Stitching...
Other current projects include counted cross-stitch and crocheted lace. I enjoy making small items like mini-samplers and ornaments for gifts. In conjunction with my smocking, I hope to make my own lace to trim special garments for my great nieces (and maybe a granddaughter some day?). On a larger scale, I am nearly half done with the Lavender & Lace "Angel of Grace" cross-stitch on 30-count linen.
Click here to see a sampling of other smocked/sewn items... You can find out more about smocking and other sewing at the following links...
Norwegian Heritage | Stitching | Healing Connections The Wordoctor | Fun Links Updated February 9, 2001
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My needlework and sewing skills developed very early. I remember embroidering a carrot on a white handkerchief for my father with my Grandmother's help (I think he still has it!) as a fairly small child. My sewing days began in late elementary school by making small stuffed animals to donate to the children's ward at the hospital with the help of my Auntie R on her old Singer. My mom, an accomplished seamstress who even makes teddy bears (see picture at left), encouraged me also and taught me many things that I am now passing on to my daughters as they are learning to sew. I have continued to sew and work with my hands and have expanded to include needlepoint, counted cross-stitch, English smocking, French machine sewing, as well as just plain old sewing and embroidery.
Sewing for me began in earnest in junior high (even before home economics classes). While my friends were learning to sew in straight lines around apron hems and on A-line skirts, I was making dresses with zippers and set-in sleeves. While in high school I made my Mom a dress for a surprise Christmas present. I have sewn for myself, my children, my nieces, for friends, and even for money making prom dresses and a wedding dress. At the request of my friend Leon Burke (pictured here with the dress), I smocked an inset for a pinnafore and matching dress that I sewed for his daughter's 6th birthday.
My first experience with English smocking involved purchasing a Vogue pattern in 1982 to make an Easter dress for my daughter, Jennifer (at left). Well, I discovered the tedious job of creating pleats by gathering iron-on dots. I did finish the dress, but only about half of the smocking ever got done... I tired of gathering and lost interest, thus completing the dress with enough smocking to look cute, but not done by a long shot! A year later I moved to Kansas and discovered in a local shop Smocking Pleaters--small mechanical devices that pleated the material by running it through onto needles threaded with quilting threads. This generated new interest for me and I was soon attending the local Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA) chapter. In 1987 I entered several English smocked items in the Open Class Smocking Division of the Douglas County Fair and was awarded two First Place ribbons and Best of Class ribbon along with a gift certificate from a local fabric store. The prize winning items were a blue batiste dress smocked in shades of pink geometrics for my then-3-year-old daughter Allison, and a crepe-backed satin angel smocked with Christmas red and green Marlite thread. The prize money was put towards purchasing enough material to smock and make myself a dress to wear to my parents' 50th anniversary party that fall. I have since entered items in the Kansas State Fair where a smocked sundress won second place in 1999.