Power Outage & Sew Time!

 We just had a 28-hour power outage, and no one knows why,  it makes me wonder what the big push is on electric cars!

We need the power grid or the money to make such an infrastructure, so many of us live in rural areas and depend on our vehicles. Right now it is the dodging of potholes as the industry here is peat moss and lumber, and soon the fishing will start & more transports will take to the roads.

I took the outage as the time to 'slow sew' & made a garland for the feather tree OOM(ornament of the month).

It is unusual for me to sew Christmas decor in the spring but I was one month behind on this project & now I will start the April OOM, with another bulb & a rectangular present.

The circles are 1/4" x 8" strips cut from wool & glued at the beginning & the end. When dry they are strung into this beautiful garland with red & green glass beads with a pearl in the middle.

If this looks familiar, I made a garland in the Irish flag colour last month for St. Patrick's Day on the white feather tree.

The Irish in me sparks joy for all things St. Paddy's Day!

The Chicken Salad quilt is now at the longarm quilter & the scraps from the fat quarters I made another quilt that Lori Holt was doing with a farm scene. I just love her patterns & fabric designs and wanted another porch quilt done in a farm style.

This quilt is the same as the chicken quilt but the 12" blocks are done from her Farmhouse Girl Vintage books. This takes me back to my Grandma Haynes's kitchen! The only thing missing is the wood stove that Grandpa would make his Sunday roast beef with potatoes, carrots & parsnips. Oh, the wonderful memories my heart holds of those two.

Grandma's pantry usually held a pie and she would bring it out to have with our tea. 

I'm still excited about getting those day-old chicks next month & have been placing chickens everywhere!

These are easy to make with scraps of wool & cotton.

I have had this Tim Holtz fabric for a couple of years now as I could envision it being a dress!

And here it is! It took just a couple of days to make, clothes sewing is much faster than quilting!

I had several muslin fittings to get it right for my body & I underlined the bodice to make it more stable.

I love the yoke pockets at the side, I need pockets in my clothing to make it wearable and this pattern had it!

It has a highly curved bodice so I stitched the pleats down an inch at the low side and continued across the bodice to give a flatter appearance.

The back bodice is scooped down, and the pleats lay flat here.

The whole time I was working with this fabric it was so familiar to me, then I remembered why!

This is a pastel portrait of me when I turned 17 years old, the dress I'm wearing is one I made back in 1974 & it was one of my favourites.

I had made this bear and those dress scraps made the bear dress. The fabric has faded but was a pastel muted design, similar to my new dress fabric by Tim Holtz.

Funny how memories stir with our senses. 

This dress I made as a young girl and the yummy things from Grandma's pantry. Both make my heart sing and bring a smile to my face.

There is snow all over the ground again but tomorrow will be 10C and the solar eclipse will be spectacular here at home. 

Thank you for stopping in & I hope you have a wonderful week!

Hugs,

Cynthia xXx