If I Had My Own Blue Box:

This evening I finished up the quilting and pieced together on slipper. Here it is inside out with a hint to what movie I watched while sewing.

Here it is right side out.

I opted for wider spaced quilting. I just couldn’t confine this silk with tighter spacing. Maybe the red.

Left to do…. the same for the other slipper, the leather & cork soles (I don’t think I’ll be doing the wool as planned) and the ruching with rosette. The last part will let me play with the lines some more. I’m trying to get a slim/sleek period look while also fitting wide feet.

I felt like quilting today. One and a half slippers are quilted. The silk’s weave is very tight. So, it was slow going.

I finally got around to cutting out my slippers. I figured, if I put them on my fair entry form, I should start them. Right?

Here are the must have inspiration slippers from the Buffalo, Erie Historical Society:

This is the fabulous tealy-green I’ll be making this first pair from (yes, I will make a red pair too):

(Goal – post photos at each stage)

I skimped the traditional posting of a full “To Do List” at the beginning of the year by posting the swatch book version. Now, I’m finding I am inundated with fabric and mental lists of what needs to be made or remade. So… here it goes….

• Pink Lawn dress (me)
• Plaid cotton dress (me)
• Alter or make sheer dress (me)
• Wash dress (Lily)
• Corset (Lily)
• Second Chemise & drawer set (Lily)
• Cage (Lily)
• find shoes/boots (Lily)
• New wrapper (me)
• Possibly a wrapper (Lily)
• Wool apron (Lily for cooking)
• Bonnet (Lily)
• Undersleeves x 2 or 3 (me)
• Dancing dress? (both Lily and I)
• Civilian pants (Dan)
• Shirts (Dan)
• Replace drawers (Dan)
• Vest alteration (Dan)
• Civilian Vest (Dan)
• Covers for cots x 2 I think
• Black and red stripey quilt
• Multi-color stripey quilt
• Carpet bag for Lily
• Find parasols in storage – See about repairing and covering the one still waiting
• Green coat for next fall
• Green wool dress for next fall?
• Multiple modern garments

Mind you, this does not include anything I plan to make for Etsy.

In a previous post, I mentioned the embroidered shawl I have been planning. Originally, I wasn’t going to write anything about this project until the fall thinking I would enter it in the fair. But, I’ve decided it is far more fun to share.
Right now I’m still in the planning & prep stage. I have an assortment of original embroidered shawls to pull from as well as emboidery designs. Once I decide on the design, this what I have in mind…
Step 1 – Wash the wool as it has soiling from sitting in the store I picked it up from. Hang dry.
Step 2 – Square & fringe.
Step 3 – Block out the border placement & corner motif.
Step 4 – Bite the bullet & chalk/mark in the design. I’ll either use a cut template or trace if the wool is transparent enough.
Step 5 – Embroidering, lots of embroidering

I still have my ribbons from when I was younger and entered work in th Genesee Country Village’s Agricultural Society Fair. I remember going through their box, making sure each one was perfectly neat inside. I also remember Grandma Kramer making a point to get her one last hooked rug finished before she passed away so it could be in the fair. I would have rather her had a chance to do the other border around it with the birds at each corner. So, needless to say it was important to me to get to enter a few things in this year’s fair. Next year I’ll get a rug in.

The ribbon count between myself and family came to something like 7 blue ribbons, 4 red and 4 white. Mom, Lily and Joni each entered work as well.

This is my quilted pocket. It is pieced from cotton prints some of which have been used for needle-books others from Dan’s quilt or my cloths. There are two freehand curves at the top. The rest is stitched in the ditch. The quilted front gives this pocket nice body. It will be nice to see how well it holds its contents when worn.

Here are my brown silk purse and pair of rolled sewing cases, blue and red ribbons in the 19th century sewn article of clothing and 19th sewn household item categories respectfully. I love this type of purse. It is so cute and fun to make. The pair of sewing cases are some of my favorite out of those I’ve made.

This is the sunset silk quilted hood. It won a blue ribbon in the 19th century quilted article of clothing class.

This is my only 21st century class entry, the black velvet hood. It won a blue ribbon. Now, if only the blue ribbon would tell what to do with the lint the hood collects.

This is one of my little sister’s two entries. This is her corn bread which was entered in the 21st century children’s class for corn bread. This is her first blue ribbon.

This is my little sister’s apple pie entry. I have several ideas for her to work on for next year’s fair.

This is mom’s bread. She was trying to explain to me what it looked like. Now I know what she was talking about when she said it had a thing on the side. It looks like it tasted good.

This is one of I think 9 canned foods mom entered. She got ribbons for a few jams, sweet pickles and beets. (I hope I got that right. I was a bit too short to see the labels on the top shelf.) The photo below shows the display of 21st century canning entries.

I think mom was pretty excited about this one, her ginger bread entry. I hope we’ll get a chance to taste this one in the future.

I was able to talk Joni into entering this year too. She got a red and white ribbon for two of her photographs. The red ribbon is a neat look through a village window while the white ribbon is a shot of the cannons at the Civil War event.