Winter Keeps Coming...and Coming

Made it to Vintage Stitchers on Thursday, in spite of our blizzard.

Barbara had made this block using English Paper Piecing. It isn't a hard block to make with regular seaming, but she wanted to learn the technique.

She also had a top finished, using some puzzle piece blocks.

Carol had some of the same blocks in this quilt top, already quilted. She was working on the binding.

Why does it always snow on Thursday and Sunday? My trip to Salt Lake City for Vintage Stitchers was slow because of the snow, sleet and wind. On the way down, I saw a car off the road with highway patrol vehicles assisting, on westbound and then on the eastbound sides. I was glad I still had the snow tires on. I took this photo on Friday.

The snow coming off the roof meant the pups couldn't go out in the back. It's too dangerous. It's a two-story drop when the snow falls off.

The week was otherwise filled with sorting through belongings, making decisions about what to keep, give away or throw out, and packing stuff in boxes. While down in Salt Lake City, I picked up 15 book boxes and dropped off more donations.

I did have some fun, though. One of my Ravelry groups has started trying to reverse engineer a pattern for this doll dress found on a Russian website by way of Pinterest. The doll wearing it is a Götz Hannah, a doll slightly larger in the waist than the Happy Kidz/Classic Kidz dolls I've been dressing lately.

One of the participants wanted to try it using DK, which is a thicker yarn, although I think the original was knit with fingering/4-ply. It turned out cute.

It's hard to see the tulle petticoat underneath. I only have tulle in white and yellow, so mine will have to be white.

The bodice turned out a little big, so I'm making modifications to the design, but I'll finish this one.

I'm working on the skirt now, worked in the round, with panels of increasing stitches. This photo was about halfway, vertically. I should be able to post a photo next week.

I got some knitting done in the car on the way to the opera on Saturday. We were seeing Falstaff at Lyrical Opera Theater. Several cast members sing with our choir on special occasions or regularly on Sundays.

This was the best production they have done yet, and lots of fun.

For some added cuteness, someone posted a photo in the Facebook Götz group of a doll holding a small Pooh bear. Vroni says, "My Pooh is bigger."

At least something of Vroni's is bigger.

What's on my needles: Besides the Russian Dress, still the Coastal Skies, a little more progress made.

What's on my Featherweight: Still waiting.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, but closing in on finishing.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is waiting for Tour de Fleece. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz. Then listened to Refining Felicity by M. C. Beaton, not a long book, but fun. I'm not sure if I want to start another one yet. I have a book preordered that will be out tomorrow.

What's in my wine glass: Trader Joe's Coastal Zinfandel, nice with Mexican food.

What's my tip of the week: Not sure how much salad to make? Hate having to eat salad the next day that has been marinating in dressing? Tear up the lettuce and put it in a bowl that has a lid. Cut up the vegetables you want to add to it and let family members help themselves to however much lettuce they want and add their own dressing. Torn-up lettuce will stay crisp and nice for several days in the fridge without the dressing.

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.

Walls

We don't have a lot of wall space in this house.

I like the walls for "hosting" some of the quilts from my collection. My "Peggy's Sistine Chapel" quilt (pattern from Mary Sorensen "Delectable Pathways") is finally up on the wall, but not where I had planned. I wanted to put it up over the stairs, but DH says it's too close to time to move to go through the trouble of using a ladder on the stairs. However, little Johan had pulled down the quilt I had on the wall in the hallway, and I hadn't put it up again, so it seemed like the perfect solution. Here's a closeup.

All the appliqué is needleturn, and the quilting is hand. The Delectable Mountain blocks are paper-pieced by machine, but the pattern has regular piecing as an option, and there is an identical but smaller version, in case you want to go to all the work but not end up with something so big (59" X 79" for the larger size, or 38" X 51" for the smaller size). Mary has some great DVDs that teach needleturn appliqué. Her website is maryappliques.com.

The reason there isn't a lot of wall space is because we have so many windows. My friend Cleo has spent her "life" surrounded by walls of glass, so her walls are entirely windows.

You may have seen Cleo in photos of the dolls. She's just the right size for them.

Cleo is a paperweight. (Remember when we used to need those?) She was given to me about 1952 by Aunt Gertrude, a lady in her 90s who used to tell me tales of her youth, which included a story about riding four horses, all at once, through the streets of Paris.

After her life as a paperweight, Cleo was a pet for a succession of well-loved dolls. The Götz girls love her. She was named after the goldfish in Pinocchio.

Aunt Gertrude was a special friend. She often invited us to the Hotel Vendome, where she lived, in Boston, for dinner on Sundays after church. We would eat vichyssoise and use finger bowls and cloth napkins. Sometimes I would order a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (not really on the menu), and the waiter would arrive with it on a silver platter with a silver lid over it. He always had a cloth napkin over his arm, and he would unveil my sandwich for me by lifting the lid and winking at me, grinning with his teeth sparkling white against his almost ebony skin. He called me, “Madmoiselle!” 

