"You're One of Those Artsy People, Aren't You?"

Oh my, that had to be the best line of the day. Was it because I was knitting in the doctor's examining room while I waited? Or maybe because the knitting supplies were carried in a quilted tote? Whatever--I was at the doctor's office and this is what the nurse asked me. I'm still laughing.

And yes, as a matter of fact, I am one of those artsy people!

It's been a gray and blustery several days here. All of a sudden the weather lurched toward autumn in a big way. Is it only two weeks ago that I was on a Caribbean beach? Well, actually two weeks ago right now I was coming home, in the midst of a very long travel day, flying toward Miami. But still...

At any rate, even in the grayness, there are interesting things to look at. You just have to keep your eyes open.



These peony leaves have taken on a beautiful pink/rust/golden look. Good lesson: even the detritus of the season has beauty. It makes me think of Carol Bryer Fallert's fabulous inspiration from seed pods and spent flowers. I must remember that and quit whining about the end of summer.

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People continually ask about our cranes. Here they are in the yard last evening, and sorry-looking sights they were in the wind and driving rain.



No doubt they were thinking they had stayed in Wisconsin exactly one day too long.



This evening, the food I put out for them is gone and so are they. This may finally be it for the cranes for this year.

Quilting Words

Happy, happy day spent quilting. I've finally begun quilting the Four Letter Words quilt.

After considering quilting designs, I fell back into the rut of wiggly, freeform echo quilting.


This seems to work so well for me on so many quilts.

• No marking needed.
• Speedy, speedy.
• Wiggly on purpose beats not-quite-straight.

I just don't have a lot of patience for marked quilt designs any more. And really, the curves make a nice counterpoint to the linear-ness of the letters and letter-y fabrics. I think it's working pretty well, and that's the story I'm sticking with.

In other quilting developments, Friday night Mr. Kathie and I were stuffing our faces with pasta at Mama Mia's and who should be seated near us but the owner of an area quilt shop with none other than Karen K. Stone in tow! Karen was teaching at the shop this weekend. Hardly expected to see a star of the quilting firmament in little Wales, Wisconsin. But I had the chance to do the "We're not worthy" routine just a bit. I do love her work.

Shots and Seams

This summer, when I was wholly focused on wedding dress obsessing (and BE GRATEFUL that I didn't share the full extent of the insanity that went on in my sewing room including how I nearly ripped the whole dress apart the day before we were to leave for St. Lucia and the wedding...), the blog took a bit of a back seat in my life. Now that normal life has returned, I'm hoping to post more and share more.

A blog face lift is coming also, partly brought on by Geocities' going away next month. I've used Geocities for image hosting and now my header and graphics must find new digs. What do other bloggers do for image hosting? I have a couple ideas but I'd like to hear some others. As they say, discuss...

And so, life.

Tuesday morning I visited my allergist for my monthly injections--dealing with simple hay fever. Immediately after the shots, I was hit with an anaphylactic reaction of major proportions. The doctor pumped me full of epinephrine, antihistamines, and prednisone. When all the shaking, swelling, and itching had died down, I felt OK and was sent on my way. But it was scary and has left me with some major concerns about the allergy therapy that has allowed me to enjoy summer for the last twenty five years.

Last evening was my Seams night--always great to see my girls, and quite the gabfest it was, with the weddings of two of our daughters in the past month (one more to go this coming weekend). I sewed strip sets for Double Ninepatches. Not as much progress as I'd have liked, but at least this quilt is moving along at last.

One more note: Kasia and I have been friends since we were co-workers back in the mid-90s at The Quilt Shop Which Will Remain Nameless. Don't feel sorry for her having only one name--it's by design, as you might imagine. Kasia had been a dedicated garment sewer and teacher but her world has gradually been overtaken by art quilts. She most loves to work with the healing and evocative imagery of the mandala. She calls her quilts LoveLights; they are truly alive and lit from within. Kasia now has a blog. Please stop by and say hi.

Comfort Zone

Today's accomplishments:

• Every leftover scrap of white silk charmeuse has been boxed and squirreled away. (There may be enough for a top for me, but NOT NOW.)
• Sewing room is cleaned.
• Strips have been cut for more sashing pieces on the Double Ninepatch quilt that's been languishing since--what--May?
• The Four Letter Words quilt is layered and pinned for quilting! That one's been languishing even longer.
• One pair of pants hemmed.

Feeling very good about all this. I'm back in my comfort zone, ready to produce.

My Seams group meets this week. I've already warned them that I'm in a sewing frame of mind and will arrive toting my Featherweight, ready for action. Tops on my agenda will be strip set sewing for the Double Ninepatch cornerstones. After looking at it on my design wall since early June, I've decided on my direction for this quilt. More on that soon...

The Big Day

Finally back and somewhat decompressed from a week in the beautiful West Indies country of St. Lucia. This lovely island has a special place in the hearts of our family--my daughter served in the United States Peace Corps in St. Lucia, and we've visited several times now. We've traipsed all over the island--on foot, by boat, by car--developing a deep feeling for the beauty of the island, the people, the culture. And you can't beat the setting--the lush greenery, the flowers, the turquoise sea.

