Lael Morgan

A member of Craftree.com was lucky enough to pick up a few tatting items from a friend, one of which was a Lael Morgan tatting shuttle.  The shuttles were made in the 1970s and are not very common.  I do not have one.

Lael Morgan shuttle

It was mentioned in the comments that Lael Morgan had a website, which I visited.  I found that she is an author.  Not surprising for a person who had a patent for a tatting shuttle she had written a book on tatting.  Lace-Lovin’ Diane wrote about it on her blog a few years ago.

Tatting book by Lael Morgan

But that wasn’t the only book she wrote.  She wrote at least nine other books as well.  There was only the one that was about tatting, the others were much different.  There is even one on earthquake survival.  A lot of the books are about Alaska or people from or living in Alaska.  Including “Good Time Girls.”

Non-fiction book by Lael Morgan

My husband traveled to Alaska last year and brought home this book.  I didn’t realize the author knew anything about tatting until the conversation on Craftree.  I haven’t read it yet, it’s been borrowed by my brother-in-law.  I will definitely be reading through it when it comes back home.  I want to find out if there is any mention of tatting in it.

Have you read any of Lael Morgan’s books?  Do you have one of her shuttles?

“Historically, Alaska is a place that has attracted those fed up with conventionality.”    Bill O’Reilly                                                                                              brainyquote.com

Ice, wildlife, lumberjacks, and totem poles

We've been very busy since coming back from our vacation and had to bet back into our normal routine, but I'm still reminiscing about our cruise to Alaska.

Besides decorating a few buttons I made a few bookmarks while on the cruise.  They are also in Lizbeth #130 Island Breeze and #122 Caribbean in size 20. I wasn't following a pattern, just going where the shuttles took me.  Okay, on the first one in Caribbean. The second one was similar to the first with a few changes that I thought I'd try.

We spent a day in Glacier Bay.   With all that ice close by it was the coolest day we had on the trip.  The glaciers are spectacular! 

This is Margerie Glacier, which is at the end of the bay, almost into Canada.  The ship gets pretty close to it then slowly spins in place several times so that everyone, no matter which side of the ship you're on, will get a chance to see it.  It calves small pieces of ice (relatively small) pretty frequently but you have to be looking in the right place at just the right time to see them go.  This glacier is huge and quite high.  While we were in the bay they had two park rangers aboard to explain what we were seeing (over the loud speakers) and to answer questions (in person).  

 There are a lot of small islands that we passed that had sea lions sunning themselves.  I took these pictures with the long lens of the camera.  From where I was on the deck I couldn't make out for sure what they looked like but I hoped they would be visible when viewing on my computer - and they were!

There were a lot of them!

I didn't see any whales as I was never looking in the right direction at the right time but others did see them at a distance.

The scenery all around was breathtaking.  We spent a lot of time out on the observation decks just enjoying the world go by. 

The next day we were in Ketchikan.  We went to the Lumberjack show there, which was a lot of fun! 

There are a lot of totem poles in Ketchikan, and beautiful gardens. 

(Check out the yarn store in the background.  I understand Debbie Macomber stopped in for awhile.)

It was hard to get the very top of the totem pole in the picture.

This sign explained this particular totem pole. 

We walked quite a bit while we were in Ketchikan.  I stopped for a few minutes on our way back to catch my breath. That's our ship, the Norwegian Pearl, behind me.

Ketchikan, Alaska as we were sailing away.

I'd like to be sailing back :-)

"John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you'll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live.  And there's a lot of truth to that."

Tom Bodett

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Juneau

I took two balls of thread, Lizbeth #130 Island Breeze and #122 Caribbean in size 20, and a handful of buttons to decorate with me when we left for Alaska.  I figured that buttons are small, easy to do, don't take a lot of thought and would be easy to give away if the opportunity came up.   These four, plus the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, are the buttons (okay, and one doodad) that I made while we were on the cruise.  The ones on the top and the left I made first using only one shuttle.  The one on the right didn't come out like I was hoping but I may find a place to use it.  The bottom one was very frilly until I blocked it.  I'm not sure how it has eleven points but I like it and am not worried about it.  If I try it again I'll probably figure it out :-)

The rest of today's pictures are from our stop in Juneau.  I thought I was going to have a few pictures from the ship, too, but somehow they didn't make it.  Probably next week.

If you're ever in the Juneau area I highly recommend visiting Glacier Gardens, they are absolutely gorgeous!  There are these lovely dead trees (yes, dead trees) that are in the ground upside down with beautiful plants in the root systems.  

Everywhere you look are lush plants.  It is a rain forest.

A lovely, lovely place to visit.

Just outside of Juneau is the Juneau Icefield, the start of Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls, which is fed by the glacier.  We didn't think we had time to make it to the falls, which was a mile hike both ways (we didn't want the bus to leave without us).

The glacier as seen through the long lens of our camera. It is several miles away from where we were.  There is nothing over there that you can compare it to for size.  

But you can see how large Nugget Falls is when you see the people at the foot.  This picture is with the long lens of our camera.

We visited so many places and there were so many things to see and do that I didn't get a chance to tat at all of them, but I did remember here. It was a bit chilly and damp so it really was only a few stitches. 

The ship was only in Juneau for a few hours so there were many things we didn't get to see.  We'd really like to go back, but it will have to be a few years down the road.  If you get the chance to visit, DO IT!

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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