Ahhhhh, good to be home

Ten days is too long to be away from my own bed. Lets see where have I been? Over 2000 miles in the car, yes you read that right. We made a huge loop from the midwest through the mountains of West Virginia to the coast of both North and South Carolina, a fly by in south Georgia to drive up through the deep south back home. My bed felt like heaven on earth last night. We saw a lot, rode a lot, walked a lot, ate wayyy too much, and of course I stitched a lot in the car. Four of those days my husband worked all day.

If I had a driver everywhere I went, oh the stitching I would get done. The above picture was taken in the car as we drove through the mountains of Virginia. It was a test between three different flowers. I thought the flower on the right, the color was too bright, the flower on the left was way to pale so I settled on the color of the flower in the center. I used one strand of each of the other flowers to get the center one.

It reminds me of  Baskin- Robbins Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream.

I didn't just stitch in the car, I did lift my head and look out as well. And we stopped. I was a really bad photographer this trip.

We stopped at the New River Gorge and then drove to the bottom of the gorge. My husband nearly croaked when he looked back and saw how high the bridge was that we had driven over.  He is not a friend of heights.

But what a wonderful taste of autumn this was. We drove through the mountains of West Virginia. Even stopped for a quaint train festival in Hinton, WV.  Then it is back in the car and to North Carolina we head. No pictures taken there. I stitched in the hotel while he worked.

Down the coast we go, we stopped at Lee's Inlet Kitchen in Murrel's Inlet, SC for dinner. OMG, the hush puppies. We then get to Charleston and do the whirlwind tour of Charleston in two days. Take it from me, two days is not enough.

We started our whirlwind on a carriage tour, then we walked through some of the cemeteries, and up and down King Street and the old City Market. I bought a sweetgrass basket for a souvenir. For dinner we went to Hank's for dinner. FABULOUS! I highly recommend their shrimp and grits.

 

 

Day two we saved our feet a tiny bit by taking a pedi-cab down to the Battery and then walking back up to our hotel.

 

We toured the Calhoun Mansion and the Nathaniel Russell house.

The day was winding down but we did squeeze in the Old Exchange and the Provost's Dungeon, then walked the waterfront before we crawled back to rest before dinner at the historic restaurant, McCrady's. Wowzer, talk about fabulous!! I have raved about the heirloom tomatoes and house made buratta ever since and the corn bread pudding. Wonderful.  Kudos, there was no "George Washington Ate Here" sign even though it is a part of their storied history. The hostess was wonderful enough to hail another pedi cab for us because my feet were revolting by this point and were not going to make the mile walk back to the hotel by the end of the second long day.

Next morning we attended Mass at St. Mary's, the oldest Catholic Church in the Carolinas and Georgia. Beautiful. It made my heart sing to see all of those babies and children in smocking and heirloom sewing. On our way out of Charleston we stopped on John's Island to see the Angel Oak Tree.   Magnificent and humbling. And back in the car.

We traveled to south Georgia to see our oldest daughter. Too quick of a visit. Dinner was great, company even better. And yesterday we are in the car once again to trek home through 6 states to get home.

Of course being in the car I could work on my French Handsewn dress previewed here, here and here. I think I am going to dub this dress the "Car Dress" since so much of it has been stitched in the car.

 

It is almost finished.I have to gather and attach the ruffle  and sleeve lace, then do the embroidery. Then my first convention class project will be done.

I hope you enjoyed this little impromtu tour of the southeastern US. Hopefully I will be back with more stitching to share soon. Till then faithful reader.

Covered cupcakes (oops)..buttons

Some things just scream summer. That is what this darling cupcake print from Susan Branch did for me. I got it from Jan at Bessie Mary. I love Susan Branch graphics anyway, so it was a given I would like her graphics in a fabric. My first thought was to make a bishop smocked with cupcakes, and I still have enough, but then decided to use it to make a CC Taylor. On the Delphi Heirloom Sewing and Smocking board we had a Taylor challenge. Since I had never made this pattern before I decide to try it. It is a sleeveless bubble that I adapted to have a yoke. I paired the cupcakes with what else, gingham. I swear if you used gingham with burlap it would be adorable. Things go better with gingham! (I wonder if the Coco Cola Bottling company will mind?) I didn't have any cute buttons to go with it so I decided to cover some to match. I LOVE covered buttons almost as much as I love linen. And since I liked these little cupcakes so well, I wanted to make sure I had cupcakes on each button.

Covered buttons can be intimidating for some, but are really quite simple. And since I liked the cupcakes it took a bit more planning to achieve buttons with cupcakes on each center. I decided to share with you how I did that. As always you can click on the image to enlarge.

1. These are the supplies you will need. The covered button kit. These are readily available at most fabric stores.
2. A scrap of your fabric.
3. Temporary spray adhesive
4. Scissors, both paper and fabric.
5. Blue water-soluble fabric marking pen.
   

Using your paper scissors, cut out the appropriate sized circle from the cardboard backing of the button kit.

Decide which motif you want to feature on your button. I chose this cute little cupcake with the cherry on top. Trace around the cardboard circle with a blue water-soluble marker. Cut out traced circle.

I have marked the base of the button kit with a black marker. This is so that when I place the covered top into the base, I can position the cupcake right side up. This will be important when attaching the back. Otherwise your button turns out with your cupcake facing sideways. Ask me how I know this.

Pay close attention to this very technically savvy process. Stick the button front on the end of your finger. Spray button front with spray adhesive. It doesn't take much, you just want it to be tacky enough to catch your cupcake and not let it slip as you push it into the white base. (I told you it was technical.) Place button face down on back of fabric circle. It will stick to the fabric while remainng on the end of your finger. Pick up fabric circle and button front, place over white base making sure that the top of your motif is placed below the black mark you made on the base. Shove, press, push what ever verb suits you, the fabric and button front into the well of the white base.

After you shove it into the base, tuck the excess fabric down into the button. You will think it is too much, it rarely is. You can trim a scant amount of excess if you are dealing with a heavier fabric. If you trim it too close, the fabric won't be held securely by the button back. After you have tucked in the extra fabric, place the blue "pusher" thing, (I am sure it has a name that I don't know.) down into the back of the button front to make sure that the extra fabric is snug into the button front. Place button back on top of fabric making sure that the shank is horizontal to the black mark on the white base, thus aligning motif upright on button. Push down pretty hard. Sometimes you will feel the back snap into the button front. Remove blue pusher, check that back is snapped down all the way around. If not, repeat wit h blue pusher.

Twist white base to remove button.

Voila! Cute little cupcake button to go on my Taylor.

Just wondering...

What other tutorials would you like see? There has been good response on the Heirloom Sewing and Smocking board on Delphi so I was wondering what other tutorials would you like to see. I am a strong believer in clear concise directions, so I would like to add to them if possible. Let me know. Off to the game! Playyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ball.