Sunday, March 26, 2006

Smocking



My mother makes these amazing smocked blankets for grandchildren. This one was for Seth. She starts with velvet, velveteen, or velour, draws a 1 inch grid on the back with marker or chalk, and then uses embroidery floss to smock from the back side. She has several different patterns that look like braids or basket weaves. I don't know this step--I plan to have a grid drawn on a light green velveteen the next time we are together so she can show me the smocking.
After the smocking is completed, she pins a cotton lining to the back and folds under the velvet and backing. She also tacks the top to back with floss, tied to the back and hidden in the smocking.


Aside: I have a problem in using alt-webring.com from both my Mac and my Dell. It happens in both Safari and Mozilla. Could it be the SBC DSL that is blocking it? Could it be a firewall? I was able to use it for months, and now it times out when I try to use it.
Any ideas would be welcome!
Lynn

2 comments:

Cher said...

lovely smocking - I have not seen a blanket done this way. Must be so snuggly. Sorry no help on the computer connection...

ForestJane said...

*closes her eyes and tries not to be tempted by the chocolate pudding*

Shame on you for showing us this when many of us are trying to lose weight for summer! Of course, I'm sure if I ran track, I could eat more pudding. It looks great!