11, 7, 4, 6 months

Stewart has shown amazing discipline with his cello practicing. He gets up early before school and practices outside so he doesn’t wake up the family. Sometimes if Emmaline is already awake, he’ll rescue her from her bed. He props her on the couch to serenade (while the old folks catch a bit more sleep).

Ella Sophia wears boots now. This Summer she found a new passion for horses at a horse camp: Riding, washing, feeding, brushing, smelling, braiding, painting (yes, she painted the horse), identifying, saddling. Now Lizzy has another convert supporting her dream of horse ownership.

Thomas greets Emmaline every morning with the same enthusiasm when he first met her at the hospital.

My long-term relationship with silk dupioni began while looking for wedding dress material. I was drawn to this elegant material for its authenticity and subtle sheen. Silk dupioni fabric has irregularities throughout which creates great texture.

I never imagined that worms and romance could comfortably coexist but after learning how this luscious fabric is made, I’ve reconsidered. In fact, the love story of how two silk worms create silk dupioni makes it even more fitting for wedding dress material: This texture-rich fabric is made of the threads from two different silk worms who like each other very much—so much that they spin their cocoons close together and the fibers get tangled up. The naturally tangled fibers are then used to make silk thread. The thread is rougher than regular silk and contains bumps where the fibers from the adoring silk worms are combined.

I had some silk dupioni left over from my wedding dress and decided to use it to sew Stewart’s blessing outfit. My new found regard for friendly silk worms has influenced subsequent blessing outfits for Ella Sophia, Thomas and now Emmaline. The other blessing outfits are shown. Much thanks to dear friends and amazing seamstresses Lara Evans and Deann Hilterbrand whose kind and patient hands taught me to sew.