A Gift for the Bride to Be

This year in July, my cousin Daniel St. Pierre will marry this beautiful woman.  Lauren is a wonderful person and we are all looking forward to having her as part of our family.

Her bridal shower was yesterday and I unfortunately wasn't able to attend.  But it looks like she had a great time.

For the bride, I made a wedding purse.  Traditionally at weddings, our family traditionally does a dollar dance, where we bless the newly weds with gobs of cash.  This is always a lot of fun and fruitful for the new couple.  

Assembly:  8 pieces were cut from Satin. 4 of which were embellished and embroidered for the outside, 4 for the inside.  + a pocket for the inside.

Then each outside embellished piece was sewn to an inside piece (wrong sides together) and then turned, the hole was hand stitched.  (I recommend a light facing).  

Button holes were made by hand (thanks Mom!) 

Then the sides were hand stitched up the 3/4 of each side.

Two cords were folded in half and threaded through from either side.

The bag was embellished with lace from Lauren's mother's wedding dress.  How do you cut up a wedding dress?  My Aunt Debbie did it for her.   

So some lace, beaded flowers and cloth buttons from the dress; part of her veil.

.

Some of the embellishments were from my stash.  But some of the buttons and bling I collected just for her. 

Daniel's mom, Debbie St. Pierre, collected photos of women from both Daniel's side of the family and Lauren's.  I took all the photos into Photoshop and made them all similar in size and used a sepia hue to give them an antique feel.  I printed them onto a fabric sheet and heat set.  Then ironed to fusible web.  I cut out the photos and ironed them in place.  Then did the embellishments and embroidery.

 

After the wedding, this becomes a prayer bag, where her hopes and prayers can be watched over by the many amazing women in her family, as the Lord works his ways.  These women have experienced every situation as wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, cousins, aunts and on and on.  Many of them teachers which is a special legacy for Lauren who is a school teacher as well.

The pattern I purchased for Julie's wedding.  By Roxanne's Ribonnry.  






This is the 2nd wedding purse I made.  The first, I made for Daniel's sister Julie in 2009.  The first one looked a little more traditional crazy quilting style, with different fabrics.  This one was mostly lace.  The project took about 6 months, but just because I have to think about a thing before I act on it.  Once you get started and visualize where you are headed, you just start.  Don't be afraid to leave areas you don't like or are just ok.   Life isn't like Facebook where you only post your perfection, when you look back to areas you don't like, they are equally part of who you are.  So leave it all, it makes it richer!

My Aunt Debbie says that Lauren loved the purse! So I guess mission accomplished.

The crazy quilting thing is fun and freeing.  I am not sure I would like to do this for a whole quilt but maybe a photo album cover (do people even use those?)  or prayer box for someone special.

Thank you all for stopping by!

I hope you had a chance to sew this weekend!
Love Aunti Nicole

Spring out!

Wow...I just realized its been a really long time between posts.  I have a new computer so maybe this will help.

Here is the last 1 1/2 years in a bucket!  I still love Oregon.  Still love the rain, and yes we got a bit of it this year!  Have joined a local quilt group and made some really nice new friends!  Shout out to Busy Bees, Whoop!  

Love our house our yard.  So much so that I'm starting to garden.  My daffys did not poke through yet but the tulips are amazing, they really want to come up!  More pics to come.

Changed positions at my company KETIV Technologies and am enjoying the new challenges.  I am now the Customer Experience Manager and manage a great team of technical specialists.  Less travel and lots of what I love which is problem solving.

What about Quilting?

I will share some of the projects I've made over the last year and half over the next new posts.  I'll try to post weekly, so hold me to it ;]

The funny thing is that I have a tech background and I have yet to find a good way to get my photos from my phone and nice new cannon camera to my computer to make them readily available to post on my blog.  Lame excuse, but what is everyone using these days?  

I just did an applique workshop for my Busy Bees group last week.  I made up this little sample.  It was fun and several of the people gave it a whirl.  Can't wait to see their finish projects.  Here's my sample.

Why does this bunny remind me of my puppy Dudley?

Speaking of which, this is my love Dudley.  He is such a good pal and follows me everywhere.  Except when Pete is home, then he follows Pete. lol.

Its a hard knock life for us...

No really? Life is good!

My mom is coming for a visit from Lake Shastina this weekend.  She is going to do a workshop on thread painting at my Busy Bees meeting in Clackamas, OR.  I'll share pics when I have them.

I hope you get a chance to sew this week.

Love Aunti Nicole