Beautiful Lace & Bead Treasure

Last year I received a package in the mail from my best friend Bev. Bev had been helping her father clean out his house and was going through some items that had belonged to her mother (Barbara). Barbara passed away close to 20 years ago but to this day I can still hear her wonderful laugh and remember how she used to love to eat raw onions like they were apples.

Bev knows everything about me (maybe too much LOL!) - she knows I love the color blue, love lace and love anything beaded. Knowing that her mother would have loved for me to have these treasures, she decided to share them with me. I feel so lucky and so honored to own something that is so beautiful. One of the items she sent me was her mother's gorgeous blue chenille bedspread which I have on my bed right now. I thought I'd share with you a couple of the other treasures she sent me in hopes that maybe someone out there could tell me a little more about the dress. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The dress is very thin and light weight and very tiny - looks to be like a size 2 so it sure won't fit me. It is all hand embroidered lace and is incredibly beautiful. It looks as though it might have been a night gown for a wedding night. Along with the dress I received a beaded purse with this note tucked inside. It reads:

5/3/75 : "the black beaded bag and dress will be Barbara Payne when I am gone" and it is signed Beulah. Barbara was willed this by a close friend of hers before she passed away and it had been tucked inside a dresser for years.

Some close ups of the dress: Front center. Note that there is some staining and a few areas where the stitching is coming apart.

Left side of dress:

Right side of dress:

Close up of boy:

Top front of dress:

Back of Dress: The bottom portion of the front and back of the dress has a slit and is not ripped.

Bottom of back:

Bottom right side of dress: Looks like rust stain

This is the beaded purse that the note was found in: Gorgeous bead work

Check out the birds!

Close up:

Also inside the purse was this necklace and earrings set. We are not sure but think this set was Barbara's. Bev and I met when we lived in Seville, Spain 1965-1969 and this is the style of jewelry that the Spanish ladies would wear with their flamingo dresses. We think her mother might have purchased them - what a fabulous reminder for me of those wonderful years!

For right now I have everything stored in one of my dressers wrapped in a white sheet. If anyone can tell me how I should take care of the dress I'd be forever grateful. I had thought of hanging it up on my bedroom wall but because it is so thin I don't want it just hanging there. I'm not even sure how to go about cleaning it to preserve it.

Mermaid Crazy Quilt Purse - Love it!

Yea! I can finally post pictures of my most favorite CQ project. About 3 months ago I entered my very first contest - a CQ purse contest held by the CQI Group. With all the things I have created over the years, I have never entered anything into a contest so thought it was about time to at least try. I'm thrilled that I did - my Mermaid purse took 3rd place.... not bad for my first contest.

The idea to make a mermaid purses was easy - I love blue, love the ocean and anything that has to do with the sand and mermaids. I already had everything I needed to put the purse together - even the gorgeous blue/green velvet velor that I used to frame out the purse and the black bamboo handle. This purse was a labor of love - all 120+ hours! With every stitch and every bead sewn in place, I was excited to take the next one... even though my finger tips were bleeding at times - Ouch! Do you know how many times I poked myself with the needle?

Back:

100th Blog Give Away - We have a Winner!!!

Happy Mothers Day ladies!

I would like to thank each and every one of you for stopping buy and taking part in my 100th Blog Give Away. It has been so much fun meeting new friends and finding your blogs - WOW! What a wealth of talent out there! Well.... we have a winner and this little treasure chest is stuffed and ready to fly off to its new home - Enjoy!

Some of you asked how I keep track of all the entries. Let me tell you- it can be a hair pulling experience. In my corporate days I was known as being very organized ... hardly the case now with all the CQing I do (you all know how that is - LOL!) Anyway, as you left a comment I uploaded the appropriate tickets you earned onto an Excell spread sheet and gave each one of you a number (in case there were two of the same name). As your name was given as a referral, or you visited RavioLee Dreams, I added a few more tickets with your name on it. Once all the comments were in I printed them out, cut them all into strips and mixed them up in a pretty glass vase. I think there were close to 300 tickets in all!

OH... a little off track here but how cool is this!? Tonight while I'm sitting here getting ready to announce the winners of by 100th Blog Post and my 100th Etsy Sale... guess what happens? I get my 100th Follower! Now if only I had the winning lottery ticket for say $100,000,000!! Then we'd all be lucky cause we'd all have to go on a quilting cruise.

Since there were over 100 comments left I decided to pull a couple more names for a few more smaller gifts. Also... we had one lady who referred 7 others to my Give Away so I think she deserves a little something... Thank you Paulette!

