The 2011 Christmas frock

As I explained last year with the making of the Christmas Skirt, making something to wear on Christmas Day is a tradition I decided to bring back from the days my mum used to make me a new Christmas, or school break-up free each year.

This year was no different. When I picked up this gorgeous soft cotton drill from Mood Fabrics in New York in late October, I knew it would be a Christmas Dress. It was summery, light and cotton, and if I made it in a Not Sorbetto tea dress style it could look quite classic and wearable.

Question: What does this photo tell you?



Answer: I need to find a red vintage handbag to wear with this dress.

Question: What does this photo tell you?



Answer 1: That it was fortunate I didn't end up with a rose motif over each boob, a la the Jesus arms butt skirt.

Answer 2: That I don't do blond surfer streaks in my hair very well.



To be perfectly honest I'm getting a teensy bit tired of the Not Sorbetto (Simplicity 2938). Not wearing it mind you - just making it. I have quite a few versions of the Not Sorbetto in top and dress form hanging in my closet. It's a brilliant pattern, but enough might soon be enough. So I decided to change the neck details on this dress - instead of the inverted pleat at the centre, and the two knife pleats on the outside, I gathered the neck instead. I like the effect. If the facing actually decided to ever sit where it is supposed to, I would totally LOVE the effect.



I felt this dress needed something at the waist. I toyed with the idea of making a red belt to go with it, but then realised that all it needed was a little red trim.

Besides who needs to be wearing a belt on Christmas Day when your brother has cooked an amazing feast? Belts out a notch, anyone?

Luckily I had the perfect amount of red baby ric-rac in my stash from the Blythe clothes-making days to embellish my dress with. And I discovered that baby ric-rac is quite the little bastard when it comes to attaching it by machine. I tried three times, and ended up with a wonky mess each time. In the end I hand stitched the ric-rac down which took a couple of hours, but the result was worth it.



I did my third ever hand-picked zipper. I love doing these. I actually find them easy to do, and they are so accurate too. Much better than sewing in by machine and I love the look of those tiny little stitches.

I really love this dress and I think it might be my favourite dress of all time. I love the softness and also the density of the fabric. And the print is amazing with its pixellated roses almost looking a little like camo close up. I wore it tonight to dinner with friends and on the walk to the restaurant I felt taller and straighter than I have in a while. It's almost like I feel I have to have a better posture in order to belong in this dress. And that's a really good thing.

I have a wedding in late April to attend in Bowral and I think it might be a contender against the White Flowers dress I made for my brother's wedding. Matched with the red silk/satin wedding stole from my own wedding, I think it could look pretty cool.

Super Stars: American Folk Art Museum

When we first went to the US together 15 years ago, I was not a quilter but my mum was. I remember I bought her a pattern book on the Smithsonian quilt collection, and then I saw an amazing exhibition called "Calico and Chintz" at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art in Washington DC. The quilts in that exhibition were all made prior to 1850 and they were, in a word, amazing.

I was hooked from that moment on. I wanted to be a quilter too. So I took my first class, and then I took another, and then I started making quilts all the time.

When we were in New York a couple of weeks ago, we visited the American Folk Art Museum which was holding a special exhibition called "Super Stars". All the quilts had stars as the theme. And again - amazing.





This was probably one of the oldest quilts in the exhibition. It's a Mariner's Compass quilt made sometime between 1840 and 1860 by an unidentified quilter. Aren't the colours amazing, 150 years on? And the hand piecing! I can imagine the woman making this would have done her meticulous piecing by lamplight after her chores were done and the children were in bed. Nowadays we all have daylight lamps and magnifiers. How lucky we are!





This Bull's Eye quilt was made sometime between 1900 and 1920 by an unidentified member of the family of Alverda H. (Hoffman) Herb in Berks County Pennsylvania.  Again, the amazing handwork in this is breathtaking. I want to learn how to be this amazing! And patient!



Star of Bethelehem with Satellite Stars quilt, made by an unidentified quilt maker, possibly in Pennsylvania sometime between 1930 and 1950. I can't imagine the word "procrastination" or "idleness" was in the quilt maker's vocabulary. The hand quilting is spectacular.



This quilt was framed and behind glass. The integrity of the fabrics was still really good. It's a Star of France quilt made between 1930 and 1940. It was apparently made from a purchased kit (pattern number 151 from Hubert Ver Mehren's Home Art Studios of De Moines, according to the museum). So some things haven't changed - we quilters still use kits to make our quilts!





This quilt was perhaps my favourite, and I sat in front of it, examining the patterns, for quite some time. It's beautiful in it's simplicity, but the amount of work making all those ties in the pattern of the stars is incredible. it's called a Tied Stars quilt, made by an unidentified quilter sometime between 1900 and 1940. The museum notes that "The pointiillist effect of this (tying) technique creates a doffuse Milky Way when seen up close. At a distance, the stars resolve into their defined forms".

What do you see? The docent at the museum I spoke to said he could see hearts.





