A New Day

I’m up to the sleeves on the Daphne Jr.’s birthday sweater. (I worked the neck ribbing after taking this photo.)

I didn’t get a lot of fiber stuff done this week because much of it was devoted to getting ready for The Messiah, which was last night. Maestro Jonathan Griffith from Carnegie Hall came to direct us again, but this year we had a little chamber orchestra. It was an amazing experience.

Early in the week, I sent off Master Zachary’s birthday box, which arrived in plenty of time for his birthday, which was on Saturday. I had added this sweater and hat, which I found big enough for Carter, and therefore big enough for Zachary Jr.

Daphne’s birthday is not until the middle of next month. I will sew another hat and some pretty clothes, too. Besides the Fair Isle sweater, I already have a nice stash of knitted things for her dolls. I had this one already finished before Christmas while Hannah was still here. 

This is the actual doll who will be wearing it. And now that Vroni has another warm sweater to wear, this one (along with the hat) can go into the birthday box.

Then there’s this tunic with the pockets.

I think these two will fit both of the dolls she has. Hannah is slim, like Vroni, and Daphne Jr. is mid-size, not as plump as an American Girl doll. I also have two pairs of pants from Silly Monkey, a bargain on sale because they were accidentally made too slim for American Girl dolls. All of my girls can fit into them (although Dolly has to lie down on the bed to get them on), so I know they will fit both of Daphne’s dolls.

When I bought the beach chairs, I also picked up this cute kitty, just the right size for the kids’ dolls and the spitting image of the family cat, Fluffy. Or maybe without the spitting.

How much to you want to bet that this kitty gets named Fluffy Jr.?

In other doll-related news, Vroni’s curls had wilted a bit, so I decided they needed a beauty treatment. I wet them with water, rolled them up on some small foam curlers and let them dry overnight.

And I decided I needed another doll to model clothes. This one touched my heart, because she looks like my niece, Amanda. She is on her way to me and should arrive today. It says “Katie” on her passport, but she’s getting a name change to…guess what? (I’ll call her Mandy, because all the other girls go by nicknames. You don’t hear me calling Dolly “Dorothy,” do you?) This is the best photo I’ve seen of this doll as she comes, but I hope to have her in some new clothes quickly.

She may go to Daphne next Christmas if I can bear to part with her and the price has gone up too much for be to buy her a new one.

Vroni says, “Happy Easter!” She also says not to put all your eggs in one basket. (She has other eggs in another basket.)

Speaking of Easter, it was Easter morning five years ago our Zachary was born. We had a really nice FaceTime visit with him on Saturday.

He loves his doll, and both of the kids love the beach chairs for their dolls. They used them to sit in while watching the movie for Family Movie Night.

What's on my needles: Daphne Jr.’s “Rosy Dawn” sweater.

What's on my Featherweight: Steeks for “Rosy Dawn”, still need to sew the binding for the Kaleidoscope quilt. Ready for some more doll clothes.

What's on my loom: Still waiting.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi also still waiting.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still reading The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. I’ve been delayed with listening to my part in The Messiah choruses. On the Kindle app, I’m still reading Dying to Read, The Cate Kinkaid Files Book #1.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw (“Two-buck Chuck”) Shiraz.

What's my tip of the week: Do you have medications that have expired? Don’t put them in the trash or flush them down the toilet. They will get into the water supply. Imagine the poor fishies who have to live with pollution and getting chased by larger fish. It’s hard enough to do get away when you aren’t full of tranquilizer, pain or blood-pressure medication.

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.

Taking the Leap

You may remember from last week that I had designed a simple doll dress (Everyday Play) using self-striping yarn.

The design now has a jacket to go with it. You can find it here.

Dolly’s version is a little longer for a slightly different look:

There was still some Simple Stripes (a discontinued Knit Picks yarn) in my “stash” (if you can count sock yarn as “stash”), so I designed this dress using pretty much the same design as the Everyday Play doll dress. It’s called "Stripes and Ruffles." It’s a free download.

People are starting to make my designs. It's fun to see my idea morph into someone else's.

Another designer on Ravelry had a free pattern for doll undies. Dolly didn’t have any undies because she came with snow pants, which went to Daphne Jr. at Christmas, so I made her some knitted undies using this pattern. Here’s the front:

And the back:

Either my gauge was off or the American Girl dolls have much bigger butts than Dolly and Gabi, so I ran some elastic thread through the waist and the leg holes. I also added a decorative trim around the leg holes. Now Dolly doesn’t have to be afraid to lift her skirt.

DGD1 came down with the flu, and since Vintage Stitchers was to be at Joanie’s I just had someone drop off the coffee cake I had and I stayed home. Joanie was just in the hospital with pneumonia a little over a week ago. I was afraid of taking germs to her house. Because I had promised quilts this week and I missed Vintage Stitchers, I’m showing you a few from past blog posts. How about this one of Rebecca’s from “Simple Graces” by Kim Diehl?

Ellen’s Star of Bethlehem or Lone Star:

Here’s one by Diane:

I hope to make the next meeting of Vintage Stitchers. I’m sure they will have good stuff to see.

DGD1 was really sick. She’s much better now, and she has had her stitches out .(Remember the encounter the the hair dryer?)

In other news, for Christmas, I had given DH the choice of snow tires for his car (after he ended up in a snow bank in spite of 4X4) or half of a Bose sound system, the big fancy one.

He ended up getting the tires for himself and was researching the Bose systems. He found a refurbished one without BlueTooth but still with WiFi for not too much more than the amount I had allotted, so it came home with us on Friday. (The BlueTooth would have cost an extra $100, and after thinking about it, we decided we didn’t really need that feature if we had WiFi.) We can play CDs, music from our music libraries (if the computer is on), any radio station we want and music from a variety of music-streaming services. The sound is great. I’m happy especially because the TV isn’t on as much.

