My priority this past week was to work on the scarf on my loom and the hand-quilting on my "Sistine Chapel" (Delectable Pathways) quilt. I made some progress on both. The scarf (a Christmas 2016 present for DD) is at 62", so it should be easy to finish. I'm using various shades of blue, purple, green and beige with some ribbon yarn worked in with some of my handspun beige/green/brown. (You can just see some of the ribbon yarn hanging down at the bottom of the photo.)
The hand-quilting on the center panel and the Delectable Mountain blocks of my Sistine Chapel quilt was done when the week started. I managed to complete the second panel of the three during the week.
I still need to quilt the Delectable Mountain blocks on the outside, and then finish the third panel and the Delectable Mountain blocks on that side. Then I'll be ready to put on the binding and a sleeve for hanging over our stairway on the wall.
DDIL2 and I are doing a private knit-along (KAL) with the Impari Shawlette using Twisted Owl Worsted in Penny Slot. A trip to Salt Lake City to attend a production of The Man of La Mancha provided an opportunity for some knitting in the car and during intermission.
The sun came out on Saturday, and I finally got a photo of Dolly in the snow (and sun) in her new Polarscape sweater.
I will need to make some clothes for Hannah for Daphne's birthday, so I need to acquire a Hannah-sized doll. Fortunately for me, someone on Ravelry is divesting himself of all of his dolls except one. The one I've been wanting is among those he's selling. It's the Götz Vroni. He made the hand-smocked dress she's wearing.
I won't get her until late March, but plenty of time for making clothes for Daphne's birthday in May. I know she's in good condition, and I'm saving a bit of money by getting her used, so it's a good deal for me.
It was a crazy week in our lives. After attending the Women's March in Park City on Saturday of last week, leaving the dogs in DH's care, we had another march on Monday in downtown Salt Lake City to the Utah Capitol building, which is a magnificent structure built more than 100 years ago. We used Facebook to put together carpools. One lady who lives in Heber City offered to drive. She had a van big enough for seven people, but her 4-yr.-old daughter had to come with us. DH and I sat in the back. (That's my DG, Charlie, the dark hat right above the right-hand pink hat.)
We were having a blizzard, but we still had 10,000+ people marching. It was exciting to be part of something that big.
We managed to get everyone inside the building, which was three-stories high, with balconies on each level. The building stretches in two directions, and this is just the view from the ground floor (where we were) toward the stairs where the speakers were.
The building stretches in the other direction (behind me) for the same distance. The lady next to me was wearing an American flag hijab. When one of the speakers talked about caring about everyone, regardless of their religion, she and I looked at each other and then we hugged.
Tuesday the pups went to Marcia, our groomer. They came home looking cuter than ever.
Here he is, pretending to be asleep. You can tell he's pretending by the smart on his face. Two of my quilts are in the photo. He's lying under a flannel quilt that has an old woolen Navy for "batting." My FIL had five of these woolen blankets left over from WWII. I made four quilts using cotton flannel. The quilts are tied. You can just see another quilt I quilted when we lived in Indonesia sticking up in the center right of the photo. Somehow, quilt and family always end up together.
The Man of La Mancha was wonderful. It was put on by Utah Opera. They had planned to have a production of a new opera in January 2017, but toward the end of last year (I think) they realized that opera wasn't going to be ready in time, so they substituted this musical. We have seen the show three times before, in Los Angeles and in Salt Lake City, but this was the best production so far. After the curtain calls, there was an encore, and they put the words to "To Dream an Impossible Dream" on the screen usually used for translations during the operas. We were invited to sing along with them. I looked around while we were singing and saw a lot of tears. It was very inspirational.
What's on my needles: The Impari Shawlette. The March of the Fibres is still waiting in the wings.
What's on my Featherweight: Still waiting for a new assignment.
What's on my loom: The Multi Scarf for DD, up to 62" now.
What's on my wheel: Stanzi is set up again with more Full Circle spinning fiber, no progress again this week.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson. Very good book. It was poetic, literary, yet still exciting and intriguing. Then I listened to The Rose of Winslow Street by Elizabeth Camden. It was good, too, a sweet story about family conflict and misunderstandings. Now listening to The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini. Seems good so far, similar in style to Debbie Macomber and Marie Bostwick. The last four books I've listened to have been Audible Deals of the Day, very worthwhile listens for not too much more than a cup of coffee at Starbuck's each. On the Kindle app, I finished Mistletoe at Moonglow by Deborah Garn. Now I'm reading Anna and Her Daughters by D. E. Stevenson, one of my favorite authors. I read it years ago and remembered I liked it but couldn't remember much more than what the characters were like. I'm really enjoying rereading it.
What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, always a nice choice..
What's my tip of the week: When hand-quilting, you don't need to make a knot when you're out of thread. Just feed the needle back up through the stitches you just made, moving the needle between the stitches from one side of the row of stitches to the other. If you need do, you can gently push the needle, eye-end first, part way back out through the fabric, rotate the needle and push it back through the batting in a new direction. If the quilt get stretched sometime, you don't have to worry about a knot popping through to the surface.
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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