Barbara, who hosted, had received this lovely appliqué quilt back from the quilter. The photo, sorry to say, doesn't do it justice. She told us she had used the binding fabric (the same as the border) for something else. Marilyn thought she might have some of it in her stash.
Here's the back:
A relative had asked her for an "autumn quilt," so she put this top together. She found she had enough blocks for quilt for another relative. She will put a border on it.
Then she showed us this quilt she had made for a widowed friend to give to another friend who had helped her when her husband died.
Carol had this wall hanging almost finished, just in time for Christmas.
Several people were knitting or doing embroidery. I worked on hand-quilting my "Sistine Chapel." (I could finish it quickly if I just put away my toys and worked on it.)
Speaking of toys, we finally got to have the tea party to celebrate Lotte’s arrival.
Lotte wore one of the dresses I made for her long before she left England to come here.
You’d think tea party would have gone off without a hitch; the girls have been planning for sooooooo long. They managed to get into their dresses and set the table in the little "breakfast nook."
They have five of everything in the cutlery, but they only have four of the regular chairs and four of everything in the tea set. Dolly offered to use a cup and saucer from the old set, because she said "Mum" bought it back before any of the others lived with us.
Gabi had brought in an extra chair from the nursery. She said she should use the odd chair anyway, because she was in charge of the tea, and would be getting up and down. (Actually, she's better at standing than sitting, anyway.)
Gabi brought the tea she had prepared in the kitchen, and each of the girls offered her their cup to fill. They chatted about how nice it was to finally be able to have their tea party, so long postponed because of Lotte’s delayed departure from England and then Rocky’s injury, because they needed Mum to help with the table and tablecloth, and to provide the treats. (I really had to scrounge around the kitchen to find "treats" that looked to be of scale.) The girls talked about how nice it was to have snow on the ground and what they would do for fun when they went out.
Speaking of treats…Mandy picked up one of the miniature donuts. “Doesn’t this remind you of a giant Cheerio?” she asked the girls.
After a moment’s silence, Vroni asked, “Has anyone tried the cookies?”
I probably won't be allowed to provide the food for their next tea party.
I'm working on another stranded and steeked doll cardigan, this one with a shaped neckline, avoiding the need for a steek to make the neck opening, which some people find too challenging. A shaped neckline, requires some knitting flat, which adds a challenge when purling back across the wrong side, because you can't see the pattern, just the last row of stitches. Fortunately, I managed to minimize the pattern work at that point, with most of it being either solid or a checkerboard, so you know to use the opposite color as the stitch you're knitting into. Here's how it looked after the steeks were cut and before I joined the shoulders.
I changed the motifs, too, because I've made this sweater so many times with the old ones. I needed a change.
The neck ribbing was easier without the steek stitches in the way. The button/buttonhole bands are done, too. Now I'm working on the first sleeve. It's for Mandy, so she had to try it on.
You can see we had to get a second opinion. I'm using my 6" dpns for the sleeves, but I worked the body in the round with two circular needles.
Lotte's hair is very pretty, but it had some tangles and seemed slightly gummy when compared with Mandy, so on the advice from a couple of doll "experts" I gave her a shampoo on Saturday, using baby shampoo and a mild conditioner. Here she is, wondering how long it will take to dry.
I ended up putting her on my bed under the ceiling fan, because the hair dryer was taking too much of my time, having to use the low setting and hold it at least 8" away. She had a nice nap on my bed while I was able to knit. Her hair was much nicer after it dried, and I was able to get the tangles combed out.
Saturday evening, Felicia, who sings with our choir regularly, and Keith, who sings with us occasionally, had a concert of fun and/or emotional songs as a benefit for the People's Health Center in Park City, which provides health care to people who have no insurance and limited means. It was a treat to listen to them sing.
My shoulder had been bothering me for several weeks, and I was worried I might have a fracture (a sign of thinning bones) or a repetitive-motion injury (a sign I needed to stop typing and knitting--yikes!) It turns out my bones look good and the symptoms, including the pain my doctor caused by moving my arm in different positions, aren't consistent with a repetitive-motion problem, but indicate an infraspinatus sprain, probably from lifting a reluctant Dusty from the back seat of our car by reaching backwards from the door. The bad news is, she wants me to have physical therapy for a few weeks and see if that helps. I'll take my knitting. :-}
Rocky will have his stitches out today (Monday). We took the bandage off after three days, as directed. It was still swollen a week after the procedure, so our regular vet suggested an anti-inflammatory twice a day and a heating pad. The pups go to the groomer on Wednesday, as planned.
What's on my needles: Mandy's Fireside Snuggle, a Fair Isle doll sweater.
What's on my Featherweight: More doll clothes.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just listening to music for the Holiday Concert.
What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec.
What's my tip of the week: When I'm knitting and picking up stitches around an armhole or along an edge for a ribbed border, I tend to lose count, or I get to the number I'm supposed to have and I still have more edge that needs stitches. I've found that if I just pick up stitches without counting, then count afterward, I can put stitch markers along the needle, evenly spaced, to tell myself where to decrease. Occasionally, I might be a stitch or two short, so I do a Make 1L or Make 1R distributed in the same way.
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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.
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