A Little of Everything

A visit to Davidene's Quilt Shop brought me face to face with this cute quilt.

It's Called "Sunny Side of the Street" and is by One Sister Designs. I was just back from Vintage Stitchers at Rebecca's on Thursday, where Janet had mentioned that she planned on making this quilt, which is available at Davidene's as a kit. Davidene is branching out into online selling. Currently her moose blocks are available in her online store, but she says if anyone needs anything, and she has it, she would be happy to send it out, if you just call or email (see link above).

I brought a couple of boxes of books to Rebecca's so my quilting friends who didn't make it to my house two weeks ago could go through them and see if they wanted any. DH had some business in Salt Lake City, so he dropped me off and picked me up, along with the books that were left. Rebecca gave me some books to drop off at Davidene's when I took mine. Davidene is always working on some charity project, and she will find a use for them.

We had a nice meeting at Rebecca's. Good company, good eats and inspiration are always a good combination.

Janet was working on this project from Buttermilk Basin:

The patterns are free, and there is a new one each month. For the next one, she is trying to use tissue paper to guide her embroidery.

Barbara had just finished this quilt top. She gave me permission to post it in my blog, but not openly on Facebook, because it's a surprise for someone. I think it's amazing, and this photo doesn't do it justice.

Every time we meet at Rebecca's, she has something new on display, usually a finished quilt. You may remember seeing this bunny quilt before quilting in a post of mine from June, 2016. The designer is Laura Heine.

The quilting doesn't exactly show up in the quilt, but the quilter made the bunny look very plump and cuddly.

Rebecca had been reorganizing her sewing room. I had to go have a look, so I could get ideas for after we move and I have to give up my huge fiber studio. Here is the sewing/cutting area:

Here's entertainment and storage:

More storage is in the closet, but she wouldn't let me show it with the doors open. She has more wire shelves and a small area for hanging clothes.

The sewing room isn't her guest room, but she can use it for guest overflow.

Here's her real guest room.

Every room has quilts on display. This was in the guest room.

Rebecca also does amazing embroidery and cross-stitch.

I was hand-quilting my Susan Branch Spring Flowers quilt, which you have seen. Making some progress. However, DH has been after me to take down the loom (as mentioned last week), so I spent some time this past week finishing the weaving to use up the warp that was on the loom. I made this bureau scarf. I may trim the fringe a bit. I need to try it on the dresser first to see how it looks.

It took most of the day Friday to take the loom apart into pieces small enough to move easily. The castle (main body) is still very heavy, so it will be one of the things we get help moving. Here it is, all dismantled and sitting against the wall.

As we took things apart--a two-"man" job--I took photos of the individual parts and made notes about the photos and what goes where.

Then I used the photos and my notes to write up what we will have to do to put it together on the other end. I ended up with a little document printed off to take with us when we move, but I also have the document saved in the cloud, in case we lose it.

I've been participating in the Ravellinic Games in the Frog Prince group on Ravelry. One of my "events" was to make little hats for the dolls that "live" with me. Vroni got the first one. The pattern is Deb Denair's Lace Newsboy Cap, but without the bill.

The next hat was for Mandy. This one was Deb's Shontae Slouchy, which I had reworked to knit in the round.

Then I made another for Lotte so I could test my pattern. I made both with worsted-weight, rather than the DK suggested in the pattern, but it worked out OK. Mandy thinks she looks like a snowboarder in her cap, and Lotte wants to be a ski jumper, although both would need helmets for either of these sports. These are for watching the others perform.

I had some loyalty points with My Doll Best Friend, so I used them (and some additional money) to buy some boots, slippers, shoes and underwear actually made for these dolls, who have longer, slimmer feet and smaller hips than most dolls in their size range. I also bought some tights and a windbreaker that came with boots that I really wanted.

We will be ready for rain when it comes. I just need to make some little raincoats and hats.

I made a little book out of the photos from Vroni's birthday, using the Apple Photo app, which has the option of making cards, calendars and books, similar to what Shutterfly does. There was no discount for multiple copies, so I ordered just one to see. It came on Thursday. It basically tells the story from the special blog post I made on her birthday, February 2nd.

I did change a few things to make it suitable for reading to children who don't know the characters and to get the type to fit in the text boxes provided in the program. Now I plan to send a copy to each grandchild and give a copy to Therapy Animals of Utah for their next silent auction.

I'm researching how to get a book published, so I can make another doll storybook as a fundraiser, hopefully for pediatric cancer.

I'm still going through things in my fiber studio sewing area, trying to figure out what to get rid of and what to keep. My new sewing room will be much smaller than the current one, but at least the loom will be housed elsewhere. Right now, we're thinking of a living-dining combination, with the dining area used for weaving.

What's on my needles: Nothing new, but some UFOs.

What's on my Featherweight: Doll clothes, when I get back to sewing.

