Baby it's cold outside

suzwes

Oh my Meece, what a beautiful dress!

Meece

Thank you.  DS and DIL got married two times (7 months apart).  I didn't like the way the heavy satin fell, so I made this one for wedding #2.

mumito

Meece you are a very talented seamstress.

AnnaM

What a beautiful dress!

I too love to hand piece and hand quilt, but my favorite is appliqué. I'm piecing these two wedding quilts on the machine bec. otherwise I will never finish. I'm very slow athand piecing. I'll have them both professionally machine quilted, again, so they get done on time. I'm doing Kaffe Fassett's Welsh quilt. I'm making a very small one for myself, which I will hand quilt. I always make a small version of quilts I make to give away. It makes it easier to see them leave. The small version ends up being the size of a small wallhanging, or maybe a baby quilt. If I ever have a granddaughter she might use them for her dolls. I have already made three quilts for that little grandson of mine, and am working on an animal quilt for his second birthday in June.

But right now I will have to go out and sweep a little patch for our little dog. We already have 5 inches.

kmccraw423

Like Suzette, I cannot sew, cook, quilt, whatever; however the skills Suzette has rank right at the top of the list!

My grandmother worked outside the home all of her life - could sew a little and she should have quilted as she grew up in Amish country!  My mother had zero interest in anything homey.  She too worked outside the home and loved it (I personally think she wanted to get away from 5 kids).

Okay, that dress is absolutely gorgeous!  I like the "fainting couch" a lot.

My sister has a brand new sewing machine downstairs still in the box (I say that to indicate that instructions are still available) and I might try something ... or not!

As Anna said we have a lot of snow with no signs of letting up.  It is quite beautiful but it can stop NOW.

Many years ago I was working for a television station that also had stations in Lynchburg, VA and North Carolina.  We were all meeting in Hershey, PA.  It was a week long  meeting and the folks from North Carolina were hoping it would snow because they had never seen snow!  I told them you tend to lose your fascination when you are trying to get anywhere!

Anna ... you are right down the road - I'm in Ashburn!  It is such a quaint town.  And why do I know Ashburn - my doctors and the rehab center I was in are all in Leesburg.  I am either going to Leesburg or Landsdown (where Loudon Hospital and the rest of my doctors are)!

kmccraw423

Meece ... I love that era too.  Anything from the 20's through the 50's.

Sheila ... I would love to see some of your wall hangings and specifically the one you are going to use your great aunt's hankies.  I love old fabrics.

Nancy ... congratulations on Olivia's birthday.  I bet you are over the moon ... hope all is well with mother and daughter.  I held my niece when she was only a couple of hours old.  She was asleep in my arms until a nurse came in and shook her a little saying she needed to be stimulated.  Excuse me, I am bonding here!  She woke up crying.  Great.

GramE

There is an inch, maybe 2 on the ground here - at the very pretty stage with the ground covered and just enough on the trees and shrubs to glisten as the sun goes down and street lights come on.   

Olivia continues to do very well.  My DIL was moved out of ICU into a regular maternity room and they plan to get her into a wheelchair and take to see her baby girl for the first time.   My son phoned to say they will allow them to reach into the incubator and touch her after a 10 minute scrub down, like surgeons do with hair cover, gown, mask, etc.   Such a shame she is so tiny they cannot even hold her in their arms.  

Son will stay overnight at the hospital and not try to drive home on the beltway in the snow.  I did not dare go over, although I am a seasoned snow driver.  It is the other folks that worry me...

Keep warm and happy, HUGS,  Nancy 

Meece

Nancy, was the baby premie?  Or under stress from the delivery?  My prayer are for you, your son and his family.

hmm

Meece- The dress is lovely! You are very talented and my that was a very young start.

All this talk about sewing machines ........just bought a new one this week.......... nothing fancy. Had been working on window treatments for my newly painted bathroom ......the old ( very , very old Kenmore ) machine's belt had dry rotted and was making a mess ......could have bought a new belt but decided to just buy a new machine instead. At first I was not impressed as the stitching did not look great but once it was threaded properly all was just fine... 

Meece

Thank you all for the compliments.  My dress for the wedding was a beautiful vintage 40s dress, with detail work around the sleeves, neckline and hem.  I could never have put the time into making the wedding gown and one for me.  The daty befor ethe wedding DIL came to me and asked me to make the cap.  I had bought everyting for it, and tried to explain what I wanted to do, and she couldn't envision it.  Then her hairdresser explained what she needed, and it was okay then. I made another vintage style hat for another woman's wedding and when she came to pick it up, she told me the wedding was cancelled.

Anyway, I think a rotted belt is a wonderful reason to get a new machine.  I have made window treatments for my Livingroom, dingingroom, office and master.  When DS moves out I will do the new "guest room" windows as well. 

