Dressmaking Gone Awry and Other Stuff

My last post alluded to my making a dress for myself for granddaughter McKenna's upcoming wedding . . . well, I was hesitant to even attempt this project but did go ahead and cut it out and had it sewn up to a trying-on stage. Let me just say that I've developed a Plan B; as my dad used to say about the dresses we girls wore (or tried to wear) back in the '60's, it was "TS and TT" (too short and too tight)! That'll learn me! After telling my sister about the disaster, she recalled something a lovely lady friend said, " I’ll never forget what Bernice said about sewing her own clothes: she did it for years until she finally got tired of making a garment for Goodwill for every garment she made for herself! Anyhoo, maybe Plan B should involve Nordstrom’s or someplace of that ilk with attentive staff and elegant dressing rooms." Hahaha! 

So, although Plan B was not going to a place with "attentive staff and elegant dressing rooms," it does involve "store-bought!" A nice skirt and top from one of my favorite shops, J Jill. 

The ill-fated dress w/o sleeves because why would I sew sleeves in when it doesn't fit??!

The thing is, I did French seams to prevent raveling of the linen fabric, and put in an invisible zipper which was no small task! I will stick to making costumes for the grands and great grands and quilts from now on!

The J Jill deep blue skirt and peplum print top. 

The colors for the wedding are soft blue, sage green, and ivory as I mentioned at the end of my last blog post and so I think I'll blend in okay. Grandpa has a navy blue suit and will be wearing a green striped tie (and white shirt) which matches my top perfectly. Of course, our clothing will not really matter what with the bride and groom being the stars for the day!

The label for the wedding quilt that I had made by a local lady was not what I expected.

It looks like her embroidery machine went wacky on the "Made" part.

So, I emailed to my talented sister in San Diego asking her if she might break out her machine embroidery skills and make a better label for me. She obliged and I am so very pleased with it! Here it is sewn onto the quilt, ready for gifting Friday:

I love that my sister added all the necessary words and was able to fit it on a hexagon! Thank you Margrette!

Now that that was done, I moved on to picking the illustration I'd done for the wedding card and crafting the card. I also made a card to accompany the $$ we are giving the couple for their honeymoon.

I chose the watercolor (see last blog post), cut it out and attached it to a tag. I've tied it to the basket with a pretty bow.

On the back of the big tag I printed out a favorite quote from Martin Luther about marriage: "Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave."

Card for the honeymoon $$. The Distress Ink blending was inspired by this card by Yana Smakula as was the design.

I cut the Romantic Sunset Island design (#81977) on my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine and designed the sentiment using Dingleberry font. The happy couple are going to Kauai HI for their honeymoon, hence the tropical theme.

While I had my stamp and craft stuff out, I made a card for a young friend who is going to be 21 years of age on the 25th of this month. I thought it'd be fun to use StampinUp!'s Mixed Drinks stamp set.

Just by happy accident, there are 20 drinks showing on the front.

And on the inside, the 21st! Happy birthday Shannon!

I have some leftovers from the honeymoon card to make an anniversary card for granddaughter Brittany and her husband, the bride McKenna's older sister. Funnily enough, their wedding date is August 16th (McKenna and Travis's being the 17th)! I'd better get on the ball and get it in the mail! They will most likely get it late as US Postal Service is not always the quickest.

Fourteen days into this month and at least one of the watermelons in our garden is ready to pick. I think we will do just that and feast on it this Thursday evening with granddaughter McKenna who will be home before her big day Friday.

This is the largest of three melons surviving on the vine. Very heavy!

Enjoying these ordinary days!

Hazel

July Musings

Hello, hello!

Mid summer and the living is S L O W and H O T here on Vine. However, the garden is growing and indoor chores are getting done. We planted two tomato plants in May and they have reached to five feet and covered the 4 X 6 foot raised box; the vines are completely covered in fruit and we expect to have ripe tomatoes by the end of this week . . . yay! Do love some fresh off-the-vine 'maters! Another fruit making a grand showing is the watermelon - my granddaughter gave me four Crimson Sweet seedlings for Mother's Day and the two that survived are mega-producing!

June 27, 2018 - The start.