Along the lines of food, we had pizza at The Pie in Salt Lake City before going to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Pioneer Theater Wednesday evening.

The walls at The Pie are decorated with graffiti, some of which you can see behind our pizza. We're going to miss the theater and opera here when we move...and the pizza.

Speaking of moving—and walls—here's a look at where my loom used to be.

We plan to get one of those pod things to fill up with our stuff and have hauled away to Bend. Then we can live in our house like in a hotel with cooking privileges while we show the house to prospective buyers. I took another load to stuff down to Savers in Salt Lake City on Saturday. Tuesday I'm taking a load of quilting magazines to Davidene's Quilt Shop. We plan to have a garage sale.

With all the moving stuff, some of the residents have come out of hiding. This little guy was probably living in our walls.

Lotte says, "That's OK. We can read the book together."

While cleaning up the living room, I decided I should host Common Threads one last time. Margareth was working on this appliqué project...for the wall.

She plans to take my schefflera plant, which is huge. She has a vaulted ceiling. Lynda left with my Thanksgiving cactus and one of our cacti.

What's on my needles: Still the Coastal Skies, a little more progress made.

What's on my Featherweight: Still fabric and miscellaneous things to sort through.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, but a lot of progress made this week.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is put away but this week I added some fiber (“Frog Prince” from AlohaBlu) for Tour de Fleece, just in case I’m where I can spin when it’s time. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz, with the next one in the series due out soon.

What's in my wine glass: Bolla Romagna Sangiovese 2015, good with spaghetti and other Italian food.

What's my tip of the week: There are few things more disconcerting than needing toilet paper and there's only one sheet on the roll. Rather than nag family members to replace the paper, I like to keep an extra roll handy on the back of the toilet. When that one is installed, I get another one to replace it first opportunity.

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.

Have a Seat

We finally straightened up the living room enough to get a photo of our expensive chairs.

The designer, Alvar Aalto, is well known in Finland. The chairs the vintage of ours are very expensive when restored and reupholstered, costing about twice what we paid to have ours reupholstered. They are literally better than they were when we bought them. Needless to say, they are going with us when we move. A lot of our other furniture is going bye-bye.

Much of the week was spent going through stuff and packing. I packed a few more boxes and we had a large pile of useable cast-offs for Multiple Sclerosis to pick up on Saturday. I finally threw Sunny's medical papers into recycling. It made me sad to let go of it, but it has been almost two years, and her sweet face still shows up on my phone when I turn it on.

Speaking of dogs....

My sweet boys are happy to get into the backyard again. No more snow coming off the roof, and we can open the back door. We still have our glaciers, but they will be gone soon. With milder temperatures the boys are spending more time in both the front and the back

Holy week included some fun. The girls got to see how I boil the eggs for Easter. Vroni stood in my prep sink, on the rack, (everything got washed afterwards) and Lotte stood on one of our kitchen stools. They liked my shortcut for coloring the eggs. (Imagine the challenge of finding brown Easter eggs in the bushes int he backyard!)

They have been busy. I've been teaching Front how to quilt. She's the only doll who can quilt, because she's left-handed. The two middle fingers on their right hands are stuck together, but their left hands have four separate fingers, so Vroni, as the only lefty, is the only one who can wear a thimble on her dominant hand. Mandy has no trouble knitting, because she uses the Continental method, with the yarn tensioned in her left hand. 

Her problem is she would really like to stick her tongue out a bit when she's concentrating, but her lips are sealed...literally. Lotte (whose lips are not sealed) was reading to the crafters as they worked. It's a good thing Vroni and Mandy can communicate telepathically, or I wouldn't know what they say.

We had a nice service Easter morning. We had some "helpers" who come in for special holidays. The music was almost entirely selections from The Messiah. (I'm the one in yellow in the back.) I like to be in the back, because I can hear myself better. That way, I don't get dragged off by someone coming in at the wrong time. I wasn't the only one in the back, though. We had two complete rows of singers.

After church, the Götz girls went out to the back deck to get official Easter photos.

In spite of all the sorting and packing, I managed to get some work done on my Spring Flowers quilt. I hope to finish it before we move out.

I've also completed a few more rows on the Coastal Skies shawl. It's my take-along work for riding in the car or sitting and waiting for something when I'm out.

Common Threads meets at my house this week...unless we have a blizzard, currently not expected.

Whew! After such a busy week, I think I'll sit down.

What's on my needles: Still the Coastal Skies.

