Sunday, March 11, 2007

Another Sunday afternoon...

and time for another blog post. This week has been pretty routine and quiet, so there is not much to share, but I do have pictures of some stash shopping I did last weekend. So here goes!
I travelled to the Sewing and Stitching Expo last weekend in Puyallup, WA, and made a beeline for the Martha Pullen booth, and purchased two more premade dresses to smock for Alana. She is going to be flower girl in a friends wedding in August, so the white dress will be for the wedding. The bride is wearing ecru/offwhite/cream...not sure what the exact name of the color is, instead of the traditional white, and she wanted Alana's dress to match hers, so we will probably try a tea or coffee dye on the white dress. It will be smocked in solid ecru. I'm thinking of perhaps getting some pretty french lace for a bit of a trim. Here's a picture of Alana wearing the dress I finished for her last month, thank you Amy for the picture.
After leaving the Martha Pullen vendor booth, I took a quick look at the Stoney Creek booth and Liz Turner Diehl, the only other stitching vendors in attendance. All the others were geared toward machine sewing and quilting. Because the crowd was horrendous and impossible to get close to many of the vendors, I quickly left. A friend of mine told me she always goes on Sunday morning, and that it is nearly empty then. I think I will skip church next year and try that. At least I would have a more pleasant shopping experience!
So I got back in the car and headed up to Issaquah, about 40 minutes up the freeway, to my not so local, but closest, needlework shop, ThreadNeedle Street. I spent about half an hour on the phone talking about the Waterlilies color selection with daughter Amy...we were wanting some very specific colors for a design I am working on...so I described them all to her and then we chose together. It was fun. Picture of what I came home with is here. I also found some Victoria Sampler and Just Nan leaflets that I wanted. (Also pictured here). The Blue Carnations leaflet is very special as I had the incredible honor of working with Thea on this project. I still had the working patterns, but wanted the leaflet for a special souvenir. If you ever see the leaflet, look inside and you will see why I wanted it for a souvenir. I also purchased a yard of cashel white linen...a big expenditure but I was tired of never having enough fabric when I needed it!!! It was a great time, and a rare treat to be able to visit the shop.
DD#2 (Alli) and her hubby (Christopher) just got back from spending a week at Disneyland/Los Angeles. They had a great time. They shared the plane ride home with Henry Winkler (Fonzie on Happy Days, etc.) and they thought that was pretty cool. It was a very quiet week without them here, and we are glad they are home!
I purchased enough of the Blue Lavendar Waterlilies to finish my M Designs "D" (see previous post regarding this), and have put a few more stitches into the design. I think that the dye lot is going to blend in just fine, thankfully! I am busy working on a companion piece for one of my designs at the moment, so I'm not sure when the "D" will get finished, but it will be next on my list!!!
Only 31 days until we leave for Hawaii!!!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the smocking, something I have never tried. Alana looks jolly cute too.

Nice threads too, nothing like getting some new threads.

Anonymous said...

Your smocking technique is beautiful and so is Alana!! Love those threads you bought.

Von said...

It's so sad that Sew Expo is featuring fewer and fewer booths related to hand embroidery. The last time I attended there was a booth filled with silk flosses from Australia and Lorri Birmingham was still there with LTD.

Was the guy selling those tiny cheap scissors there across from Martha Pullen? I always buy at least two pair! :)

Love the Waterlilies you picked up.

June said...

Alana is so cute and pretty. She looks so pleased with her smocked dress.

Deb said...

Hi, Connie,
Your smocking is so pretty. It's one needleart I never learned to do, but I admire it so much, especially as a new grammie! Alana is adorable and just the perfect little girl to wear all these pretty dresses. Btw, we are in the same RAK Registry group...I'm just blog-hopping today!
Deb in FL
http://lavenroseramblings.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth Braun said...

What a FANTASTIC haul of Waterlilies threads! I confess to being mad jealous!=)

Elisabeth=)