It's a Wedding Dress!

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My daughter Katrina came to me last spring, asking me to be an advisor for a wedding dress one of her best friends had asked her to make.  Of course I would!  We have known Hannah, the bride, and her family since the grade school years. 

What ended up happening was two long and intense and super fun weekends of dress planning and construction.  And after that, a most wonderful wedding! 

Creative Quilt Ties

What really intrigued me about this quilt were the "ties".  Instead of the usual yarn or thread knotting, this quilter "tied" her quilt with oversize lazy daisy stitches!  Sometimes, she used a contrasting thread that lets the stitches really show.

Here's the stitching, front and back.  Very clever, don't you think?  And the brocade on the back is really lovely! 

 

A New Family Member

Well, if my beloved Bernina 830 is my first child, which it undoubtedly is, I am proud to announce the addition of its twin to the family.

A short while ago, I joined a Facebook group called Vintage Bernina Sewing Machines.  I soon became aware that lots of people are as in love with this model as I have been.

Look at These Cool Buttons!

I did a tiny bit of repair on this jacket, and fell in love with the buttons.  It's a cropped polar fleece jacket from the late 1980s or early 90s.  (And for sale, if you're interested, at my friend Julia's Etsy shop.)  The jacket is by Spanish designer Celia Tejada.  And let me tell you, she had quite an eye for choosing buttons!

Has anyone out there ever seen a button styled like this?  I haven't!  I mean really, how fun is this?!

There are appliquéd red rectangles at the buttonholes, so when the jacket is closed, these clever buttons get the spotlight they deserve!

Here's to those who step out of the box!

A Glimpse of the Past

Today I've been mending vintage clothes for Basya Berkman Vintage Fashion.

One of my "patients" is a 1960s-70s dress that needed a new hem.  I found a nice coral hem tape in amongst my stash of vintage sewing supplies.

The reason I'm telling you this, really, is because of the label on the package.

Mushrooms 2017

As I've mentioned, I do enjoy walking about taking photos.  It's a kind of meditation and mindfulness for me.

We let our yard grow fairly wild, very wild in places.  The lawn area has so much "other" besides grass that we've taken to calling it a meadow.  There is lots of clover.  Lots of violets.  There is Queen Anne's Lace, which we let grow up tall in some places and mow in others.  There is oxalis.  There is usually plantain, though as I write this, I'm thinking that I haven't seen much this year.  This time of the year, there are little Black Eyed Susans in amongst the Queen Anne's.  For several years we had an expanding fairy ring of mushrooms.  I planted wild geranium and ferns when we moved in, and those have expanded.  There are many other things that I can't name.

Eclipse 2017

Eclipse. I saw it. Totality. So amazing! More amazing than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be amazing.

We picked Paducah, KY, for our eclipse watching destination, as any self-respecting quilter would do.  The exhibits at the National Quilt Museum are so thoughtful and beautifully displayed.  It's so heartwarming to have this institution preserving and promoting the creativity and successes of our dedicated quilt artists.