Brrrrr….Let’s Knit

Posted on December 1, 2011 | 1 comment

Scarf, hat and small square knitted by 7 year-old Laurel. Hand knit sweater machine embroidered by Nana. Jeans purchased on eBay.

Just after Thanksgiving, we drove to Asheville, NC, on business with our son and his family.  We planned to head to our cabin as soon as we finished.  But instead, we found ourselves stuck in Asheville for two extra days, due to bad weather.  Not only was the weather abysmal  in Asheville, but also in the High Country area, which was under a severe weather advisory.  With snow and ice, it would have been foolish to drive up the steep mountain roads.

So we passed time at the hotel while granddaughter Laurel, 7, took up knitting needles to make some things for her doll Molly.   Six year-old grandson Robert spent the time relaxing with a book or watching football. Continue reading →

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Posted in doll clothing and accessories, Kids Sew

Embellished Ralph~White Wednesday

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 8 comments

There are so many wonderful opportunities for children to wear their holiday outfits, from the hometown Christmas parade to Santa’s lap pictures to church services and Christmas dinner.  Some of these events are casual while others require more formal wear. Given enough time, I like to make seasonal garments for my grandchildren to meet more than one of these occasions.

We all know the time saving benefits of starting with ready made fleece or tee shirts. But when I found this monotone smocked Ralph Lauren dress, marked down by 75%, I began to look at ready-to-wear with a broader view. I knew that with the addition of a little red and green hand embroidery, it would make a great Christmas dress for my 5 year old granddaughter.

Personally, I love tone-on-tone embroidery. But the ivory smocking, ivory silk ribbon embroidery and ivory bullions were just lost on this little ivory dress. Unless you viewed the child at her eye level, you would probably not even notice that the dress was smocked. Continue reading →

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Posted in girls, hand embroidery, smocking, White Wednesday

Shadow Work Christmas Collar

Posted on November 28, 2011 | 13 comments

Christmas 11 collar whole

 

Good grief!!!!  Less than a month until Christmas and I am just now getting the grandchildren’s holiday outfits together!  I’m sewing in the fast lane now.

 

center

 

The collar for 7-year old Laurel’s burgundy velveteen dress is finished.  Swiss cotton organdy has been tinted with coffee.  The collar pattern is from Sarah Howard Stone’s Basic Yoke Dress.

The collar is lined so that the embroidery stitches will not show and also so that  the effect of the strong burgundy color shadowing through the ivory organdy is diminished.  The lining covers only the spokes, not the insertion.  The contrast of the lace spokes against the dark velveteen is very pleasing.

 

Christmas 11 collar side2

 

The machine embroidered shadow work designs are from Suzanne Hinshaw’s Charming Embellishments collection.  Though the set was marketed for placemats and linens,  the designs are appropriate for many other purposes.

I really choked using metallic thread to outline the holly leaves.  But I thought Laurel would love it and I’m trying to mix a little contemporary in with my old fashioned Nana style.

 

xmas lace scan0001

 

Continue reading →

13 Comments

Posted in girls, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, shadow work by machine, techniques

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Thanksgiving and Sewing

Posted on November 26, 2011 | 4 comments

Does anyone actually sew up the turkey today?

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day.  Just as last year, we joined  our 2-1/2 year old grandson Alastair and his parents at the home of his paternal grandparents.  Though none of the six cooks at our dinner were decked out with starched white aprons,  the food at our harvest feast was gourmet quality.  Each contributed some of their best dishes.

The guest list included Alastair’s 90 year old great-grandmother, Ruby, who baked two divine pecan pies (and drove herself and those dessert delights to dinner!),  both sets of grandparents and a host of aunts and uncles.

I love family gatherings that include all ages, from babies to the elderly.  Two year old Alastair was the only little one and he entertained us as only energetic little boys can.  At the other end of the generation rainbow was Ruby, like the proverbial pot of gold.  Not only is she an excellent cook, but she is witty and entertaining—a joy to engage in conversation.

Even though the day is all about thankfulness and food, as usual, sewing projects were evident amid all the festivities.  Still, no one sewed up the turkey. Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, girls, Holiday Projects, home dec, machine embroidery

Thanksgiving Hostess Gift

Posted on November 23, 2011 | 3 comments

Once again, we’ve been invited to share Thanksgiving dinner with our daughter’s in-laws.    Alastair’s paternal grandmother, “Oma,” will host a huge gathering of family at her beautiful country home.  Seated at the table, amidst 20 month-old baby Alastair and 89 year-old Great Grandmother Ruby, will be teenage cousins, young marrieds, middle-aged aunts, uncles and four reluctantly “senior” grandparents.  The dinner  table will look like a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover.

design from Dakota Collectibles~Holidays and Seasons

This dish towel is a  tiny token of our appreciation for being included in this warm family celebration of Thanksgiving.  My mother always taught me to never go empty handed.  This dishtowel will last longer than the pumpkin and mincemeat pies I will bring along as my contribution to the dinner.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Holiday Projects, home dec, machine embroidery, Nana fun, serger

Fun, Friends and Flapjacks

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 3 comments

What a fabulous visit I had with Terri Click a few days ago! She had been teaching in Orlando and stopped by my house for a too-brief visit. It seems that visits from sewing friends are always too short, but we made the most of the time we had.  Mostly, we talked–about sewing, about life, about sewing and more about sewing.  It’s great to have a friend who shares your passion for needlework.

She brought me two one-of-a-kind gifts that I treasure. The first is the sweet pincushion  shown above.  Old sweaters provided the materials for this!   Terri has many talents, but the making silk purses out of sows’ ears is at the top of the list.  I like this so much better than a silk purse.  You would enjoy visiting her blog.