July 18, 2018 - Tiny first fruit.

July 24, 2018 - Palm size.

July 28, 2018 (just four days later!) - Two palms size.

I know it probably seems silly to get so excited over a watermelon, but this is the first time we've planted one and we are amazed! Thanks to my watermelon-loving granddaughter, we'll be sinking our teeth into sweetness in a couple weeks! Incidentally, that same granddaughter, McKenna Clare, is getting married August 17th to a fine young fellow and we'll be gifting them with a quilt which I made all by myself. Here are more progression photos:

 

The rows laid out on the living room floor in preparation for sewing together.

Bent over the sewing machine stitching the rows together.

The completed top draped over lawn chairs.

Machine quilted by Michelle Jensen - ready for binding.

The flange binding - so pretty!

Test drive on our bed!

I began this quilt summer 2017; that is, I purchased the video class from Craftsy, Make a Colorful Hexagon Bed Quilt by Amy Gibson (no longer available) and decided to use some batik prints that my sister had given to me way back, I can't remember when. My sweet and handy husband made templates out of some plexiglass that I had saved because I might need it someday and I began cutting the hexagons and triangles. I'd gotten some pale grey cotton for the background, binding, and back. Well, my chicken heart loomed and the project was put on hold. I couldn't imagine that I had the wherewithal to make a quilt that BIG - my previous attempts were baby or throw size and I had found those daunting. Anyway, long story short, granddaughter McKenna said YES to her squeeze Travis's proposal in April of this year and the wheels began to engage in a confident sort of way. By golly! I can make this quilt! And so, I began sewing in earnest by the first week of July and by the 26th had it completed except for a label (which another talented woman is embroidering for me). Today I stopped at our local furniture store and found a very neat antiqued metal crate to present it to the newlyweds August 17th.

A pretty presentation.

My current sewing project is making myself a dress for the wedding. I haven't sewn a garment (anyway for myself) for years and am looking forward to seeing if I can still do it - and have it fit! Haha! The one thing that bugs me about this is the size I'm having to use . . . ack! The days of misses size 10/12 are certainly long gone!

August has a few birthdays that I want to make handmade cards for and, of course, there is a card to make for McKenna and Travis's wedding day. I have gotten a start on that having colored in two of an illustration I found in an online coloring book site.

The illustration on the left I colored with Zig Real Brush Watercolors and the one on the right I did with colored pencils.

The wedding colors are soft blue, sage green, and ivory and the bride is a blonde and the groom is a redhead. Right now I'm leaning toward using the watercolored one for the final card. What do you think? Watercolor or pencil?

Loving life here on Vine.

Bye for now!

Address Books and Other Stuff

Hiya!

Prompted by Julie Kirk (she does that occasionally - prompt me), I thought I'd drop in and talk about my address book. Julie's post here brought to mind not only address books but all the letters, cards, and postcards that I've received or sent over my lifetime. . . sooo many. But like many of us, I began recording addresses and phone numbers in my IPhone which sometimes works and sometimes not. However, I kept my address book because, like Julie so aptly notes, it is sentimental and I just can't part with it. Besides, there are times when I want to look up someone's old address (!). (That, in case you're too young to remember, is a toast of sorts; i.e., "Here's looking up your old address! Cheers!").

This is my address book/day planner that I've had since the early 1990's. Originally I had a larger, zip-up planner that was just too cumbersome, so I opted for this smaller one. The planner part hadn't been updated since around 2011 when I retired but I did keep the address section pretty well caught up . . . although, a lot of the addresses were on little slips of paper from random encounters. This last January, I thought I'd try using a planner again, so I bought 2018 refill pages which included a new address section. Needless to say, I didn't use the planner - who needs to plan when everyday is Saturday?! However, I started writing in addresses and got as far as my A for Allred grandchildren, putting their names in ink and their addresses in pencil since they are hither and thither. I found, though, that the spaces were way too small for my handwriting and eyesight - so I quit that and continued to use the messy A to Z pages that were already there.

