The Wedding Shrug

 

When my daughter got engaged in June, and as we were planning the wedding we were having one of the hottest summers on record. She picked out her "dream" dress with lace, and a beautiful strapless sweetheart neckline.   But the date of the wedding was October 20, I kept thinking that her beautiful strapless dress might be  a problem when the weather cooled down in October.  So I began researching and trying to find a pattern for a shrug that would have a beautiful lace design, and not cover up her beautiful dress.

I ended up putting together a pattern for stockings (Vogue magazine Spring/summer 2009) with a stockinette knit back, and then added a knitted lace edging at the sleeve and along the bottom of the back.  The yarn I used was Blue Skies Alpaca and Silk that I got at my LYS.  I was guessing that the color would work with the color of the dress (Ivory), as the dress didn't come in until late September.  Luckily, the color was perfect.  I also added pearl beads randomly throughout the knitted shrug to tie it in with her dress and the overall styling for the wedding.

 

It took a couple of restarts to get the sizing of the lace and sleeves right.  I was trying to make the shrug as a surprise for Kelly which meant I couldn't try it on her.  So it was mostly knitted by looking at some of her sweaters and crossing my fingers :>).  I ended up giving it to her 3 weeks or so before the wedding and did have to do some alterations to sleeve length, but otherwise it fit really well.  Whew!

 

 

Considering the temperatures ended up barely reaching 50 degrees that day, I think she was so glad to have the shrug.  And as you can see in the pictures it added some warmth for her arms and shoulders without covering up any of her dress.

 

 

 

And can I just say Kelly and Doug are so cute together.  The wedding ceremony was outdoors in a beautiful meadow surrounded by trees, and the reception was in a barn on the same property.  The wedding day was amazing.  And I have to thank the amazing photographers.  The first 3 pictures are by my friend Rissa, the rest of the photos are by Toni Price Photography.  Toni and Rissa did an amazing job.

 

And yes, we had quilts draped on some of the chairs in case guests were cold. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, Sylvia

 

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Random Christmas fun

My youngest daughter sent me this pic from the Meijer parking lot the other day.  She texted me "Mom, thought you would find this humorous"  and she was right.  I laughed out loud and still smile every time I see the picture.  I told my daughter I hope the driver noticed before she drove off.  She agreed but thought that would have been really funny to see the ball of yarn trailing behind the van...

Isn't this Christmas Tree skirt beautiful?  My daughter Alyssa made it!  She saw a picture of a similar one online and decided she could make that - one of those sometimes detrimental traits she learned from her mother :>)

She used a matelasse fabric she found at Joanns and then used osnaburg also from Joanns for the border.  She made a stencil and stenciled on the words.  The border also has silk ribbon stitching around the inner edge of the outer border.  I think it turned out beautifully.

My grandkids Ethan and Cora got to go on the Polar Express Christmas train with Mom and Dad.  Here is Ethan and Cora (at left) with Santa on the train.  They got to ride the train, had hot chocolate and cookies, and saw Santa and Mrs. Claus.  I think they had a really fun time.

This is a house and garage my grandson Ethan built.  I love the colorful symmetry with the block shapes. 

He also built this tower and bridge using legos and wood train tracks - so amazing!  Especially since he just turned 4, again totally symmetrical, he does have some OCD tendencies :>)  So we are on the hunt for fun building sets for him.  It seems all the Lego sets are to build a specific building or vehicle... just haven't found the right set for him.

 

This is a sneak peek at a surprise I Spy quilt for Ethan.  I intended to get this done for his birthday, but with all of the wedding stuff that didn't happen.  So, I am trying to get it done for Christmas.

 

OK, I think thats all for now.  Hope you enjoy my random Christmas post.  Hope you are having a joyous season, without too much stress.

Really Random

I am working on hand quilting a baby doll quilt for my grandaughter Cora.  This quilt was put together of left over tumblers from another project. 

It was fun just sewing these scraps together.  It is only 24" x 30" so I don't think it will take too long to quilt.

I used a soft flannel instead of batting so that the quilt would stay nice and soft and easy to use with her baby dolls.

This is the before and after of an armchair that I have been working on for a long time.  We aquired the chair a long time ago when my oldest daughter was in college.  She loved it cause it was small but super comfy - she still calls it her homework chair.  Then it got left in our garage, where I got big ideas about re-doing it. 

 I started tearing the old chair apart over a year ago, and then one project after another kept getting in the way of working on it.  Including my daughters engagement and wedding.

 

 So finally this last week I got a chance to get back at it and once I really started working on it and got out my husbands air stapler (high powered tools are always better :>)) the job went fairly quickly.

This is a pic of the chair all finished and in the room.  I have been re-doing this room, so I also just got the bookshelves all painted (they were unfinished pine to start out) and installed in the room.  Still have to get the rest of my books out of the basement.  But I am super happy with how the room is coming together.

And these two pics are close ups of a shrug that I knit for my daughter to wear with her wedding dress.  It is made of Alpaca and silk yarn and has pearl beads added in the knitting.  These pics were of the shrug as I blocked it.  The shrug is VERY soft and warm which was perfect as the wedding was outside and it was barely 50 degrees that day.

This is my daughter Kelly at the end of her wedding reception (and lots of dancing) with her new husband Doug.  You can see the shrug with the wedding dress.  Hopefully, I will get the photographer photos of the wedding soon, including some close ups of the shrug that I will post next week.  So please check back next week to see the finished shrug.

Thank you for stopping by to check out my random projects!!  Hope you are getting lots of projects done too.