Flea Market Bridal finds....

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in my March 1st bundle giveaway!

So, today I went off to our local Santa Cruz flea market. I walked and walked and found very little lace.... that is, until I turned the last corner heading towards my car. I found THREE WEDDING DRESSES! and they were only $10 each! They're not really, really old, nor vintage. But there are yards and yards of great laces, trims, and three different beautiful satins! (I'm probably going to include pieces of these in my next bundle giveaway!)

Here they are in the back of my car. I sure felt funny walking to my car carrying three huge wedding dresses.

 Just look at all the trims and lace!

 It was hard to take a scissors to them! And, then, the problem of where to store them in my little studio. Solved that by cutting large pieces of the satins and cutting off most of the trims and laces.

 I had to soak some of the trim from one of the hems.... SIX yard of it! But it came out clean and sweet.

It took a couple of hours to cut into these dresses, then wash some of the trims and iron the satins. But I'm feeling the love for these beauties!
Hugs to you dear friends!

Just for fun...

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win the March 1st GiveAway!

Just thought I'd share this with you. I left little piles of my dyed seam binding to dry on the shelf right outside my sewing studio door. The sweet angel looking over them was painted on a redwood plank, way back when I was first learning. The whole scene makes me smile!

Jackpot! Another big SCORE! This time Fabrics!

Well, it was a lovely day in Santa Cruz, just a few miles from our house. Hubby and I had a bread bowl of clam chowder while watching the boats and seagulls. It was almost 70 out!  It took me quite a while to calm down after my big score! Scroll down to see why! (and dont forget to leave a comment to be included in the March 1 giveaway!)

 We gave the leftover bread bowls to the seagulls for dinner.

 And HERE IS MY SCORE! After selling three purses and some other art this week, I stopped by Harts Fabrics and found the regularly up to $35 a yard short ends of upholstery fabric on a sale table. I usually buy this yardage at $8.99 a yard.... but... BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!! It was on sale at $2.99 a yard!! this is what 33 yards of amazing fabrics look like!

 This is what it looks like, neatly folded on my sewing studio shelf.

 And here's my messy shelf...(no comment)

New GiveAway to celebrate my 100th follower!

Well, I can't resist. I'm going to offer another lace/trim bundle after the 100th person becomes a follower of my blog. The Grow your Blog party was a huge success and so much fun. I've met lots of amazing and wonderful people from all over the world! So, I loved creating the bundle I just sent off, I want to do it again.
Please leave a comment, and if you aren't already a follower, become one! On February 28th, I'll choose a number and will send you a surprise bundle!
OKAY... In the mean time, I was thrilled yesterday to deliver this special order Gypsy Boho bag I created last week. It was a gift for a beautiful, stylish teenager, so the dimensions were scaled down a bit. 

It's all in purples. The laces were hand dyed but were way too glaringly purple. 

So I over-dyed them with coffee. It toned down the purple and I love the way it looks. 

(The bag is sitting on top of some others... there's no red or yellow in it.)

The front was looking kinda plain, so I made a shabby tassel flower 

with a pinback she can take off if she wants.

 Under the front flap.... two pockets.

 Here's the back with another pocket sized to hold an iPad or Kindle.

 I had fun with the lining and interior pockets. 

I used a lovely scrap of cotton with a Victorian lady print. 

The piece of lace worked sweetly over her head like a flowing Victorian hat.

Thanks for your comments....
Sweet blessings to you dear friends.
Chris

February's CQ Block & adventures in dyeing....

Just a peek at my naked February Crazy Quilt block.  I painted this angel last spring, one of five 'Spring Angels'. I printed her on silk and even mapped out the crazy quilt pattern. It was so much easier to sew together the pieces of velvets. I used several piece of my favorite laces. I'm starting to get low on those!

I

 I'm leaving today for a four day mini retreat with two of my dearest friends. Kind of a mini spiritual retreat. But, I'm not comfortable sitting around without something stitching in my hands.... so I attempted my first ribbon dyeing on both seam binding and silk ribbon. I'm very happy with the results!

So, I'll be creating lots of silk flowers and ribbon embroidery for the next few days.
What are you up to this week?
Sweet Blessings, Chris

Dyeing fabric, Jan CQ Block, & some Tassle dolls...

Good morning from sunny California Redwoods. The sun is streaming through the morning mist.... oh so beautiful.  I've been a busy girl this week. Tried my hand at microwave dyeing... but the purple came out way too vivid. I may coffee dye them to tone it down some.
During the Superbowl game, I also finished up my January Crazy Quilt Block.
And, inspired by Just Lila, I made up three sweet tassel dolls. You have to check out her You Tube channel! She is so amazing and inspiring!
Hope you enjoy the pictures....
I like the light lavender color of the curtain fabric (netting), but the laces are a tad too bright.

 Here's January's block. My theme for the year is to use my paintings as the focal in each block, then bind them together at the end of the year.

 Here are the tassel dolls..... Oh... I used lavender buds as the stuffing, so they're really sachet dolls. Alphonse Mucha is one of my favorite artists. So I played with a few of his images in Photoshop, then printed them on silk.

 I like that the back is almost as pretty as the front.

 I spent the most time on this one, plus, used the most snippets of lace and trims... but it's the one I like the least. I think maybe I should learn the 'less is more' thing.

 This is the simplest doll. I just love her!

 Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs and sweet blessings, Chris

The Grow Your Blog Party Winner is....

Wow, it's February FIRST! And the weather outside is springlike! 

A beautiful day in the Redwoods. 

I'm thrilled to announce the winner of my Lace Bundle is #35, 

chosen by the random picker, and that is: (drum roll please) 

KAREN DARCUS of Alaska Blue Moose!!!

Karen mentioned her Mother Mary Lace book in her comment

so I certainly checked it out. She is soooo talented!

And  big THANK YOU to Vicki at

2 Bags Full

I've met many, MANY!, new friends!

And found so many lace lovers as well.

I think we're ALL WINNERS!

Thank you all for visiting my blog 

and making this such a fun event!

I spent the last three days working in my shop,

Boulder Creek Antiques & Art 

in the sweet Redwood town of Boulder Creek.

I got the idea from several blog party commenters

to sell some of my wonderful vintage finds.

So, I played with some vintage button card images

and came up with a darling packaging idea.

Here's how they look....

 I also hung some of my lacy bags off one side.

And here is the display of the Prayer Keeper Books. 

I like keeping them under glass, in a display case, 

kinda gives them a place of honor and reverence.

Thanks again to Vicki and all my new blogging friends! 

I'm looking forward to keeping up with your amazing creativity.

Sweet Blessings in Gratitude, Chris