Beach Sewing

Enjoying the last of summer has kept me from blogging, but, boy did we have  a wonderful time at our favorite beach house!  

Sunset Kayaking at my favorite place in the whole world!

We had two houses and the whole extended family.  The weather was perfect!  We filled our days (and I mean filled our days) with beach going and kayaking and ghost crab chasing and feasting and toasting the sunset each night!  It was sooo hard to come home! 

 Even with all the competing activity, I did manage to get a bit of embroidery done.  I worked on the tea towel from one of my Stitchin' Charleston trips. 

This is the start of Rainbow Row in Charleston

The houses are linen squares that are pin stitched onto the towel.  

The next step was to add the house details.  Here I have started the windows and doors.

A little more done...

Almost done!  Just needs a wash and press

Here I have added all the details:  Wrapped chain stitch palms, crepe myrtles, and even little flower boxes under the windows.  

Laura Jenkins Thompson, the designer and teacher of Stitch' Charleston Style is the most creative person!  Her designs are full of adorable details.

I'm loving it in my coral bathroom!

 Well...I didn't get nearly the sewing done this summer that I wanted to, but at least I got one UFO done!  

Enjoy the last few days of summer!!!

Tooth Fairy Pillow for a Sweet "Fairy" God-Daughter

I have two of the sweetest God-Daughters ever!  One of them is a tall, lanky, smart, beautiful blonde almost 8th grader who is my crafting/sewing and animal loving buddy.  

My Sweet God-Daughter #1

The other is a fire-cracker, Shirley Temple clone who is 4 years old already! She is the age when she is trying to figure out all the family relationships and has decided that Godmother is just too ordinary for her.  She calls me her Fairy God-mother and I could not be happier to comply!

So...As I was finishing this Tooth Fairy Pillow project from a Stitchin' Charleston Style from a few years ago...I knew just who it needed to go to!

Tooth Fairy pillow - Designed by Laura Jenkins Thompson

I love the little silk ribbon bows at the corners!

It is made of a beautiful silver-blue dupioni silk that Laura had all pleated up and ready in our kit.  I had finished the smocking and just needed to add the beads and finish up the pillow and trim.  

Laura's original design had the beads evenly scattered around the pillow, but I improvised a bit and have the magic dust flowing out of the end of the wand.  Just a little more magical looking, I think.

The back of the pillow includes a pocket just large enough for a small tooth and a dollar or two from the tooth fairy.  The pocket is edged with the tiniest piping ever!  The cording itself was tiny but add the fact that it was covered with a very slippery silk ribbon...I didn't even attempt to sew it on the machine!  

My favorite part...It hangs on the outside of the newly toothless child's door!

My son (3rd child)  will attest that the tooth fairy that came to our house by the time that he was losing teeth was somewhat less than...ahem...graceful.  She just might have been so tired that she kept falling asleep and forgetting the lost tooth.  After days of forgetting, she might have "snuck" in a few times before said son was asleep and said something along the lines of "Close your eyes.  This is all a dream.  You don't see me."  Subtle, right?  

With this pillow, all the magic happens outside the sleeping child's bedroom.  Why didn't I think of that before???? 

Tomorrow...I'm working on the muslin for the stretch lace dress...I hope!!!

Stitchin' (and Feastin') Charleston Style

Sorry for the long absence...I have so much to share!

My friend and I went on our much anticipated annual pilgrimage to Charleston February 13- 17th for Stitchin' Charleston Style with the amazing Laura Jenkins Thompson and I have spent the last week catching up on everything - work, sleep, chores.  

What is Stitchin' Charleston Style?  It is the most fabulous long weekend of heirloom handsewing that you can imagine.  Ladies come from around the country to learn from Laura Jenkins Thompson and work on the beautifully designed projects that keep us sewing for four straight days. Many of the ladies have come for all 11 years so we have become quite a tight group.  Here we are on the last day.  Do we look weary from so much stitching?

I have posted about several of the projects from past years here and here.  

This year we had two projects:  A linen bag with stump work (raised) embroidery and a white linen lingerie case (I'm going to make it into a pillow.)

Natural Linen raised embroidery bag - in process!   :-)

White linen lingerie bag/pillow (Laura's sample).
Mine is still very much in progress!

We stitch from 8:30am until 11:30 am and then have a wonderful lunch at the hotel.  Then we return to stitching until about 3:30.  Then Laura has an adventure around Charleston planned for us.  This year it was the Charleston museum to see textiles and a walking trip around Harleston Village.

As if that isn't enough, Laura hosts all of us for dinner at her house for a wonderful southern feast of barbecue with all the fixin's and the most enormous bowl of banana pudding you have ever seen!

Laura's husband Joe makes the huge pudding.

Praline toffee cupcake from a
bakery on King Street

And what would a trip to the culinary capital of the South be without some feasting at the local restaurants?!  Of course after all that stitching we are starving!!!

Locally sourced mushroom bruschetta 

And from my favorite restaurant of all...

Boiled peanut hummus with pickled okra

Magnolia's

The veggie plate

Flounder with rice pirlou and a
succotash of asparagus, tomatoes and corn

We just managed to squeeze in a late lunch at Magnolia's before our evening flight.  I think it was worth the tiny rush to make it to the airport on time.  Don't you?

So a perfect long weekend of fabrics and feasting and a bit of a hard landing to reality.  I was so thankful to have President's Day to catch up!

Why do four days away add up to almost two weeks of catch-up?  More mysteries of the universe, I guess...

I hope that you have some time away to do the things that you love!