About a year ago I couldn't resist picking up a new address book because it was pretty and I've decided (just now!) to transfer my addresses to it. We are going away for a few days - Clare is working and I am keeping him fed - and this will be the perfect opportunity to get that done. By the way, the place we're going is so lovely and quiet. Clare is doing the electrical for a family getaway house - we were there last weekend (Thursday through Sunday) and there is more to do to tie everything up so we're going back tomorrow, Wednesday, through Sunday. 

A bit off the subject but here is the place we're going back to . . . 

The Duchesne (pronounced "dushane") River runs not 100 feet away from where we're camping.

Our home-away-from-home.

The "getaway" under construction.

Anyway, back to the address book. I will have plenty of time to transfer to the new book in this wonderful setting. Not only do I have my everyday address book but I have this one for Christmas which includes addresses of people I am in touch with only at that time of the year.

Holiday Card List - tucked away with old and new Christmas cards.

Reviewing my address book habits got me rummaging in my desk drawers and I discovered just some of the letters and postcards I've received over the years, some dating back to the late 60's and early 70's when I was in the US Air Force and then starting domesticity and career. 

It's interesting that some of them are housed in this ripped envelope box . . . not pretty but serviceable!

Along with address books, I keep a birthday book which I've had since high school. That reminded me of the birthday book that one of our family's great aunts kept. When my sister and I visited British Columbia Canada in 2012, Dad's cousin on his mother's side showed us the birthday book. We scanned the entire thing because it was so intriguing. Dad's cousin still uses it to keep track of birthdays.

So very precious and obviously something Aunt Del treasured.

Though names and addresses are crossed out because of death or moves, like so many other respondents to Julie's postal research, I will keep my "paper" address book - who knows? it may be handy for future generations to have a look into my maily life. 

Bye for now.

XO

Fresh Spring Color

The colors for Color Throwdown #488 are so beautifully fresh and I decided to go with a clean and simple take. Funny how CAS can take almost as long as something more complicated! ;)

Supplies used: 

Paper: SU Whisper White thick and regular

Ink: SU Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Cool Cucumber; Versafine black

Stamp: SSS Thankful Hearts sentiment

Miscellaneous: SU Pattern Party Decorative Mask; SU Lovely Words Thinlits Die; Big Shot

Since Spring is still struggling here in the Rockies (see photo at the end of this post), I was inspired to do some more with the CTD 488 colors with this lighthearted card:

I had the Stampin'Up Pattern Party Decorative masks out anyway, so I stenciled the clouds on a piece of Pool Party cardstock, made up the sentiment in Silhouette (using Bodoni MT font), then stamped and cut kites and bows from SU Swirly Bird. This was lots of fun to do and I might just keep it around for my own enjoyment! haha!

Can't wait to see this next week's colors . . . this challenge has helped me get my mojo back! 8)

Spring in Northern Utah

Thanks for stopping by!

Kinda Retro

Today I'm sliding in to participate in this week's Color Throwdown #487 - mint, red, and pink - and CAS(E) this Sketch #266. Both of these challenges inspired me and I went a little overboard, coming up with three cards.

First off, I knew that in my voluminous collection of 6x6 patterned paper pads, there had to be one featuring the CTD colors, and, sure enough, a 2013 My Mind's Eye cut & paste pad called "Flair" jumped out at me! The first card I made had to feature the ombre zigzag pattern which reminded me of the beach (go figure!). I decided to use the sketch as a jumping-off point and used the Seaside embossing folder at an angle on the bottom third (it's a little hard to see in the photo), then stamped the beach chairs in mint, red, and pink along the same angle.

Supplies used:
Paper: SU thick and regular Whisper White; MME "Flair"Designer Cardstock Paper
Ink: SU Tip Top Taupe, Real Red, Mint Macaron, Pink Pirouette; Versafine Black
Stamps: SU Colorful Seasons
Miscellaneous: SU Seaside Embossing Folder; Big Shot; Misti


Another one of the patterned papers from the MME pad made a perfect base for this next card:

Supplies Used:
Paper: SU thick Very Vanilla; MME "Flair" Designer Cardstock Paper
Ink: SU Real Red, Mint Macaron, Pink Pirouette; SSS Intense Black
Stamps: SU Petal Parade; Unknown alphabet stamps
Miscellaneous: Misti

I just couldn't leave well enough alone and grabbed the arrow stamp from Stampin'Up's Petal Parade set to create this card:

I thought the CTD colors worked well for the "other" path! ;) I used sponge daubers to layer the ink, a technique that has become a favorite of mine.

