FIRST: You didn’t miss anything, tatting has nothing to do with early 17th century fiber arts - Kate is just interested in almost ALL the fiber arts, whatever their origin. She doesn’t tat on site here, either as an interpreter or in the Crafts Center.

The day in pictures:

Here is the workroom, which is a beehive of activity, photo courtesy of Robbin.

The Mayflower Sampler Guild came this morning, partly to see the jacket work but especially to see the EC sampler, which they gave $1000 to help conserve. They really enjoyed their visit, but because I didn’t think to ask their permission, I can’t post the photos Robbin took. Five of them bought embroidery kits, and there’s talk of organizing a stitching session for them to come as a group. We’ve had a couple of sets of friends come together to stitch, and they (and we) have really enjoyed that. Don’t be scared, just sign up. Bring your sampler if you want help, and we’ll help you figure it out. I never did a bit of this kind of embroidery until last winter, and now I’m stitching the detached pieces that will be sewn over the pea pods. A little practice and you won’t want to stop.

Lacey took on a very ambitious project a couple of days ago. Beth, one of the interpreters in the 1627 English Village, needed her stays altered. The front cups weren’t comfortable for her, so Lacey took out the stitching, extended it to the top edge, and reboned the fronts. It was also too big around, so Lacey cut the back down, redid the boning and put in new grommets. It was ambitious because it all had to be done on Beth’s weekend; she needs to wear it tomorrow morning. And here it is finished!

Because it is our anniversary session, Marcia made us a special dessert. When I mentioned that, several people said, aren’t all her desserts special? How much more special does it get? This much specialer. It’s as delicious as it looks - chocolate ricotta cake, or as Marcia’s son-in-law calls it, cannoli cake.

And speaking of old friends, look who came today! Laura, “our girl Friday”, last year’s intern, without whom I never would have made it through last summer. It was so good to see her. The four of us here, Robbin, me, Wendy and Laura, were also here for the very first stitching session last summer. There will be no cake with a “2″ on it, believe me.

Laura got very interested in the bobbin lace, and here is Robbin giving her a first lesson on the starter pillow Carolyn has left here for that very purpose.

It was a good day.

At a session earlier this month, Abigail from MA brought a masterpiece of needle tatting for us to admire. Here’s a picture. I don’t know how to tat, so if I dare try to explain I’ll get myself in trouble, like the time with the bobbin lace. I do know that “regular” tatting uses a shuttle with a bobbin for the thread, and needle tatting uses a needle to make the knots. That’s the extent of my knowledge.

But isn’t this beautiful? We were at a loss as to how to photograph it, but fortunately we found a willing (mostly) baby.

Embroidery is progressing this week. Catherine and Deb left today, on to more adventures in the storage rooms of the Museum of Fine Arts. Melanie Anne also left today, back to Maine for a while. Kris and Heather arrived this morning so work continued uninterrupted. With all the colors at our disposal (even more of the green silk #325, yay Tricia for bringing it) it seems like the embroidery is just growing on its own. Tricia and I figure we’re about half way done with the embroidery. Not bad, considering we began last June. Still, I’d like to keep up the pace.

Would you like to join us this winter? We have room in two Friday to Monday sessions - February 8 - 11 and February 29 - March 3. Email me at jhall@plimoth.org and let me know.

Oooh. I just noticed Rich has built my categories. That popping noise is my excuse not to go back and recategorize, evaporating. Back to the salt mines.

Penny discovered that if you try to view archived entries in Internet Explorer, it will only show you one page per month (not all the entries). This doesn’t seem to be a problem in Firefox. I bet that’s another thing that can and eventually will be fixed.