4th of July Fun

Wow! Is it hot here in New England right now. 90's for a temp and in some spots, over 100. Whew....
Anyway, we made it to my mother's home for the fourth of July. My husband set the fireworks off and they were wonderful this year. It's hard to tell what will work best for a show and what will be very fiery, but he did them justice.
I finally got the chance to pick up the packages Lola sent home from Florida with my mother when she made a trip down there in April. Such nice stuff Lola sent and such a nice lady. Look at the holiday fabric and 2 Christmas door panels, a large card holder and a ole' fashioned Santa pillow. I love the polar bear with the Santa, so old world.

These homespun fabrics are to die for. I was saying " look.....look.." to my husband as I was unpacking them. He teases me about the fondness I have for fabric.

Many blues too. You can't have too many blues, you can do so much with them.

This is the first photo I took of the fireworks and wow! I came out soooo good. The others didn't do so well.

There is more that Lola sent but it will "be continued" tomorrow.

Thank-you, Lola! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Having Christmas All Year Long...

One..... Two.....

Three.....

Four.......

Five.....

Six.....

Seven and eight!..... Pieces of cute fabric in countless yardage!

Thanks, Lola! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Vintage Vietnam

I'm almost done cleaning out my "craft camper" I have just the front overhead cupboards, two small dressers (empty) and a few big moving boxes. Pretty much all the fabric is out.

The above picture was taken one week ago, in fact the snow has melted all the way to the clothes line now, rain tomorrow so all will be lost. Anyway....my clothes line is 75 feet long and this silk my father brought back from Vietnam, in the sixties, older than me, measures almost that. Imagine my dismay when I found it saturated with water while being sealed and wrapped tightly with plastic.

He actually brought this fabric for my mother, she really doesn't sew like me....so she gave it to me to use. I think the long piece is okay but I will have to be selective with the short piece. That piece was leftover after I made my wedding dress.

Madame asked me about my dismay at discovering this treasure in such a state and I told her all the history behind the silk. Much to my surprise and astonishment, she mentioned wearing my dress for her wedding. I hadn't thought of that.

I still have it although all wrapped up in my closet. It is tea length with a V waist, two rows of lace down the front of the bodice and short puffy sleeves with shoulder pads (they were the style then).
Hopefully it will fit her, might be too big!

Oh, well...whatever she would like,

I'll even make her a new one! C&G Design


Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

A Nice Surprise

The other day while speaking with a customer on the phone there was a knock at my door, well it was the mailman, he knows me well enough to just pop in and set my packages inside the door. Everyone knows everyone like that in a small town I guess, nice of him though. I could see a rather medium sized box on the floor as I was upstairs and thinking it was the Frontline I ordered for the animals, I didn't hurry down to check it out.

What a surprise to find a goodies package from a commenter, Lola! I had forgotten she mailed me asking if she could pass-a-long some of her craft stuff. It was like Christmas again! What fun! This is the second time Lola sent me a package like this and I must say, Lola you are the most organized, neat person! Look at all the lace and trim, I will sure use it.

Lola put fabric in the box also, felt, cotton and check out the leopard spots! Madame will love it! And the little flowers on top there,... the best feeling fabric I've ever felt, I love the rayon type garments, so luxuriant.

Thank-you Lola! Thank-you, thank-you. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

Messenger Bag by Madame

Ah, well, I HAVE created a monster! One like Elmo or Kermit or even the Stay-Puff man from Ghostbusters! (as I show my age) Anyway, Madame is itching everyday for a project, on this day (Friday) She decided it would be a messenger bag. Perfect! I didn't realize how hard it was to come up with simple sew projects that are worth while. She had easily whipped up a pillow (which is awaiting a foam form) and a strip quilt would be a bit to much to do independently, I did not want her to exhaust her happily found fabric at Goodwill, so here was her suggestion. I talked her through making it reversible. The above photo shows the two selected fabrics that were sewn together with right sides facing one another, then turned right side out through a 4 inch gap.

Then it's a envelope fold with a strap done in the same method as the bag (right sides together, turn), attach the strap where the flap folds. I really like the peace side and not the skulls and roses, but....I was a kid once too!

C&G Design

Buddy Lee

It's PINK Saturday! Click on over to How Sweet the Sound to find out what PINK Saturday is about.
My choice this week is a surprising find. (what's new?)
Well, anyone who knows my blog knows I have a passion for dolls, I collect them, repair them and make them. One of my favorites is Buddy Lee. Buddy Lee is a cute little guy made in the 1950's, he was used as advertisement for blue jeans, and is mostly remembered as the stripe dressed train engineer. It really was a pleasant surprise when I found this fabric at my favorite salvage shop so I decided to show it for pink today. Can you believe this time stamped (1950,s) linen!? was $.39 a yard?! I promptly bought 5 yards but if I had bought all 18, the total cost would be $7.00 (what was I thinking!). I had to ask the salesperson if what I was reading on the price tag, was right. I thought the dollar was faded out! LOL!

Isn't he cute? This fabric is going to be the curtains in my studio, it will cover that 8 foot arched window. Ohhhh, I can't wait!