What's on my loom: Empty, and put away until after we move.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still awaiting her next task. Good thing she's patient.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Listening to Henrietta: The Daring Debutantes Series Book 1,  by M. C. Beaton. Then listened to Envious Casca: Inspector Hemingway Book 1 by Georgette Heber, always a great author. Then started The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry. On my Kindle app is still Miss Braithwait’s Secret by G. G. Vandagriff. Seems like a good story so far.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec 2014.

What's my tip of the week: Throw all junk mail and miscellaneous paper advertising into recycling as soon as you receive it. Look at it if you like, but don't put it aside to look at later. Papers have a way of piling up and taking over your living space. If you don't get rid of it, your children will have to. I know whereof I speak.

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.

Back in Warp Drive.

The loom is in business again. 

DH has been after me to fold up the loom so he has a place to store the boxes as he packs things. I still had about 60" of warp left on the loom and didn't want to waste it, so I'm making a bureau scarf out of it. It should serve double-duty as a rug for the dolls from time to time. I was hoping to get a start on making some rag rugs for our new home, but that will have to wait.

Common threads met at Margareth's house. Lynda and I drove through a blizzard to get there, but we didn't want Margareth to have wasted all her preparations, so we braved it, as well as the resort traffic, which was awful (powder day). Karan and Georgette also made it, although we were all late.

Margareth was working on this wool felt project.

She had finished this advent calendar for her cabin, now under construction.

Georgette was working on the same needlepoint design she had last time we met, but she had picked up her santa picture from the framer. This one was for a family member.

I took my Spring Flowers quilt to hand-quilt during the meeting. I'm making good progress.

I finished the last Steampunk Blouse, so we had to get a group photo. I have a more posed shot, but this one was cuter.

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The girls had planned a special  event for Valentine's Day. They watched all six hours of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

The boys said they would rather do homework. It was a pleasant day, and we could have called it "Galentine's Day," because it was just for the gals, as it turned out. (That's a new term I just learned.) 

We didn't hear the sad news about the school shooting until after the last episode was over. 

I made an Easter bunny for Mandy. I used the Little Cotton Rabbits pattern I've used before, but this time with fingering weight yarn (Palette "Oregon Coast). left off the clothes (do rabbits really wear clothes) and made the feet according to the boy bunny pattern. I used tiny buttons for eyes instead of French knots, because I can trust Mandy not to bite off and swallow the buttons. 

I realized the next day that I had forgotten the tail, which was quick to remedy. We had to take another photo.

Remember the story of Vroni's birthday party? I decided to make a little book out of it for the grands. My laptop is a MacBook, and the photo program has the option of making projects like books (mostly photo albums) and calendars. Some of the options for pages have text and photos, so I wrote it up, printed off a copy for DH to proofread for me, and now it's ready to send to Apple to print as a paperback. Here's the cover (from a screenshot, so it's a little fuzzy).

I made a book for Daphne when she was a toddler, so this isn't my first foray into Apple publishing. Her book was all about her first year of life using all the best photos of her. I don't have permission to use the photos of the dolls, so I can't sell the book, but I'm going to give copies to the grands, keep one for myself and give one to Therapy Animals of Utah for their silent auction. It took 24 pages to get all the photos in. I had to change some of the wording to get it to fit without shrinking the type.

We made two trips to Run-A-Muk Dog Park during the week.

What's on my needles: A hat for one of the "girls." I'm using the Newsboy Cap, but without the bill. The pattern is a free download by Deb Denair.

What's on my Featherweight: Pants and skirts for the "kids."

What's in my hoop: Still my Spring Flowers appliqué quilt. I think I'm past halfway with the hand-quilting.

What's on my loom: Bureau Scarf to use up the last of the warp.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still awaiting her next task. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Listening to Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by M. C. Beaton. This author is always a good read, so I downloaded Henrietta: The Daring Debutantes Series Book 1, also by M. C. Beaton as Marion Chesney. When I finished that, I started Envious Casca: Inspector Hemingway Series, Book 2 by Georgette Beyer. On my Kindle app is Miss Braithwait’s Secret by G. G. Vandagriff.

What's in my wine glass: Trader Joe's Coastal Zinfandel, 2014 vintage.

What's my tip of the week: Moths of all life stages die at 130ºF or higher. You can't put big rugs into the oven, but from time to time I put knitwear, incased in pillowcases, into the oven, turn it on to warm (170ºF) and turn it off again when the oven beeps that it has reached temperature. They should be good and dead then. I've never had any moth damage to quilts with wool batting, so I think the adult moths can't get inside to lay their eggs. Vacuuming helps keep them down. I use plastic bags for my yarn stash.

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.

Handiwork

Back to this quilt:

I've been working on this quilt for years. I hope to finish it before we move.

