February Day Meeting

This month's day meeting was a great one! Leslye presented "Fun With Flowers," and showed everyone how to embroider cast-on flowers, as well as buttonhole ones and lazy daisies. Even for those that knew the stitches, Leslye helped them perfect those stitches.

Leslye demonstrates cast-on flowers.

 Members gather around to see the stitches close up. Roberta, Nikki, Barbara, Susanna and Teresa are intent on learning.

 Leslye does an informative demo.

 Leslye answers Linda's questions while Roberta works away on her stitches.

 Teresa always has the best smile on her face!

 The tools of our trade!

 Joanne and Leda stitch in the foreground; Nikki, Tawn & Trena are at the table in the back.

 Tawn learns quickly!

Talking and stitching go hand in hand!

 Once the demo is over, Mary visits with Roberta and Linda.

Leslye's beautiful examples of the stitches she taught

This sweet little pillow was a Gail Doane class at a SAGA convention. After finishing the cast-on flowers, Leslye added the pulled threads and ribbon and then made it into this pillow.

 A beautiful sewing roll, also a Gail Doane SAGA convention class.

 Leslye's monogram hand-stitched on the back.

 The inside of the roll has zippered pouches and pockets that match the trim.

The beautiful trim is a Liberty of London fabric.

 Joanne's lovely dress.

 The top is Children's Corner Sophie and the skirt is Children's Corner Louise, made of Liberty of London fabric.

 Joanne likes to pleat her skirt instead of gathering it, so that it is neater and very evenly distributed. Clever idea!

 Teresa's doll dress made from linen leftover from a granddaughter's dress. The pattern is Simplicity 1484.

 Leslye's adorable dress, made of linen from Wendy Schoen Design's Jeepers Creepers pattern.

 Beautiful embroidery. and bias binding

 Tatting and embroidery embellishment make this collar special.

Mary made these as muslins before making more elaborate dresses for her great-granddaughters. The pattern is Children's Corner Lee and the fabric is microcheck. (The distortion of the fabric is due to the camera, not the fabric.)

 Roberta made this adorable winter set for her granddaughter.

 Both pieces are made of red velveteen and Roberta used Bonnie Blue Designs' Zack & Zoe, although she says she will not use that pattern again because of sleeve issues.

The matching hat

 An Australian Smocking and Embroidery sampler, presented as a MOS program. Lesley finished hers and framed it.

 A close-up of the sampler

 As usual, Susan has been busy making beautiful things. This time it's a sewing set made out of lavender silk dupioni. Susan used silk ribbon embroidery and a pattern from Inspirations magazine.

 The needle book

 The pincushion

Susan is ahead of her time! She's already got an ornament ready for Christmas. This one is a lovely needlepoint stocking made from a design by Annette Mooney. Perfect!

February Night Meeting

Every month, the Midnight Oil Smockers has a night meeting on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, and then a day meeting on the 3rd Monday. At the February monthly night meeting, Brenda demonstrated how to sew the duplicate stitch. She even knitted the practice samples herself! Before Brenda taught the technique, our Show & Share provided time for members to look at each others' work. That is what inspires us to keep smocking and sewing and creating.

Brenda, showing how to do the duplicate stitch.

An example of duplicate stitch, created by Denise.

 The flower pattern is from Gail Doane's class "Duplicate Stitch" which MOS members attended way back in 2007.

 Stuart gives duplicate stitch a try.

Show & Share

 Stuart created this adorable bubble using Yvonne Denise's Ashley/Cory. The fabric is a Liberty of London, and the size is 12 months

.

 The smocking plate is Sweet Nothings.

 Stuart also made this ric-rac-trimmed bubble with another Liberty fabric purchased at Fabric.com.

 Trena made this cute doll apron for the upcoming MOS fundraiser. 

 The coordinating ruffles are precious!

 Trena also made this doll skirt for the fundraiser too. 

Brenda made this bridal ring pillow. She had a retail embroidery company do the monogram embroidery. She stitched the date and made the pillow.

Denise made this Texas A&M quilt for her oldest son's birthday. Happy birthday Trey!

Coming up next week:

Our next blog post will be about the day meeting. Check back to read about the interesting program, and to see all the great Sew & Share. 

Jeannie Baumeister Class

2017 Reward Class

Every year, MOS members earn points for things like attending a WeeCare Workshop, making WeeCare gowns, presenting programs, and making garments or donating to our bi-annual doll drawing. In January, we have a class with a national SAGA teacher as a reward to those who earned points. Those who earned a certain number pay no tuition for the class. Others with fewer points get discounted tuition.

This year's class was Jeannie Baumeister's Baby Emma Sweet Sleeveless Dress. It was a full house at Quiltworks, where MOS holds classes. The two-day class was full of great instruction on techniques and lots of laughter as our members gathered to hear Jeannie's contruction wisdom. A follow-up monthly meeting will showcase the finished dresses.

Jeannie is a delightful teacher. Her technique instructions are excellent. Plus she's a whole lot of fun.

 The bodice of the completed dress. Techniques: lace attached with the hemstitching, chain stitch, and bullions.

 Joy, Brenda, Nikki, Lesley, Ann, Susanna and Roberta hard at work.

 Teresa working on the bodice of the dress.

Roberta and Susanna discussing technique

 Terri and Beth in their "assigned seats" working on their embroidery techniques. Some of us sit in the same seat every time. Perhaps it makes us more comfortable to do so, and then we do better work. That sounds like a good explanation to me!

 Leda

 The necessary tools, including caffeine.

 Sometimes high tech isn't the best way to get the point across.

 Cutting/ironing station

 Chocolate Fudge Sheet Cake for those times when you need a little pick-me-up while concentrating so hard on a project all day!