Making Progress...or Not.

There are not a lot of photos to show this week's activities. However, the shawlette is getting bigger.

I worked a little more on the whole-cloth quilt, but, as usual, it doesn't look very different. I'm at the corner now, ready to finish the last strip of cross-hatching. The trailer rugs are right where they were last week.

The air quality improved quite a bit for most of the week, we we walked almost every day. This was our usual route: Along the Larkspur Trail as far as Bear Creek Rd. and back. Rocky has been walking more than half the distance each time.

I had gotten behind on the stories when we had company, so I took the photos for two more stories this past week. We're scheduled now through October 1st.

It took a couple of days to replace all the photos in our new book, but it's ready to go now. There is only the cover to redo, and then I can order a new proof copy.

I decided since I had to remake the cover of Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, I might as well use a new photo of the crew/cast of characters, as we've added Pippa since the last one was taken. I had one photo I had taken on the stairs, but the lighting wasn't very good, so we all went out to the deck on Thursday to take a new one. It took a lot of photos to get one with all of them looking at the camera. Someone always looks away. (At least I can count on them not to blink!)

Laika, the film studio where our younger son works, revealed the topic of its next film, "Wildwood" with this picture.

The film will use the studio's usual stop-motion technique as their previous films. This one is based on the book Wildwood by Colin Meloy. 

I haven't read it yet, so I had to get it from Audible. If I like it, I'll listen to the others in the series. The character Prue and her friend Curtis enter the Impassible Wilderness, a world of warring creatures and powerful figures, to try to rescue Pru's baby brother, who has been carried off by crows. The Impassible Wilderness is located in Forest Park, located on the edge of Portland, Oregon, although no one goes there and and no one can find it.

For something different, some leftover rice went into this recipe for Nasi Goreng, which was our breakfast Friday morning.

Wednesday was our 56th wedding anniversary. DH pulled out this bottle of wine we have had since 2004. The owners of the vineyard had given it to us for our 39th anniversary, which we spent tasting their wines. We have kept it unopened all this time. It was amazing! The vintners are clearly better at producing wine than they are at spelling!

DH turned 80 on Sunday. I baked a cake Saturday evening. Devil's food with butter cream frosting. Very decadent. We don't usually eat stuff like this.

We had our regular Zoom call Sunday afternoon. DH's brother, who lives three blocks from us, came to participate in person. The three of us who were here in person each had a piece of  cake, and the rest went into the freezer for whoever is with us at Christmas. The Zoom call was very nice. We don't usually have our oldest, but he stayed home from other family activities to be there with us virtually for this special occasion.

The choir sang in person again on Sunday. I missed the rehearsal Wednesday because I decided to get my flu and pneumonia shots on Tuesday after my dermatology check, since I was out anyway. I got both: one shot in each arm. The next afternoon I began to have chills and a temperature about 1/2 of a degree above normal. I decided not to go to choir because I didn't feel well, and I also wasn't sure that it was the vaccines causing it. I called my doctor the next day, although I was fine by then, to see if I should be tested. He said it had to be the vaccines causing it because I hadn't been around anyone without a mask. The choir director wanted me to come on Sunday. There was only one other soprano, and he wasn't worried that I might infect someone, since we would be distanced and masked.

You can find us at 51:30 here:

We need a new roof, so we're scheduled for the middle of October. We knew it was going to need replacing, but a roof inspection revealed that the old roof was just shingles put on top of the old ones, and no flashing in the valleys, and the shingles were in bad condition. It wasn't unexpected, but we had thought we could wait until next year. It will be good to have it done, though, and it would probably have cost more next year.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Taina Shawlette.

What's on my loom: Trailer rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: Repairs.

What's in my hoop: Whole cloth quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Little Green Greatcoat––A Fairy Tale. You may think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but this story tells what really happened.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Deserter by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille on the Audible app. It's an exciting book, so I want to finish it before starting Wildwood, which I have already added to my library.

What's in my wine glass: Sishaye Consult 2020 from South Africa.

What's my tip of the week: I hate having to count stitches after every row or every other row, so when I have a pattern like this, where there are increases at one edge of each row and a K2tog every other row on the other edge, I figure out how many stitches I will lose from the K2tog by the time I have enough stitches as called for in the pattern and put a stitch marker to indicate the stitches that will be gone. Then I just count to check when I have to remove the stitch marker. 

