Silks, Ruffles and Christmas in May

I decided I wanted to use the silks my niece brought back from India, for the USA map. 

I had to press, iron, them, so I pinned them to a half yard of fabric to keep them fairly flat....turns out this was a great way to pick from too.  Husband asked about this 'random fabrics' on the living room design wall. 

Then I started stitching.  Needle-turn applique has turned out to be the best way to do this....until I get to those small eastern states...then I will probably go with just stitches.

These 5 states are stitched and I have even stitched some southern states.

I think I will use batt behind this to give me even more tactical texture to it.

Birthdays.  Avery is now 3 and Devyn, our [grand] baby, is 1 year old!

I tried to get a shot of the 2 girls in their party dresses that are this frothy, frilly, lofty mix of pinks....

Devyn did not want Mama to put her down!!  She finally slept on a family member through most of the party.

But it also meant Avery could have her presents, the attention, and the singing, all to herself.  [Not that she is an attention lover.]

the dress is sleeveless, so i thought
D. would be better off in a sweater

Christmas.

 put away in a hope chest.  

but now the chest is moving on, 

so the christmas must come out.

stockings, so stitched with care,

the piece of paper is dated 2009, when i originally wanted to do all this organization, found it in the bottom of the chest

in hopes that Barney and Clifford would soon be there.

I made ornaments for birthday party favors and these are a few of the different ones I made.  All from cookie cutters.  Clifford [1989]is not holding up as well as Barney and the girl and roller skate[1993].

Different recipes and different paints.

Clifford was made for Ashley or Ben's bday.  Barney was Steph's bday and the girl and skates were Ashley's bday that same year.