Happy Labor Day Weekend & Nailbinding Supplies

 Good morning Friday dear Friends,

   One of our neighbors here at the lake arrived last night, on the other side of us, I expect their family to arrive later today. Not many boats so far on the lake, but what a gorgeous weekend for those that will be out and about.

  I just finished dragging out the hose to water my perennials, which I really should have been doing at least once a week this month. Everything is sooooo dry, the black walnuts are already dropping-too early so wondering if there are nuts inside. I do have a stash already of the dried hulls-for making ink and paints. I did make a batch of ink a few years ago that I am still using. If interested I have a search tool way at the bottom of my blog page where you can search for black walnut ink. I love using this ink for my letter writing to my slow mail friends, and it works as a watercolor paint too  Love the color

  I did splurge yesterday and bought the book on nailbinding that is suppose to be one of the better ones. I also went on Etsy and bought a couple of handmade needles-I love buying things like this on Etsy to support craftsman.

  The price of this book is all over the place-Have seen it as high as $50-75.00 and up  I ended up buying it on amazon as they had the best price-just under $35.00  I even looked around the internet to see if any libraries would let you read it online-but didn't see one-this is a book better to have too.

I would also like to pick up this book as well,  which had good reviews-but the above book looks like is has everything plus patterns

Watching more videos on this subject I found one where he likes the needle to have two holes-you can run two colors of wool or he says if you put your yarn through both holes it is more secure while working.

So I bought one of each-the one hole needle was from the leg bone of a deer-traditional-and the other one with two holes I could choose from lots of different hard woods

   Sometimes I feel a little guilty buying new things like this at my age-but I think it is also good to keep learning new things.  So I am excited about this project and the Amish toothbrush rug project too-which finally got  mailed off. 

   

  In comments on last post about this craft, someone asked me if I could use the same wooden needle for both of these projects, I think not as the nailbinding  needs a slimmer needle and the opening is larger too for the rug making-to load the 2 1/2" wide cotton fabrics.  here is a photo from online

  Here is a photo of the  nailbinding needle I bought made from deer bone from here I got to thinking my husband probably has one of these needles in his possibles bag from the time he did mountain man reenactments

and the 2 hole needle from here  This shop also has natural dyes from his woods looks like-could be good for making inks and watercolor paints

 For some reason I decided I wanted to make a pot of bean soup today. I chose a mixed bag of dried beans along with half a bag of split peas-as that will help thicken the soup. Also found some ham in the freezer for soups.  Will probably make up a small cast iron pan of cornbread to go with it.

  Also I was not paying attention, but today I noticed that the sunrise was much later this morning than before-fall is coming Smiling.

  Any plans for Labor Day weekend (if in the USA) ?   I have been so waiting for cooler weather and fall to arrive-that now it will finally be arriving soon. I am so ready for it-hoping we have good weather for working outdoors-but first we need rain.

  Happy weekend