This pattern has you Kfb at the beginning of the RS row and then K all the sts. Then, on the WS row, you K2tog and then make another Kfb at the end of the row. This means you're adding two stitches and subtracting one for each two rows (one RS and one WS), for a net of one stitch every two rows. Where I have the marker shows I have 8 rows still to knit. I find this easier than counting the rows, too. The stitch marker is a good reminder it's time to stop and count stitches.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from booksellers worldwide. If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment, and that's 50% of the price when you buy there. Other bookseller take a much bigger cut. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

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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2020 Goes On...and On! Part I

To start off, here is some actual quilting:

With some of the other projects done, I've been able to get some quilting done, in spite of the hole in my thimble. I have some (maybe) substitutes on the way (similar stye, but adjustable and very cheap), but in the meantime, I'm just trying to avoid the hole. I'm hoping a jeweler can repair it. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this project, though. Here you can see how far the quilting is from the edge. Outside the double lines, there is no quilting. it will be trimmed off there.

I wrote our annual holiday letter for 2020. It ended up being 18 pages. Cutting it down to two pages was a chore and left out a lot of stuff I want to remember, so I decided to include it in my regular weekly blog posts for the next two weeks. If it's too boring, or if this otherwise horrible year is too depressing, you can just skip down to the end of this post, where my weekly check-ins are found.

Let's start off with a summary of our social events for the year. (This part won't take long.) First we attended a fund-raiser for Family Kitchen, an evening of music by Kristen Grainger and True North. It was great music and for a wonderful cause.

Two days later we were at our second town hall meeting, having attended one for one of our senators early in the month. This time the meeting was with local candidates for various offices.

Then we moved in with Charlie's brother, Jim, for a few days while Webfoot came in to paint our cabinets. These are the same people who painted our exterior. They did a great job again. We walked the three blocks from Jim's about once a day to check on their progress. This reminded me of something out of a science fiction thriller.

They did the cabinets in the three bathrooms, too. It was expensive, but it really needed it after Mr. and Mrs. Jellyfingers moved out with all the little Jellyfingers kids. Here's what it looked like when the painters were done.

It took a few weeks before DH could get all the hardware on the cabinet door and drawers.

However, while we were staying with Jim, we treated him to dinner at Olive Garden. It was our last meal out together, just the three of us, for the year. (We're skipping my traditional breakfast out on my birthday, the day after Christmas.)

After the cabinets were painted, and before the hardware was on, my friend Carol, from Park City (daughter of my quilting buddy Ellen) came with her husband to visit and have tea while they were here in the area for skiing. Jim came over to participate in the visit. Carol's husband, Jeff, took the photo. (Carol's talented son Colby was the inspiration for my character Jolena's aerials and slopestyle ski activities.)

Our son Peter remains the family celebrity. The film he worked on, Missing Link, won a Golden Globe and was nominated for other awards, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Peter was part of the team nominated for "Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Feature" at the Annies. When the Golden Globe came to the studio, Laika, where Peter works, each employee got to have his or her photo taken with it.

We have (had) been getting into the routine of visiting the special events in Bend, such as the Beer Fest and First Friday Art Walks. We attended this First Friday event. This was our last one...for now. We got to hear the Sweet Adelines group "Bella Acapella" perform.

March is when the Rose City (Portland) Yarn Crawl takes place. You may remember my visit from a blog post in March. Mandy, (one of the characters in my stories) attended, tucked away in my purse, with my knitting, a bottle of water and hand sanitizer. We already knew about the pandemic at that time, early March. I debated about going, but I decided that it might be my last chance to see any of the grandkids for a while, and there were few cases in the Portland area at that time.

We had a nice visit with son Peter and daughter-in-law Alexa and the boys. The two knitters had our photo taken when we finished all the year shops. It rained, and we were slippery with hand sanitizer before we got done.

Mandy came out to have her photo taken looking at yarn at a few of the shops. Another knitter noticed Mandy's cardigan and asked about the pattern. As we looked it up on Ravelry together, she recognized my name. She said she had a doll in her car with an outfit based on one of my other knitting patterns. She brought the doll in and the two dolls had their photos taken together.

Also during this visit, we went wine-tasting with the men. We saw a rainbow. I found that hopeful.

Our in-person social interaction came to a screeching halt after the Yarn Crawl. Even our trip to Belknap Hot Springs over the first weekend in June had us limiting our contact with others, in spite of being part of a group.

