Tying the Knot Over and Over Again

My sewing efforts last week and yesterday have resulted in four more pieced kimono scarves, one for me and three for gifts.  It's been nice to take a break from outside obligations and assemble these  small pieces of colorful fabric into a useful and attractive accessory.  
Yes, I've been up to my neck in appointments and meetings and other obligations but did make time for some personal fun as well.  Mr. Lucky and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary on Thursday.  

Much has changed in those 26 years, virtually all for the better, but we did laugh over the trend on our celebrations themselves.  Sixteen years ago for our tenth anniversary we did a big blow out trip, our first with a group.  We had two days in Paris on our own then went to Dijon where we met up with 13 other participants and two group leaders for an amazing walking trip through Burgundy.  After that astonishing week we crossed back over to England and spent four more days on own hiking the South Downs.  Fast forward sixteen more years, early retirements (probably too early in light of the economy) and this year's celebration was quite different albeit just as much fun.  We attended a free King Arthur Flour King Arthur Flour traveling baking demo and got wonderful tips for pie crust, scones and whole grain breads, a dough scraper along with coupons and 

Bonnie the baker showed us how to make that ginormous apple pie on the table.

I won a fabulous door prize from one of their co-sponsors, Dansko Shoes, another employee-owned company.  I already own two pairs of Dansko and now have a year to pick out any pair from their catalog.  Lucky, lucky me.  

I'm liking almost any selection on this page.

Then I surprised Mr. Lucky with a Groupon to use go-cart racing at a local family entertainment place.  He loved it and I just laughed as I kept spinning out on the "slick track."  Another Groupon for dinner that night and it was a truly fun day.  
But since I am showing you how that dress (from J. C. Penney's, on clearance, with a coupon) looked 26 years ago, I should finish the story of how it looks today.  The basement sewing clean out has been continuing for months now.  That dress has been balled up and moved from one Rubbermaid bin to another over time so this summer I thought it was use it or lose it.  I've been loving making fabric flowers and thought I'd cut up the base of the dress, thinking it was poly satin, and cut it into flower shapes whose petals I could curl with a flame.  Whoops, it's not poly satin whatsoever, it was acetate satin. As one science teacher noted, acetate Burns with a rapid flame and melts when burning.May melt and pull away from small flames without igniting. Melted area may drip off the clothing  Wow, glad I stayed away from the candles at our evening wedding.  So my lovely, romantic pillow idea was abandoned and I merely saved the embellished lace to use in some later project.  

Satin acetate, not satin poly

The dress may be gone or de-constructed, but the marriage goes on....and so do my many sewing project ideas.  

Giveaway Winners and Vintage Machine Update

Lucky picked the three winners in the blogaversary giveaway:  
Marianne, you've won the two fitting books,

Sueann, the two Claire Schaefer patterns are yours and 

Lucky picked the winners....and apologizes if he didn't pick your name.

Carolyn, you won the collection of Vogue patterns. 

Congrats to the three of you.  If you'll email me janem1960 at gmail.com and give me your mailing address I'll ship the packages out this weekend.

Thanks, everyone, for entering, for reading and for being a part of this enjoyable community of creative people.  

I've had a busy couple of days with several appts. and meetings that have kept me out of my sewing space.  But I did grab a moment today to catch up and see that Ed is hard at work on my sewing machine repairs.  It's fascinating to read his blog  Ed blogging about my Singer 500  as he disassembles and then reassembles these grand machines....sort of like watching surgery take place.  I've never been a particularly mechanical person so I have respect and appreciation for people who understand how things actually work....and can fix them.  In such a disposable world, isn't it wonderful that something old can be repaired and brought back to perform its intended function.