Update from the Ivory Tower

LOL!!! That's what my husband calls my sewing studio - the Ivory Tower :*D  

It's located upstairs in the bonus room and is even set off from the rest of the house by a little ante-room which we use for our home office.  When he sees me heading for the stairway, he always asks, "Are you off to the Ivory Tower now?"  Yea, he asks that a lot =^..^=

So here's a little update of what's going on in the Ivory Tower....

Dresdens!!!  

Here's another little sneak peak at my progress.  It's almost done -yeah!!!

Can you see the wonderful aqua blue metallic thread I used for quilting this gorgeous peacock?  YUM!!!

My day for the Dare to Dresden Blog Hop is Tuesday, so be sure to come back ;*D

Slow Stitching!!! 

I haven't had an opportunity to work on my slow stitching projects, but my granddaughter Emma has really been enjoying embroidery since she learned how to do it this past summer.  This is her latest project.  She continues to improve - her stitches are getting smaller and neater.  We still need to work on french knots, and she wants me to teach her how to do a satin stitch for filling areas.  I love her choice of colors.  She took all of these separate motifs from a book and put them together in this little vignette - very creative!

Stash Enhancement!!!

Well, not really :*)  I didn't do any shopping this week - yay me!!!  But for those who missed yesterday's post, I thought I'd share this wonderful gray text fabric I pulled from my stash for this block....

Can you see how the gray text print adds an extra layer of yummy to this Lone Starburst block?  Oh yeah, I'm loving it!!!  And I especially love that I had it in my stash - that feels like free to me LOL!!!

Easy Street!!!

It's coming along, slowly but surely.  I got four more Block A's done Friday at sit-n-stitch with friends, and there are only 6 more to go.  All the Block B's are done and most of the setting triangles.  I'm still hoping to have it done by the end of the month to complete my Get It Done project list.

So what's going on in your Ivory Tower?

I'll be linking up Patchwork Times and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching this week!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Slow Sunday Stitching

***  Looking for my Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol 6 Giveaway?  Go HERE! ***

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I want to thank you all SO MUCH for your sweet Birthday wishes!!!  You are all so good to me :*)  I had a smile plastered on my face all day long!!!  I did stop smiling long enough to devour my Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara, topped off with Pumpkin Cheesecake at Olive Garden - YUM!!!!!

But then I went right back to smiling again ... actually by then I was doing a pretty good impression of the Cheshire Cat! =^..^=

I've had very little opportunity to do much stitching at all this past week because of some guild commitments, but I posted HERE about a little prep work I managed to get done for a couple of applique projects.  Yesterday I finally got most of that other "stuff" done, so today I am taking a break and sharing an especially fun Slow Sunday Stitching with my oldest granddaughter, Emma, who is visiting with me for the next couple of weeks.

Emma is one month shy of 17 and a sophomore, and getting a picture of her is like pulling hen's teeth, so enjoy this one, there probably won't be another LOL!!!

None of my grandchildren have so far shown much interest in sewing, but Emma likes to do a little cross-stitching now and then when she gets bored.  So when she asked if we could look for a project for her while she is here (yes she got bored pretty quickly), I hustled her off to Joann's Fabrics to see what we could find.  We were really disappointed to find that the pickings were mighty slim!!!  There were quite a few large and complicated kits available, but only a few smaller ones appropriate for a beginner, and none of them appealed to her.

We decided to look at the cross-stitch books to see if we could find some small designs there.  But then her eye fell on this sweet little embroidery book....

Doodle Stitching - the Motif Collection by Aimee Ray

It is filled with wonderful little designs that especailly appeal to young girls.  I was delighted because of my own recent rediscovery of the joy of embroidery.  I can clearly remember my mother and grandmother teaching me how to embroider when I was a small girl.  If they hadn't spent that time and attention on me then, I would have had to learn this wonderful craft the hard way!  So I was delighted at the thought of passing that down to my own granddaughter!

We bought all the little tools she needed, and I set her up with some muslin for learning and practicing some simple stitches - backstitch, french knots and lazy daisies.

She did great!!!  She said it was "tedious" - isn't everything "tedious" for a teenager?  LOL!!!  But she said she liked it and was eager to start on a real design.

We started with the unicorn - do all teenage girls love unicorns???

She got carried away on a real project and I told her we needed to work on making smaller stitches!  But I think she did really well for her first embroidery project, don't you?  And then she was off and running, putting together several of the designs to make a picture for a friend back in North Carolina....

Look at that sweet mermaid!!!

We are stitching together today... her with her embroidery, and me with my Blue Collection applique.  I'm teaching myself how to do the starch method of applique today to see how I like it.

Several of my friends swear by it, so I thought I would try it.  I'll let you know how it goes :*)

Are you enjoying the pleasures of slowly stitching today?  Go over to Kathy's Quilts to share and see what others are enjoying on this gorgeous Sunday!

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
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