This Carpenter's Wheel variation quilt made between 1945 and 1955 includes cotton, and also synthetic and nylon fabrics. It's a Midwestern quilt by another unidentified artist. The colours are lovely in this - I can imagine it as a very modern quilt made today, and not 60 or 70 years ago. And so meticulously made - even a quilt this old still hangs straight. That's an achievement.

Visiting this museum was another highlight of our trip. It's a tiny place, just opposite Lincoln Centre, but was worth visiting just so I could be inspired by quilts made years before I was born, and marvel at their workmanship. The exhibition made me want to be a better quilter.

Me and Martha

A couple of weeks before we left for our holiday, I overheard someone at work talking about Martha Stewart and attending a taping of her show.

Brilliant idea, I thought. I'm just a bit of a fan. Just a bit. (Who am I kidding?)

So I signed up on Martha's website, and just before we left I got an email confirming that I was to attend a taping on Monday 24 October! And there were rules about what to wear - bright, solid coloured clothes, no washed out colours, black, white or grey. No t-shirts. Oops. Hadn't planned on packing anything like that! (Luckily for me there was a Lane Bryant store not far from our apartment in Harlem so I could shop for a shirt. And maybe a few other things slipped into my shopping bag. What of it?)

Monday came and we headed to the studio in Chelsea. I joined the queue of brightly coloured women and men, and then I sent the Mister on his way to have his own non-Martha adventure.

When the queue finally moves, you end up inside a holding area.





We stayed here for about an hour, signing waivers and meeting Joey Kola, who warmed the audience up and told us who was going to be on the show today. And then it was time to climb the stairs to the studio.

I got lucky with where I was seated. Second row from the front. So close to Martha. See my lovely new teal shirt from Lane Bryant? And red beaded necklace from Re/Dress NYC? (I felt quite special until I saw another girl in exactly the same shirt as me. Luckily we weren't sitting close!)







While we waited for the show to start taping, we watched all the action in the studio.





Joey warmed us up a bit more. He was a lot of fun. This is the least blurry photo I could take of him - he didn't stop moving.



And then we had to put away our cameras as Martha was joining us for the taping. The show had a breakfast entertaining theme, and Martha cooked eggs with a local breakfast celebrity Willy Geist, and cookies with the head pastry chef of Momofuku Milkbar, Christina Tosi. The audience were all given a cookie and Christina's new book "Milk". Joey also gave me some beautiful Martha Stewart paints, but they were too heavy to take home so I gave them to our landlady's little daughter, Yasmeen (our landlady emailed us after we left to say than Yasmeen had been making Halloween decorations with the paints).



After the taping, Martha took questions from the audience, and we were allowed to bring the cameras out again.  I think Martha is amazing - I doubt she would suffer fools gladly, and she seemed quite down-to-earth for someone who is so wealthy and high on the social scale. The floor manager said only two questions would be answered as they had a time constraint, but Martha kept pointing out people with their hands up, and kept answering their questions.



I never saw the show on TV - it was screened on the Thursday after the taping, but in the middle of the day and we decided to walk around the upper east side instead. But you can see the show (if you can abide the terrible ham ads before each segment) over here.

It was a great day - probably one of the highlights of the holiday. I laughed a lot, and even made a new friend while waiting in the holding area. I would go in a flash if I visited New York again.

New York - concrete jungle where dreams are made of

We've been here for ten days, but tomorrow we hop on a plane to head to another city. And just in time - snow
is forecast for NY tomorrow.

I'm really sad to leave. We'll miss Simone, our favourite server at our local cafe on Malcolm X Boulevarde, who is always intrigued by which pie we're going to order (answer: usually cherry). Tonight she kissed us when we said good bye. But I reckon we'll pop in for some key lime pie before we leave tomorrow and say goodbye again.

I'll miss the 2 and 3 subway and the filthy platform under 116th St. I'll miss the quiet street of Brownstones we've been living in. We'll miss the random diners where you can get a hot cup of coffee and waffles with bacon and strawberries. Scott will miss the pizza-by-the-slice joints, especially the one next door to Magnolia Bakery on Columbus.

I'll miss Magnolia Bakery.

But a new city, new adventures, and a friend to catch up with are next, and that's a lot to look forward to.

Making it work

A few months ago when I was home recovering from my surgery, a friend loaned me all 8 seasons of Project Runway on DVD. Each night Scott and I would watch a couple of episodes. I think it helped me in my recovery - the thought if being well enough to sew clothes again was something to strive for.

One episode, while the contestants were shopping at Mood Fabrics (as they did every episode) Scott turned to me and said "You know, maybe we could go back to New York, and you could go shopping at Mood and I could pat Swatch (the store's resident dog).

And that's why we're currently in New York, and part of the reason I worked so hard to get fit and healthy again (the subway stairs are killing me though).

(In case you're wondering about the Red Lobster photo, fans of season two will know that's where Tim Gunn took Andrae on their pretend date according to Santino).