Wedding Gown progress!!!!! Granny fun.

I've been making HUGE progress on the gown. Most nights I dream about the next steps. It is turning into a more complicated project than I first thought it would be - but isn't that always the case! Last night - I even plunged in and cut out the lace pieces!

Pardon the layout of this picture - but I was trying to get her in the sunlight from the patio doors to reveal the ever so slight pink tinge to the gown - which we are both delighted with! If you've been following along, you'll know that is from layering the silk taffeta outer fabric over a pale pink batiste. I found when going to baste all the princess skirt sections together, that I couldstillsee the seam allowances, so I also added a layer of china silk under the pink batiste - so the skirt is 3 layers thick, then to be independently topped with our wonderful lace - as shown here. This photo will show the sloped empire line I worked and worked on - and which makes my darling daughter look VERY slim indeed! Please don't dwell on the drag lines - as this bodice is ALL basted together, and I don't have the boning in the side seams of the corset that is underneath all this yet - as OF COURSE, she is working on losing weight! I actually don't plan on stitching the side seams of the bodice at all, much less attach the bodice to the skirt finally until after May 9. The wedding is June 6 - so she's just gonna have to settle for that!

She is thrilled with the silhouette of the back skirt - with the additional pouf we added from the donated crinoline as previously described. See it - well kind of - in the picture on the right below. Sew... this fitting was actually to determine - for positive sure - the exact hemline. I then transfered that info to the muslin skirt pieces - for which I had made one muslin piece for EVERY skirt piece - clearly labelled as to which was the OUTSIDE - and cut the muslin hem OFF at the finished hemline. That enabled me to then utilize those pieces as the pattern pieces when cutting out the lace. I could lay each piece with the exact hemline on the scallopped border of the lace. OF COURSE, though - realize that the lace is straight - and the hemline is curved. But that will be all 'fixed' with cutting and handstitching those lace borders up into place. AND, sure enough - the lace was not symmetrical - not horizontally - NOR vertically. One scalloped edge had a row of lace/flowers above it with 3 flowers, and the opposite scalloped edge had less flowers in the grouping above. SEW... we decided to do the front pieces along one edge and the back pieces along the other - and I will add flowers to theback to 'balance' it - as if anyone other than myself - (and all of you) would EVER know such was the case anyway..........! I couldn't decide on placement of the bodice pieces - which direction, or motifs to center - but I had plenty of lace left for that - so at 11 pm - I decided to wait on those decisions. I'm so glad though that narrowing the circumference of the skirt yeilded ample extra lace and border. We plan to create some delicate straps of the scallop as well.

The fun part then was cutting off the beading and 3 D flowers from the seam allowances of the lace. We plan to scatter the flowers on the veil a bit too (a bargain at $6 from Hobby Lobby on 50% off!).

Jewelry: she seems to see that a simple strand of pearls is all this dress needs - nothing more 'showey'. I have a very sentimental strand that turn out to be the perfect color. She took them along to see if she could match some drop earrings.

OH - and all this on a day when my precious grandson Cole was with me. We had a blast going out to 'puddle stomp' after the rain died down. We also went on a worm hunt - but to our surprise, there weren't worms all over the sidewalks. Sew...we had to dig in the garden. Found 3 - one for him (a white centipede), and then a medium worm he named "Mommy" and a big one he named "Dabee" - her fiance who he dearly, dearly loves. This granny must show a picture...

Oh - and in filling out an application - actually decided I needed to mark the 'grey' box under hair color instead of brown... WHAT A DAY!

Really must get to WORK! The 'Barney' van awaits - packing for the International Quilt Festival show in Chicago I leave for tomorrow...

Biblical Wisdom for Life from the life of Esther

On Maundy Thursday, I finished the ESTHER Bible Study by Beth Moore (don't miss her website - Living Proof Ministries as given above!). Challenged by our leader, Carrie Burns, to decide WHAT I would do the following morning for my quiet time, I decided to both review all the wisdom and concepts I learned in this study - but also to not only write them summarily in my journal, but to share them here on my Blog in the hopes that something might speak to you - help you - lead you in your spiritual journey to the one, true God as revealed to us through His son, Jesus.

I will endeavor to put quotes around words exactly from Beth Moore, but I also have changed the person to 'my' in most cases, as I find doing this points the words more to my heart. However, if in doubt - just give the credit for the words to Beth Moore - OK?

Esther is a book in the old testament...the words most famous are 'For such a time as this'. Esther's faith and courage and wisdom actually saved the Jewish people from extinction during the time of King Xerxes in Persia. It is a short 9 chapter long book and I encourage you to read it for yourself. Get a good commentary, or buy Beth's book that you can find at any christian book store. Right now I can't seem to find it on her website...
Beth 'sew' related all of the events and lessons to our womanhood - what it means to be a woman in today's world...

Sew...here is the learning I have had from this study...I hope it enriches your life and speaks to you. I am starting this April 14, and it will be continued as I have time and do the re-study...

"When I trust my life to the unseen but ever-present God, He will write my life into His story and every last one of them will turn out to be a good read. With a grand ending."

"The essence of oppression is punishing one by hurting many."

If a man has to command a woman to respect him, then whatever 'respect' is so rendered loses its meaning. Those who can gainrespect and obedience only by holding enough power to command it live with the constant anxiety of losing it. This was froom her source 33 in the Bibliography - which is online is all I can figure...as it is not in the book.

I cannot amputate my destiny from my history! This = redemption.

God selected Esther (as He does me) for a task He appoints in my life - my time- my sphere of influence - not in spite of my experiences, but BECAUSE of them! Jeremiah 29:11

"Only a person strong in character and steadfast in spirit can follow someone else's instructions for long."

"Providence can be defined as times when God triumphs my perfectly good plan with one of His own...then seems to disappear from it...He's there. He's there right."

I'll be victorious when God and I have the same enemy.

"A true woman who cares apolgizes even if for nothing." In my book, I've recently done this, and God blessed it...

"'ll never be more prone to attack than when I'm on the way to where God wants me. " scarey thought... but true!

Beth had an entire session on "Mean Girls... read on

• Insecurity is at the heart of every rivalry.
• Only God can meet my needs. Not a man, a friend... The more I get from something or someone worldly, the more I will crave what they can't live up to. Only God can live up to my expectations.
• Anger is power to those who think they don't have any other source of it.
• Meanness always has a history.
• Meannness perceives a threat. 2 Corinthians 10:12
• Meanness catches like a virus.
• Meanness is curable. Romans 12: 17-21
• Mean girls let you hang with them as long as it's about them.
• Mean girls dig at other girls but don't admit to it - won't take responsibility for it.
• Mean girls dress provacatively around other girls' men.
• Coming in contact with a mean girl raises up my own mean girl.

A person close to God and His ways finds themselves in an awkward predicament when they discern evil in someone who other people esteem. (Many of us in our country today in relation to those in Washington!) We must be prayerful to search our own sin-driven souls.

Proverbs 18: 7-9 Words of gossip feed my soul. Lips are snares to my soul.

"Gossip finds an easy ear because my human nature, left to itself, finds sick satisfaction in the deluded discovery that someone who seemed superiour was inferior."

I should respond from my mindset - my soul: not my mood. Setting my mind on things above, not of this earth... Collossians 3:2

"I can get glad in the same clothes I get mad in."

God never takes His eyes of of me or off the clock ticking over me.

"Satan can't win and I can't lose. God always trumps Satan. Never picture the two of them as equal, but opposite authorities. "

"Sometimes, God uses the winds of a new threat to blow the dust off a past miracle that has moved from my 'active file' into the archives. I must always remember what God has done for me! "

"God designed conviction to be uncomfortable so that I'd hurry to repentance and find relief in restoration."

God as the "Ancient of Days" is defined as the fact that the same judge who sat on the throne when the wrong was committed will be the one sitting on the bench the day of sentencing. This is great to know for me because I have to belive that ultimately, justice will be served.

"One of the most important parts of fulfilling my destiny willb e my transparency. "

"When God asks me to make imporant decisions, I may well find myself alone. "

"It will often be a crises that God uses to pivot my direction." Wow - How TRUE this has been in my life! To be certain - in my family,and in my store - to change my career from a storefront to the internet, and my 'world' more back to my family first!!!

"All my crises are critical to the path God has for me. There IS human dilemna in destiny."

"Wherever God has given me dominion - He has entrusted some kind of power or purpose for me there. "

"Some crises are too important for saving face. Saving lives is worth losing face every time. In God's economy, saving is always worth losing."

If I forget God (and worhip others), He will still love me - but not shield me.

"Repentance is not my punishment. It's my fglorious right of daughtership to restoration (with God)."

"Guilt is a relentless mocker even if its misplaced."

"Most of my problems are a wold deeper than my appearance."

"Strength comes from muscle,and muscle develps with a workout. It is no different spiritually than physically."

"I am wise to force myself to keep differentiating between simple inconveniences and authentic tribulations." Oh - How TRUE!!! I think this is a main difference I see over and over between myself and younger people...but there are sure times I need to remind myself of this FACT.

"The more detached and SELF-ABSORBED I become, the more I mistake annoyances for agonies."

"To stand by and do nothing out of self preservation is to be dead already."

This refers specifically to Esther 4:14 - "For such a time as this..." which is SEW much the crux of this Bible Study, that I am going to make it a separate post...