Monday, October 10, 2016

Doll, Puppy, Show-and-tell

But first some quilting show-and-tell.

Common Threads met at Georgette's on Thursday. Margareth had just finished piecing, appliquéing and embroidering her first quilt. She is now hand-quilting it. The embroidery says, "Welcome to the cabin" in Norwegian. I love the mother bear and her two cubs.

Karan had finished the final block in her long-term appliqué project. 


Here are all the quilt blocks laid out in order. There will be sashing and borders.



Carol is finishing up some Advent calendars. The ornaments come off and go in the little pockets, which she still has to number.



Georgette was working on a knitted pumpkin, but she had this Halloween pillow on display.



I was finishing up Hannah's leg warmers for her ballet class outfit.



The sweater is from this pattern, but instead of a button and buttonhole lower front left, I put a crochet-chain belt loop under the left sleeve, just above the garter stitch border, then threaded a ribbon through the front right at the waist edge to tie through the belt loop. I also made 3/4 sleeves, for ease of movement during practice. The yarn is some leftover Encore DK I had. The leg warmers are 24 stitches around, with five rows of 1X1 ribbing at the top and the bottom and stockinette stitch between, worked in the round using pink Rowan Soft Baby (discontinued) worsted-weight yarn.



The skirt is made from some nylon tricot I had. I used the skirt pattern from McCall's Crafts 2506, only I made the back as-designed and for the front, I made a matching pattern piece, but with the curve, and cut two, so they would overlap slightly. The waistband has elastic in it. A ribbon bow is sewed onto the front as a faux "tie." The pointe shoes and leotard (covered up, but it's cute) are from The Doll Clothes Store. I think Daphne will be pleased with it.
I have started on the Fair Isle sweater to go with a skirt I plan to make for Hannah. Here's what I have so far, along with the fabric for the skirt.



I'm using this pattern, which I used to make a sweater for Daphne Jr., pretty much as pictured on the pattern, but now I'm working Fair Isle patterns over the whole sweater, and making the cardigan version. I picked from some simple patterns in 200 Fair Isle Motifs, A Knitter's Directory, by Mary Jane Mucklestone. 
The big event in Dusty's life this past week was his trip to the groomer. He's been to see Marcia several times before, but this time he got his first adult haircut. He looks like a grownup dog.



He's still a lot smaller than Rocky, but his shape is now more mature, and the sweet puppy hair is gone. (Don't worry; I had Marcia save it for me. I still don't know what I'll do with it, but I'll think of something that will make a nice keepsake to remember his puppyhood.



As you read this on Monday morning, he's at the vet's getting...er...reconstructive surgery, for want of a better term. He has two puppy teeth left, which they will pull at the same time. Our baby is growing up!
Rocky continues to heal three weeks after his dislocation. We are going for walks now, but still restrict his activity to supervised play with Dusty, walks, and getting on and off the furniture by himself. No unsupervised play and no ball fetching yet.

What's on my needles: Hannah's Fair Isle Cardigan. The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is still on hold. 

What's on my Featherweight: Hannah's skirt and other make doll clothes.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. On my Kindle app, I'm still reading Corinna: A Sweet & Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, one of our favorite inexpensive wines.

What's my tip of the week: When binding a quilt, it isn't necessary to cut the binding fabric on the bias, even if the edge of the quilt has curves (scalloped edges or rounded corners). If the fabric is a plaid or stripes, I like to cut the binding on the bias, but otherwise, I cut width of fabric (selvage to selvage) and join with diagonal seams. Here's a video that shows better than I could what I do.



Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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