Today held a special surprise for me! I opened my email to find that I was the winner of the Sew Beautiful Blog giveaway. I will be the recipient of Beverley Sheldrick's Silk Ribbon Embroidery Projects for Baby, a linen gift bag ready to embroider and several yds. of beautiful silk ribbon! I'm so excited! Many thanks to Sew Beautiful, my favorite and most useful magazine!

Hello again! Christening gown for my newest grandbaby Gabriel- check! Easter dress for Cardyn - check! Easter panties/bloomers to match - check! Shadow work collar - check! Smocked dress - check! A little facelift for the blog - check! Heaven's to Betsy...it's been busy! Three more Easter outfits to go and I can look into some other fun things that are popping up around the corner! One of which is to get this little blog the way I'd like it to be. I have found so much inspiration and information from fellow sewing enthusiasts and truly appreciate the sharing community of those who love to sew. It seems with each "click of the mouse" I am finding more and more beautiful things created from the fingertips of some very talented people!

Speaking of talented people - many blessings flow from the fingertips and one that I am particularly proud of happens to be my sister, Barbara Davis. Barbara is an extremely blessed and talented artist. Her sweet spirit flows through the tips of her paintbrushes, as you will see. Refresh your spirit and visit her blog - it's listed on my sidebar!

For those of you who are new to this type of sewing, this is called English Smocking. It is embroidery worked onto tiny pleats. Hence, the use of the aforementioned pleater.

This is a fancy band (lace to lace to lace to ribbon to lace) on Lauren's christening gown.

This was Lauren's first Easter dress. The tatting is from her GrandMary, the tiny baby pearl buttons were from my grandmother's sewing basket and on the back, she had a closure using a pearl button from her mother's wedding gown. We covered a lot of ladies in that little dress!

Let's start at the beginning...

a very good place to start, if I remember correctly. I've been sewing since I was a young teenager. From time to time, I had the use of a borrowed sewing machine from my mother, grandmother or mother-in-law. Eventually I bought my own and put it to very good use. My aunt called me one day and asked if I wanted a smocking pleater and quickly announced that she already bought me one. I had no idea what to do with it at the time.
In 1985, that little pleater introduced me to the world of smocking, heirloom sewing, Martha Pullen, The Children's Corner patterns, french and Swiss lace, french seams, pearl buttons and the list goes on and on. I still use it today. Little did she know how long that piece of equipment would last! Several years and many pleats later, it has served me quite well and I treasure that little machine! Thanks Mim!