NCRL meeting

 Saturday was the NCRL meeting. We are aiming for 300 goodie bags and several people are making things. So some people spent time prepping some materials. I turned in my stitched hedgehog, snap bag, and tatted motifs. 

 

I helped with the prep, then worked on my Morse code edging.

 

This is the meeting goodie bag (1st 20 to register get one) contents.

 Mom needs to move. Her physical requirements are above what her current facility can handle. So I am going to tour a place on Thursday. 

Yesterday was May the 4th. A silly holiday, but it's a good time to remember Carry Fisher's lessons.

Halloween and after

 October 30th? Sunny, warm, and almost summery.

October 31st? Cold, damp, and blustery. 

Kind of changed my plans on what I was going to wear. I was going to dress as a Hollywood pirate. Instead, I wore vaguely Renaissance (don't look for accuracy, I'm wearing my rainboots). Alas, my hair would not behave and kept falling down all day.

Double alas, the weather kept the trick or treaters away, too. I really look forward to see what they'll wear. There's these 2 girls that I have watched grow up. And there's this 1 toddler I hope to see again (although it's been 4 years and I may not recognize her). 

Luckily, we didn't buy heaps of candy. Not as much to eat or foist off onto others. 

The Saturday after was NC Regional Lace Fall Lace Day. Not that I remembered to take pictures. I met two potential tatters, Karla and Amber. I forgot I had signed up to make the felt hedgehog pincushion. Luckily, Carolyn K reminded me.

I finished it later.

NCRL is considering sending in a bid to host the IOLI convention in 2024. At this point, they're gauging member interest and evaluating what we locals would have to do vs what the national group would be doing.

 

 

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.

More nalbinding and stuff

I started a 2nd nalbinding hat, same yarn. But this time I started at the top. As a hat, it is less than successful. As a bag, it's not horrible. I do have a gaping hole where I missed a stitch or something, but I used some of the leftover yarn to make a lucet braid & just tied the hole shut; but semi-decoratively. I still need a drawstring for it, though.

I am working on a new card case for my gift cards, etc. It's a simple pattern, but I couldn't resist some changes. And I think I left out the seam allowance, so I did some piecing to add extra fabric to create seam allowance. Until it's done, I mended my current card wallet. 

I started a pair of nalbinding wrist warmers, in acrylic again (yay knots), but smaller yarn so it's likely to look lacier. I think I need to work on my tension, I keep finding holes.

I am finished retro-tatting on the round robin doily from the online tatting class. Forward progress again. 

I took a bag of stuff to Scrap Exchange this past weekend. Some of it was 'get it out of the house, I'm not going to use it' and some of it was 'if I don't take this, it's going to be thrown away.' While I was there, I found some fleece to use for a plush toy (I have the pattern, I just need to actually work on it) and some more Formica samples for Tri-Tatters luggage tags.

Three of us took the day off from work yesterday to hang out and go see a matinee of the Dungeons and Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves. The theater has reclining seats; very comfy. Happily, the movie did crest the very low bar set by earlier DnD movies and there were a couple Easter eggs for long time DnD folks.

Projects

 My first successful nalbinding project.

I used acrylic yarn so there's all these knots. It's why wool works better, you can make knotless joins. I'm using up the rest of the yarn in another hat. I'm trying top down. It won't be quite as neat or pretty. 

I keep making errors on the 4th round of the round robin. So no pictures of it. 

I was going to sew a card wallet last night, then realized I had forgotten to include the seam allowances. I'll need to cut more fabric and add to the pieces. Currently I have 3 fabrics, so I'll use the other fabric for the strips (outer fabric is sky print, lining is flowers, so sky print will have a strip of flowers and vice versa.

Does anyone know what season it is?

Tuesday morning I scraped frost off my windshield (found my ice scraper, yay!). Today, I sat outside in my shirtsleeves, short shirtsleeves, at lunch. It's supposed to be rainy and near, but not below, freezing by Sunday. Apparently our weather has been mounted on a yoyo.

I'm up to Day 11 on Jane Eborall's TIAS. I had finished Day 10 and was about to start day 11 when I realized I needed to reload my shuttles. For grins and giggles, I'm using a new color starting day 11.

 

I am toying with making another c. 1919 (or so) housedress. And trimming it with tatted lace. I looked at a lingerie dress, but that's a lot of lawn and lace strips ($40+ for the fabric alone, cotton voile isn't very expensive all told, but still). 

I finally got my State Fair prize money. I can about afford supper at a mid-level burger place. Including getting a drink. 

I did my 3rd round of the round robin doily for the Online Tatting class founded by Georgia Seitz. We all start with the same 1st 2 rounds. Tami drew several cards from the Tat Your Own Adventure card deck and we are to use those elements for further rounds. Tami intends to do a communal doily that will become the backdrop for the class website, etc.

This was written 9 Feb but didn't post.