Here's the story behind this quilt. When we were living in Texas the last time (1998-2000), newly returned from five years in Indonesia, I was watching reruns of "Simply Quilts" with Alex Anderson on HGTV, which I had missed during my time out of the country. This design and the fabrics were featured in an episode (but without the appliqué). A quilting friend who had also just moved to the Houston area from Indonesia, and who also fell in love with this design wanted to make this quilt too. She and I set about trying to find the fabrics, "The Language of Flowers" by Susan Branch. They were not available in the local quilt stores anymore. Searching online wasn't the wonderful (and time-consuming) option it is today. I was able to find out from the HGTV show that the fabric was made by Springs Industries. We wrote them (yes, snail mail) and found out they did still have the fabrics and could sell it in 1-yard pieces. The two of us each ordered half of them and we split them between us.

I decided I wanted to fill the big empty why spaces with appliqué, a technique that I was hoping to learn. I copied the design from a quilt I found in American Quilt Classics by Patricia Cox, page 58. It was a quilt kit from the 1930s. The appliqué motifs were in the corners. I photocopied the picture of the appliqué, blew it up to the size I wanted, and set about making four of them. That part actually went pretty fast. Not wanting to ruin my fabrics, I began experimenting different ways to make the Lemoyne Star blocks and partial blocks. I finally gave up trying to sew them by machine. I bought a Jinny Beyer book on hand piecing and began sewing them together by hand. Having started by hand, I decided to sew the borders on by hand, too. I'm hand-quilting, and I plan to sew the binding on by hand. (Yes, call me crazy.) I have to say that I have definitely had my money's worth of fun from the cost of the materials.

I was working on hand-quilting this quilt when Vintage Stitchers met at my house.

I decided to host Vintage Stitchers this time so they could go through the quilting books I wanted to give away and see if there were any they would like to take. I started out with three boxes, and now I have two (not quite full) boxes.

You may remember this quilt of Marilyn's. She was planning to drop it off at Quilts on the Corner after our last meeting.

This store is a favorite place to have quilts quilted for the Vintage Stitchers ladies. Here's the back:

They also quilted Barbara's quilt.

And the back:

She used the special hexagon ruler from Missouri Star Quilt Company. It makes half-hexagons that can be sewn with the background fabrics and other hexagons using one straight seam. Barbara matched up the strips with the same fabrics so you don't notice that they were sewn in two pieces.

I served the ladies some products from Flourish Bakery. I had picked up some at my church on Sunday. One of our priests was a baker in her previous life and runs the Flourish Bakery project.

It's a training program for people who are recovering from substance abuse or have been incarcerated. Fifteen students spend a year in the program learning how to run their own bakery business. Then they receive mentoring and support when they go off on their own, either to work for another bakery or to start and manage their own business. If you would like to help, you can donate on their website. If you're in the Salt Lake City area, you can order baked goods from them.

The girls thought the little pie should have been for them. (I can't begin to tell you how decadent the chocolate-toffee pie was!)

I stopped by the rummage table to donate on Sunday, because the diocese was matching anything we could raise for missions on Super Bowl Sunday. I found this.

It was a hit with the girls. (I paid more than they were asking for it, because I had planned to donate anyway, and it was so cheap.) You will see this item again.

Speaking of the girls, Mandy and Lotte each wanted a Steampunk Blouse pullover like Vroni's. I didn't have any T-shirts the right color, and I don't like making them wear something will holes over their bare skin, so I made them each a camisole to wear underneath.

I cut a girls’ sock 1/4″ below the cuff, turned it under and zigzagged it, then attached straps I made from the soft side of Velcro (5/8″ cut in half lengthwise) to the front and sewed little squares of the Velcro with the hooks in the back. No back closure, Mandy just stepped into it and pulled it up. It was really easy. I don’t know what size girls’ sock I used, but the foot was 7 3/4”or 19 3/4 cm long. Here's Lotte wearing hers, along with her new slacks from the same pattern I developed for Vroni and used for Mandy.

Mandy's Steampunk Blouse pullover is finished.

...and I'm working on Lotte's.

(Mandy and Lotte are Götz Happy Kidz, and Vroni is a Classic Kidz.)

And speaking of Vroni, she tells me to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day, and please help yourself to one of her chocolates (but watch out for the pins).

In other news, the lady who used my steeked Fair Isle doll sweater as her first steeking project is making another one in different colors.

What's on my needles: Lotte's Steampunk Blouse pullover.

What's on my Featherweight: More pants and skirts for the girls.

What's on my loom: Scarf to use up last of the warp.

What's in my hoop: My hand-pieced "Spring Flowers" quilt.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still awaiting her next task. I hope to spin as part of the Ravellinic Games on Ravelry.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose. It was excellent. Very visual, artistic language and interesting science (of the time) background. Now listening to Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by M. C. Beaton. 

What's in my wine glass: Lindemann's "Bin 45" Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. Tastes better than you'd think.

What's my tip of the week: If you need to keep seams from coming apart, but you don’t want to backstitch, try this simple tip: At the beginning of the seam come onto the fabric at a right angle to where you want the seam to be, or at the end of the seam make a right angle turn off the seam allowance. However, when I sew a seam that won't be covered by another seam (such as a border piece on a quilt), I do backstitch. Unless I'm piecing by hand, ha-ha! Then the normal tying off works just fine.

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.