What's on my Featherweight: Lots of stuff I’m sorting through. LOL! Hope to be back to sewing soon.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, but progress being made.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is put away. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer, one of my favorite authors. Now listening to The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz, another favorite.

What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Shiraz 2016, the big bottle.

What's my tip of the week: Papers are time-consuming to go through. Get rid of everything you can as it comes into the house: junk mail you aren't interested in, receipts for things you know you won't need to return or don't need to save for taxes or reimbursement, letters you've answered (except love letters, of course) all should go right into the trash as soon as you're done with them. Stacked on your desk or a counter, they can end up some day in a bag or box of things you have to go through. (Do as I say, not as 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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

March Like a Lion

Let's start at the end.

Dusty and I participated in the March For Our Lives in Park City on Saturday. I was amazed to find out that we had present at our little march three of the survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14th. During the rally held at the end of the march, they stood hand-in-hand with the student organizers from Park City High School. 

Dusty and I parked the car at The Market in Park City and walked up to the Wasatch Brew Pub at the top of Main St. to meet up with other members of my congregation at St. Luke's Episcopal Church and a lot of local people, including most of the students of the local high school. Dusty and I used the Walk for a Dog app to keep track of our outing.

If you can read the fine print, you can see that we walked a total of more than four miles, counting the walk to the staging area, the march and the walk back to the car from the park where the rally was held. The estimated size of the march was 3,000, which was impressive, considering the size of our town. Salt Lake City had an estimated 7,000 participants. We were very impressed with the young people who organized the event and spoke to us. They did this all on their own. I have hope for our future.

Earlier in the week, Vintage Stitchers met at Rebecca's. She was working on this block from the Borboleta BOM quilt from Hat Creek Quilts.

It uses washed woven wool fabric for the appliqué pieces, which enables more intricate designs than needleturn appliqué. Rebecca has the next one ready to go.

I believe she said she uses Roxanne's Glue Baste-it to attach the appliqué pieces. She is using a simple whip stitch to appliqué the pieces on.

Carol had a lot for show-and-tell. This quilt top started out as an attempt by Carol to make braid blocks, which she ended up cutting up to make blocks she liked better.

She showed us this fabric called "lollies." You can cut this up to sew together any way you want. (The fabric comes like this.)

She also had this small piece we thought looked like an "I-spy" quilt for adults.

I was hand quilting during the meeting, but I've been sewing with some fabric I picked up from Rebecca the last time we met at her house. We often bring out boxes of fabric we don't think we need anymore to share with others, and I grabbed some nice small-scale fabric designs for doll clothes.

The Götz girls needed Easter dresses, and since I can't make any more quilts until after we move because of adding bulk to what we have to move, I had some sewing fun that doesn't produce something that takes up a whole box. This dress was for Lotte.

Vroni has this one.

Mandy wanted green.

The girls need cardigans, unless it's a lot warmer on Easter Day. Lotte already has a pink one and Vroni has one in a lime green. Mandy didn't have one in a color that would go with her dress. She wanted white. Fortunately, she can help with the knitting.

This was the first time she had worked on a sweater. She has only made mittens, scarves and hats before, but she knew how to purl from making the ribbing on Dolly's mittens.

By Sunday, we were on the second sleeve. Mandy had begged me to let her knit the second sleeve by herself, which went great until later in the day. In exasperation, she asked me why the second sleeve seemed to take longer. I suggested that maybe it was "Second Sleeve Syndrome." Like knitting the second sock in a pair.

We put on "Frozen," which we have as an audiobook, and finally got the sweater finished, so the girls were ready to pose with their Easter dresses and their coordinating cardigans. (No, Mandy didn't make the sleeves shorter because she was tired of knitting around and around. The puffy dress sleeves take up space in the cardigan.)

The girls wondered why the eggs didn't weigh very much.

They're just props, girls. We'll dye some real eggs next Saturday. Pose nicely in your Easter dresses and wish everyone a blessed Holy Week and a happy Easter, as well as a wonderful Passover, which we also celebrate in our family, both human and vinyl.

What's on my needles: My Coastal Skies Shawl, using Knockout Round, a free pattern. This time the pattern seems to be satisfying..

What's on my Featherweight: Raincoat for doll…prototype.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt. Some progress taking place.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is put away. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Listening to Russian Roulette by David Corn and Michael Isikoff. (Chilling, but it puts all the little bits in context.) Then listened to Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen. (Her books are always fun.) Now listening to Georgette Heyer's The Unfinished Clue.

What's in my wine glass: Gato Negro Malbec 2016. Not bad.

What's my tip of the week: Have trouble sleeping at night? Try melatonin (which is natural) before resorting to sleeping pills. This will only work at night, when it's dark, unless you use a sleep mask. Daylight destroys the melatonin. On the bright side (ha-ha), when daylight comes, it won't leave you groggy.

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.