New CQ Books, Doily for Exchange and Ivan's Alien and Machine

List mom, Sue, is going to start a CQ Challenge on the HBT group, and I want to join to learn something new. I just had to get these when the bookstore was offering a 20% sale over National Day. Now to digest them.

My latest tatting project is a doily for an exchange. Although I had intended to come up with an original when I first signed up, I couldn't resist doing something from Iris Niebach's books since I got them now. Perhaps my tension is tight and my doily is just shy of the 5-inch requirement, I went on to add my own outer round to Iris' design, and here's a peep at it. Still need to block it and it will be on its way to its recipent.

Ivan has been doing some sketching, here's one alien, and another is a first sketch of a machine. He has done another bigger one with annotation, but I haven't taken a picture yet.