Wow! I haven't posted since Tuesday! Where to begin????? Hmmmm...right after Tuesday would be good, right?

Wednesday afternoon I left a little early from work and got my oil changed. It was the first oil change since I leased my car and it HAD to be done before I embarked on a trip. I then went home and hurriedly finished packing, hoping I had everything I needed. Then I took off towards Ohio to meet up with two of my favorite tatting friends!

This photo barely begins to show you the fun we had!

My partner in crime ~*~*~*~ Gail Owens

The "Target" ~ Jane Eborall

Serious Talk

Spotting something!

Although Jane claims to be kidnapped, she was clearly a willing victim! Gail and I headed over to pick her up in hopes of arriving at 10:00 a.m. I have a GPS that I have come to rely on heavily and it's been a trustworthy guide for the two years I've used it. I plugged in the address and off we went. The address kept reverting to another house number but we figured it would be close enough.

HA! Famous last words! ....close enough.....

We did arrive on the street with the right name. Unfortunately, we could not find the right house number. Back and forth, around and around the block....oh, there's one street that was mentioned on Gail's directions..we'll just follow it til we find the right intersection....round and round, back and forth.

Okay...there must be a jog we hadn't jigged but we decided to call and beg for mercy. I'm hearing a lot of one-sided conversation that doesn't sound too promising. Finally, Gail says,"we're in the wrong town." Huh? LOL!

Well...we weren't in the wrong town, but we were on the wrong side of town and on the wrong street. Right street NAME but wrong street. Turns out there are three streets with that name. No wonder my TomTom was confused!

We finally arrived at 11:00 a.m. with Jane standing outside flagging us down! What a way to begin an adventure!

We started off at a bead store. I think we were there a very long time. Very long. And we all bought something but I think we talked about what could be made from every bead we saw first! Then we went to a thread store. The shop focused on needlepoint but that didn't mean we couldn't use something there for tatting. I did buy one spool of thread that I'll show in another post, since this one is going to be long anyway.

After that we decided to check out a bakery across the street and then realized we were too hungry for all that rich sweetness so we walked across the street again and ate at a cute little deli. That little photos at the bottom of the collage showing Gail and Jane in front of some columns ( from a wall mural) is from the deli.

Bellies full...now where?

Well, there was a big craft outlet store that Jane wanted to go to so we went there. Huge - and not air conditioned. Jane picked up the stuff she had planned to get there and then we looked around for a short while. Gail spied some tatting from China. Cute little hearts and some larger doilies - cheap as dirt. We didn't buy any. It's not a very good feeling when you know how long it takes to tat something like that, even in big thread and with a simple design.

At this point we were on our way to Gail's house and she took us to a little craft place near her home. Let me tell you - this place was packed from floor to ceiling in every room. It was originally a tiny house. I think they must have had as much in there as was in the warehouse we were in earlier! We had fun rooting around in it though. I ended up putting back about half of what I was carrying around.

By this time, we were ready to settle in for a bit and arrived at Gail's house. Gail has a lovely and very friendly Shelty collie named Shelby, and two huge cats, whose names I've forgotten already other than they are also known as the "Blues Brothers."

Gail fixed a scrumptious dinner and then we talked, and talked, and talked. Can you believe we barely tatted at all? In fact, I'm not sure we did. We all showed our tatting stuff - books, shuttles, thread, patterns. We got to see what Jane is teaching at Palmetto. If you haven't signed up for her classes, you'll wish you did, trust me!

We ended up giving each other some gifts too and I'll show those along with my purchases in another post but I did want to show these for now:


I was totally surprised to find this bag from Jane with my NAME on it! LOL! Some of you may remember her mentioning another bag like this back in June! Now, I've got my very own to decorate with tatting!

Here's the tag. Does it not say "Gina B"?

And look at what was in a little bag from Gail! Aren't these just adorable? Shuttle Socks! They'll keep my shuttles warm this winter when they're idle. Gail knit them from sock yarn so they are definitely socks!

Well, you'll just have to imagine how great the day was. We took Jane back home LATE that night. I wish I had this kind of fun day every month!


I probably should save this part for another post but it was the first pic I uploaded so I'll just go ahead. It was in my mail today! I found it on Abebooks.com last week and ordered it. I have another book by this author which is basically just a baby outfit - booties, bonnet, and trim. This one has lots more in it though.

And the best part (almost) is that it is autographed! This is actually a lesson book with 6 lessons, tatting history, and 15 projects. She uses short notation, two shuttles, and mentions tatting in color. It's really very interesting. The student made some notes in the back page - underlining the word "relax" when it came time to flip the knot. LOL! Same as today and the point I emphasize with students.

Hopefully the next post will show some of the beads and thread I bought as well as other odds and ends.

Thanks to Gail and Jane for such a memorable Thursday!