Drum roll................ ta da... the winner is - KERRYKATIECAKES!!!!! Congratulations Kerry!

The 2nd winner: Jeanne/My Life In General

3rd Winner: Kathy / Cottage Garden Quilter

Kerry, Jeanne, Kathy and Paulette - Congratulations. Could you please contact me with your address at Bnickilee@aol.com.

Thank you everyone for participating and if your CQ addiction drives you into a frenzy and you are craving a new pretty, please stop by RavioleeDreams and see what's new.

My 100th Blog Anniversary & A Great Give Away!!!

It’s time! I've hit a couple 100 milestones this week... this is my 100th Blog Post and and I also made my 100th Etsy Sale in my shop: RavioleeDreams . Time for a celebration! I have had so much fun getting to this point on my Blog as I have met so many wonderful ladies and learned so much from all of you. Over the past year it has been great to finally have a place to log all my creations and keep a bit of a journal of pictures… can’t wait to see what the next 100 posts bring.

Ok… let’s get the show on the road. Time for a 100th Anniversary Give Away! Some of you might know that prior to becoming addicted to Crazy Quilting I was in love with Mosaics. I loved the shabby chic look of taking broken china and adding vintage costume jewelry to pieces. I have a piece that I made last year for a show and thought I would marry the two together… CQ & Mosaics. Well.. when you think about it, they are pretty similar. Taking scraps of bits and pieces of pretty colors and adding a few embellishments.

For my blog Give Away prize I have put together this adorable little chest (8x9) I made with three drawers - just perfect for stashing your favorite CQ treasures. Each knob is a vintage costume earring and the tiles are from broken vintage china and stained glass. The chest is painted in a pretty shabby chic pink and filled with all kinds of CQ pretties – beads, charms, laces, silkies, etc . There's even a little surprise tucked way inside one of the drawers! How to win? It’s easy… I will write up a ticket with your name on it when you do one of the following (list below) Each ticket will be put in a basket and then on May 9th (Mother’s Day) at 8:00 P.M. EST, I will have my wonderful husband Rob draw out a name. If the comments go over 100 as it did in my last Give Away I will add a couple smaller prizes for the 2nd and 3rd names picked.

Here’s what you need to do to win:

1. Leave a comment – 1 ticket
2. Send a friend to my blog (have her mention your name) get 2 more tickets

3. Write and link about this Give Away on your Blog - 3 more tickets
4. Link me as one of your Favorites on your Blog or become a Follower – 4 more tickets
5. If you by chance purchase something from RavioleeDreams during this Give Away, let me know and you will get another 5 tickets.

Ta DA - So.. if you do all 5 things listed above, you will have 15 tickets in the basket! Good luck and thank you for visiting my Blog.

Laces, Laces and more Laces

Did I ever tell you how much I love lace? I love the thrill of the hunt for a new motif, a new design. I love dying them up in pretty colors and love using them in creating pretty items. Well... here are a few samples of my latest - I call them "spring time fever" as the colors are all soft and pretty like the newness of the colors coming out in my flower gardens. Over the next few days I will be busy adding tons more laces and lots of pretty trims, glass buttons and more CQ pretties to RavioleeDreams. I'll even be adding some items of my first creative love... mosaics.

I am soooo excited! Today I made my 100th sale on Etsy, RavioleeDreams and today also marks my 99th Blog. So.... do you know what that means? Means it's time for a party! To celebrate my 100th Sale and 100th Blog Post, I will be announcing a fabulous Blog Give Away sometime this week. I have been putting together a terrific prize to celebrate so be sure to check back in sometime this week for the specifics... something a little different and a little bit unexpected.

Cathy's 200th Blog Give Away!!!

WOW! Congratulations Cathy!!! Cathy from CQI is celebrating her 200th Blog with a fabulous CQ Give Away! Please be sure to check her out for a chance to win some fabulous goodies! cathyscrazybydesign


Good Luck and be sure to come back here some time next week when I will be announcing my 100th Blog Give Away!

CQ Projects and RR's

WEW! I'm sure glad the sun is finally out for more reasons than one! It means the water that has been pouring into my basement for the past month is finally starting to slow down! Now for the bigger mess... cleaning everything up and remodeling my sewing room. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding lots more of my precious stash that needs to find a new home - the town dump! boo hoo!

