Nineteen
We started our anniversary embroidery session today. This weekend last year was the first time embroiderers gathered together to work on the jacket. There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then, not to mention a lot of orts.
Here’s a picture of Wendy showing JoAnn where the 3-D pea pod pieces will be sewn, eventually. I started working on one today, and am not thrilled with how it looks. Everyone else thinks I’m being extraordinarily fussy.
Here are Astrida (background) and Debbie (foreground) talking over some aspect of the embroidery with Wendy. Debbie is a new friend - I met her a few months ago when she came to work on the jacket the first time. Astrida is an old friend. Years and years ago when I was a new tailor with the Wardrobe department, Astrida used to drive down from the Portsmouth, NH area to volunteer on Saturdays. Way back then wardrobe was in our old office, extremely tiny and like a rabbit warren - several itty rooms connected like a maze. It was part of an old dairy barn. Anyway, no one else was in on Saturdays and the 
phone almost never rang, so we had lots of time to talk. Time passes and life moves on; I hadn’t seen Astrida in years before this morning. Another gift of the jacket - bringing old friends back around.
Today was Emily’s birthday. She is 19 whole years old. Penny made her a special a plate of special vegan Earl Grey cupcakes with yummy chocolate frosting. The candles say “Happy” instead of “Happy Birthday” because I and my tiny brain bought the wrong box of candles. I accidentally bought the “happy retirement” candle assortment. Ooops.
Tags: anniversary, Astrida, birthday, Debbie, Emily, interns, JoAnn, motifs, orts, pea pods, Wendy
June 20th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I really enjoyed seeing the threads article in the Plimouth magazine which came today….but it _also_ said that Kate had recently learned to tat, which was 18th C lace. Have you folks got new information about how early tatting was?
June 20th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I second the question from Colleen. I have always heard that tatting didn’t develop until well into the 19th century. Many have been the attempts to document earlier instances of tatting, and many have been the failures.
A more appropriate place to ask this would have been the Forum, but it seems to have disappeared. Has it been removed? There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but it was a good place for this kind of discussion.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:29 am
Forum? What forum?
June 21st, 2008 at 12:46 am
The forum still exists. This is a direct link to it: http://plimoth.org/embroidery-blog/forum/ but you can find it as the second link in the right column. Blogs are listed first, then Links. The link to the forum says Embroiderer’s Story Forum.
This is an excellent place for such a discussion and any others related to items posted here. If you want new forum areas, please let me know. It’s a rather boring job moderating it right now!
June 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Earl Grey cupcakes? As in, tea is an ingredient - or a special recipe favored by Lord Grey? (If the latter, of course, which Lord Grey and how old is the recipe?)