We have a lovely exhibit here in Nashville at our Frist Center for the Visual Arts, entitled The Golden Age of Couture, featuring clothes, shoes and photographs from designers like Dior, Balenciaga and Chanel from post WWII to near present. Parts of the exhibit can be seen online at www.fristcenter.org Who knew you could find this in Nashville? The Frist is on the "high" end of Broadway so it was pretty much spared from our recent flooding.

I am about to make a "Red Queen" costume for a neighbor child, Robin-August, who is in a children's production of Alice in Wonderland this summer. As she has really, really bright red hair naturally, I am a little afraid of so much red near the face, but we'll see how it works out. She's 7 years old and so excited that she's going to be the Red Queen, has seen the Tim Burton movie, etc. The costume shown is really great and gives me good ideas. I do some machine embroidery, have the Viking machine, etc but never thought about working large areas as on the top of sleeves, etc. Good inspiration. Maybe I can post a photo of my version. Thanks!

I am up to 5 machines now. I have a Singer mechanical, treddle machine which belonged to a great aunt, still in working condition, straight stitch, no backstitching. Another Singer electric machine from my grandmother in a cabinet. This machine is a hearty soul and great for hemming heavy denim and such. I have a could of Singer portables, one currently not working so well. My "machine of choice" at present is a Husqvarna Viking Designer SE. This machine sometimes seems smarter than I am and will sew through practially anything. I really like the embroidery features although I don't think I use them to their full advantage. I am fortunate to have a variety of machines to use for just about anything I need.