All this talk of sewing made me go out and buy a new dress pattern on my lunch hour!

hmm

What type dress are you making? Fabric? Tell us about it..........

Pat

Meece

I haven't got the fabric but it is a halter style sundress with a full gathered skirt.  Somewhat reminiscent of the 50s maybe.  I have to go to a real fabric store for the fabric, I just went to Wally-world for the pattern.

hmm

Sounds nice.......we will be expecting a picture when completed

Meece

You got it.

reeltchr

Ladies - Just found this thread. Even though ya'll are talking about sewing, I need to talk about how cold it is here in NC! Ironically, I was born and raised in NY so one would think I could handle it. Noooo - not anymore! For NC it has been so cold; it's a bit unusual. Either that, or I'm just getting OLD! Hot, sweaty summers aren't my favorite either, but I love the weather of spring and fall.

Anybody involved in cake decorating? For me it's a hobby that I enjoy. Do I watch Food Network? Occasionally. I'm not big on TV, but I have to admit that there are instances when I learned something on FN. BTW, I don't watch Ace of Cakes. Nonethe less, I really do enjoy designing cakes. Still have much to learn. So anyone with the same hobby or prof experience, would love to hear about it.

BTW Meece where is the dress everyone is talking about?

Meece

It's on the bottom of the last page.

reeltchr

Meece - Just found it. It is  a gorgeous dress! I love the headdress. You made all of it - fantastic. In the past I have done some sewing, made clothes, etc, but it has been some time since I've attempted to make anything like that. I do have a sewing machine...somewhere.

AnnaM

Kathleen, can you believe all this snow???????? We now have a foot. I can't believe how close you are. My brother lives in Ashburn. My parents are at Lansdowne. Is that your dog? It sounds like you have a wee one, too. Ours went missing around 7. We looked and looked everywhere and I freaked out and went out in the deep snow calling and calling myself hoarse. She has a fenced in patch, but once before she got out and came around to the front of the house and knocked on the door. We ran ourselves ragged. My husband got on the ATV and went up and down the gravel road looking for her. I was calling the neighbors when I looked into one of the upstairs closets and there she was! I forgot dogs don't answer when you call them, frantically or not. Anyway, she got lots of extra treats and I feel like it's Christmas and I got the biggest present. Time for bed. What will we find outside when we wake up?

Please everyone hope the power stays on through this storm. I'm on such a roll with the quilts. I've got two half done and have started a third. I like having multiple projects going at the same time. I feel like I'm running a little industry all on my own.

Meece

We ended up with 6/10" of rain today.  That was good.  I hope we have some dry weather tomorrow morning, I have to go out and catch some fish and don't want to be cold and wet.

kmccraw423

Anna ... this morning was the same as last night!  More snow.  Wonderful.  Yes my babies (we have two sisters) are Coton and probably are maybe 12-14 inches high - less than the snow.  If its raining they won't step foot out the door; however, they like the snow.  My sister trained them on puppy pads so we use those in bad weather.  I would be afraid to let them out in this because, although the back yard is fenced, there is a deck with about 10-12 stairs.  I am petrified that they will try to go down the steps and be unable to get back up.  I certainly can't risk going up and down those steps in my condition.  I don't know what people with big dogs do!

As for electricity, my sister's front door bell is connected through electricity and into the phone system (if someone rings the doorbell you have the option of picking up the phone to find out who it is)  At 5:18 this morning the doorbell rang!  Thinking it might be someone needing help I went downstairs to discover no one there and no footsteps in the snow.  As it turns out, if you lose electricity for even a minute, when it is restored the front bell rings.  Who knew!  It was only when I saw the "PF" flashing on the stove that I realized it was a power failure not someone lurking around the house although I highly doubt you can "lurk" in 18 inches of snow.

Chris ... I don't decorate cakes but LOVE to watch cake decorating on the FN.  I love to watch those cake decorating competitions and the "Cake Boss."

NativeMainer

I used to sew a lot, made my bridesmaid dress for my cousin's wedding.  She sent me a swatch of the material of the color, she let each bridesmaid choose the style as long as it was floor length.  The effect was beautiful!  I haven't done much sewing since getting diagnosed.  The sewing room is filled with junk and stuff that needs to be cleaned out.  Another project on the list of projects.  

1.4 degrees here this morning.  Sun is shining with just a touch of haze along the horizon.  

Meece

I have dabbled in cake decorating.  Last Spring I made one for my father's retirement.  It was my first experience with fondant.  It turned out real cute though.  My Sister in Law gave me a book on cupcake decorating for my birthday last year, and I have tried some of those.  I just seem to spread myself thin with all of my hobbies.

