Thana – Demon in Court Garb

Thana

This dress has a fun story to tell. What started as an elegant, courtly garb project, turned into a wholly new character who I love to play. Meet Thana – Demon in Court Garb.

Inspiration

The initial inspiration for this project was the fabrics. I fell in love with the blood red and fleur de lis elements. After bringing together these soft elements, I started looking for trims and beads to compliment. The beaded trim on the front of the overskirt was found at an estate sale, it is vintage beaded trim and really gorgeous.

Thana Inspiration

While I never need a reason to start a new gown, this one began with an event in mind. I was going to preview it at the 2020 Feast of St. Voloc which is was sponsored by the Willowden Foundation, Inc. and supported the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Unfortunately, I found out mid-way through creation that this event would be no more. There would be no 2020 Feast of St. Voloc.

Now What?

There was no hiding my disappointment, but that did not make the gown any less amazing. Each step of its creation provided for a more exciting end product. I fell in love with what I called Blood Red and Fleur anew each day. The first time I tried it on, I just new it would be special.

It is the little details that make this gown so fun. I took many weeks to hand bead the overskirt. On each intersection on the fabric, I put an individual black seed bead.

Thana Beading

This was not the only custom beading done on this gown. The entire under skirt panel and bodice (front and back) hold custom bead combos. I took the elements below and created each set, then hand-sewed them to the gown. I may do the sleeves in the future, but have not decided for sure yet.

Thana Beading 2

TRF 2019 – Thana is born

So now I had a dress that I loved, but not sure where to wear it. Then it dawned on me, I had nothing special set aside to wear for Halloween at Texas Renaissance Festival. Now that I had a plan, it was time to accessorize. To do this, I cut swatches of fabric and began searching the vendors at TRF. The first accessory was a red/black wig.

Thana Back
Thana Front

I also looked in on some leather wings and while they were beautiful, I was not sold on them… yet.

Just in time for her debut, I was able to get all the custom pearl bead sets attached to the bodice and front of the underskirt..

Thana and the King
Thana and the King of TRF

But wait.. There’s More!

Before the Texas Renaissance Festival was over, I added a beautiful goblet, amazing scepter and gorgeous Kastle K’zar crown and, yes, that set of wings!

Winged Thana

Meet Thana – Demon in Court Garb! Is she complete, um I think so but never say never.

I also have been working on custom-designed teeth that I learned to create (you will learn more about that process on another post).

What next?

What started as a gown, turned into a Halloween costume and finally ended up as a new character that is so fun to play. You can expect to see her make an appearance at Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, TX this spring too!

Also, not to be outdone – Hubby wanted to have garb to compliment Thana, so in a future post, I will showcase his custom doublet. Here is a sneak peak

Check out these other garb and festival-related posts:

Green Fleur & Gold Renaissance Gown
Spring Break – Renaissance Style
2018 Reproduction Garments
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Blue Tree of Life

I don’t always have the time to play with other forms of creativity, but when the opportunity to update my personal garb presents itself, I find the time. The blue tree of life created here brings an old and well-loved bag back to life.

The Problem

The problem was that my most favorite bag had darkened with age and was no longer the beautiful blue it once was. Here is a picture of how bad it had become (a really rainy faire season didn’t help I’m sure)

As you can see, the bag on my right hip looks anything but blue!

Step One – Paint

I found some great metallic blue leather paint on Amazon:

This great product was very inexpensive and did a wonderful job!

Creating The Tree of Life

While the bag now was a snazzy blue and the original design could be seen, it was very faint when not in direct light. My original plan to create a Tree of Life to overlay the design was still on the table.

For this project, I checked a lot of different videos for ideas – I think I followed this one the most closely:

After checking out a variety of videos and to-do’s online, I went shopping for the elements I did not have. Namely, the 3″ silver ring that would serve as the base for my tree. This along with elements from my own stores was just what I needed

I followed the directions sort of carefully. Of course, I took license where I wanted to and was rewarded with a pretty respectable Tree of Life:

Blue Tree of Life

The Finished Product

I couldn’t be more thrilled with my very first attempt at a wire-wrapped tree of life, and not to mention the new life that my favorite bag received because of it!

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Mirtha

What a fun name – Mirtha. I always ask each customer what the name of their quilt is and sometimes I am rewarded with fun results. Sometimes, people look at me and wonder what I am asking. I never thought that people didn’t name their quilts – I name many inanimate objects.

Cars, Lawn Mowers…. yep, I named a lawn mower “Bubba” once. Alas, Bubba passed so I had to invest in another. It was about this time that I was teasing about getting another horse. It really wasn’t time for another so I named my next riding mower “Trigger”.

