Friday, June 17, 2011

I love June!

...and yesterday was a perfect day! My mom is visiting from Alabama, and yesterday we did a little shopping and then went to daughter Carol's house for a birthday feast. Carol made chicken, hamburgers, and peppers on the grill... yum! Daughter Alison and her children met us there. The weather was perfect, and the food was delicious!

When we got home, I checked the mail, and...

I found this beautiful hanky from Wendy!

It has my favorite color (blue), my favorite flower (rose), and it's hem-stitched!

Thank you, Wendy! I LOVE it!

This past week, I made some new online friends, including Marsha Greenberg. Guess what? She's a vintage hanky lover! She has published an amazing book, Hankie Couture.

Marsha's book is available in paperback at Amazon, but if you love hard-cover books, as I do, you might want to check out her eBay store. She still has a few autographed copies left! I have never made doll clothes, and I probably never will. However, seeing what Marsha has designed with vintage hankies makes me long to dust off my sewing machine!

I tell you, dear blog buddies, the Internet is a dangerous place! I am now also following embroidery blogs. It's true, and it's scary... there's more inspirational stuff out there! Thistle Threads is offering an embroidery kit to support the Winterthur Museum.


Yes, I caved! The kit arrived yesterday, and now I'm going to have to learn how to do tent stitch. It doesn't look complicated... thank goodness!

Now to the burning question... what's happening on the tatting front? I'm still working on my hanky edging, but with all the company this past week, I haven't accomplished much. I did start an oval doily, thanks to inspiration from Frivole. She just had to ask for ideas for oval doilies, and I just happened to have some patterns lying around!


I started "Graciella" from Tatted Doilies by Iris Niebach. I'm using DMC 8 from my dear friend Monica. I've never tatted an oval doily before! So far, so good!

For dinner, my husband and grandson grilled pork chops.

Alison sauteed asparagus, made her version of hummus (yummy!), and cut up red and green peppers and cucumbers for dipping. I'm still full from all the fabulous food we ate yesterday! After dinner, we watched The Ant Bully. Well, Dave and the kids watched it... Mom, Alison, and I read and played Words with Friends! All in all, I had a wonderful birthday!

14 comments:

  1. Nice find, Diane! Marsha's book is terrific! What a wonderful idea she had - very creative. I looked at the images on Amazon - wonderful gift for someone with a little girl who loves Barbie dolls. Imaginative use of old hankies for those who sew.
    Fox : )

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  2. It sounds like you are having a lovely time, Not heard of the hanky book must have a look on the amazon site here. I think your doliy will look beautiful and look forward to seeing more. I have made a lot of dolls clothes in recent years but not thought of using hankys.
    Margaret

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  3. What a great day!

    I got hooked on embroidery several years ago and joined EGA for one year. Dues were too pricey for me at the time and now the group no longer exists locally. BUT...I have the internet....and boy oh boy is there lots out there! I'm not a cross-stitcher and I don't like to do crewel work but I love all the other stuff, especially shadow work. I hope to get brave enough to try some applique one of these days too.

    I will try to remember to grab the 2 patterns I bought recently for hanky wall hangings to show you tomorrow.

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  4. I have done two different oval doilies earlier this year and its actually easy.

    i too may be into embroidery (but no buying yet due to limited income). As you can see in my latest blog post, I have started an embroidery class. Fortunately, I can incorporate my quilting and use my stash of thread.

    Internet is a dangerous place especially if you have lovely friends who keep on producing crafts other than the stash you have. Fortunately, I am quite discipline to force myself to jump into those that I can make use of my stash.

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  5. Ola! amiga amada e querida
    DIANE
    Sei que estou em falta contigo, pois já faz algum tempo que não venho aqui, mas em nada diminui o carinho, afeto e gratidão que tenho para com voce.
    Bjs no coração
    tenha um final de semana explendido.
    c/carinho
    Teresa

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  6. D-ianne que alegria lo feliz que estas pasando eestos dias. ¡¡DISFRUTALOS!!

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  7. Happy Birthday! What a cute looking book!

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  8. wow diane, i saw some creative ideas on using hankies while browsing the internet last nite too. ooh, scary, and i totally agree with u, there are just too many interesting ideas out there! love the hanky wendy sent, gorgeous! i'd be looking fwd to seeing the edgin u'll tat for it.

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  9. What a wonderful day! Happy birthday!

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  10. thx for sharing the hankie dress book (link) --- oh, the possibilities!

    The tent stitch isn't too difficult. Take your time with it.

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  11. Hi Diane!

    I'm happy to see you are having some lovely time. I hope that doily turns out great, and you enjoy the thread.

    What a cool idea about the hanky-dresses, thanks for sharing that!

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  12. A very Happy Belated Birthday to you Diane. Sounds like you had a wonderful day with family and celebrating. Your oval doily will be beautiful. I must check out the vintage hanky doll clothes. Happy Birthday all year long...

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  13. What a yummy post! Sounds like a perfect Birthday to me.Many Happy Returns of the day, and I'll be watching your oval doily....I just started a doily, too.....

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