The wedding was perfect, the weather was gorgeous, seeing family and old friends was emotional--all in all, a time to savor for the rest of my life.

The dress turned out very well. Amazingly well. It was a slinky design (Vogue 2965), all bias cut. So much depended on perfect fit, which is difficult and scary when the intended target of the dress lives in Washington, D.C., and the dressmaker is in Wisconsin. Somehow it all worked out. The bride was happy and the mother of the bride was happy and EXTREMELY relieved.

Some celebratory rum drinks were consumed.

I'm very happy to be able to share some pictures from my beautiful daughter's wedding day. By the way, the ruins of 18th century British naval barracks can be seen in some of the pictures.


Attaching those fabric roses:



Arrival at Pigeon Island National Park for the ceremony:



This just summarizes the lighthearted mood of the ceremony:



A kiss:



Pretty bridesmaids, my daughter's good buddies, my girls. Worlds colliding! From the left: close friend from law school, close friend from childhood, close friend from high school.



First dance. Of course, what we're really interested in here is the look of the back of the dress and those flowers... LOL


A big thanks to all my blog readers for all the "you can do it" support as I embarked on this project, and for staying in touch as I faded away a bit this summer, basting, and basting, and basting...and sweating a few bullets.

A Tiny Bag

As promised, the ring bearer's bag:


This veers very dangerously into the land of sticky sweet sentiment but indulge me--this is my firstborn's wedding...

For this bag, I experimented a bit with quilting the dress fabric. I tried superfine silk thread and a 60 needle, and was pretty pleased with the way the quilting looked on the silk.

The edging along the top has been waiting and waiting for the right project. And this certainly was the right project--the edging was crocheted by my grandmother. She was a Caroline too. I like that a little part of my grandma will be at the wedding. Kind of a hug across the generations.


The beaded flower on the bag was made from sheer floral ribbon I've been saving. Photo isn't too good, but you get the idea.


And the little rosettes at the end of the drawstrings were made from some of the hair ribbons Caroline wore as a kid.


That's right--I never throw ANYTHING away. Watch for me on Hoarders one of these weeks.

Heading out to St. Lucia early, early Wednesday. Whoo hoo! Back in a week.

Making Flowers

When I first saw the graceful puddling of the silk charmeuse I'm using for my daughter's wedding dress, I knew that beautiful flowers could be made from this fabric.

This is why I bought a good deal of extra fabric--not just to cover my tail in case of an error, but to have fabric to play with.

I cut bias strips with my handy-dandy new 4 inch wide yardstick, folded the strips in half lengthwise (without pressing the folded edge), and sewed gathering stitches along the raw edges. I gathered the fabric to about half its length and constructed the flowers by wrapping the fabric around and around a folded center bud, and then stitching it in place on crinoline. The flowers got better as I made more and loosened up my technique a bit. I tried adding a fold in the fabric every so often and liked the effect. Whoo hoo--this fabric makes ME look good!


These flowers will sit at the base of the dress back neckline, I like a bridal dress with back detail--wedding spectators spend a fair amount of time looking at the back of the bride and groom. I need to give everyone something to look at! A wedding is theater, after all...

These books below were a huge help to me in this floral endeavor. Both are primarily about making ribbon flowers but a lot of the details translate very well to working with non-ribbon fabric. I scoped out library copies first but decided both needed to be in my own library. Some books are just keepers. And this sort of thing tends to go out of print quickly--The Candace Kling book appeared to be out of print and I had to buy a used copy online, but the stars were smiling down and I got a good deal.


So--things are coming together. I have a couple details to complete on the ring-bearer bag and I'll post a picture of that once it's done. Aside from that, we're making lists and have a couple boxes around for collecting items that need to be packed. We leave Wednesday morning.

Happy Labor Day to those who celebrate it Monday.

Cranes, Muffins, Ribbon Flowers

Late summer is crane season around here. We've been hosting (and feeding) a very congenial pair of sandhill cranes. No pecking on the windows this year. They've just been hanging out, eating corn, grooming themselves, and occasionally making a racket that could wake the dead.



A week from now we'll be just about touching down in St. Lucia for the wedding festivities and some serious relaxation. The dress is just about done--still needs a hook and eye, but that's manageable. I think I can begin to breathe again.

This week, I've been working on a fancy little bag for the ring bearer (who will be a little girl)-- sewing on beads and making little ribbon flowers. This bag will be way more foo-foo than the bridal dress.


Once the bag is done, I'll post a picture.

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Last week I had a kitchen disaster. One of my old reliable muffin pans had disappeared--think it somehow has made its way to a kid's apartment. I bought one new pan--one of those dark ones. I made a double batch of blueberry muffins for a library event and catastrophe struck--the pans had different baking rates. I ended up with one pan of pretty muffins, and one pan of muffins too burned to be presentable. And a stinky house.

Should have been able to figure this out myself beforehand but, well, I have other stuff on my mind.

One trip to Williams Sonoma later, my wallet is a bit lighter, but I am the owner of two nice, heavy, identical muffin pans. Tonight we tried them out and the results: beautiful. Happy, happy.