter.

I went to NC Regional Lace Day and took Gretchen's butterfly pendant class. I happened to have beads that almost matched the enamel on the butterfly blank (need a picture). Then I found the seasonal earring kit I bought at Palmetto last year but couldn't find the pattern. Gretchen sent it to me and I made those (although I need to neaten both).

 Since I had the opportunity, I turned in the 2 books I had borrowed from the NCRL library and checked out Tatting with Beads by Rosemarie Peel. I've made 3 of the samples/project from it.  

1st project, sprigs but I didn't use wire

I made a keepsake penny for a student I know who's going home. I found a penny minted her birth year and used Jane Eborall's magnet bookmark as a starting point. I had to adjust the stitch count. Alas, I forgot to get a picture.

The 5e game continues. 1 of the PCs who thought this was a wild goose chase has been convinced by her goddess that this is what we need to do. Lots of roleplay but the last session ended mid-fight. We managed to spook off one component of the fight (opportunistic animals) but that leaves the rest. And unfortunately, 1 PC set off an alarm in the hostile city so they know someone is here. We have to finish the fight and skedaddle before reinforcements show up.

Our Pathfinder game also progresses. Unfortunately, scheduling issues meant we had to cut the session short. We could finish the fight with less than our full roster, but the fall out needed more players than we had at the table. 

A sewing/craft YouTuber mentioned this site (Thrifty Notion) as a source for inexpensive sewing supplies and fabric. I'm going to get some buttons (for Karey Solomon's patterns, etc), and maybe some fabric.

I went and picked up some fabric (100% cotton) at the Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago. I had seen this tutorial for a 5 square drawstring bag (video link) and had to try it. The 1st one went well but the 2nd one required some hand sewing as I missed a seam and didn't notice until the end. My choices were hand sewing or ripping out a number of seams to resew the problem one.

 

My long cotton gauze shawl has a tear in it. I am going to mend it but since it will not be an invisible mend, I decided to cover it. This is beading No. 32 from Tatting with Anne Orr. I used the same thread I used to edge the scarf. Now that the edging is made, I need to mend the scarf and sew the tatting over it.

 

And below are some samples I made.

Cream silk heart (handspun yarn from a friend), red lace weight linen yarn butterfly, & black linen Londonderry 50/3 butterfly & beading/insertion, all tatted. The black is also Beading No. 32. I got the black linen thread from a vendor at the NCRL spring lace day.The red is the linen I got at the Carolina Fiber Fest.

Gillian's Election Bookmark in Lizbeth color way 156. This may end up being a bracelet.

And finally, a rainbow. Just because.