Kylie's Blessing Gown is under Construction

I finished smocking the blessing gown yoke.

The dress is smocked from the shoulder, to the empire waist.

Little diamonds, smocked with pearle cotton.
I outlined the cutting line of the bodice with a washable marker.
Then I stitched along that line, and stitched a 1/4" inside the first stitching line.  The smocking should be stabilized enough for me to cut the boice and join it to the back of the dress.

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I smocked 22 rows of half space diamonds!

45 minutes per row equals 990 minutes, that is 16.5 hours.....

I sewed some flat lace in the middle of the sleeve.  

I cut the sleeve in half vertically, and sewed the lace to each piece using an heirloom technique. 

 Then I added 5 pin tucks on each side of the lace.

I still have to create the band and ruffle for the sleeve.

All for this sweet little angel in the hopes that she will pass this gown down to one of her daughters :)

I love being a grandmother ♥

Sewing Room Inspiration

I have been really busy lately with life, and am almost finished smocking Kylie's blessing dress.  I will show you my progress soon:)

I surround myself with things that inspire me in my sewing room.

Today, I am going to show you some of those things....

and none of them include fabric!!!

My son Sean is serving a 2 year church mission in Brazil.

He wanted to pack his "Woody", but I snuck it out of his trunk so that I would have a physical reminder of him in my sewing room!

Isn't he cute?  He talks and when you take his hat off, he says, "Wait just a second, something's missing, my hat!" 

When you put his hat back on his head he says, 

"Well thank you kindly.  A cowboy ain't a cowboy without his cowboy hat."

My collection of Nancy Drew books with a cool stallion book end.

My music box sewing machine that plays "Buttons and Bows".

The wheel moves around and the pedal goes up and down.

My mother gave it to me :)

My twine collection and roll of 100 wish tickets. 

It says, "If I had a hundred wishes I would give them all to you."

Favorite photos, washi tape and a sculpture my mother made.

I just noticed that in the photos, I'm a little girl, a bride and a grandmother.  I guess I skipped the "mom" phase......Lol!

My daughter Lindsay made me this twinkly star years ago.
I always put it in a prominent place to remind me of her :)

This is a beautiful poem about a quilter.

My dear friend Joni wrote the poem and gave it to me for my birthday.  The mat is covered with an antique hand pieced quilt.

Here is a closer look at the poem so you can read it.

This is a piece of doll furniture I had when I was a little girl.

A cute little Boyds bear in one of my Anthropologie bowls.

This is my button collection.  The three bottles on the left are filled with antique buttons.  The BYU milk bottle is full of buttons I have been collecting for over 40 years.  

Old spools that I embellish with some favorite trims.

A little sewing box filled with old treasures.

I especially love the red and blue buttons :)

You can never have too much rick rack, that is what I keep telling myself!

These are just some of the treasures that inspire me in my sewing room.

Watercolors

My mom is visiting me from Montreal, my native land!

She is an artist, mainly a sculptor and a painter.

Mom brought some of her watercolor paints with her.

We painted together and she gave me some tips.

I have painted with watercolor in High School, I took my easel and paints, and sat in front of the Cathedral Notre Dame and painted it.

Sadly, it is rolled up in a cardboard tube.  I never got it framed.

I also painted with watercolor when I was in Fashion Design and Merchandising at Ryerson in Toronto.

We did some simple exercises.

This is Mom's flower :)

This is my flower.

This is Mom's tree, I especially love the trunk and the leaves :)

This is mine, I won't point out the things I don't like about it because everyone is always more critical of their own work!

I was at Rebecca's (my oldest daughter) house last weekend, looking after the children while Rebecca went grocery shopping.

I went upstairs and came across this beautiful artwork that Rebecca drew of  Benjamin.

  I hope that she keeps practicing, because she is so talented!

She had this ink drawing on her fridge and I took a photo, magnet and all!

I am still smocking Kylie's blessing gown, it is extremely time consuming!

I will post a  photo of my progress on Monday :)

Thanks for sticking with me. xo

Benjamin's Blessing

I smocked Benjamin's blessing outfit, there are photos here and here.

I promised you photos of the big day, so here they are!

My husband and me with little Benjamin.

The star of the show, Benjamin.

He is a happy little guy, he's always content :)

It was a big day for Benjamin, so a little snoozing was in order!

I love this photo!

This is Benjamin's cousin, Kylie.  They are four months apart in age.  I am currently making her blessing gown and bonnet.

