everything: the monstrous post

When I don't have time for everything in short doses, you end up having to endure all of it at once. So, gentle Reader, for your ease (skip to the good parts!): A Table of Contents.

1. Packages Rec'd. This Week Or So
2. Projects in Progress (Projects' Progress? I'm no Bunyan....)
3. Do You Want This Fabric or It Is To Be Had Cheaply
4. Epilogue

1. Packages.

Reader, you cannot imagine my delight at the receipt of a package with Shim + Sons in the return address space. What? And why? Lady Shim sent me the lovelies pictured below simply for hosting the trim swap. Well, if all it takes is having other people send me presents to receive one of the dearest thank-yous ever, I'll do it anytime! S., thank you so much. I've already used some of the ribbon (see Chapter Two).
Do you see the beautiful tea towels (also here), the tin of ribbons (also here), the handmade tags for presents I'll send out? So pretty. So thoughtful. So completely unexpected.

And if that weren't enough, I also received two more packages of trim in the Trim Swap: one from Alison, one from Alex.

Alison, who is one of my favorite online people because of her immaculate sense of design and her warmth, also sent a bar of fig soap (mmm!), some tea and a little spoon, as well as a tiny cherry-blossom tin for the ribbons. And Alex! Look how lucky I was to swap with her: Japanese trims with anchors, French sentences, all the sweetness of a zakka-book, and so prettily packaged. Thank you both.

2. Progress.

Whatever be your notion of me, you cannot doubt the effects of working a ten-hour day on the backstock. To wit:

And that, I daresay, is an example of pictures being worth x to the n words.


3. Fabric.

Now you shall have to bear the results of my moving, which mainly take their effect in terms of the amount of fabric I am getting rid of. I have three grocery bags full to be sold at a garage sale this weekend (! oh dear), and then some nicer, larger pieces which I'll put up here first.

The first one is poly/cotton: it's half of an old, queen-sized sheet. Still enough for a skirt or two. The middle one is a really pretty depression-era reproduction; there are about 1.5 yards (if you want it, I will measure it exactly). I always thought I'd make a knee-length skirt of this, with box pleats and a high waistband, and wear it with a fitted white middy blouse. Some dreams aren't meant to be, perhaps. The last one is unknown fiber content; it's slubby like a shantung, but it is not silk. The verso is, as you can see, a paler blue, and a little shiny. Probably about 2 yards here, too.

EDIT: They're taken! Thank you! I'll post other pieces from my stash in the next week or so.

4. Epilogue.

Are you still there? Do you think Mlle. Austen ever felt she had to ask that at the end of one of her novels (not to compare this to that!)? In any case, debts are owed herein to J. Austen (and to another Jane, whose love of the Austen Address so emboldened me to write in this style).