Parisienne Rose, My Favorite Garment

 



        This garment is my favorite of all of them. Yours too, it was voted by the viewers as one of the top ten favorites! 

Parisienne Rose, captures the romance and excitement you would expect to see at a glittering ball in one of Europe’s capital cities, or perhaps gracing a shop window along the Champs d’Elise, enticing delighted passers-by to take a closer look.

Constructed of heavy silk taffeta hand-selected and imported directly from China, the brilliant red woven jacquard fabric is a delightful panorama of delicate roses in red and black. The fabric itself served as inspiration for the ultimate design. The close-fitting strapless gown has a darted dropped waist bodice and a double gathered skirt trimmed in lace Melody herself created using software, 15,000 yards of fuchsia-colored thread Her Bernina worked furiously for over 100 hours on just the lace motifs, alone. 

The long evening shawl, an original design, is made of shocking pink polyester lined with red Chinese silk taffeta to match the gown. The beautiful dimension you see is achieved with pin tucks stitched with a 2.5 double needle and red thread just a few shades darker than the fabric. Each of the 86 small lace motif along the shawl’s edges took 30 minutes to stitch, and the 14 larger ones each required over an hour.

Both gown and shawl are embellished with 5,000 Swarovski crystals, ranging in size from 3 to 5 mm. Their brilliant colors – fuchsia, ruby, rose, Siam, light Siam, and light Siam Aurora Borealis – twinkle and flash, just like the eyes of the beautiful woman fortunate enough to wear this chic and stunning ensemble.

 

Time to Play Tourist in San Antonio

Originally named Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. More than 2.5 million people a year visit the 4.2 acre complex known worldwide as "The Alamo." Most come to see the old mission where a small band of Texans held out for thirteen days against the Centralist army of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Although the Alamo fell in the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, the death of the Alamo Defenders has come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of Liberty.  The Alamo has been managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas since 1905. Located on Alamo Plaza in downtown San Antonio, Texas, the Alamo represents nearly 300 years of history. Three buildings - the Shrine, Long Barrack Museum and Gift Museum - house exhibits on the Texas Revolution and Texas History. 

Mission Conception

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Acuña This handsome stone church was dedicated in 1755, and appears very much as it did over two centuries ago. It stands proudly as the oldest un-restored stone church in America. In its heyday, colorful geometric designs covered its surface, but the patterns have long since faded or been worn away.

Mission San José

Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo

Known as the "Queen of the Missions", this is the largest of the missions and was almost fully restored to its original design in the 1930s by the WPA (Works Projects Administration). Spanish missions were not churches, but communities, with the church the focus. Mission San José shows the visitor how all the missions might have looked over 250 years ago.

A Workshop with Hill Country Quilt Guild

PAINTED SURFACES;        

A Two day workshop

The joy of painting onto fabric is that there are so many possibilities and so few rules. This is a time to set free your imagination, pick up brush and play. Apply the same techniques you use in creating the quilt top,—visual trial and error. Play with fabric paints to enrich your fabrics before you begin sewing—or at any time during the process. Use paints to add new designs or dimension to portions of your quilts, making the fabrics uniquely your own. The choices are yours and the magic is waiting to happen.

 

Creations

Creations is located in the cutest Victorian house

Creations has great stuff for the quilter and sewing enthusiast! They special in sewing and quilting fabrics,  Located in Kerrville, in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, they carry a wide range of fabrics, patterns and books for quilting, clothing, and stitchery .

Welcome to Kerrville Texas

A room full of happy quilters!

Great show and tell

In the summer of 1984 ten women met to discuss a common interest - their love of quilting.  From this first meeting evolved the Hill Country Quilt Guild.  The guild’s first project was a Sesquicentennial quilt presented  to the City of Kerrville. It now hangs on the second floor of the Butt-Holdsworth Library. They support and participate in those activities which encourage appreciation of fine quilts and quilt making.  This includes displaying quilts in windows of businesses, the downtown visitors’ center, and the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center.  Members made quilts for organizations in need.

