Palmettos Tat Days Part 3

Friday Night!! 

They should sell tickets just to attend the activities at Palmettos on Friday night and Saturday night!  

Banquet:-Near left--me, Near right-Cynthia, beside Cynthia-Erin (*)

Banquet Angels

Erin Holloway Moseley and her "corsage"(*)

THE BANQUET--once again served in the lovely conference room--but this time with lovely tablecloths, fancier dishes and glassware and other than the "buffet-fill your plates", there is a very accommodating waitstaff that is serving coffee, filling glasses and bringing desert.  Besides our banquet program, also on the each table was a lovely "tree" decorated with tatted angels, little angels made from beads, a stamped angel on a card and metal paper clips and a craft stick with clothespin.  The craft-stick thing makes a wonderful little recipe holder, third hand when tatting and an extra hand when putting on difficult bracelets.  Those are what I have used mine for, I'm sure other people have been creative enough to come up with other uses.  During the program, teachers are recognized (Each received a shuttle inside a Shuttle Bud corsage.  They also, attempt to acknowledge everyone who helped make the conference a success.  This year they drew for some of the many "tatting packages" that had been donated to help with the scholarship fund.  The banquet really makes you aware of all the work that goes in to this event.

Georgia and Richard Seitz (*)

 THE AUCTION--

Monica Braxton and the poncho (*)

The auctioneer is Georgia Seitz.  Georgia, who has battled severe health problems this last year, was at the conference in a wheelchair--pushed by her loving husband Richard.  For the auction, though--Georgia had to be on her feet!  I'm not sure where the energy comes from, but Georgia sparkles as she auctions off the wonderful items that have been brought.  She literally pulls bids out of people as she is determined to build, build, build the Palmettos Scholarship Fund!  There was one item that no one really wanted...and apparently it is like a boomerang--it comes back!  That is the "poncho"--a clothing item, that several people have added to over the years--each person contributing something that adds to the "cheesy-kitchy" value of the poncho.  The poncho is usually hidden inside of something else-- so you truly get a surprise..  This year Monica Braxton "won" the poncho by putting in the winning bid on a lovely bedspread and pillow shams...What will she do to it?  How will be disguised for next year's auction?  I absolutely love to watch the bidding on some of these items!  People are so nice--until you get between them and something they really want--then (be afraid, be very afraid!)

 
I skipped the Night Owl class after the auction.    When I returned to the hotel room, I discovered the ants had discovered our food!  Cynthia and I ate all our meals in the van, going and coming.  We both have foods we avoid, and eating "out of an ice chest" is fast, and  cheap.  Well....when Cynthia got back to the room, we loaded up the food, and some other things that we had unpacked the night before but really didn't need and took them to the van.  Here starts a short but memorable story from Palmettos.  My van has "issues"--one of them being locked and unlocked doors and windows.  We were opening and closing door after door and one window after another on the van trying to get the stuff off the little luggage cart and back into the van in areas of "we won't need this" and "we need to be able to reach this" and "we might need this here at the conference.". The next morning, (Sorry, I can't remember who!) one of the ladies insisted on knowing who was out in the parking lot late at night.  She had gotten out of bed to use the restroom---saw someone in the parking lot and at first thought some of the tatters were for some reason leaving!  Then she thought someone was stealing a car (and she was going to get the license plate!)....then she just wanted to know why they kept opening and closing the doors----Glued to her window, watching--all the while she had an increasing need to use the restroom! 

Karey Solomon (*)

That night, I had trouble sleeping (what is new?  I get 3-5 hours of sleep a night at home....)   Well, around 2a.m. I got up and took my shower, and was down in the lobby by 3a.m.  I got some great tatting time in during the next few quiet hours....   I was ready for Karey Solomon's Early Bird Class at 6:30 - me and my now fried brain!  Poor Karey...I've been tatting for 30+ years--and all of a sudden I couldn't read her patterns or anyone else's.  I didn't understand all of a sudden whether or not the ds that makes the picot needed to be notated in the pattern or not.  Karey explained and explained--and my poor brain was just mush--it would not hold one new (or old for that matter) thought!  Karey ought to get a prize for her design--a really neat, fluffy sheep.  I must confess--I did not finish this project.  For some reason, I am just not into sheep-fluffy or otherwise. 

Photos with (*) are used courtesy the Palmettos Tatting Guild

Next blog post--Saturday's classes!

Short announcement!!!

  Karey must not have been THAT frustrated with me! 

 I am teaching my first conference class at the

 Finger Lakes Tatting Conference in April

Registrations are open NOW at http://www.fingerlakestatting.com/