After weeks of designing, ordering materials and sewing by hand and machine, two little white dresses are ready for the twin's Christening day. [I, their grandmother, loved every minute of making these!]


This one has a ruched center panel and Swiss embroidered trim....all soft fine white cotton batiste!

The other dress uses French laces. Here you can see the pearl buttons which are on the back of both dresses.

Each dress has it's own sweet "Victorian suitcase" storage box.....

Not being near the babies, I leave it to their parents to decide which dress is for Nina Kate and which one for Sophie Jane!

May they have a safe trip to the island of Jamaica and a blessed baptism day while visiting the other grandparents!

Highly recommended by me......

Sister Macrina Wiederkehr's writing brings fresh insight into the sometimes wrathful and patriarchal words in the Bible. Spending time with the Scripture readings and her reflections (and suggestions for our own reflection) is time well spent!

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I have thought a lot about the word "abide" lately.....mostly it's other meaning, to tolerate or put up with.....as in "I can't abide unmade beds." It seems to have its roots in Old English and to have been popular in days gone by....and in the South still today. It is a word I enjoy using!

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More information when "Googling" the word "abide"-----

"The Dude abides" a famous quote, which I had never heard! (Jeff Bridges played the Dude in the movie "The Big Lebowski").....and that Jeff Bridges has a new book on Zen coming out..."The Dude and the Zen Master"!

What next? The world is truly many faceted......never stop learning....even if it is mostly trivia!

I've been reading lately about modern or improvisational quilts....somewhere in my research, I came across this one....






Of course, I love the aqua and red.....but I had something more masculine in mind....using gray,which has suddenly been hard to find. It seems to be selling out...solid gray cotton.



I found and ordered 2 yards of "organic" gray from Fabric.com when I ordered the cotton batiste for the christening gowns...

I visited this blog for more about the quilt shown above and then made my blocks in darker colors, with some smashing bright accents and used the gray for the lattice!



NOW, to get this quilted!

Making a small footstool---pouf wise.....

Now, stuffed, tufted and ready to use!

I love using this when I am knitting, reading or handsewing....gives my feet just the lift that they need!


The directions are in this tutorial!

More sewing.....




a shopping cart liner for little grandson in Idaho!


A sundress for my oldest grandchild...she too is heading for Jamaica shortly!


And finally, the early morning light on the two almost finished Christening dresses for the twins...





This has been really fun, I brought the sewing up from the basement to the kitchen table....just love working in the heart of my home!


The down side of obsessive sewing ( at my age anyway) is inflamed bursa on a heel....the foot which uses the foot pedal of the sewing machine, as well as carpal tunnel issues from lots of cutting and hand sewing (I cut lots of fabric for cutomers at work too!). I know I should stop sewing and just read for a while.....maybe the rest of Lent?

Sunny day babies......wearing the little sundresses I had just sent to them!

Still more to sew.....the Christening dresses....

First, I was doing heirloom or French hand sewing with organic cotton batiste and imported laces.......it was slow going!

Then my first shipment of entredeaux, thread and lace arrived. I got out the Janome sewing machine and it has been smooth sewing ever since!

It is wonderful to be able to create the beautiful airy look of antique sewing techniques with modern convenience.....though I do still enjoy doing hand work....this machine saves on carpal tunnel and eye strain! [I "Googled" a lot of sewing tutorials to refresh my skills as it has been too long since I had the classes on this type of heriloom sewing! LOVE the Internet!!!]

Now back to making French seams and buttonholes for little pearl buttons....waiting for more entredeaux and edging lace which was back-ordered! [Yikes! must send these dresses soon!]