Hi Sherry and welcome from SE Ohio. I'm sort of a newbie on the quilting forum and never really made a full sized quilt until two years ago, I'm about to finish up on number three now, and number four is almost ready to be quilted. I hand quilt, and have not tried one on a machine, and don't have a suitable machine anyway. I just wanted to say, like you, I've been sewing all my life, everything from curtains to wedding gowns to suits and formals and everything in between. I have never taken any quilting lessons, and just make up my own patterns as I go along. You can invest as much time/effort/money into quilting as you can imagine, or very little. That's the joy of it. I work with scrap material and learn as I go along. That doesn't mean I don't get quilt books from the library and drool a lot. The fine folks at this forum have also given me a lot of inspiration for future quilts. The techniques though? If you are a seamstress, believe me.....they'll come to you and the inet is a great resourse for "how tos". IOW don't be intimidated at all about starting a quilt. You may get hooked, like me. As for turning fine silks and satins into quilts. Well, today, you see mostly cottons and such being used in quilting, but the great thing is, as a folk art there are no rules. I am old enough to remember bedspreads being made of absolutely everything, including beautiful satins and silks. I wanted to tell you of the first quilt I ever owned. It was made for me by my future mother and sisters-in-law. It was made of sky blue satin and was very formal and not a crazy quilt at all. It was not patchy, but had intricate needle work designs worked into the hand quilting. You can make a quilt of plain silk if you want to, there are no rules saying you cannot.

I was going to say the same thing. I have a couple of books about sewing wedding dresses and sewing with silk. In one of those books I read that seams sewn on the straight of grain are more susceptible to puckering than those on the bias. It suggests to add just a bit to the bottom hem to gradually bring the edge of the seam out to a slight angle. This puts a little bias in the seam for pucker-free stitching and the additional width at the bottom will not be noticeable. It also suggests "taut sewing where you hold the fabric taut as you sew and a shorter stitch length (10 to 15 stitches per inch). Good luck to you and you are a good friend to help out. Kathy

HEIDI CONGRATS MY WEDDING IS IN 12 DAYS . I CHOSE AN ALBUM IN OUR COLOR (NAVY) AND ALL THE PAGES IN THE ALBUM ARE EITHER SHADES OF BLUE OR PALE YELLOW (OUR OTHER COLOR)PAPER PEICINGS MAKE REALLY NICE PAGES LIKE I DID ONE WITH A GROOM PAPER PIECING AND ONE WITH THE BRIDE pp AND THEN I WILL MOUNT A PICTURE OF JUST BILL AND ONE OF JUST ME ON THESE PAGES. I SAVED EVERYTHING. JUST BE SURE THAT IF YOU ARE INCLUDING ITEMS THAT MAY BE ACIDIC TO EITHER PUT THEM ON A PAGE BY THEMSELVES IN A PAGE PROTECTOR OR PUT IN ONE OF THE CLEAR SCRAPPING ENVELOPES. TWOPEASINABUCKET.COM AND THEGRACEFULBEE.COM BOTH HAVE SOME REALLY GOOD IDEAS ON EM LET US KNOW HOW THEY TURN OUT

So good of you to visit your MIL. Funny story how you ended up with a different dog than you had in mind. Goldens are known for their gentle nature & Shepards are very intelligent, so I'd say you got a great mix : ) Today, I tried making tailor tacks as they're called in one of my books (with red thread). I took pictures of part of the pattern (the back) so you can see all the dart lines. They are curved in some parts and I don't know how to transfer the lines for sewing. The front pattern piece looks similar. On the front fabric piece, I have already cut (slashed) along the solid line to the square. Step 2 says staystitch front edges 1/8" from solid lines, ending opposite squares. I'm skipping that part for this practice dress. Next, it says to fold front right sides together, matching circles, then Stitch. I'm going to hand baste this dress first..to see how it fits. If you look carefully, you can see where the dart starts out wide (1-1/4") near the armhole narrows to 5/8" fairly quickly, then widens near the waist to 3/4", then narrows all the way to the point. I'm thinking of basting this dart as best I can without lines drawn on the fabric to guide me. When I get to the waist, I will not increase the width, just keep with 5/8" or a little less. What do you think? I have not done anything more on the skirt, yet. I'll keep you posted this weekend. My absolute favorite tv show is on tonight at 9 in our area, Channel 10. It's a British sitcom with Judi Dench called As Time Goes By..either of you watch this? If not, give it a look. Size 18 Vogue Dress You can see the white paper where I raised the neckline