maggiebsmocks

More of the Wedding from January

Em & Zach's wedding blogged

 

Just a glimpse of the awesome day. Her comment about everything being perfect...those are the words she used the morning after when I asked her if it was everything she expected it to be.

 

PRICELESS!

 

mag

In the NEWS!

I am currently enjoying the Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition process. About 600 pieces were collected, sorted, judged and are now being displayed.

The 49th Annual Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition opens this Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 10 AM. 

JessieB. from the Mt. Vernon Patch stopped by during  judging to find out more about the judging phase of the Show. She even has pictures of the judges looking at smocking!

About judging at Woodlawn

 

Smock on...I wish I had 5 minutes a day this week to stitch...sigh

mag

 

On the Road Again

just can't wait to get on the road again... was my brother Michael's song to his loving wife, Sandy, before he would leave for a trip. 

Sandy had the song played at his funeral 5 months ago. I have to say, the thought of him being gone brings me to sobbing uncontrollably to this day. It is very raw. I still feel cheated at his quick passing.

Sandy is on the road again with Michael. He was waiting there for her with his impish grin and open arms for a big bear hug that only big brothers and husbands know how to give.

We are on the road again to say goodbye to yet another family member.
Here they are from a couple years ago. Sandy had been given 3 weeks to live 6 months before this picture was taken. We have been blessed with extra time with this sweet woman. 

 

Call your brothers. Sisters. Moms and dads and kids. Let them know how much they mean to to you.

I'll catch you all on the flip side.

maggieb!

Liberty of London for a Baby with Great Taste

    I  love working with quality fabrics. They just seem to behave better than my meager hands can direct. For that reason alone, using the good stuff is worth the price.

 

As many of you know, if I hear of a baby needing something special, and if I have the time, I am going to make something. It is just what I do. Every Mom and every Baby deserve a special something just because they are Mother and Child. It reminds me of this from The Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing, 1945.

    A new Mom I know mentioned her Wee One taking a liking to Liberty early on. She made sheets for the crib out of the luxury fabric. How yummy would that be?! Now, at 6 months old, she puts herself to sleep stroking the fine cotton. Anyway! I decided if that baby can appreciate the finest fabric in life, it is my opportunity to smock a Liberty bishop for her!

    I ordered the fabric from fabric.com on one of their sales. And a size 12 month dress doesn't take much yardage. It gets a LOT of bang for the buck!

Smocked with my fairly standard bishop geometric in Anchor floss.

 

The poppies remind me of our summers in Suffolk England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since Wee One is going to start crawling before anyone knows it, I decided to shorten the dress to 14" and add a pair of britches underneath. There is nothing cuter that a crawling baby with a matching diaper cover.

Aren't they the cutest?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for all of my smocking friends, a close up of the smocking. Remembering, the bishop is designed to frame a baby's face, go simple in stitches and color, tone on tone for best results!

Stem stitch, cable stitch, stem stitch.

Two step trellis over 1/2 space, diamond, in the dark shade and outlines with same in the light shade.

Two step trellis, five step trellis heart, outlined with the light shade.

An easy/peasy design that works with any color combination.

 

 

I have been working on new class submissions for SAGA too ;) You are going to LOVE them!

 

Smock on, Friends!

maggieb!

PT asked Where to Buy Smocking Dots

Can you help me find transfer dots for hand-pleating?  I made a little smocked dress 40 years ago for my daughter. Now, I am using the same pattern to make the same dress for a granddaughter.  Unfortunately, the transfer dots are lost.  I don't trust myself to mark the dots with a pencil. I expect to do 6 rows of pleating. This is for a size 1.
Thank you,
Priscilla Taylor

 

Priscilla, how exciting to get to smock the same pattern for your granddaughter!

 

I found a couple sources for smocking dots. The brand name is Knott's Dots.

The Smocking Bonnet

Creative Smocking 

Remember to iron the dots on the wrong side of the fabric just incase they don't wash out completely.