We did some hikes alone and with Jim, but kept our masks handy and stayed away from Jim and anyone else. People throughout the park were still meeting in large groups without masks. Their idea of "social distancing" seemed to be anything over two feet. The hikes were lovely, though, and we got in an average of five miles a day, usually broken up into two hikes with a break for lunch back at the campsite.

Next week: Part II.

What's on my needles: Getting ready to start the March of the Fibres cardigan/pullover soon.

What's on my sewing machine: Waiting for the next project.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A lot more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Tree Grows in the Living Room. Pippa goes to get some water and finds a tree has appeared in the living room since the dolls went up to read in bed before going to sleep.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I've just been listening to holiday music.

What's in my wine glass: Montevina Skyland Ridge Zinfandel 2016, one of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: No thimble will last a lifetime if you quilt a lot.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Barnes & Noble in the US, and from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment.

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.

A Week of Raking in Goodies

This week I'm showing off a lot of things that got raked in over the last couple of weeks. First Christmas:

My daughter and my younger granddaughter picked out the yummy set of fat quarters for me for Christmas, and Santa put this wonderful Mitten book in my stocking. I've already picked out the mittens I hope to make from the selection in the book, and I have several things in mind for the fabric.

This week we celebrated New Year's Eve by staying up until midnight and drinking an entire bottle (for two of us) of very expensive sparkling wine from Costco.

I already had the black-eyed peas soaking for our Hoppin' John recipe, traditional for New Year's Day.

On New Year's Day, we watched the Rose Bowl Game, which was very exciting, because we could cheer for both teams: the Oregon Ducks and the Wisconsin Badgers. It was a great game, because the lead kept changing hands. We discovered that our younger dog, Dusty, is a Ducks fan. Every time we said "The Ducks are gonna score!" he ran around in circles and grabbed a toy to shake senseless. The Ducks raked in the win, which made Dusty very happy. We're gratified that Wisconsin did so well, too, though.

The Wisconsin grandkids raked in bicycles for their dolls after they got back from Texas. Here's Daphne's Hannah riding hers. Zachary's bicycle is in the background. This is a well-made bicycle sold at Target. I was able to order it online with free delivery to their local store. (Looks like Hannah has been doing gymnastics.)

Saturday we went to a town hall held by one of our senators, Jeff Merkley. He took time for a photo op with me. (He's bigger in person!)

I found his answers to questions very thoughtful and easy to understand. I hear he has done more than 400 of these, so I guess he has it worked out. I'm glad he's one of my senators.

Sunday was the twelfth day of Christmas. We had our Christmas pageant. In this case it was the Christ Child who raked in the goodies: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Maybe not every child's dream present, but I doubt He was surprised by it. The applause for the children was enthusiastic.

Members of the choir wore halos while we sang as the angel chorus. I took this selfie with one of my fellow sopranos and was amazed that the halos seemed so real in the photo.

That's probably the closest I'll ever get to raking in a real halo.

Sunday evening we went to a benefit concert put on at my church for The Family Kitchen, a soup kitchen that provides meals for anyone who walks in the door, no questions asked. My church subsidizes the running of this organization by providing volunteers and the physical space, along with some money for running it, but needs help from outside to meet the needs. Two Oregon singing groups, True North Band and Down Range, generously donated their talents to raise money for feeding the hungry.

Down Range warmed up the crowd. I could have listened to them all evening. (These guys are about my age and survived the "Great Folk Music Scare" by learning to play...folk music.)

After a few numbers, True North Band came on. They perform blue-grass, folk and country numbers in their own style.

The lyrics were wonderful. They made us laugh; they made us cry. The music was lovely and beautifully performed. We bought CDs from both groups, which also went to Family Kitchen.

When we got home, the Golden Globe Awards were on, so we watched. We were so, so, so excited to learn that Laika's Missing Link (to which our son contributed and what helps support his family) won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. This is the first Golden Globe Award raked in by Laika! (If you're a regular reader of my blog, you may know of my connection to this winner.)

Mr. Link was shocked to learn that he had won. He wasn't even at the awards ceremony.
"What? I won?"

