This ‘n that, including The Dress and The Shoes!
What a wild week! And I don’t have many photos to show for it either. It was Labor Day and my Son, DIL and grands came to visit – yay!! It was such a lovely weekend. Being a Gramma is just Grand.
My 4.5 yr old Grandson was just so busy! He looooooooves vehicles of any type. It turned out the Verbena were just at the very end of their full bloom and looked great unless you shook them; then they yielded their petals. Of course those petals had to be harvested and what better way to harvest them than a backhoe?
My Granddaughter is just. so. cuuuuuuuute! She is 15 months and on the cusp of walking. Her hair is best pulled up in a top pony which bounces with every move. Toooo cute.
I pulled a brain fart and agreed to teach on Saturday while my guests were here. I just didn’t put two and two together when I agreed to this months ago.
It was a fabulous class though, 2 hrs of free motion quilting which I described as “a taste of free motion quilting”. It was a part of Meissner Sewing‘s 95th Anniversary celebration and the store was mobbed with customers helping them celebrate. The class was a great success and my students successfully played with 3 designs.
This is my prep stack for that class. The cute Kaffe on top is something I sent them home with to practice Quilt From the Back. I have never taught a 2 hr free motion class before and I think I put a lot of fun and content into 2 hrs. If you’re a teacher, you will understand. It took a lot of prep to create a new class. How much do you edit out and how much do you include? How do you make it easy for them to get some quality quilting time into a 2 hour time period? My family ordered pizza, since The Cook was not present😊
And then the Houston prep started. This year I made half the quilt sandwiches I have made in the past, 250 this year. It starts with the batting…
and cutting 6 bolts of fabric into squares…
and fastened with little plastic bits that they use in retail to put price tags on. I used to use safety pins, but think about that… 250 x 5 = 1,250 safety pins. Closing, 250 safety pins. And, they weight a lot. I do these little tags now. I don’t have trouble with my hands, yet, but I think I may stop providing kits.
Do you know why I provide kits? Because, on my supply list, I have 3 bullet points that basically say create 15″-ish quilt sandwiches with quality fabric and batting. What comes into class is busy prints, junky fabric and batting and tiny pieces of leftover projects. None of that is useful for learning to free motion quilt upon.
BTW, you do NOT want to baste your quilts with these. They do not hold the layers tightly enough together.
Okay, so, The Dress. The Dress for my son’s upcoming wedding. Tada:
I am pathetic at posing and it looks 10 times better than that photo. It is comfy, miraculously the neckline shows no cleavage even if I move about. The straps are set so that I could actually wear a normal bra. I HAS POCKETS!!! The fabric is poly; not happy about that, but it is nigh impossible to find silk in the style I needed.
The poly is fairly sturdy, which covers up any less-than-lovely body lines and it kicks out a bit, giving me the presence that I think I am supposed to have. It is a “midi”, LOL, which equals maxi for a petite.
Now, the shoes:
Demure kitten heels in a neutral color was the ticket for me. I need to elongate my not-so-long body.
It was almost impossible to show this, but this shoe company builds in a lovely, well padded toe hill, don’t know what else to call it. You know, the imprint that would come after you wore them many hours. It keeps the foot from slipping around and makes them super comfy. Seriously, they are actually comfy!
So there ya go. After buying maybe (lost count) 8 dresses, I think I will stick with this one. The others I bought were: too casual, too dark, too Holiday, too chaste, too revealing, or, I simply looked awful in them. Petite figures have to be super mindful of proportion and embellishments. It was not an easy find.
Oh, and I have spent hours trying to get my Square to work. Grrr. Is there anything more annoying than text customer support? What is your name and account number? Blink, blink, blink for 5 min. What is your concern; do this thing that is straight from our site that we told you to do before you called; oh, you did it; let me get someone else; what is your name and account number; what is your concern; did you do the things…..45 absolute mind numbing, gasket blowing minutes and I gave up. Got nothing. Not to mention the hours I spent before the call.
I caught this photo, right after Lizard Happy Hour ended, just after sunset. I do have this to calm me:
I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
That dress is beautiful and perfect for you, the color is divine. And comfy shoes that look pretty? You are a winner! Enjoy the wonderful day of celebration.
Thank you! I hope it wears well for the wedding, not too hot
It’s lovely!
Is the wedding in Tucson?
The style, even in polyester, should be perfect for October weather in Tucson.
❤️
Yes, OCtober in tucson. I am a little concerned that it may be hot. I realize now it kind of needed to be poly for the heft and structure of a proper MOG dress. I learned so much in this process.
All that class prep makes me tired! But that’s one reason you’re a great teacher. Congrats on the dress, it looks great. (Pockets!) I found a dress for my daughter’s wedding, still working on shoes. Hope to see you in Houston!
It’s funny how finally finding the dress for your kid’s wedding feels like such a win! Glad your hunt is over. Thank you for your kind words.
Your dress is gorgeous. Thanks for posting the pictures as I’m sure we all have been wondering, and hoping you would find a stunning choice, And you have!
Thank you Robbie! I kinda knew I had to show it since I wrote about it soooo much!
You got that dress!
Oh yes Rachel; victory!!
Your dress is beautiful and so are you! I know the angst of shopping for petite items. Me too. Enjoy the wedding . You are ready.
Thank you Val! It is a trick to get the right proportions on a gown.
Your dress is beautiful – gorgeous color and it looks great on you. Glad you have finally found something you’re happy with for the wedding.
