A Wedding Dress Quilt

One of my high school friend's Mom contacted me a few months ago and wanted to know if I could make a quilt out of her wedding dress for her granddaughter. She said it had been stained, but thought I could do something out of the good pieces.She wanted a dress shirt of her husband's used also, so her granddaughter would have something of hers and her Grandpa. I am usually up for a challenge, so I thought "why not?!" When I originally looked at it, I thought it was going to be pretty simple, and as usual, I was mistaken.

Love all the lace and bead work! 

The pile of fabric I had after tearing it apart

 I was a nervous wreck taking the seam ripper to it and starting to tear it apart (like think and stare and pace around it kind of freak out). After looking at what I had when it was apart, I called her to see if we could do a wall hanging instead of a quilt. I just felt with the lace and beading it wouldn't make that cozy of a quilt. Of course she was good with that, so off I went. I kept the top of the dress all in one piece because there were so many beads! Then I hand stitched the top onto a piece of the dress shirt. A lot of the pieces added to the wall hanging had to be hand stitched on, but I really do enjoy handwork sometimes. It's very relaxing to me. 

Isn't it pretty?!

This was the tag out of the dress

This piece was on the back of the dress

I used a simple stippling quilt pattern because I didn't want the quilting to take away from this gorgeous dress! I think her granddaughter will treasure this knowing it is something special from her Grandma and Grandpa. 

Claire's Christmas Stocking

My niece was finally born on November 8th, so I was able to finish up her Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas stocking. I was very patiently waiting for her to arrive so I could put her name on this. I started this a few months ago, but as you can tell they take a lot of work! It is a Bucilla 18" Felt Stocking Kit that I ordered online. I made one for my nephew Aiden when he was born, so of course she needed one also. My grandmother made my siblings and me each one when we were little, so it was my turn to pass this tradition on. I am so excited to be able to do this for them and I have a lot of fun making things like this. There is a lot of little details that go into this stocking, so here are some close up pictures of some of it. 

I just love her name! 

Each sequin and pearl bead are attached individually

I had to embroider her face 

Some of the pieces have stuffing in them to make them 3D

I had to string the beads onto thread and then attach them to the tree. Then each candy cane stripe was embroidered on, then attached.

Each piece comes on separate pieces of colored felt that you have to cut apart and attach. It is a lot of hand appliqueing and embroidering, but so worth it! Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, so I especially enjoyed making this. 

Spinning Spinning Spinning!

Exciting news in my world. I finally bought a spinning wheel! I have been searching Craigslist and Ebay for quite a while now and one finally popped up. The great news was in was only 20 minutes from my house and a great price. It is an Ashford traditional wheel and will be a perfect beginner wheel for me. 

Isn't it beautiful!? 

 Having this wheel has already kicked production into high gear. In the first afternoon I spun all the merino wool below. It was so fast and smooth! I love it! 

Then the next day I worked on hand carding and spinning some of the raw alpaca that I have cleaned. It's amazing how much I have been getting done with it. I still need to ply the alpaca, but I'm feeling great about my progress. I'm thinking I might try dyeing some of this white...maybe...

On the knitting side I have been learning about knitting two socks at one time with one set of circular needles. It was confusing at first, but I think I may have the idea now. I love the book I bought to use by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. The pictures are wonderful and it was very easy to follow along. They were quick to make and I can see a lot of socks in my future now. 

I know they are two different colors, but that's what was suggested to learn. I will just have to repeat so I have matching sets. 

Radiant Star

I have finally finished up this Radiant Star quilt for my bed. I have been wanting to make a quilt like this for my bed for years! I started this one back in May and just finished it up recently. I was using my Grandma's Baby Lock Tiara to quilt this monster, so it took a little while longer than normal seeing as I had to go to her house to quilt it. I used the Radiant Star book by Eleanor Burns. It is so simple to follow and I love how easy she makes things. 

I used a bunch of different quilting designs On the borders I did one in ribbon candy and the other with feathers. I really like dense quilting, which of course makes the process take longer. The more I quilt the more I know I need a longarm machine. 

I love the little corner stars! 

I did clam shell quilting in the background and I think it gave it a wonderful texture! 

Love the textures of the different quilting!

I will definitely make another quilt using this book, but definitely not the big one! This one was between a queen and king size and took forever...therefore I'm done with big quilts for awhile.