There were three Disney films nominated, and Pixar usually wins, so it must be a good film, not just because I think so. I suggest you get a copy or find a way to watch it. (Your purchase helps my family!) Here's the proof:

Then I received this in the mail from our interim choir director:

Lucky me! Clearly, she wants to be sure everyone comes to practice on Wednesday. What prize do you think I'll rake in? (I'm hoping for the chocolate chip cookie.) My life is already full.

What's on my needles: Maine Memories still. Making progress. I'm almost done with the two-color section of the pattern. It will continue in plain purple from there.

What's on my sewing machine: Getting ready to sew Victorian costumes for two lucky dolls for Valentine's Day.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress. One of my New Year's resolutions, though, is to finish it THIS YEAR.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Together. Emil wants to know what the other dolls did together before he arrived. This story is a review of some of the activities the dolls participated in during the past year. They enjoyed the fireplace app on my iPad while they reminisced.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still Blowout by Rachel Maddow. It's a great story with lots of detail, but it has been a busy few weeks. I have used up most of the Audible credits I had accumulated by giving audiobooks as Christmas presents. Johan is listening to Ramona Quimby by Beverly Cleary and Tracy Dockray. (It was on his wish list, and much cheaper as a download.) The Wisconsin grands are listening with their parents to the Harry Potter books, although they have both read the first book as a physical book. They also have Into the Wild by Erin Hunter for the kids and Harry Potter and the History of Magic by Ben Davies for their parents, two literature professors. Our older son has a 3-month subscription to Audible, so he can pick out his own book and buy more if he wants. He commutes a long way to work, so audiobooks are a good way to pass the time.

What's in my wine glass: Terra d'ora Zinfandel 2016. Always nice.

What's my tip of the week: I'm getting a Roomba knockoff (a Christmas present). I will let you know how it works out.

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.

Work or Play?

The big event of the week was our viewing of Missing Link on Friday. We snapped a photo of the credits when son Peter's name came up.

In my opinion, it's the best Laika film yet. After the movie let out, we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, we went to Walmart so I could do a photo shoot for the week's story in The Doll's Storybook. You can find the story here. This photo will give you a hint as to what it's about.

Many thanks to the Walmart employee who played along and allowed his hand to be in the photo.

We bought Daphne a doll for her birthday, which is the middle of next month. Here's the one we bought:

She is the Götz Happy Kidz doll named Marie and is almost identical to Jolena, except Jolena has a part in the middle, and Marie's hair is pulled back. Now I'm working on outfits for Marie, and Jolena is (logically) acting as my model, because she has the same coloring. Marie arrived in Wisconsin on Friday and is resting in her box (possibly in the parents' closet) until Daphne's birthday.

I finished this outfit on Wednesday.

The turtleneck is my pattern. The pleated skirt is made from quilting cotton. The instructions are here.

Next I made the pajamas, using my pants pattern and the Little Abbee Slumber Party pattern for the top, altered to fit.

I'm sending Marie this bathing suit, which is made from a girls' sock, and so will have to make another one when I get a chance. (This is Vroni modeling.) I thought Daphne would like it because of the kitty face on the top.

I'm working on a twinset now in "Huckleberry Heather" Palette yarn. I plan to make some slacks to go with it. Marie will need a coat, even though it will already be getting warm. I haven't figured out what to do for that yet.

I worked a little bit on the Spring Flowers quilt. After Marie's wardrobe is finished, I hope to be at it most of my free time until it's finished. With luck, I can finish it while it's still spring. then I will have to find another wall for it.

Cooking always cuts into my sewing/knitting time. I usually bake our bread. This one was for sandwiches. I use the bread machine on the dough cycle.

Finally, I thought we needed some more cuteness this week. Here's Soren and Louis, napping together.

Well, they are partly on a quilt. It's this one:

What's on my needles: Twinset cardigan for Marie.

What's on my sewing machine: Doll clothes for Daphne's birthday doll, Marie.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt. 

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Birthday Gift.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Revenant Eve by Sherwood Smith. It was a good story, although it was the third in the series. Fortunately, the author fills in the blanks for us. I would have listened to the others first, but this was the first one available to me as an audiobook. Maybe someday I'll get to listen to the rest of the series. Now listening to Molly by M. C. Beaton. 

What's in my wine glass: Patón Clemente Tempranillo Crianza 2016, from La Mancha. Delightful.

What's my tip of the week: Beware of leaving your sewing pins on a magnetic pin holder for too long. Eventually the pins will become magnetized as well and stick together. This is the kind I mean.

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.