Supplies Used:
Paper: SU thick and regular Whisper White
Ink: SU Smoky Slate, Real Red, Sweet Sugarplum, Mint Macaron
Stamps: SU Petal Parade
Miscellaneous: Sentiment created in Silhouette using Dingleberry Solid font; Silhouette Cameo

I'd better get this posted since there's just 15 minutes before the Color Throwdown challenge #487 closes! Yikes!

 Later.

St. Patrick's Day Musings

Hello again! Yes, today is St. Patrick's Day and we're wearin' the green in honor . . . !

Happy St. Paddy's Day y'all!

We had our traditional St. Paddy's meal last night; I put the corned beef into the crockpot since I was going to be gone most of the day and when I came home there was that delicious aroma to greet me along with a hungry husband! Stuffed the cabbage in and served it up once that was tender.

No potatoes this year as I'm cutting back on high carb foods (I only had two pieces of carrot on my plate!) but it was a very tasty repast indeed.

So, over at Color Throwdown it's challenge #484 with green, eggplant, and white - St. Patrick's Day kind of colors. I struggled a little bit with this but then remembered that I had the perfect ink in Stampin'Up's Elegant Eggplant and Garden Green. Ha! So, I pulled out an old Close to My Heart stamp set that I had never used (yikes! I have a few too many supplies that fit in that category!). Here's how it turned out:

I was very glad to have my Misti stamping tool because I painstakingly colored the blossoms and stems and stamped them multiple times to heighten the color

Supplies used:

Paper: SU thick Whisper White CS, green CS from my scraps.

Stamps: CTMH Treasure Me (easily 2011 or before!); SU Style Beautiful.

Ink: SU Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green; Versamark 

Miscellaneous: SSS Fine Detail White Embossing Powder; heat gun; Misti

Turns out that these colors inspired me quite a bit and I went on creating. Made this card with our son in mind who celebrates (?) the big FIVE OH next month:

Although this turned out not so CAS, I am entering it in CAS(E)thisSketch #263.

Supplies used:

Paper: SU thick Whisper White; eggplant and green CS from my scraps.

Ink: Distress Ink in Concord Grape and Mowed Lawn for the background; SU Elegant Eggplant for the "50."
Stamps: SU Number of Years; unknown (maybe Stampendous) alphabet stamps for sentiment.
Miscellaneous: Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder; SU Number of Years dies; Big Shot.

I flipped the sentiment to the right of the focal point. I thought about putting the "50" in a circle but it wouldn't fit in this portrait layout.

Anyhow, that 'bout does it for today. We went up to our great-grandson Dawson's first birthday party this afternoon and the little monster was on his best behavior (for a one-year-old heading into his Terrible Twos)! Haha! All his grandmas and grandpas (greats included, like us) helped him celebrate. Crazy that a year has gone by so darn fast!

Ta for now.

One of a Kind

Today I'm back with my take on this week's Color Throwdown - coral, green, and kraft - colors I wouldn't normally be drawn to. However, yesterday at the nail salon the big screen was showing creatures of the coral reef and a sea turtle floated by sporting green and coral! So, it set off what became this card.

Although the design ended up being closer to last week's CAS(E) this sketch, I thought it might work for CAS(E) 262, this week's sketch so I'm playing there too.

Our granddaughter made senator for the CHaSS (College of Humanities and Social Science) by a landslide at Utah State University for next year, so this card is going to her. She definitely is one of a kind in every way!

Inside

 Supplies used:

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Year Two - turtle; Studio Calico - be awesome.

Dies: Lawn Fawn Year Two; StampinUp! Celebrate You

Ink: SimonSaysStamp Intense Black; StampinUp! Calypso Coral, Garden Green

Miscellaneous: StampinUp! Crumb Cake CS; StampinUp! circles stencil; blender pen; computer-generated sentiment; StampinUp! Thick Whisper White CS

CTD483

CAS(E) this Sketch

Bye for now!