Gifts from Linda

Earlier this year, I received a message from Linda Williams asking about the doily I had been working on. We got to talking and she emailed me some pictures of Ice Drops that she had made, some with a sparkly light blue thread (I mistakenly thought it was blocked with glitter glue at first). The thread is Altin Basak, and unfortunately it is being discontinued. Linda surprised me by saying she could still get a hold of the thread, and generously offered to send me a ball. Well, I wasn't expecting all of the other goodies that came along with it!

She sent a ball of the sparkly blue Altin Basak, and some spools of gold and silver Oren Bayan thread:

I also got a couple of Ice Drops which I will be hanging on my Christmas tree this year, and two pretty bracelets:

The silver bracelet has a magnetic clasp which I love. It snaps on and off so easily. If I ever start tatting jewelry, I'll have to look into those magnetic clasps. I didn't know they existed!

Lastly, she sent me a few cards, both of which say "Happy Birthday" on the front. Coincidence, or did she know it was my birthday a few days ago? Thank you Linda, for all of the wonderful gifts.

It was great timing as I had just come back from a birthday trip to Breaks Interstate Park to find Linda's package in the mail. The park has wonderful scenic overlooks of the Appalachian Mountains, but photos fail to capture the feeling of actually being there:

While at the park cottage, I got a little more tatting done on the table runner. Here's what it looks like now:

You can see more of the pattern emerging, though the finished runner is still a bit of a mystery.