Some Memorial Day Stitching

As I mentioned in the last post, we had family over for a Memorial Day Barbecue, not on Memorial Day, but the day before, on Sunday. On Memorial Day we cleaned up and relaxed. But on Sunday, the weather was cool and breezy and of course I decided I needed tablecloths on the patio tables. Well, you can imagine what that lovely breeze thought of me and my silly tablecloth idea. So I decided to figure out how to weigh down the corners of the tablecloths and came up with putting some smooth river stones in spice bags and using clothespins to clip the bags to the tablecloths. Then I decided that I could make cute bags from all the fabric I have. I had just enough time to make one fabric bag using some patriotic fabric from my stash.

I have to admit, it's a pretty dorky looking bag, what with the loose threads and all. But it did the job and kept the tablecloths in place all during the breezy dinner.

Then today, while just hanging around doing nothing, I remembered a post I had seen on Purl Bee about crocheted stones. At the time I thought this just a mite odd, but then today realized that they could be not only cute but functional. 

I dug out some bedspread crochet cotton, a #6 steel crochet hook, and whipped this little number up in just a few minutes. It's actually pretty cute, and will be especially darling if I did a bunch in red, white and blue for the Fourth. I'll put a loop on the side and clip them onto the tablecloths with a clothes pin. This particular pattern is from the Purl Bee link above, but if you are half conversant in crochet you could adapt any doily pattern to fit around a stone. Obviously I'm not even half conversant in crochet or I wouldn't have that loopy thing in the center. After I make a few I'm sure they will look a bit better.

What a lovely weekend it was, but back to work in the morning! I hope all of you (and I) can manage to get a bit of stitching in this week!