I thought this photo is so cute, because they are holding hands :)

Vanessa is my youngest daughter and Bridger and Kennedy are my oldest grandchildren.

Kennedy is wearing a dress that I smocked for Vanessa when she was Kennedy's age.

My son Sean is on a 2 year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

 He will be 20 years old on Friday, so I surprised him in his weekly email with this photo.  

Our five oldest children and their spouses (Vanessa's husband couldn't make it), and my husband's sister and her son on the end.

These two year olds wanted to hold the poster all by themselves!

I hope you enjoyed the show :)

Joni Hilton

I wanted to spotlight my friend and author and woman of so many talents, Joni Hilton.

Joni was the first person I met at church when I was visiting California, 2 years ago.  When she said her name, I asked her if she was "the" Joni Hilton!  I had read many of her books and admired her penmanship, creativity and sense of humor.

  Guess what, she is "the" Joni Hilton :)

Joni has written all of these books, and more!

She is a playwright, writes for Music and the Spoken Word, Meridian magazine and so much more, too numerous to mention. 

(Google her name....)

Joni's husband Bob is pretty famous too....

He was the voice on the game show "Let's Make a Deal". 

 Monty Hall would say, "Bob, tell them what they won!". 

 He was also the announcer on the game show

Truth or Consequences with Bob Barker.

Joni has a fun blog with some of her thoughts and funny life experiences, it's called Joniopolis.

Currently, Joni has a radio show which is broadcast online as well.

Every Saturday morning, 9 am Pacific time.

I downloaded an app for my iphone/ipad called tunein radio.

I find the station that Joni is on, and set it as my favorite.

I listen to the show as often as I can, but haven't been brave enough to call in yet!  Ha ha!!!

Maybe there is a question you have for Joni :)

iphone and Android Apps

Now and then I will scroll through the App Store.

Have you ever done that, type in a key word and search it?

I typed the word fabric and 163 apps came up!

There is a Stashanize app that helps you organize your fabric!!! , but it costs $2.99.

99% of the apps I download are free, I really hate paying for them.

I will list the ones I found interesting, and they are all free.

 How Much Thread which is sponsored by Superior Threads.  It tells you how much thread you will need to sew a quilt!

 Tear N Burn.  It is 3D virtual cloth you can tear and burn! Weird....

Purex Laundry Help, it has a stain guide, fabric care, clothing label decoder and laundry timer :)

Washing Machine by Wimbledon Sound. It's ridiculous!!!

You watch a front loading washing machine fill up with water and spin the clothes while a rapper is singing about getting your clothes bright and clean in your washing machine.  Ha ha!!! I downloaded it just to try.  It was comical but I would never want to wash I mean watch it again.... LOL.

There are lots of apps for sewing magazines.

I did find an app that I have used a few times when I travel.

It's called Quilty.  It's really simple, it takes you to maps, your current location.  It will pin point all the fabric and quilt shops in your surrounding area.  I used it when I went to Walnut Creek and found two very nice quilt shops.  I also used it in San Francisco.

One of my favorite "fabric" apps is Jo-Ann fabrics.  

When I need to purchase pins, measuring tape, washi tape, buttons, quilt books, fabric, anything that isn't on sale......I open the app and tap on coupons and at least two 40% or 50% or 20% off entire order are there waiting for me to use.  I show the phone with the coupon to the cashier and she scans it and I save a lot of money!

Go to joann.com on your smartphone, there is always a 40% coupon on the front page that you can use in addition to the ones in the app itself.

Have fun shopping in the app store and if you find anything good that I haven't mentioned here, let me know :)

  

Benjamin's Button-On Suit

I can't believe I got it done! 

I am so excited about finishing Benjamin's blessing outfit :)

I love how it turned out, I hope his mom will be happy with it.

I sewed my heart out....

Did I mention that the last time I sewed this pattern, it was for my now 19 year old son?  Lol...He was 3 when I made him his last smocked outfit. 

 We lived in the South so it wasn't uncommon to look like "Little Lord Fontleroy".

The pants are little knickers.  (cute!)

I used six antique buttons to attach the pants to the shirt.

The fabric is Swiss cotton.

I added a little label to the inside of the shirt.

This is a view of the back of the shirt.

I used antique pearl buttons and only two are the same.

I thought it added character to have them all just a little different.

Benjamin's blessing is on Sunday.

I will share photos of Benjamin in his outfit next Wednesday.

I hope it fits him okay, keep your fingers crossed :)