My Marathon Crew

Here we are at the early morning start of the SLC 2010 marathon. From the left are my oldest daughter Erin, my wonderful neighbor and Michael's best friend's mom Shauna, my third daughter Lauren, me, 17 year old son Matt, and 14 year old son Morgan. Lauren, Matt and Morgan ran the half and Erin, Shauna, and I did the full. This was Shauna's first full and Lauren's first half and they both blew me away with their determination. We all managed personal best times for our events and I'm quite sure we all felt another tall strong boy running along with us. I hope to participate in this event every year until I have to be pushed in a wheelchair.

Marathon Eve

This picture was taken while running up my much loved mountain two weeks ago - we had a bit of a blizzard Easter weekend. Tomorrow is the SLC marathon and the weather is predicted to be a perfect sunny 68 degrees. Welcome to spring in Utah, if you don't like the weather wait ten minutes and it will change. My wonderful, wild, crazy family are all getting ready to participate in the various events tomorrow. I'm feeling really unprepared this year. We will all be running for Michael. My kids have posted a video of last years marathon at www.runningformichael.blogspot.com Wish us luck!

How cool is this!

I have reluctantly agreed to alter a wedding dress for my neighbors daughter. It's the most gorgeous, interesting thing I have ever seen. The entire dress is covered in horizontal rows of shaped netting, sequins and spiraled silk ribbon. The base fabric is silk shantung. The netting is machine stitched on and sits out at least 1/4" from the surface of the dress. I can't for the life of me figure out how it was stitched to the surface of the dress in such an intricate pattern. I may be in way over my head here so wish me luck. I will try to get the brides permission to post a photograph - the wedding is in June.

Almost heaven....South Carolina????

I know the song goes "almost heaven, West Virginia" but I'm quite sure it was almost heaven, South Carolina for me last week. I was lucky enough to spend four days teaching at Farmhouse Fabrics in Beech Island, South Carolina. Sally's warehouse is an overwhelming experience - in the best possible way. I've included a few close up photos to show a tiny portion of what's available at Farmhouse Fabrics.


I had an excellent group of students from all over the country, several of them dear friends who I have not seen in the last two years. Sally and her staff, especially Connie Palmer, were beyond helpful making sure everything went well. Everyday at lunchtime we were treated to a beautifully presented meal.



Between the stitching and the great food and the unbelievable on site SHOPPING I don't think anyone wanted to ever go home. I plan to go back two more times this year and hopefully many more times in the years to come. You can visit Farmhouse Fabrics online at www.farmhousefabrics.com.

Sweet Baby Jane

Sweet baby Jane is 7 months old, has three teeth and is crawling. I held her down long enough to model a new hat which will most likely be the jumping off point for a new four piece summer outfit. Hat fabric is white cotton pique trimmed with ric-rac and red mini micocheck.

A Trip to Florida

I had the opportunity to go to Florida last week and stitch for five days with a wonderful group of ladies. The classes were sponsored by the Victorian Smockers SAGA group and were held at Laura's Sewing in Palm Beach Gardens. We had a lovely big classroom where roses and chocolate magically appeared on Valentines day. A big thank you to Laura and her excellent staff who out did themselves to make everything run smoothly. Another big thank you to Pat and her husband Bernie who were my hosts. They made my stay so comfortable and I even managed some early morning runs around the beautiful golf course their home sits on. Everyone there thought they were in a cold snap but for me it felt just like summer.

Upon arriving home my computer savvy children have encouraged me to set up an Etsy store. I have had many requests over the years to provide kits for some of my class projects. I will start with projects from my book 'Sew Cute Couture' ('Cute As A Button') and hopefully add more as time goes on. You can find me at www. etsy.com/shop/gaildoane

A Little Red Jacket

This jacket just makes me happy. I made it for my oldest daughters 31st birthday which was on January 1. It's so her. She's a little tiny thing and a bit of a fashionista and always likes things a little left of center so this suits her perfectly. It's made from a superfine 100% wool and Simplicity pattern 2730 - no design changes whatsoever to the pattern. Please excuse my somewhat cluttered photography - I need a lesson on cropping photos!

A series of 13 reverse darts around the neckline make for a really cute fit on this pattern and also an interesting design detail. The fabric flowers were quite heavy when completed but actually sat quite nicely around the neckline once firmly stitched down. I added a few beads to the center of the flowers. I keep gently nagging at her (that's what mom's do, isn't it?) for a photo of her wearing it. Her family just had pictures taken at Christmas time. Hunter is 9 and Jorden (wild thing!) is 7. Her really great husband Bart shall remain ageless.