My son gave me a set of electric scissors for Christmas.  I haven't used them yet.  My mom had a set when I was little.  I can wait to see if they sound just like mom's.

Meece

Just looked at the weather satellite view.  It appears that we are in the path of a big rain storm.  So much for replanting strawberries today.

AnnaM

Cleaning out sewing rooms can actually be quite fun. Anything that gives me an excuse to get down on the floor with piles of fabric is my idea of heaven. When was your cousin's wedding, NativeMaine? Can you wear the dress places or is it obviously a bridesmaid dress?

I had a beautiful dress made of opal colored embroidered silk for our daughter's wedding in 2004. It was on May 22 and so the sleeves were 3/4 length. The wedding was on our farm, which we had just moved out of to come live here (8 miles away) near Leesburg. That was the year of the 17-year cicadas. I worried about those cicadas and I worried about rain. It didn't rain and the cicadas hit the day after the wedding. But it was 92 degrees that day! Who would have thought! I never got to wear the dress. I had to wear something more manageable from my closet.

Our power went out briefly just after 5 a.m. too, Kathleen. It must have been the same outage! I got up with the dog and shoveled her little patch. Is Coton a breed? Ours is a Yorkie. She weighs 6 lbs.

You seem to have a dog too, NativeMaine. By the way, do you live in Maine? Our son and older daughter live there, in South Portland and Hallowell. The younger daughter lives in Boston. How did we end up with all these Yankee offspring anyway? 1.4 degrees must be hard. it's in the upper 20's here.

Time to go out and shovel again. The patch is covered. I reckon we have 23-24 inches and it's still coming down.

NativeMainer

Cleaing out my sewing room is going to consist of throwing away a lot of accumulated non-sewing related junk before I can even reach the sewing stuff!  Still, it probably will be fun once I get going on it.  My cousin's wedding was 5 years ago or more now.  The dress (actually a skirt and top) are very formal, not usefull anywhere else. I've thought about shortening the skirt to mid-calf or knee length, but the fabirc is a glossy sateen and just a bit too formal for anything other than a very formal event and I rarely go to such events. 

My dog is Snookie, a teddy bear in a German Shepherd suit.  She runs about 85-95 pounds.  I adopted her when she was about ayear old, now she's about 11 or 12 years old.  Still acts like a puppy at time, though!  

I was born in Bar Harbor, and now live in a little burg just outside Newport. We native Mainahs consider anything south of Augusta as "Boston North" and not really part of Maine anymore!   

A low temp isn't really much of a problem as long as there isn't much wind.  I've got a south facing sunporch that will heat the entire house for most of the day when the sun is out.  The house temp has gone up 5 degrees in the last couple of hours and the furnace hasn't kicked in once in all that time.  Of course, after about 3 pm that effect goes away and it can get very chilly very quickly. . . . 

suzwes

Cold and snow flurries here in Michigan.  We're up to 19 degrees with a wind chill of 5 degrees.  I'm freezing.  So happy we missed the snow storm although apparantly there's something developing in the south west that may affect us on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I love watching the cooking shows on food network and love cake boss!  That's so funny to me cause I hate to cook and I don't do it very well.

I am totally out of energy today so I think it's going to be a lazy day for me.  I think it's taking me longer to recover maybe cause I worked full time post surgery and during chemo, and radiation. I'm usually a lump all weekend after working all week.  Hope it gets better soon.

Hope you east coast gals getting the snow stay warm and with electricity.  Meece, hope the rain isn't too much but just enough to water your garden, NM, hope it warms up more for you, and hope everyone else enjoys their Saturday! 

mumito

Hey somebody take picture of the storm. Put down the shovel and use your digital camera lets see how talanted you are.

reeltchr

Kathleen - For the most part, I like "Cake Boss" too, except when they work harder at trying to be "actors" than prof cake designers. I know they can design gorgeous cakes, my interest is more in how they got there. I have learned some important points from Buddy. This morning I was trying a new formula for making buttercream roses. I was pleased. I enjoy making designs and most importantly, the pleasure others get from seeing and tasting a beautiful cake. Enjoy the rest of your day. Chris

mumito

This was taken last winter durring a storm with a basic digital camera.

reeltchr

Meece - Fondant is a whole other story. I love working with it and have made really nice designs. Unfortunately, many people don't care for the taste of fondant (they much rather have the buttercream). As far as presentation though, there isn't anything like fondant and gumpaste and it's why designers use it for wedding and other special occasion cakes.

Suzette - Whoa! No wonder you are tired having worked as hard as you have through treatment and recovery. You really deserve a lazy day and I'm especially glad you don't have any compunctions about taking one. Enjoy!

Well, ladies, have a great day. Chris