Wedding Dress Progress

After much agonizing about ruining this beautiful fabric and the reassurance of the wonderful ladies at Le Fabrique I finally set my mind to finishing the dress. Or at least get the skirt started. Renee is coming up for a last fitting at the end of the week. I have been busy in my sewing room for the past two days. I have to do the hemming and attach the pick ups. All of which needs to be done after Renee tries the dress on. I really enjoy working with this fabric. It feels very luxurious.

Next --- the bridesmaid dresses.

Quilt Finished and Wedding Dress

Baby Girl McKay's quilt is finally finished. If it will stop snowing for a few days I can get it in the mail. Actually I'm looking for a box big enough to mail it and some other items.

And boy have we ever had snow this year. We are have broken an all time season snowfall record with 55" of snow so far. There is still several weeks of winter left. The kids in the city schools missed 2 days last week and 3 days this week. We have been lucky with the last two storms as the biggest part of those storms hit further north of here. We still have enough snow here. It will be here for a long time.

Silly dog in very deep snow. He has found that with snow this deep he can get over our low fence in the backyard. He used to be afraid to jump over it. Even after Joe dug around both sides of the fence, Sebastian is still jumping out. I guess now we'll need to build a higher fence. In the meantime we have to leash him to take him out. He hasn't wondered far, but he is going further and further away each time. Sometimes he ignores my calling him back. Then I have to say loudly, "Good girl Sophie. Sit. Touch." She can't hear me but, he can and he knows that those are the words used when "treats" are being handed out! He doesn't want to miss out on that so he'll come back.

With all these snow days I am able to get more sewing time in. I made the big "cut" yesterday and cut out the top to Renee's dress. I've really been nervous about cutting that expensive fabric. (Joe said that he's nervous going anywhere near the sewing room with that fabric in there). But, I love the feel of the fabric. It is so soft and luxurious feeling. Here is some of the progress that I made yesterday.






I have more hand basting to do. Then I can start constructing the top. It is going to be very pretty.

Some more Christmas Stuff

The End Of Christmas and the Beginning Of A New Year!

We went to Kevin and Mary Beth's house for a New Year's celebration. It was fun and the food was wonderful. Mary Beth is an excellent cook. She made lamb. Yum! Their new house was still decorated for the holidays and it was fun to see their Christmas trees. We had a very nice visit.

I also had some time to do some sewing over the holidays. I worked on the Brown Bear quilt. Instead of quilting it on the machine or by hand, I decided just to tie or knot it with colored pearl cotton embroidery thread. The quilt is rather large. It will fit a toddler bed.
Hopefully it will get a lot of use for a long time.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?

These are burp clothes that I made. They are so much nicer than the ones I ever used for my babies. Joe said that the pattern on the fabric would be enough to make the baby spit up!
They are very colorful.

Renee came home for a few days and I was able to get some work done on her dress. The top of the dress is the part that worries me. The skirt will be very easy as the fitting won't be as much of an issue. After we got the fitting right, Renee started playing with the idea of embroidering tone-on-tone lilies at the top and the bottom of the front panel of the bodice. I think it will be very pretty. She found a design and I am taking a class to learn the software to edit the stitch out so that it will fit. Then, I should be able to get started on the construction. Finally!

Here you can see where we pinned the paper design in the approximate on the bodice. I have to edit out a few flowers and leaves and swirls to make it more simple.

Morgan also had another piano recital.
This one was in Covesville at the Coves Presbyterian Church .
It's a lovely old church established in the 1800's.

I love the big windows and they have a beautiful piano. Even though it was very cold that day it was warm in this old church probably because of the big windows.

The pieces that she played were Ivan Sings and Important Event, op.15 no. 6 which sounded wonderful in the church. There were some other very talented kids playing as well.

Cayla came with us.

Christmas 2009

This the day after Christmas and all through the house, things are quiet again and getting cleaned up and I finally have time to upload and down load pictures....5 kids and 4 dogs made for an interesting day. Jenna and Cayla and Poncho stayed over night on Christmas Eve. Miles and Keenan and Keenan's dog Maggie came over on Christmas day to enjoy a lasagna dinner with us.








Merry Christmas to all.

Winter Finally

This has to be the largest one time snowfall that I've ever seen. It's taken us 2 days to dig out. It snowed for over 24 hours. We got about 24 inches. And now it's warming up during the day to help with the melting, then it's dropping down below freezing over night so it's turning to ice.



I must say that the snow really is pretty. We did get my car dug out today and decided to go for a drive. Actually the Wine Warehouse sent out an email saying that they were opened and the parking lot was cleared. I thought it would be fun to go.



Well, there are tons of others out on the roads and for the most part our road seems to be in the best condition. Most of the roads are not completely cleared and people with out front wheel drive or 4 wheel drive are getting stuck, blocking traffic or causing accidents. We just looped around and came back home. After all our supply of wine and beer is still plentiful. (at least for a couple more days).



I must say that despite the bad weather I feel ready for Christmas. Except for the dinner menu. I think that we have decided on Lasagna and Seafood Risotto. But, they are calling for more bad weather on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Hohoho...'tis the season. Merry Christmas!

Painted kitchen and baby quilt

I had to clean the kitchen, so....why not paint it! I had actually bought the paint in April. And I did have to clean the kitchen for my friend to come use to put together some gluten free mixes that she is wanting to sell at the farmers market. My kitchen is not contaminated with flour as hers is. It needed cleaning at any rate. No, it really needed cleaning. The deep down, sort and toss, move everything and well, while I'm at it, I have that paint.....the cabinets still need to be painted. Really, they need updating but, that may come later. As for now my sights are set to paint them white.

Then I have pictures of the quilt that I'm making for the new baby. I love this fabric and if feels so great. I can't wait to get it finished.



And then I found these photos of the cradle for Derek and Lois' baby. (When Derek was a baby) Yep, that's him in the cradle.

Sewing for Grandbaby "Girl"

I haven't been in my favorite quilt shop in quite some time but, had a few minutes to spend a week or so ago, so I stopped in. I was so excited to find the line of fabric "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What did you see?" Well, of course I had to buy it to make a quilt for the baby. I am so anxious to get started on it. I just finished the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk in Washington, DC so my time should be free for enjoying my sewing room again. We have missed each other so!

I also have the wedding dress to make for my oldest daughter. Time is not wait for me to catch up there either. Sew many projects, sew little time. But, it is all good.