I Can Neither Confirm nor Deny...

that a T.A.T. Apprentice binder is currently in my possession.  I am however at liberty to discuss the grass...

The Wheels of Time Go 'Round and 'Round...

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All through the town!   Is it just in MY part of town where they seem to be spinning like a roulette wheel?

At any rate, I was FINALLY able to keep my date with the crochet hook and put an edging on my tatted edging.  At first I was a little edgy MYSELF (apparently I'm NOT a natural with a crochet hook) and kept pulling my stitches so TIGHT on the first row that I couldn't WEDGE the hook between threads to add the second row!  After a few practice runs I decided to forge ahead and while it is BY NO MEANS perfect, I am happy with the result.

This is an edging I found through the Antique Pattern Library.  It is Plate II, Edging #8 of Dillmont DMC Library Tatting.  I looked for its year of publication but was unable to find it.  Many of the patterns in the Antique Pattern Library are from the second or third decade of the twentieth century so I imagine shuttles flying to create this pretty little edging in the teens when the WHEELS OF TIME was published and my grandmother, who raised peonies but did not tat, sat for her portrait, or the twenties when this copy of NEEDLECRAFT was posted to a Miss Cora Boyer, who perhaps is SOMEONE'S grandmother and seems to have taken VERY good care of it.

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Although there were no tatting patterns in this edition of NEEDLECRAFT, I did enjoy looking at some of the crochet projects and a little embroidery.  I was especially drawn to the ads because they made my imagination run amuck  thinking about what life may have been like in THOSE days...  Did Grandma and Cora enjoy the "All-day Energy" they got from quick Quaker Oats even back then?  Would Fels-Naptha and a good scrubbing have gotten my clothes cleaner than my Tide?  Was Cora a girl who pored over "The Letters of a Young Bride" or an older, BUT NOT OLD, woman like myself who may have considered touching up her hair with some sage tea?  Either way I'm sure her life was very different from mine and I couldn't help but be thankful to be living in this day and age with computers and access across the miles to others who enjoy the same hobbies.

I wonder... if I had been a beginning tatter in THOSE days... would the tidbits of advice found in the section entitled "What Other Needleworkers Have Found Out" have helped?  I guess just like how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, "the world will never know."

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It's The Details That Count

A stylized shot of what's currently in my hands... I've a few details left to add. I'll have to pick up a crochet hook and act like I know how to use it for its intended purpose... that shouldn't be so hard... right?

Growing into Green Genes

If plants had post offices, the walls would be PLASTERED with posters of my smiling face, because I am a KILLER and I'm SURE my offenses have been grievous enough to "plant" me FIRMLY at the top of any leafy community's Ten Most Wanted List - IF they had one...

Both of my grandmothers and my mom had vibrant green thumbs.  Dad's mom had a cutting garden with BEAUTIFUL, FULL peonies.  We would pick a couple and put them in a glass and they smelled WONDERFUL!  Mom's mom had a big vegetable garden.  I remember eating fresh peas from her garden and LOVING them!  Pretty sure those are the only peas I consumed until adulthood.  Mom also told me she had raised moon flowers which bloomed at night.  And my mom always had flowers - iris, shasta daisies, mint, periwinkles, carnations,  dusty miller, petunias... and more whose names I have forgotten.

I told Mom a few years ago that I was HOPELESS and killed everything, so I would just enjoy taking pictures of them instead (hence the many pictures of flowers on my blog).  Mom said that she hadn't been very good with plants until she got older and that maybe someday I would enjoy gardening.

So in an unusual turn of events, this summer I became interested in the flowers my husband planted in the spring. They were almost gone when I began watering them (he had been working more hours and wasn't getting to spend as much time in the yard).  Not only did I bring them back to BLOOMING GLORY,  but I kept two pots of purple petunias alive despite temperatures which SOARED into the 100's daily!  My family is shocked and I am shocked!  but I don't think Mom would have been... and perhaps I am FINALLY beginning to grow into my green genes!