 

Smock on!

maggieb!

Rainbow Connection

Rainbow parties seem to be the big hit these days. My friend, Stephanie, had a colorful party for her daughter's 4th birthday this past weekend. You can see how much love and care Stephanie pours into every. single. detail of her parties. 

I wanted to make MissS a rainbow skirt to go with her rainbow shirt from AmyT.

Being me, I can't take things quite too literally, so I designed a skirt based on roy g biv.

I started out with a selection of ginghams. I took a deep breath and sucked it up that they were not all exactly the same size squares. This was not easy for me, but I pushed through.

 

 

 

I dug out a bunch of rick racks and various colorful trims and tossed them on the gingham stack. However none of them seemed just right. Instead, I made a very long strip of fabric with the orange gingham on one side and the yellow gingham on the opposite side. I sewed the strips together, end to end then on top of each other. I think I ended up with 3 44" widths X 2.5" X the two colors. 

I stitched them together then turned them right side out. Then I started to ruche the strip. I don't know if you can see it in the picture here but there was a nice little peek a boo of the yellow from under the orange strip.

The red panel was doubled and folded in half to allow for the casing and the top of the lining. (9" X 40") I used 2X (20") the waist for the red panel.

2X the red panel for the green, blue (4 " X 80") and 6" X 80" for the navy.

I sewed the g,b,n panels together with a 1/4" seam allowance, pressed up and topstitched in place.

I pleated (yes, with my pleater) the top of the green panel and the bottom of the navy panel for easy gathering.

I stitched the green to the outside layer of the red with a regular seam. 

Then I sewed a casing for the waistband and inserted 1" elastic in the casing.

 

 

To make the skirt bubble, I sewed a 9" long X 40" wide piece of white batiste into a tube. I sewed the bottom of the navy to the batiste, gathering the 2:1 ratio navy to plain fabric. I pressed under 1/2" on the remaining red section. Then I pinned the two red layers together, sandwiching the batiste inside the seam and  top stitched all those layers together. This is under the ruching. 

Unfortunately, the skirt turned out a little long for MissS but she didn't seam to mind. I suspect she will be wearing this same skirt for the next five years. Mama said she liked it so I guess that is all that matters.

Happy 4 finger Birthday, my little rainbow girl!

maggieb!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the winner is....:

We all belong to groups that sell tickets to 'things' to raise funds. We are expected to buy the tickets in order to support the organization. It is all a part of 'paying your dues'. So, we buy our tickets. Year after year. 

 

Every now and then, WE are the lucky ones. I am such a lucky one this time.

At SAGA Convention in October my friend, Wanda, won a beautiful gold thimble. Her reaction was priceless. I think she liked it!

*I* coveted the Crazy Quilt. I put tickets in that box every time I went in the Hospitality Suite. And then I bought more tickets to put in that box and a couple new baskets that arrived late in the Convention.

    So imagine my surprise when my name is called for the quilt! Needless to say, our little corner of the room was shining from the smiles on our faces.

    The quilt was made by the Puget Sound SAGA Chapter.

Each person made a square and signed it.

Notice the beautiful use of beading, buttons and charms.

I love the smocking on some of the squares.

There are yo-yos, ruching and other creative uses of ribbons.

They included a document about each square tucked into a pocket on the back. We, as needle artists, know the importance of including provenance in such works of art.

This final picture is a single piece made into a small coverlet for a pillow.

Needless to say, I am thrilled to have this work of art in my home.

 

I think I should start to buy lottery tickets, because....

 

I am a member of the Nelly's Needlers a local group of women who have joined together to support Woodlawn, The National Trust for Historic Preservation's original property. One group within the Nellys makes a quilt every year to raffle. This past year we sold just a few shy of 6 thousand tickets. In all 35 years of the Nellys, no Nelly has ever won the quilt.

The drawing for the quilt is at our January meeting every year. I was sitting in the back stitching on MissEm's wedding hanky, not paying too much attention to the drawing. 6K tickets? I bought about 35 tickets. I knew my chances were close to nil. So imagine my surprise when everyone in the room turns around to look at me...