C&G Design

Peter and Paul, more cute

There is some (alot) fabrics I purchase without thought, black, red and stripe. Black because it's can be shoes, trim, and outerwear on my dolls. Red because of Christmas and striped because of the many doll legs I have made over the years.
So, on this day I unpacked the red and striped both. Why? Well, as I said...Christmas.

I had an all together different concept about my current project, but I'm really not disappointed with what I ended up with. They are kinda cute.



My son referred to them as "sketching", what is that? I told him I thought they were cute! And that must be what "sketching" means.





Why, just look at the bottle brush tree Peter carries and the glittered pine cone Paul has. How could anyone not love these?


He told me they are cute but in a Tim Burton, Nightmare before Christmas way. Okay, I'll live with that.

Should I really be in the Christmas spirit? I really need to get in a Halloween mood.

But these are to cute, it's going to be hard to do!!

and I never did get the definition of "sketching" C&G Design

Poor, Poor, Peter Rabbit

What was I thinking!?! How many years had I looked at this pretty, vintage, floor length skirt made from this fabric? Too many. Then found a vintage rabbit pattern and created this bunny. That was about...hummm..15 years ago. He has sat in my kitchen, occupying the unused Captain's chair all this time, dummy me threw him in the washing machine, ha! Like I said, "What was I thinking!?!"

His arms AND his legs proceeded to be agitated off, he did have a ribbon around his neck, that got twisted so many times, I had to re stuff, take a few tucks, just to get it to look right. Poor, poor Peter rabbit. I found him stuffed in a box, searched high and low for matching vintage buttons, stitched and hid the rips.

Luckily I had pinned the right button eye on him otherwise, he'd had to have new ones. The whiskers are long gone.

And no more ribbon for the neck C&G Design

Fabric Fretting

You know when you have a idea in your head about what you want something to look like? Yeah, I guess I really needed to theme my red work...except I had a great time embroidering the cute looking choices. Hope I don't pay for it when it comes to the framing fabric (sashing around the blocks), but I did. I walked around Joanne's for over a hour with this fabric in tote. It was $6.99 a yard and not exactly what I thought would look good, after all...the only associating animal would be the lion and the parrot. I browsed the nursery fabric (soft flannel) and they had a closer relation, but pink! I found one in the country prints, pig, bunny, lamb and chicken! But it had barnyard printed on it with "farm girl". Ay, iy, iy. Finally I put the safari print back and just left!

I declined any other fabric place and decided the local Marden's would do, if anything I could get something for the garden. I hit pay dirt! Quilting the fabric will no longer be in question, I can red work the outline (dots) of each animal!

These are actually applique panels and they could only sell them by the panel, the cutter thought I was off my rocker when I bought 5 panels (panel=3 rows)

The way I figure...the animals in the first piece of fabric can be cut into rows, this will be the up and down sashing of my quilt. The animals in the above picture , cat, dog, turtle, dolphin, pig, bunny, butterfly, grasshopper, can be the short crosswise sashing, cool huh? I figured 5 1/2 inches wide for all sashing so when everything is all done, I will have a piece that measures 62'' wide by 70'' long. Twin size.

It was much harder cutting the crosswise sashing than what I thought though. C&G Design

Fab Fabric

I was browsing the local discount store yesterday, really looking for seeds and hoping for outdoor plants, but it's to early.
By gosh, I really know to stay away from the large craft department, I always find something to buy even if I don't need it. Well, there was a sale on certain fabric, $1.99 a yard. Quickly! Did a scurry on by, but....egad, this caught my eye. It sort of looks like a quilt itself, and I suppose it would be adorable worked up as such. But....but, I would like some custom quilt tags, these are perfect to be snipped, signed and attached to the back of a nice blanket.

Some of the blocks look like postcards with cute sayings on them. "It was sew nice to meet you". Is the wording on this one......

and "May we always share a common thread", on yet another.

Major debate going on in the center of the isle, the cutters were so busy cutting, I felt as if, I'd be there forever! I'd look their way and thought. I should of bought when I saw it at.......(store name). I know I'm going to regret not taking the time.

" Weaving the fabric of friendship". Oh, how nice it would be to have these, just one yard....

Yep, melting over a must have, "We admit, we are powerless over fabric".

I do live by this motto, "May your stash be forever plentiful". Sounds good to me.

And moving on the the color ones! I announce. My resolve? Well, I decided if I could see another must have in this humongous isle, I'd bother the cutters, measurers, and or sales people. Really, that was my resolve. Foolish, I know.

"Quilters share a common thread"! These are words to live by!

Tee hee, how funny. How cute!

Luckily, there was a woman on the other side of the isle and I'd already made it 3/4 of the way down my side before I spotted my tags. Maybe if I excuse myself really fast I could miss another 1/2 of the bargain bolts.

Needless, there was nothing else. So I hurried out as fast as my legs would go.

By god, there it was! In the cut remnant bin! One and a half whole yards! Those ladies, I know, must of thought I should have some sort of "anti- freaking fabric" treatment.

BTW, this is my favorite. Hello Jane! C&G Design