Welcome to Fredricksburg Texas

Guild Show and Share

Home of the Vereins Quilt Guild of Fredericksburg. In 1996, the city of Fredericksburg, Texas held a week long celebration commemorating its 150th birthday.  As a part of that celebration, a quilt show was held.  The show was put together by volunteers who had a love for quilts and quilting.  During the course of planning and executing that show, it was evident that a number of women in Fredericksburg were interested in having a guild  where quilters could meet on a regular basis. 

Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 and named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. The Fredericksburg Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Texas.

My Favorite Airport Art - San Francusco

Sandy Drobny

Artist in Residence Program to Recology’s has grown into a world-renowned art program that has sponsored over one hundred Bay Area artists and inspired thousands of children and adults to care for our environment and conserve our natural resources.

Beau Buck

Sandra Barsness

Iris Rodriguez & Nicole Repack

Daphne Ruff

Seaview Weaving and Fiber Arts Guild

The Seaview Weaving and Fiber Arts Guild is not just a weaving guild, they have expanded their interests into all the fiber arts. Knitting, spinning, papermaking, printmaking, book arts, felting, silk fusion, card making, surface design on fabric, quilting, soft sculpture – if  it can be done with fiber, they do it.

Houston is on My Schedule

Immerse yourself in the joy of

     EMBELLISHMENT!
Join me in my workshops at the HOUSTON International Quilt Festival, October 28 - November 3, 2013

Super Fast Piping & Binding 
 Is binding the quilt your least favorite part?  Bindings and piping are a snap with this no-fail completely machine-stitched method.  In this class you will be making a sample to take home to keep as a ‘how to’ example for your own quilts. Binding will never be the same again!

Paint Stick Magic 
Make elegant fabric with the look of airbrushing! Paint sticks applied to cotton or silk is fun, permanent and has an exceptionally short learning curve. Come play with paint sticks while learning the tricks the professionals use in this informative hands-on workshop for both quilt and clothing makers. 

 Fantastic Fabric Foiling

Bring your projects to life with instant (and permanent) glitz and shine. We will apply foil using a variety of adhesives and make use of a variety of ideas that make it easy. Traditional and non-traditional quilters will learn how to incorporate foil into real show-stoppers!

Joining the Blocks - Quilt as You Go Style 
Learn to join pre-quilted blocks using several innovative techniques. Go home ready to make larger machine quilted quilts without all the work of trying to get it into your machine. The Quilt-As-You-Go method allows for more detailed quilting using a standard sewing machine since you're only quilting a small section at a time.  

Borders-The Final Chapter

Borders add something special! They can change the look of a quilt and add a wonderful finishing touch. Come away with ideas to beautifully frame your quilts. Learn how to repeat fabrics, color and motifs to plan a successful border. Melody will show lots of examples of traditional and innovative quilts. Tips and examples for quilting borders complete the final chapter.  

For the Love of Color

What you always wanted to know about color but were afraid to ask. Understand color concepts that quilters use – balance, pattern, texture, dominance and the many moods of color. We will play with a large variety of fabric samples, laying them out to experience for ourselves the magic we can create with glorious color.   

Thread Toppings

Thread is no longer a ‘Plain Jane’ necessity - it’s now available in many luscious colors and types. Steering your way through the sea of threads out there can be a bit daunting. Experiment while you learn how to match thread to the appropriate needle, make the tension setting your best friend and troubleshoot your way to fun and fancy

Friday Sampler

Details to follow

Spring is Finally Here!

I saw my first Daffodils today, I'm so glad spring is finally here! Daffodils are my favorite flower, maybe because ... they are flower that means spring. Daffodil, Narcissus, Jonquil. First, let’s settle the names. The official botanical name of the whole genus is Narcissus. Daffodil is the common name. Jonquil is a “species name” within the Narcissus genus. This means that certain daffodils are called Narcissus jonquilla. Some people, particularly in our Southern states, use Jonquil as a common name for the whole genus, but it’s really the species name for a minor group having multiple smaller flowers on each stem. So when you’re using the common name, all colors, sizes and types are Daffodils. If you get into the botanical or Latin names, they all begin with Narcissus (the “genus”) and end with a different “species” name.