Riley's Blessing Gown

This post has a lot of photos, because it's about my "oh so cute" grand daughter, Riley Jordan and her special day.

I began a tradition of making each grandchild an heirloom blessing gown that they can pass down to their children.

This is my fourteenth one :)

I use natural fabrics and laces, the lace on the arm band is called Swiss insertion, and the beautiful lace on the edge of the sleeve is called French lace edging.

I used Imperial Batiste for this gown, so that it wouldn't wrinkle.

I embroidered the yoke and added seed pearls.

The edge of the lace with the little holes, is called entredeux.

Entredeux is French for "between two".

Attaching entredeux is very difficult on the eyes, lol!

It's attached with a zig zag stitch, and each time the needle crosses over, it has to catch each little hole with the needle.

This machine method finishes off the seam allowances, but each piece of lace is attached using 3 different methods.

It's very labor intensive.

Each of the 14 gowns (3 have been for boys) 

I've made are unique.

This is the slip, which I've made for each gown.

Each of those pieces of lace have been attached to each other separately.

I embroidered a design at the front of the hem, 

also with seed pearls.

In the 1800's or earlier, when women hand made these gowns,

they would embroider the child's initials at the back of the hem.

The intent is that each child who wears the gown will have their initials embroidered to the existing initials.

Eventually, there will be initials embroidered all around the hem.

That's partly why I use natural fibers, 

so that it will last throughout the years.

The first name (Riley) is always in the middle, her middle initial J, is on the left, and her family name H is on the right.

That's the old fashioned way to do it!

I also use mother of pearl buttons on the back.

Here comes cuteness overload, but Riley was very serious.

I looked after her one evening and she missed her mom :)

This is Riley in her gown and bonnet, the day of her blessing.

This is Riley's pretty mom, Kimalee.

There was a lot going on that day, and I wasn't able to get a photo of Riley with both of her parents.

This is my favorite!

I also smock the bonnet and use silk satin ribbon.

I borrowed Riley from her aunt for a quick photo, but she was pretty done with pictures, lol!

I mean really done!!!!

Riley has a beautiful smile, and here it is!

If you've followed this far, thank you :)

Lucy's Toothfairy Envelope

My grand daughter Lucy just turned 5 and needed something to leave her tooth in for the tooth fairy.

I told her to draw a picture of the tooth fairy and she drew her with lots of sparkles and flowers!

I was surprised that only used a pencil, so I took the liberty of choosing the colors :)

Lucy's  hair is blonde, she has blue eyes 

and her favorite color is red.

I taped Lucy's drawing to my light box and traced the image onto white cotton, then I embroidered it.

I made an envelope for Lucy to write a letter to the tooth fairy and the little "fussy cut cat" pocket is for her tooth.

I just wrote a little something in fabric pen.

This is one of my traditions that I do for my grandchildren, making them an envelope for the tooth fairy.

This one is pretty big, the others have been pretty small.

I just go with the design I guess :)

A Very Vintage Christmas

I'm going to make a set of placemats for 

each member of our family.

I may only have time to make them for one family a year though!

I just love this Santa!!!

I machine quilted curls on his beard :)

I made the vintage ornament, which I also love!

The pocket on the right side holds utensils, a napkin and maybe a cute paper straw.

A bonus photo of me, lol!!!

I made the toy soldiers, which I call the tin soldiers.

They had a lot of pieces!

I'm partial to the ice skate, which I call the figure skate.

How I wished I had pink figure skates when I was taking lessons many years ago :)

We put skate covers on top of our skates to match our outfits.

I machine stitched a cursive "K" for Kennedy.

If I had to do it over again, I would machine quilt the skate, 

it's a pretty large surface to leave unquilted.

Then I would hand embroider a red K.

Mr. Ginger is so cute!!!

If I make him again, I would embroider his face in white so it would show up better.

I used vintage ric rac for the trim.

Dolly is very pretty!

I like her sparkly blonde hair :)

I loved receiving photos of my daughter and son in law with their placemats.

My grandchildren loved them!

Don't they match their personalities!

 They said they felt very festive with their Christmas placemats Saturday morning when they had fancy donuts and other delicous food for breakfast.

I made 9 l//2" pot holders for our gift exchange at my

Farm Girl Chicks quilt group.

I chose pretty fabric for the back :)

This book is full of awesomeness, I'll be sewing Christmas projects for many years!

I really want to make the cover quilt, but I might not get it finished for a couple of years.

I've always wanted a Christmas bed set!

Have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones!

Christmas Decor

There's a little space that my vintage ladder fits in perfectly!

I'm displaying Lori Holt's

 "Have yourself a quilty Little Christmas" quilt.

That was such a fun quilt to make!

Lori posted tutorials for the blocks one at a time, on Instagram.

When all the blocks were made, 

they all came together like a puzzle.

This full size nutcracker stands guard at the front door.

In the hall, we have a Norwegian Santa.

 I've been collecting bottle brush trees and 

vintage Christmas houses.

I really love vintage decor, it reminds me of the decorations my mother put up when I was a little girl.

 This is my little Santa corner.

I didn't put up our Christmas tree this year, so I decorated our winter wonderland trees.

Those boxes are gifts from one of our daughters :)

The stockings are handmade in Czechoslovakia, they belonged to my brother and I many years ago!

This little cutie is our grand daughter Maisie.

Her dad is dressed up as Santa, 

that's why she looks so relaxed and trusting.

I love this shot of Santa and our son Sean when he was 5 years old.

Santa told him to take a nap and snap, we have a memory!

Love, love, love this photo of our grandchildren!!!

Lucy sees something horrific in the book, or maybe she's terrorized just because she's sitting in Santa's lap!

It's so funny how the other children are 

completely ignoring Lucy's terror, 

looking very angelic and peaceful.

My mother in law purchased this nativity when she visited Israel.

They are hand carved out of olive wood.

I really love Jim Shore's creations, especially this nativity.

Jim carves and paints quilted motifs on all of his work.

You can't live in Arizona without some cactus decor!

Next year I'll adorn them with some little lights.

I patterned my hot chocolate stand from Pottery Barn.

I'm going to give it a Valentine theme after Christmas.

Thanks so much for following along :)

Perfect 10 Sampler quilt along, week 9

I really enjoyed making this Perfect 10 Sampler quilt!

I used a layer cake from Lori Holt's "Autumn Love"collection.

The quilt blocks were large, and they were easy to make.

I love the Perfect 10 Quilts book too!

 There is a quilt pattern for every block in the sampler.

I love that!

I have so many quilt patterns now, I'm not sure which one I'm going to make first :)

To make this quilt, you need:

1. Perfect 10 Quilts book

2. Perfect 10 ruler

3. layer cake

4. background fabric

Easy Peasy!!!

It has been wonderful working with Fat Quarter Shop!

They're an awesome quilt shop, with a fabulous selection and unbelievable sales.

Please check out my fellow bloggers finished quilt tops.

Gina of Thread Graffiti
Greg of Grey Dogwood Studio
Heidi of Buttons and Butterflies
Jennie of Porch Swing Quilts
Kim of Persimon Dreams
Melanie of A Bit of Scrap Stuff
Pam of Pam Kitty Morning
Sinta of Pink Pincushion
Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts