A Downton Affaire

Once again, Kim created a beautiful environment for her event.  She never misses a detail or a chance to make something special.

Here is a photo of the room during vendor night by our Fancy Farmgirl photographer, Tiffany.  Pure glam, huh?

The hotel itself was spectacular.  

The table settings were sweetly done.

Of course, soon, the area was filled up with loot thoughtful gifts from table mates. 

And by our great kits and projects.  Andrea had us making necklaces from some softly colored pearl beads she found as vintage old stock, and lots of rhinestones on tarnished brass chain.

 And in Charlotte's class, we had needle work to do. Here is my almost finished piece, (under Andrea's kit) with very little stitching done on it.  I cut out the teacup from her kit, and used it as an applique on a vintage linen then glued a bunch of crap to it, instead of stitching all day.

This is what she had provided. Pretty, but it simply was too much needlework for me to even contemplate. Although, I was proud of myself for using a needle for some of it. I didn't break out the glue for at least an hour.

I also incorporated the silk ribbons and color swatches that Kim had sent to me to match up my paints with for the banner.

When she mailed them, Kim had asked me to return the curtain fabric swatch and I completely forgot. oops!  Dang it. She reminded me RIGHT AFTER I finished cutting it up and gluing it down.  I swear, I'm lucky to remember my own name some days.

The banner itself had a little glitch. Kim had told me to paint it 10×8', and I did, but I didn't center it, not realizing that would matter.  I left a much bigger margin on the left than the right and when she hung curtains over it, the bare canvas showed. Poor Kim had to maneuver fabric around to hide the extra bare spots on that side.

She made it work.  And I was honored to have my work used as a backdrop for the gala.

Andrea Singarella, Jenn Hayslip, Tiffany Kirchner Dixon, Lori Oles

This is how I finished Andrea's necklace.  I always like to do a bit of a switcheroo in classes by bringing my own supplies to add to the piece for a personal touch. (Tiffany took this photo too)

In Karen's class, we were making fabric books. She had the high quality, heavy fabrics all stitched together and ready for us to add a cover and start foofing.  I brought my own cover supplies, and extra lace too.  The fabric I used is from an old Flapper dress my Sissy shared with me.  

The final project was a garland of doll dresses from Pamela Huntington. I'd brought plenty of lace, so used that on mine. I also wanted some varied styles of dresses, so I cut the pattern a bit differently.  

This project had my heart before I even started working on it and I would love to make garland after garland of dresses.  I decided to make a few different ones, the first all ivory and cream like the first photo, then a row of pink ones too. This was from class, then I was able to make a few more rosy ones in the hotel room on Sunday.  

My roomies checked out in the morning and I had the room till noon when it was time to go to the airport to meet Sugarwings and my husband for our Disney adventure, so I was happy to have a suitcase full of craft supplies to keep me busy a few hours.

I'll have more pictures and stories from the weekend in my next posts. There was simply too much wonderfulness to squeeze into just one.