 

Each Nelly was given a basket on the muslin backing and asked to create her own vision of a Basket of Flowers. These are person, 3-D, stunning baskets, each one.

Here I am with dear, sweet little Thelma Barr, the leader of the quilting group. I am almost 5' tall, so you see how tiny she is. I will take pictures of the individual baskets to show you. 

 

Once again, I am blessed to have sewing treasure from people that are important to me.

 

How lucky am I?

 

maggieb!

Wedding 2 complete...

Just a quick update! Lt. and Mrs.  Branch are on their honeymoon. Wedding was "perfect" according to the princess bride. I do not have a single picture! I did not want to miss a moment of any of it. Her lovely photographer is leaving for a Mission trip today so pics won't be available until Feb. I will hopefully be able to snag some pictures from her friends by the time I return. 

 

I am headed to Sewing at the Beach in an hour. 

Ahhh! a few days to sit and veg with needle in hand. What more could I ask for?

 

And in case I haven't mentioned it lately...how lucky am I?

 

All my love!

maggieb!

WOODLAWN 2012 NEEDLEWORK EXHIBITION DATES

EDITED TO UPDATE

May 12, 2012  to June 10, 2012

Mailed Entries need to delivered to the House between April 16 and April 20 
April 27 - 30 Collection, Public days: April 28 & 29
June 11 - 14 Pick up

www.woodlawn1805.org

 

Previously posted:

I am getting a lot of hits asking about the 49th Needlework Exhibition at Woodlawn, Alexandria VA.

I will update this post as I get information.

 

THE GOOD NEWS: The House is still hosting the Show! I am currently working with the Acting Director to set dates. SHE is working with the National Trust and the Contractor.

The Show will NOT be held in March.

However, we are hoping to set dates for opening sometime in May.

THE BETTER NEWS: The windows on the west side of the House are currently under renovation. The contractor is working to preserve the remaining original glass created on the site.

THE OTHER NEWS: Because of delays, the work will not be completed until May.

Woodlawn's website will be updated as will this site as soon as we have dates.

Thank you for your interest and continued, faithful support of the Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition.

maggieb!

Last Minute Stocking Stuffers for Sewists

Do you have a stocking to fill? I have just a couple things you might want to add to your list.

Pattern weights.

I have some traditional weights (the red ones) and a special one from the Old Fashioned Baby and some fun ones that are glass paperweights.

 

See the tracing paper on top of my pattern?

I use the rolls of paper that Nancy's Notions sells that looks like (and probably is) doctor's exam table paper.

 

 

 

 

 

I recently added these to my sewing collection. They are mini clips to use in place of pins for things like bias bindings and hems.

And you know I am all about bias bindings!

 

These will be nice to keep from sewing over pins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next is a Chaco line marker. There is a little roller that leaves a chalk mark anywhere.  
I used this for the first time at The Sewing Expo in my serger class.   I am learning to use it instead of the wash out marker.

This comes in several colors. I like the fact that is it just chalk dust and brushes off easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all use rulers. This is my favorite ruler. It comes in a set of 3, this is the largest.  

I like that it is clear and has fine measurements. It is by OMNI. They make a lot of nice quilting rulers and cutting guides.

And this came home with me today. I was killing a little time in Marshalls and happened upon the jewelry display. I had an inkling the hooks would be good for scissors on my sewing counter top.

Can you see the ruler (yellow dots)? This thing is 18" tall.

 

I think the 'earing' holes will be a nice place to display pins that we sewists collect.

 

 

 

Here it is with a few pair of scissors added.

My favorite Ginghers fit nicely on the rack!

My favorite size Gingher is the G5. I have small hands so this size is great for me for everything from cutting out patterns to trimming French seams to snipping threads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to all of my friends! I hope your stockings are stuffed with your favorite things and your holiday season is special.

maggieb!