MORE KAREN

I finished my sampler piece by adding a piece of cotton lace to the top.  It had perfect little circles to add French knots to and I think just finished off this piece.  I am going to make a small pouch out of it.

I also pieced a cloth that I am following along in Karen's steps with.  I could not find the silver metallic cilk cloth that Karen has used so bought some silk fabric in a slight off white fabric to substitute.  So far I have done a row of feather stitch to join a seam at the top and a row of web stitches along another seam.  On the eyelet piece that ws probably cut froma child's christening gown I did 3 rows of buttonhole lace over 3 of the pin tucks and left a couple as is.  Also did lots of French knots on the embroidered part of the same piece.  More seams to go then filling in the cloth.  Karen is making hers for her daughter's gift pouch.  Who knows where mind may end up.

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LATEST CLASS

I am taking Karen Ruane's summer class which started last week.  It is a sit and sew type thing rather then an actual class.  You can follow along with Karen and make what she is making or do your own thing while picking up ideas from her.  This is nice and casual.  So far she has made a sampler of various stitches and started a cloth which will be made into a pouch for her daughter who is being married in Sept.  It will be used to present her with some small gifts they want to buy her.

Here is my sampler so far.  There will be one more row of stitching at the top.  This could be made into a small pouch or bag.

 



JENNIFER

Our 18 year old grandaughter (our only one) graduated from Fremd High School and will be wending her way to Bradley University in Peoria come mid August.  She is entering their school of nursing.

Here is a pic of her in her graduation gown on the Sunday morning before and picltures of her and her friend Paul at her Prom the Friday evening before.  Paul graduated last year so is a year ahead of Jenny.  He will be a sophomore at Illinois State this fall.  They make a lovely couple - check Paul's shoes.  I guess something had to match.

Our oldest grandson (her brother) will be a junior this year at Bradley.  He is studying civil engineering.  I guess we are in another stage of our life now with grandkids getting to be college age.
We still have 4 more grandsons coming up. 

 

I omitted  one of the front squares and see I showed one of the inside covers twice.  One of these days I will get it.  It was fun adding all the laces to the pages.

 

 

 



BOOK INSTEAD OF WALLHANGING

I decided I had no more room for another wallhanging and so decided to make a book out of my stone angel blocks.  6 of them were 8" but 2 were 8 x 11" to go either side of the angel photo.  What to do.  I decided to put the angel as the cover then the 2 larger blocks would be the inside of the front and back covers.  The 8" blocks made 3 back to back sets of pages for the middle.   Hope this makes sense.  Now I am trying to decide how to actually put the whole thing together.  Here are the pics.

 



GARDEN CONT'D

I bought this beautiful pillow from a gal who had been at the antique show the year before and I had bought one from her then.  I bought it home and it is on my bed in Chicago.  I also bought the new one home and it is on my spare bed.  I liked the ladies she used on this one.  Mine is an all white linen and lace piece embroidered to a pillow.  Very neat.  She does a beautiful job of her pillows.  The pic shows up light pink in spots bu is not like that actually.

The old album I should have passed by but could not once I had opened it and looked at the old pictures.  There are 46 pictures in this album and all the frames are beautiful.  It must have been a fairly well to do family to be able to afford all these picures.  Written in pencil underneath some say Aunt Bessie, Uncle Jon, etc.  The cover is in a worn shape.  It was a velvet I believe that has rubbed off over the years but the clasp still works.

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GARDEN SALE

Before I left Mt. Dora for Chicago I saw they were having a Garden Sale at Renningers Flea Market.  This is my flea market where I go every weekend.  Just about a mile or so from our place.  I had never seen a garden party advertised before and was curious.  I was so pleased that I did go.  I found all these wonderful gals with their garden items, antiques and wonderful handmade pieces.  I ended up buying a lot of things.  Apparently this was the second year for it.  Last year it was held in June but I was gone by then.  One gal told me they decided to have it earlier before too many had gone north and also before the heat arrived.  I bought both garden and non garden items.  One gal even had the new Jeanne D'Arc Living magazine in her booth. 



I fell for these twin topiaries in an old silver holder and they are living on my kitchen island now.
I believe it is called queens fern.