Lucky me! Thank you, Monica!

I've had unbelievable luck! I was reading Linda's blog one day, and she suggested visiting Monica's blog, Diary of a Quilt Maven, for a fantastic giveaway. it was my first visit to Monica's blog, and I could hardly believe my eyes! I haven't done much quilting for the past ten years, but now I've been inspired by some of the beautiful fabrics and patterns I've seen online. I took a chance, made a comment, and believe it or not, I won! Look at all the goodies Monica sent! And guess what? The patterns are Monica's!

I have a confession to make... I got caught up in wedding preparations, and I didn't let Monica know that I had received the package, nor did I thank her. My most sincere apologies, Monica. Thank you for this fabulous gift!

I promise to tat snowflakes for embellishment, and to post pictures of my project. Look out sewing room... here I come!

A few wedding pics

Joanne and Jan


The Girls


The Guys


My Family


My Beautiful Daughters

Celebrate good times! C'mon!

To celebrate the marriage of Joanne and Jan, I'm giving away these two items to one lucky person. All you have to do is post a congratulatory wish to the newlyweds on this post before August 10, when I will draw the winner's name.

You don't have to be a tatter. You don't have to love lace. You don't have to love to read. Just send your well wishes to Joanne and Jan so that I can pass them on.

The prize... one Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior, and one Stumpy bookmark by Kersti Anear. Both pieces are in size 20 Witches Brew HDT by Sherry Pence aka LadyShuttleMaker. Only one entry per person, please, but feel free to spread the word to your friends!

Oh, and please don't think the color name of the thread has anything to do with my daughter. I just love this colorway, and it's what I felt like tatting!

Lost and found

I love this little edging! This is the same one I used for Joanne's wedding hanky. I loved it so much, I used it for my wedding hanky. It's the second pattern in A Tatter's Workbook by A. Tatter. I used Lizbeth, size 20, color #633. You'll probably see more hankies edged with this pattern, but I think I'm going to use finer thread, at least size 40.


As for the lost and found part... I carried the hanky to the wedding, and put it in my lap at dinner time. I totally forgot about it, and I must have left it on the table, caught in my napkin. Luckily, our waitress recognized it as mine and returned it to Joanne. She was a wonderful waitress... we had her both nights, and she remembered things like my grandson's food allergies, Samuel's love of fish crackers, which of the three girls had chocolate milk, and who the mother of the bride was! ; )

She noticed my shrug, and asked if I had crocheted it. Of course, I'm thrilled when I meet someone who can tell the difference between knit and crocheted items, so we had a lovely conversation. The men just looked at us like we were nuts, but that's okay. We made a wedding memory that I will remember!

First wedding pics

I only have a few pictures to share from the wedding. Dave's not in any of them, because these are all from his cell phone. I'm sure I'll have more to share once Alison edits the photos she took. This one is of Joanne and me. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. Depending on which weather service we checked, there was a 20% - 40% chance of showers. Luckily, they didn't arrive until about 8:30 p.m. The wedding was at 2 p.m.


Here you see my beautiful daughters and their spouses. From left to right: Jake, Andrea, Carol (she's still single, if you know of any eligible bachelors! ; ) ), Jan, Joanne, Dan, and Alison.


Here are the bride and groom with Jan's cousin, wife, and child, and Jan's best friend.

Ready to roll!

My bags are packed and in the van. The house is in good enough shape that no burglars will trip and hurt themselves, resulting in a law suit against me. I finally blocked my shrug yesterday, and it dried beautifully! My hanky is finished and neatly tucked into the folds of the shrug. Ella's socks are finished. I have one left to finish for Lily, but I can easily complete that on the ride up. Carol isn't up yet, so I haven't wished her a happy birthday yet... is she really 29? I just have to wait for Dave to get home from work (he had to go in and water the plants), and then we'll be ready to roll!

I promise to share pics when we return home, and I'm really looking forward to getting back into a tatting & posting routine!

To do list...

1. Do laundry
2. Finish my hanky (1/2 side to go)
3. Crochet sock edgings for Lily and Ella
4. Pack bags
5. Pick up my mess so that potential burglars don't hurt themselves and sue me
6. Wish Carol a happy birthday before we leave early tomorrow morning
7. Let all my blogging buddies know... I'll be back!