{in progress}

My fantabulous friend Maggie asked me to make a quilt for her mom out of some old fabric of her mom's. There were SO many amazing scraps - I wish I could have used them all!! But, I needed to sort through and find the ones that were big enough to cut pieces for blocks. And I wanted them to coordinate too. So, I'll be making an Irish Chain quilt for her mom, and my mom is going to quilt it for her on the Statler Stitcher (Gammill). I can't wait to get it all done and have it ready for Maggie to give to her mom at Christmas.

These are some of the pieces and a sample of one block (there will be 40 of these and 40 white blocks too!). I've decided that I don't like the cutting part, but man-o-man, I LOVE to sew!!!

More pics and progress to come...

~Cristy

Sweet Dress for a Sweet Girl

The daughter of a good friend of mine just had her second heart surgery. Knowing what it is like, first hand, I wanted to do something special for my friend's sweet girl. I couldn't be there for her - she lives half way across the country - so this was my small way of being there.

Her sweet girl is doing awesome and will hopefully go home soon.

I smocked the dress on my Juki TL-98Q and did the raw-edge applique with fleece on my Bernina.

::a little smocked dress::

I remember my mom making smocked dresses for me when I was a little girl. They were my favorite dresses in the world! I would spin around in circles, making the skirt of the dress raise high into the air (I did wear shorts underneath, ;)). Those dresses were very special to me.

One of my joys, is sewing for Molly and I hope that she enjoys what I make for her.

Recently, I ordered Weekend Sewing, by Heather Ross. I LURVE IT! It is full of fun and simple projects, including directions for making a smocked dress. My mom was out of town, so having the directions in the book was very helpful.

Sewing the elastic on. I wound it on the bobbin, by hand. Worked great! Drawing the lines on the fabric is a MUST.

After the elastic is all sewn. It's not "scrunched" up yet - just you wait!

All "scrunched" up! Spray the smocking with water and press with a hot iron. Then, like magic, the elastic contracts. This is my favorite part.

My beautiful model! I did add an appliqued bird on the front, but that pic is stuck on my phone ;).

Sweet shoulder straps.

I'm considering posting a full tutorial on smocking a dress, or even a shirt. Humm...