Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wednesday's Wanderings #37 - Eat, Drink and Be Married!


I came across this quote recently. 

"Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was six
 and my biggest problem was what kind of dress to put on Barbie.”

I never played with Barbies because I was a tom boy growing up.  However, I appreciate the idea of the simplicity of youth.  My mother bought  Barbie and Ken dolls for me and proceeded to make a wardrobe closet and fill it with clothes.  She must have enjoyed Barbie, but I did not.  This dress looks like it was made for Barbie, except it has no back!

My week has had a theme of dresses.  While in Washington, DC, I visited Hillwood.  I mentioned it in one of my posts last week when I shared the flower photos.  It was the former estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post and is now a museum open to the public.  You could spend a lot of time there wandering the gardens and find lots of inspiration in her decorative arts collection in the mansion. 

I visited Hillwood to see a special exhibit, Pret-A-Papier, which featured paper dresses created by  Belgian artist, Isabelle de Borchgrave.   She uses special techniques with paint to turn paper into these amazing period dresses.  Here are a few photos I took:







I just wanted to re3ach out and touch them to see if they felt like paper or fabric,
but I saw many museum guards.

Dresses have also become a frequent topic of conversation with the Quiltinis, my quilt group.  During the year 2012 - 2013, we will have married off 5 of our children.  My son was married last June.  And this is really crazy, one of us is going to be having 2 of her children get married in one year.  So you can understand why "what to wear?" and losing weight are our hot topics.

This week we had a fashion show.  We got to ooh and aah and help to accessorize.  This was such a fun girlfriend day.  I was itching to take out my camera to take photos, but I thought I would get my hands smacked!  So I decided to create my own Mother of the whatever dress - definitely not one I would wear, but I know someone else would. 

I beaded the bodice and the bottom.


For those of you that are new to my Wednesday's Wanderings blocks, they are part of a yearlong challenge where I create a 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" block each week to document my wanderings that week. My plan is to make them into a quilt at the end of the year.

I create each block in the same way.  I start with fabric and batting - no backing.


I quilt it.  This is a great opportunity to experiment and have some fun.
  It's little, so it's manageable.



This is a close-up of my loopedy loop free motion quilting.

Then I usually create my design and fuse it to the block, stitch around it and embellish if desired.
This is how the back usually looks. 

I create without a backing fabric, because the stitching can get pretty messy and ugly. 
This one is not that messy.
 When I put the blocks together as I celebrate New Years Eve, I will put use a backing fabric.

So I want to wish the best of luck to my friends with upcoming nuptials.  You will all look gorgeous when you celebrate your children's marriages. 

Eat, Drink and Be Married!!


9 comments:

  1. Great post! You stole my idea missy! I may just do it anyway!!! Maybe mine will be a pair of spanx!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So funny, I was the same way. I wanted a lone ranger doll and his horse, lol.
    My mother bought me a doll and it wet, just what I wanted;)

    I do love your dress, that is a fun idea for a quilt.

    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  3. WONDERFUL! I can't imagine those dresses being made out of paper. I might have touched! Love the "Eat Drink and Be Married" dress. Perfect wrap up to a fun & quick day!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh.. you are so creative! I really enjoyed this post. Those dresses from paper are amazing!
    It was fun yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love that purple dress, Cheryl, and the paper dresses, too!My daughter and I both had the briefest of Barbie periods, so I never geared up to make all the outfits I would have loved to make!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would have loved to have touched those dresses, they were really beautiful. I loved your little quilt as well. Thanks for showing us how you did it.
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hard to believe that the dresses were made of paper. I think I might have waited until the guards head was turned and sneaked a feel. I like your beaded dress, good for someone with a 19" waist.
    I also like your idea of a little block a week. Maybe I'll borrow it for next year.



    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great exhibit! Those dresses really look like fabric. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
    Love your block too, you might try being a dress designer next!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a fascinating exhibit! My brain somehow goes to some "behind the scenes" things like how are they transported and handled? They must hold their dimension and not lie flat like fabric might. hmmm... but I digress. They are wonderful. And so is your purple dress! Great post.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.