Rehearsals for Park City's Messiah Project have started. It's a sing-along for the community sponsored by The Interfaith Council. I'm in the choir that sings the chorus pieces. The audience can sing along with us. Then we have soloists for the solo parts. It was a great success last year. Donations already have come in to pay the expenses.

We haven’t had any cuteness lately (other than the dolls), so here are the grandkids. First, Soren and Johan with Mom (Dad was taking the photo) at the San Diego Zoo.

Then here are Miss Daphne and Zachary having fun with Daphne Jr. 

DD says Daphne really enjoys changing Daphne Jr.’s clothes. Little does she (Daphne) know, come May and her birthday….

Happy Leap Year Day, everyone! (Single ladies can propose today. Why wait for Sadie Hawkins’ Day?)

What's on my needles:  “Plaid” doll skirt.

What's on my Featherweight: Still doll socks, tights and undies. Will start on Regency outfit for Dolly soon.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished "The Lady of Milkweed Manor" by Julie Klassen. Now reading "To Whisper Her Name" by Tamera Alexander. Still reading "A View to Die For" by Richard Houston on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec again, always a favorite.

What's my tip of the week: If you read my disclaimer, below, you will notice I don’t do Windows. I’m Apple all the way. DH does Windows, though, and I have learned from him and friends that a good way to make someone suffer is to install Windows 10 on their computer. I wouldn’t know from firsthand experience, though.

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.

Nonfat Jelly Rolls?

Well, some of them included fats (fat quarters)...cut into 2.5" strips. But you could make all these with Jelly Rolls, the non-fattening kind.

Members of Vintage Stitchers have been making quilts from Pam and Nicky Lintott's Jelly Roll Quilts. This book has been popular with members of our small minigroup.The first one is Janet's Bars of Gold. (By the way, the names are all the names from the book. Most of us have renamed our quilts, but if you have the book, this will tell you which quilt is featured in each photo. They are presented in the order they appear in the book.)

Here's Janet's Blue Lagoon:


Several of us made Sparkling Gemstones. This was my version:



I was the first one from our group to make this quilt. I realized that there was a problem with the piecing instructions, resulting in an extra seam that makes putting the blocks together difficult. (If you make this quilt, send me a PM before you start cutting, and I'll tell you what I did.) My friends in Vintage Stitchers who made this quilt followed my suggestion.

Here's Barbara's Sparkling Gemstones:



The back of Barbara's quilt features a great fabric:



This is Janet's version of Sparkling Gemstones:



Janet also made Civil War Scrappy, but with very different fabrics:


I made Pandora's Box out of batiks for our older granddaughter.


My Log Cabin Hidden Stars was for our second grandson, born during the year of the dragon, therefore the dragon appliqué.



Here's Barbara's Spiral Strips:


Daisy Chain was popular. Here's Janet's:


I made two Daisy Chains. Here's one:


The other is pretty much the same, but went to a different home.

Several of us made the Floral Bouquet. Here's Janet's:



And here's Carol's Floral Bouquet:



I used batiks to make the Floral Bouquet for our daughter and her family:



Here's Carol's Friendship Braid:



I used Twin Stars to make a baby quilt for our youngest grandson, born during the year of the horse. As was the case with the dragon quilt, the appliqué block was an addition to the pattern from the book:



Not from the book but present at Thursday's meeting were:

Carol's "Zig Zag"—



Carol's "Birds and Flowers"—



Barbara is proud of her peacock appliqué—



And her BOM stars—


Marilyn shared her panda quilt:



Not part of the Vintage Stitchers meeting (yet), my Pine Burr is moving along. Here's Block 15 (out of 16):


One to go!

We're going on a cruise this summer, so I'm starting to gather yarn and patterns for socks to take along, an easy project to travel with. So of course I had to stock up on some sock yarn at the Knit Picks sock yarn sale. (Sock yarn doesn't count as stash, I'm told.) I have lots of natural colors of Palette for the cardigan, but almost nothing in gray tones. In this order I got some Marble Heather and Pumice Heather Palette. The sock yarn I got was Blue Yonder Stroll Tonal, some Navy Stroll, then Stroll Tweed in Rabbit Heather, Firecracker Heather and Dill Heather. Also replenished my needles for socks and for the cardigan.

Also in preparation for the trip, I've been trying to finish off my Johan socks, started during our trip to meet Johan, our youngest grandchild...born in July. I was determined to finish the socks before I swatched for DH's March of the Fibres sweater. (He wants a cardigan.) I'll have to show you the swatch next week, but here are the socks, almost done.

Also this week, as Holy Week began, we presented selections from The Messiah with professional soloists and choir members from most of the churches and the synagogue in Park City. The audience could sing along to the chorus parts.

So, for this week's cuteness: Soren (by the window) and Johan (in Daddy's lap) on the Zoo Train.

What's on my needles: Working on the Johan Socks, second sock almost done.

What's on my Featherweight: Pine Burr, ready to start block 16.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle spinning fiber in "Pigeon."

What's on my loom: Still some warp for another scarf.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to The Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L. A. Meyer, the second in the "Bloody Jack" series about a British street urchin who disguises herself as a boy to work as a cabin boy, from my library as an audio download on the Overdrive app. Then listened to Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer, also from the library on the Overdrive app. Now listening to False Colors, also from Georgette Heyer, but from Audible. Still reading Jennifer Coburn's Tales from the Crib, also on the Kindle app. Funny and poignant.

What's in my wine glass: Alice White Shiraz. The big bottle, to tantalize me. (I gave up my second glass of wine for Lent, and as we enter Holy Week, I'm starting to regret it. Looking for the biggest glass in the cabinet....)

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.