I borrowed the photo above from Ruth as mine seemed to come out dark in class… But I am so excited to share my time at Ruth’s Class Forever Yours held at Kim Caldwell’s beautiful home. Please click on the pink Forever Yours to link to Ruth’s post about this beautiful project. The project was also in Somerset Sew & Kim knew the minute she saw it that she HAD TO have Ruth come play with us.
I have been to many of Kim’s AMAZING EVENTS but, never to a small get together at her home & I was so excited to see where the Queen of Creating Artistic Bliss lived. The day was a little dreary (as was the weather much of my visit in January) but, Kim’s table was cheery & sweet.
Flowers, candy, Valentine treats…. what more could a girl ask for?
Her kitchen is DARLING!!! All that natural light spilling in the windows.
The cutest darn decor… I mean the little petticoat covered drink bar was 2 DIE 4! Ok girlie… I may have to copy that one as I LOVE IT!
Alright… I’m off track so back to the class. All the girls started arriving & here you can see Cheryl passing out her Valentines(we of course had an exchange). Terry is doing a little kitchen duty, Susan & Erin are setting up their stations.
One style of Valentine I did for the girls was a 1930 Image that I transferred to fabric. I then stitched it (zig zag) on red felt that had pinked edges. I then did a trapuntoed heart (you stitch around the heart interior & then make a tiny cut in the back & stuff the heart) which made the heart dimensional. I then used white fabric paint to replicate the lace around the outside of the heart. Final touch was hand sewing the tiny pearls on the heart. I thought it turned out very sweet.
This little cupid was my second style. Again fabric transferred image sewn on to red felt. I slit the fabric to be able to slip 2 tiny feathers in to become her wings.
Vickie made me this sweet pillow style Valentine stuffed with a mixture of the most delicious VANILLA fragrance pellets along with ground walnut shells (which sharpen needles when they are put into the pin cushion). I don’t think I could stick needles in this beautiful face. Vickie loves pom poms & I will never see another pom pom without thinking of my sweet friend. All the girls made beautiful Valentines which we exchanged & are going to place in our finished books.
Here is Ruth’s book bag sitting at my space. The piece on the bottom is the book bag with all the beautiful EXTRA’s that have been stitched on layer by layer. And on top of it sits a bundle of vintage letters tied with a beautiful pink bow & a little hand made bauble for decoration. Again, click on the pink link at the beginning of the post to see Ruth’s photos (or Somerset’s which have much better lighting).
Before the class Vickie & I took the Somerset Sew magazine & followed the directions in it for some of our hearts & pockets (or envelopes) to be made ahead of time. In the magazine she stated the envelopes should be made from 12x12 pieces of fabric. In the class they used 8x8 so ours were a larger scale. AND Vickie had some beautiful/fancy fabrics that we played with. Above is my red crushed velvet heart (the back is a lush vintage sweater sleeve that was used). Vintage millinery pieces decorate the front.
This shows the heart & the envelope I made to put it in. Also, you see a smaller pink one done with hand dyed Velvet Vickie had created before. And on the left (back) is a piece of fabric that she sewed using free motion (with a product that shrinks when steam ironed) & this created that wonderful puffy heart design. I think I may put that on the back of my bag.
Here’s a little piece that will be layered onto some part of the book. I did this piece in class. I love how Ruth had us gather the under fabric adding a layer of gathered & stitched hymnal paper & hand stitch X’s holding it all down with a twinkle from a crystal bead & sheen of a MOP button.
This is Ruth’s & I think I like the look of the less formal fabrics for this project. I love the textures she has used on all the different pages & pieces. I may do two different styled books as I really like both.
I NEED TO LEARN TO DO FREE MOTION SEWING!
That was everyone's goal/wish that day. I was sharing a machine between Vickie & Andrea but, I can say that I need practice to even begin… And I need to see if my dinosaur will even do free motion. Let me share a few of the treasures that Ruth had for sale that day. You will see really great examples of Free Motion Sewing.
Above is 4 photos showing all the work & detail of a belt that Ruth had for sale. Oh to be a size 8!!!!! It was a soft belt that wrapped low on the hip worn over a cute silky puffy sleeved Magnolia Pearl top (worn by Ruth’s helper Kelly).
I ALMOST bought this darling little dress but, I had to remind myself that I would simply have to have it packed away for a LONG while during our moving/remodeling process & didn’t think that was the right thing to do.
Look at this vintage treasure with the tiny heart banner & some of Ruth’s jewelry.
Another dress COVERED in free motion. I think this was a little too free/covered for me!
And last but, not least was this scarf which was covered with beautiful free motion writing. I didn’t take it off the manni but, I think it was a poem. WOW! And how long did that take? Hope you enjoy this little snippet of one day of 10 spent in California this past cool rainy January. Check back for a sneak peek of Kim’s house. Back to packing….
HUGS! Charlene