But back to Mirtha. This is a sweet quilt with bold patterns and vibrant colors. The quilting thread choice was a hot pink which really popped!

Mirtha 4
Pretty Pink Thread adorns Mirtha

The back quilted out as pretty as the front. The flowers on the backing seem to dance with the swirls of the edge to edge pattern. Speaking of which…

Edge to Edge Pattern

The fun swirling pattern of the edge to edge quilting really softened all the hard lines of the piecing. Smitten was the perfect choice!

Edge to Edge Pattern
Smitten Edge to Edge

Mirtha complete

The complete quilt was so pretty that I had to hang it outside in the sun to photograph. Of course, here in Texas the breeze is always a’blowing so sometimes outside images are a challenge.

Mirtha

Last but not least, my grand puppy, Loki decided she needed her picture taken with this pretty quilt. So, here she is.

Pretty Loki posing
Does your special "helper" like to have their picture taken with quilts?
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Hailey’s Quilt

Congratulations to me! Ok, I am a little late, but I wanted to have time to spend with my new grand-daughter before I started showing off my baby related projects. Hailey Elizabeth joined our family last November and she was welcomed with open arms by everyone, including her big brother, Hunter! Introducing Hailey’s Quilt.

I have posted quilts for her brother, Hunter. Now you will see twice as many as I create quilts for our grand daughter as well.

Hailey’s Quilt

Each first quilt I make for newborns is with the purpose of extra loft and comfort. The purpose is to be a barrier between whatever lies below and the cutness above. Hailey’s Quilt was made with double high-loft batting and is almost a little mattress in itself!

Here is an image of it on the long arm, You can already see how thick it is going to be.

Hailey's Quilt LA

Inspiration

Inspiration comes in many forms. For this project, the muse was a bed set that my daughter in law was buying. I saw the pretty pastels and feathers and knew what I wanted to do.

Feather Baby Girls 4 Piece Crib Bedding Set Without Bumper
Amazon.com baby ensemble

Pattern? What Pattern?

As many of you know, I really love to do my own thing, no kits or pre-packaged patterns for me! This one was really out there, tho. I just did some rough drawings, then choose some fabrics and finally started winging it.

Hailey's Quilt Fabrics

I was very excited to find these fabrics. The blue and pink birds were so cute!

Custom Quilting

I let the quilt dictate how to quilt it and found that the more I did, the better I liked it. If you look closely at the upper right of the feather, you will see a whole-cloth looking H for Hailey quilted into the background.

I loved the idea of a great big feather on the top half and stripes of color going up and down throughout.

Hailey's Quilt
Even LuLu loves this quilt 🙂
Haileys Quilt 2
Micro Quilting helps make the feather stand out.
Hailey gotch 4
The fabrics are so pretty for a little girl.

If you have a special project that needs a loving touch just give me a call or check out your options here: Long Arm Quilting Services

Other Quilts for grand babies:

Fly a Kite
Future Projects – Fly a Kite
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Cleburne T-Shirt Quilt

There is nothing more fun than quilting a project with great sentimental value. A T-shirt quilt can be one of the best. The Cleburne T-Shirt Quilt as it was created for a young lady that collected many shirts from my own town – Cleburne, TX.

T-Shirt Quilts are about Experiences

As I worked to load and then quilt this project, I found myself taking extra time to read about this young lady’s adventures.

Edge to Edge Pattern

It is always important to choose the correct pattern for the quilt, and many times, the quilt will provide hints as to what it needs. In this situation, the quilt consists of larger “blocks” so needed a pattern that would keep them in place over many washings. Celtic Sea spoke to the quilt creator and really did the job.

But look closer. The Edge to Edge pattern has a secondary benefit. This pattern, which looks a lot like waves, is a perfect fit for all the swim T-shirts! I did not notice this at first. It took writing this post for this to become evident. Sometimes providence has great power.

E2E Patterns
Celtic Sea

The finished T-Shirt Quilt

The choices made along the way sure make an impact on the finished product. Folks may think that because of the large “blocks” included in a quilt of this sort, that it would be an easy project. Not true! with traditional quilt piecing, we follow a set of rules or pattern. The blocks in a traditional quilt top fit together like puzzle pieces. T-Shirt quilts present a unique challenge. The blocks are usually many different heights and widths. You can see from the image below that a lot of thought went into putting all the different elements together.

Cleburne T-Shirt Quilt Front

Size is not the only challenge. In T-Shirt quilts we do not have control over the color or content of the different elements. So, we try to fit the physical elements (height and width) as well as the visual (color and content) to make one, beautiful quilt top. This one was a success!

Cleburne T-Shirt Quilt Back

Want to read about other T-Shirt Quilts?

This is Your Life
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