Over the past month I've completed a few more CQ projects. I've worked on two different CQ RR blocks for the HGTV CQ RR 2010 swap. This first block (above) is Karen's (KMouse) Her theme was "Gone with the Wind" - her beautiful block was so much fun to work on. Even before I received her block I already had in mind what I was going to add to it - I found this adorable vintage lace motif that I waited to dye up until I saw the colors she was going to use in her block. I dyed it up, along with some silk ribbon, in pretty shades of pinks to add a little bit of a pop to her dark colored fabrics. She has already seen it and seems to love the touch as much as I do.

I made sure I dyed enough silk ribbon in various colors to embellish a piece of ruched lace that she had bordering her theme picture. Not really knowing what I was going to be doing, I just went to town making little cabbage roses, spider roses and french knot sprays to fill in the lace. Also added some pretty little pearl beads in to give it more dimension. I have to admit this is the most SRE I have ever done at one time and love the way it came out. Now to get Karen to send me some of that gorgeous lace - LOL!

The next block I worked on belongs to Barbara (Borucia). Her block was gorgeous - all done up in a winery/Tuscany theme and measured about 28x32! Lots of room to play. One of the areas had a wine bottle sitting on a table so I took the opportunity to add half of a vintage doily. I also dyed some grape style lace and a basket of flowers of flowers to match the overall Tuscany look and feel of her block.

I signed up for a Holiday Swap on the HGTV board at the beginning of the year. Each person is matched with another every other month and is to make them gift for them pertaining to that particular holiday/season. Deb51 was matched with my name and as my gift, she made me this adorable Spring/Easter wall hanging. It is so dang cute with little baskets of appliqued flowers and bows. Thank you Deb!

I was matched with Vicki. Wanting to say "goodbye" to winter and "hello" spring, I choose to CQ a sewing kit in blues and creams. I hoped to convey saying goodbye to the cold/snow and ice and bring in the spring with butterflies, dragonflies and flowers. I also made her a little needle book depicting an under water theme.

Now for the RR's I'm in over on CQI. I received Carolyn's IV Heart RR block and decided to add a bit of dimension to a large area of naked fabric. Her theme for this Heart RR was pink and black. OMG! Those two colors are fabulous together! I started out by embellishing some black velvet rick rack with french knot in white floss to duplicate the look of the polka dotted fabric. Next I did a little pink and green stitching and then worked on embellishing a pretty black lace motif with some SRE, beads and charms.

Rita's Asian block was next. One of the seam treatments I did was also to use some rick rack. LOL - it has become one of my favorite CQ supplies lately - there is just so many wonderful designs you can make using it. I had an Asian type bead that I wanted incorporate into her block so decided to make it the focal point of the rick rack. using beads, and some green and white floss I embellished the rick rack in little flowers.

One of the last blocks I worked on belonged to Deann who is a part of the "My Favorites RR" group on Yahoo. I had a few left over pieces of dyed lace and decided they looked like wings. Hmm let me see if I can make a little dragonfly out of them. Well, by sewing on a few beads I think I manage to make a cute little dragonfly doing his thing in a garden of beaded flowers.

Well, now that all of these blocks are completed and on their way for the next round, I've got to get busy working on a few new blocks that I just received. The next few weeks are going to be busy, busy. I have quite a few new motifs and laces to dye up for my Etsy shop so please check RavioLee Dreams (over on sidebar) out in the near future. Also... I'm coming up on my 100th Blog soon so be sure to check back in for details on my 100th Blog Anniversary Give Away.

CQ Give Away Winner(s)!!!

First, let me apologize for not announcing the winner last night as promised. As most of you know this winter has been horrific! The rainstorms we had last week caused major flooding here in Massachusetts and the water had no place to go... well with the exception of my basement. I have spent the last 5 days bailing and pumping out water so no time for playing on the computer. Hubby came home from his business trip last night so I now have a chance to relax and catch up on a few things.

I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful comments & well wishes to my new CQ venture on Etsy and entering my CQ Give Away. Also, THANK YOU for taking the time to check out my Etsy shop and your orders. I am now in the process of uploading more CQ goodies to RavioLee Dreams so please be sure to stop in and take a peek during the week.

Since there were so many comments (over 100) I have decided to add a couple smaller CQ prizes and had Rob draw out a 2 more names out of the basket.

So..... on to the winners! Will the ladies who have won please contact me at bnickilee@aol.com with your full name and address so that I can mail your prizes out to you this week. Congratulations!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Whythefeather

1st Runner Up: Wilma

2nd Runner Up: Grovenor

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Special Announcement:

I just realized that this was my 96th Post to my Blog. Guess what that means! Yep.... looks like I will be putting together another Give Away sometime soon to celebrate my 100th Blog Post. Be sure to check in now and then for details! Hmmmmmmm no to think of a cool prize...