First Comes the Messy Part

This week there is no Splendid Sampler block to show you, no finished patterns, no tutorial, and not even a recipe.  Quilt sewing, pattern design, and blog writing have not been very high on my list of priorities this past week. I've been a bit preoccupied with a wedding dress and getting rid of flooding in our basement storage area and my sewing room.

The water repairs started with a huge mess. Of course it did. Can you think of anything worth doing that doesn't start out messy? Sewing is messy, cooking is messy. Cleaning, painting, bathing, fixing cars, mowing the lawn, and just plain living is messy. Raising children is really, really messy.

Our building is exactly 40 years old this summer, so tackling the water issue has turned into a major project with two main phases. The first step has been to replace cracked, tilted cement with new. A section of driveway and my entire outside entry had to be redone. Fortunately, the sun shone for four solid days, and that job was completed without a hitch.

Work in progress.

New front entry.

Thank goodness, yesterday was the last day of loud machinery, workers, and curious neighbors in our yard.

 

I was able to watch much of the cement work from my sewing room as I made indoor messes cutting off strips of net and tulle. I measured and cut five of eight layers of wedding gown skirts.  I serged the hem of the innermost layer of satin. I'm not crazy about the look of serged hems, but this layer won't show. The second satin layer is part of the train, so if the net and tulle layers over it don't hide it well, I just might be hemming that one by hand. Ouch! Several evenings of hand stitching may be in my very near future.

I need one more fitting before I can do any more work, so the dress is back on the bed in the guest bedroom until my granddaughter can come over. I hope she can make it soon! The kids are so busy. They are out of school for the this year and both of them are working full time while trying to get ready for the wedding. They've just rented an apartment, too, so there is moving and all of that going on at the same time as everything else. In spite of it all they seem to be completely relaxed.The wedding is three weeks from today, and I seem to be the only one feeling frazzled.

There were no workers here today and nothing I could do on the wedding dress, so after running a couple of errands, I retreated to my sewing room to play with a new summer quilt block idea.

I finalized the positioning of the appliques and made good progress with the blanket stitching, but I'm so disappointed that the thread on her skin looks so light. It looked like a great match before I sewed it on. There are some other little elements that could be better, too. I haven't decided if I want to do the block over. It might depend on whether or not I can find another great piece of blue fabric. This was the very last bit of it, and it's no longer available anywhere.

Dinner is over, dishes are done. It's time for a walk, then comfy pajamas and Netflix to finish the day.

Wishing you a lovely week!!