The sweater/pincushion is attached to a felt  base made from her beloved Big Shot Sizzix die-cutting machine.  I need to learn more about that!

The second gift is a screen printed dishtowel, made long enough to be easily converted into an apron.  Isn’t that clever?  Screen printing is another new skill  that she is honing.  The tangerines are the first of this year’s crop from one of our trees.  We were so busy talking that we forgot to pack them up for her to take home to South Carolina.

This is the Old Spanish Sugar Mill. The water wheel no longer turns but the gears and basic parts are still inside the ancient building.

For breakfast, we went to one of our family’s favorite haunts, the Old Spanish Sugar Mill located inside the 600 acre DeLeon Springs State Park. Continue reading →

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Posted in uncategorized

Machine Shadow Embroidery-Design and Tutorial Sources

Posted on November 19, 2011 | 8 comments
Work in progress...machine shadow embroidered spoke collar, definitely not-yet-ready-for-prime-time. The fabric is coffee dyed Swiss organdy. The dress will be made of burgundy velveteen.

Work in progress…machine shadow embroidered spoke collar, definitely not-yet-ready-for-prime-time. The fabric is coffee dyed Swiss organdy. The dress will be made of burgundy velveteen.

 

I’m busily working on Christmas outfits for my grandchildren and have started with a shadow work collar for Laurel.  Pictured above, it is fresh out of the embroidery hoop, in need of a good soak to get rid of the blue Dixon lines and the UltraSolvy water soluble stabilizer.  But you get the idea.

 

collar with hand stitched shadow work

collar with hand stitched shadow work

 

Shadow embroidery is one of my favorite needlework techniques.  Several earlier posts feature this technique both by hand and by hooped machine embroidery.

machine shadow embroidered baby pillow

 

As I sat in front of my big Brother Duetta (as opposed to Laurel’s little Brother 300SE), watching it do all the work, I recalled that readers  have commented that they cannot find machine shadow work designs for sale. So I did a little sleuthing before writing this post and located  some sources.

 

LinenGuestantallBrite

 

Suzanne Hinshaw, who developed and patented this technique, no longer sells  them.  However, a few of her collections are still available at AllBrands, including  gorgeous Shadowed Bouquets and Charming Embellishments, which is the source of the designs on the collar. FYI, it is my understanding that when these few sets are gone, there will be no more.

A set of two of Suzanne’s designs for holiday towels (linen) are available at Heirlooms Forever at half price.

Brer Rabbit Designs now has a variety of lovely shadow work designs for sale. This site belongs to Laurie Anderson of Southern Stitches, who regularly contributes to Sew Beautiful magazine.  Everything she makes is beautiful so it’s probably a safe bet to say that her shadow work designs are too.

So for those of you who might like to  try shadow work by embroidery machine, you can purchase designs at these sites.  There is an excellent tutorial at Nancy Zeiman’s site, along with information about her new book with a gorgeous shadow work floral heart design included.

 

Xmas-collar-laceBRITE1

 

I look forward to telling you more about my grandchildren’s Christmas outfits.  There is an interesting story about the spectacular lace for Laurel’s collar and a recipe for dying the organdy to a soft ivory. And I would love to hear about your projects.

What are you making for Christmas?

 

 

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Posted in hand embroidery, machine embroidery, shadow work by machine, techniques

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Machines and Equiptment

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 4 comments

Having finally finished the complete cleaning and reorganization of my sewing room–HURRAH!!!–, I am now ready to tackle the disposal of some of my mother’s sewing equipment.  She loved to sew, but these items have seen very little use in the past several years.   All were well loved and well maintained.

More to come…..

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Posted in uncategorized

Knitted Christening Gown

Posted on November 15, 2011 | 13 comments

 

knitted christening gownEall

It was mentioned earlier that knitting was my first needleart.  Actually, for many, many years, it was my only  needleart.  So when I was awaiting the birth of our first child, my knitting needles were going non-stop.

This christening gown was one of the first projects I began for our eagerly awaited baby.  A delicate white knitted lace shawl was knitted immediately after the gown.

Unlike today, when this dress was made, expectant mothers rarely knew what gender their babies would be.  For many readers, that dates this dress circa Cave Man Era.  So when I decided—for whatever reason I don’t recall— to add lace with color, I purchased yardage in both pink and blue.

Days after our son was born, the blue lace was stitched in place. Four years later, when our daughter was born, the blue lace was removed and replaced with the pink trim which remains today.

 

knitted christening EcloseBrite

 

Continue reading →

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Posted in infant clothing, White Wednesday

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Lunch Linen and Free Mary Frances eBook

Posted on November 13, 2011 | 3 comments

NEWS FLASH!  The  Mary Frances Adventures Among the Thimble People sewing book is still available as a free download from this fabulous homeschooler site.  Not only that but now you can also download–for free–the Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting  Book  These were promoted as one-day only freebies.  But apparently, they remain on the site for some time.

This week has been filled with delightful visits from  two South Carolina friends.  First, Terri Click (The Thrifty Needle blog) of Conway arrived after teaching in Orlando.  I’ll share more of that visit in a future post.  She snapped some pictures and  has posted photos of my sewing room   (gulp….) on her blog.

Then just yesterday my high school friend Carole of Bluffton stopped by with her husband on their way to DisneyWorld.

Having planned to serve lunch on the breakfast porch, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use this charming vintage tablecloth, which is just the right size.  It teamed up nicely with my favorite, everyday Blue Willow china and this robust African violet.  When Suzanne Sawko gave me the pot, the plant was no more than three tiny rooted starts.  Now it overflows the container and blooms profusely, nonstop.  I’m so pleased with it. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in antique textiles, antique/vintage textiles, hand embroidery, home dec, uncategorized