And your garden looks like it could’ve been a wedding setting it’s so lovely and inviting.
Hah, never thought of a wedding in our garden; good idea! Thank you!
Gorgeous dress! You look fabulous!
Thank you SUsan! I’m just glad the hunt is over.
Your dress is stunning! I’m glad you found comfortable heels to wear. I’ve given up on that years ago. But then I don’t have an occasion to dress for either.
Such a beautiful back yard!
Yeah, I was surprised too. Thank you. If you ever find the need to wear heels, you might be surprised at how comfy they are.
What a long and expensive and frustrating hunt for the right dress was. But the win was worth it, you look fab.
Thank you! I prevailed!!
Amazing what newbies think is good to learning FMQ on. Patterned fabric may be forgiving, but it certainly doesn’t help you see what you are doing. Give me a solid color and high contrasting thread to practice with. Actually I keep a ~ 18″ x 18″ muslim sandwich, divided by a tic tac toe board as the basting. Test out new ideas in the squares.
What blows me away is how much you do to support your students by providing them with functional quilt sandwiches. Just one more reason why you are a standout quilter.
The mother of the groom dress is stunning. Would you believe I am looking for something similar for the exact same reason. Our son gets married next May. I’m vertically challenged and at 72 look about 4 months pregnant. We will be outside on the lawn for the ceremony, so shoes must be chosen that don’t puncture the grass. It’s black tie optional, but highly encouraged. What fun to go through this together.
Oh I actually like this method. This way they don’t have to come up with a pattern and their stitching is actually much better this way than free form. It’s a fun surprise to turn it over and see that you can actually quilt a design. I do the sandwich thing to stack the deck in their favor. Newbies don’t understand how important quality fabric, batting, thread and needles are. Oh how fun that you are looking for a dress too! I hope your journey is more direct than mine. If you have someone in your life to help you, go for it! If there were such a thing as a stylist that would work with me on just one dress, I would have hired them in a heartbeat. It is sooooo time consuming to find the right dress! Oh I hope you find one that you LOVE right off the bat!
You and your dress look beautiful.
We just tiered our backyard. My husband got tired of sliding down the hill when trying to trim things. Yours looks gorgeous. Ours is filling in nicely.
Oh it was pricey to tier it but it is so worth it! Like you, it was unusable and right in our face. Now it’s a pretty In-your-face! Glad you enjoy yours too!
Jenny, blue is the perfect color for you. Glad you didn’t give up. This one is ideal. I, too, am a firm believer in pockets.
I remember the search, 30 years ago, for the right shoes to get married in. Hard to believe it’s still a challenge!
I hope you will post a pic of you with hair, makeup, jewelry, shoes, dress, and hanky.
One question: how do you keep your garden so beautiful while you are gone so often? This is just as awesome as finally finding the right dress.
👗 👗👗👗👗
Edna
Thank you Edna for all those compliments. It’s funny because I didn’t realize it had pockets until I saw the description online! Yes, shoes for old ladies is a challenge. There really isn’t a secret other than it was designed to be low maintenance with a healthy layer of mulch and a well designed drip system. All the plants are hardy and I do nothing other than weed on occasion and prune.
The dress is gorgeous! Your efforts paid off in a look that hits the mark for this special occasion.
After decades of encouraging new quilters to invest in quality products for quality results, I now find myself reluctant to invest in quality yarns as a newbie knitter.
Oh no Del! You know you need quality yarn just like you need quality fabric. Oh please indulge yourself! Thank you for your compliment!
Your dress is stunning. So glad you finally found the one. I almost asked you when I saw you but was distracted by meeting my newly-found great-nephew. Thanks for the great class at Meissner’s. I’m looking forward to putting it to use on my stack of tops. Feeling confident that I can do this.
Oh Sheila, you CAN do that! So glad you found your great nephew; what a cool story. I am just relieved to have found a dress!
Jenny! We both pick the same dress! 💜
I have enjoyed our banter back and forth on IG!
Your dress is stunning and absolute suits you perfectly. Looks like it was worth all the effort to find it! Every time you post pictures of your yard I swoon it’s so artistically pleasing and calming. Weddings are a magical time to gather family and friends and filled with so much joy. Happy times ahead.
thank you for recognizing that Barbara; weddings are just lovely in how they bring the whole family together. Thank you for your kind words about the dress too! It sure was an effort.
Lovely lady, beautiful dress, and amazing garden! Total winner!!! Have a fun day!
Awwww, thank you Meylonie!
I feel I’m repeating everyone’s words but just had to say that I love your dress! And looks fantastic on you! Your shoes are a nice compliment to it also.
Envious of your yard and gardens- very calming and relaxing. A small wedding would be wonderful there!! I miss the variety of plants and colors you can grow compared to where I now live in S Carolina !
You are a very thoughtful and thorough teacher- and have learned a lot from the 2 classes I have taken from you.
Enjoy your wedding !
Oh thank you Vicki. Ah but in South Carolina you can grow so many different plants! We lived in N Carolina for a time and often ventured into S Carolina and I was amused by how some of the plants held water where the leaf hit the stem and lizards would thrive there. I am so glad you learned a lot during class!! Now go and quilt all those quilts!
How did the 4.5-year-old grandson combine his love of vehicles with harvesting Verbena petals at the end of their bloom?
Regard Konten Digital
He just put two and two together. I showed him the petals dropping. He started to harvest some, then looked for a place to put them. If you are a car crazy 4.5 yr old boy, it is THE most logical place to put them:-)