Saving the humeral veil

Our church has been around for over 40 years or so and in that time no one has washed a single vestment. We have a temporary priest in house who noticed the poor condition of the vestments as the elder priest now has dementia.

So with the Adoration on  Lent Sundays the humeral veil was in the state of a mess. Tarnished clasp, smelly neckband, stains from a leaky roof onto the fabric and threadbare silk and fringe.

The fringe is falling apart.

The original rayon satin fabric is shredding and has to be replaced. Our small Ozark mission church does not have the funds to replace these vestments. So I offered to repair them as I repair and restore antique textiles

The original clasp is missing gold leaf.

Poly fringe is tattered.

My plan was to cut out the original brocade, turn under and applique to the new fabric of the veil.

But the brocade was shedding. I also was pressed for time. There are no fabrics stores nearby nor on-line that carry this brocade.

So I took it all apart and began to salvage the brocade.

Now I remove stitches and flip the brocade over to use the wrong side of the brocade for the new veil.

The wrong side looks great.

glue removal 

I used tulle to give the fibers strength.

Newly leafed clips on the new fabric next to the old ones. I have real gold leaf paint and I sealed with shellac all done outside as the fumes are combustible.

pinning on the old brocade on the new fabric.

Sewing it down

Since my studio has a wood stove and cats, I have to cover everything with muslin and clean every surface. I do not want soot and cat fur on this very ivory fabric.

hand sewing the veil clips

I was able to match the fringe.

The original brocade of the newly sewn veil.

All set to go again. All the scraps from the old humeral veil were collected and put in a bag and given to the priest to burn. These are holy things and must be treated with respect. The new veil was blessed the next day in time for the Adoration. This was the fastest restoration I have ever done.

Enough Animals! Quilt

After many long months I finally finished and mailed off my Grandniece Riley, her first quilt. It was a group effort for my husband and I. We chose the fabrics, layout, animals and final quilting together.

Not for the faint of heart this project of ours. Many late nights, arguments, thread pulling, re-cutting and sewing and frustration as there was no pattern to follow. Along with this large project, we had funerals, church drama, sick friends, job drama, farm drama and life.

I chose the river as I love water and all animals gather at the rivers.

We call this quilt Enough Animals! as that is how we decided to stop adding anymore animals to this quilt top.

I am a very tactile person so I wanted this quilt to be textural. Fluffy fun fur, velour, tulle, and even corduroy fabrics were used. All fabrics were pre-washed and treated to prevent bleeding. I washed every single piece of fabrics and color tested each one. This entire quilt is washable and will not run. And it can be hung on the wall as well. This is why it took so long to do. So many measures were taken to keep this quilt strong and rich looking over time.

I did machine embroidery and trapunto work under the trees and animals.

Tulle bees wings by my own invention and yes, machine washable.

We raise honey bees and so this quilt had to have a lot of bees. One day Riley might get to see our hives.

We have many owls in the Ozarks.

My husband found this flame fabric so I had to use it.

Closeup of the machine stitch work.

The sleeping female fox.

The happy turtle has floppy feet.

Gecko on the trunk

A leaf on the back for the label. I made this from my husbands mothers vintage embroidery machine.

Flannel fabric on the back for softness and fuller quilting.

I had enough scraps to make a single baby bib with minky fabric cheeks.

Icy Frosty February

Last weeks ice and rain around our farm. Today the weather is in the 60's.

Our iced bee hives

I bought heavy green gourds in the fall. They are drying out and will be ready to carve and grow.

Wind and rain give you a frozen truck.

Frosty is growing up. He is now 7 months old and is my constant companion.

Our walk up the hill for cell signal.

My wild field of Magnolia and flowers.

Jun's Kitchen with cats

This is not my photo but belongs to the photographer Jun of Jun's Kitchen. This is his Maine Coon, Kohaku. Jun,Japanese vlogger is married to an Rachel, an American and they live with 3 cats in Japan. Jun vloggs about cooking homemade Japanese food. He has a wonderful website and videos of his three cats, knives, cooking and his homeland. He has also taught his cat, Kohaku, to go on bike rides with him. Since my husband and I are wanting to go to Japan one day, we are learning what there is to see. Seeing the Japanese countryside is more important than the busy cities since we are farmers.Worth the time and effort to see the life Jun and Rachel have to share.

Century AF Link

I want to say thank you Centurylink! It has been 2 weeks of having no phone line that we pay you for. Thank you for not doing anything, like your job! Thank you for closing my job ticket 2 days ago based on the idiotic technician- who did NOTHING.Thank you for giving me no service and yet calling me to tell me all is well and done on my non working land line phone. The same land line that your repair guy - HAS NOT FIXED.  Thank you for questioning me on the weather in my area of lightening hitting my line- it didn't. Thanks for pulling up my line, cutting it and walking away without doing a damn thing. Promises were made but that dog don't hunt.
Oh and thank you for the personal touch when I tired to "chat" with your chat troll who asked for my social security number to verify our account? Yeah that is honesty &  safety there. Really makes me soft and warm to have to chat with a Joshua Y or an Alex on-line chat. Yeah love that corporate jargon you post on my chat thread too. Makes this fun and enjoyable way to spend my time. Trying to get you corporate sloths to do your jobs.
You are the best! Looking forward to your call Century AF link me for wanting a land line party with you. New Motto: Keeping the next Century in the dark ages, that is how we roll.

This is what my land line looks like on Thursday Feb 15th. I have a very unhappy repair man coming to dig up my yard on Friday morning. Oh happy day. Will keep you all posted.