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.

Marching into May

Last week, when Common Threads met at Margareth’s, Lynda finished this shawl.

She didn’t want me to take a photo then, because it needed blocking. It’s the Estonian Dreams Lace Shawl, from a Craftsy kit, and she only had a few feet left over when she finished it. She borrowed my lace blocking wires and let me take the photo when she returned them.

Tuesday we got more (ugh!) snow. Typical for this time of year, we got lots, and then it melted.

Wednesday morning my brother passed away. We were expecting it, and it was a blessing, because he had Alzheimer’s and had been in a memory care facility in Washington State for several years. His quality of life was nonexistent. It was his daughter’s responsibility to see that his care was adequate. I’m glad she can go on vacation now. We weren’t close at all, but we sometimes saw each other when the kids were small. This is my favorite photo of him.

The little blond boy in his lap is our younger son, Peter. The redhead in his lap is my niece, Amanda (after whom my doll Mandy is named) and the other little girl is our daughter, Karen. The photo was taken about 1979 or 1980.

I went to visit Joanie later in the morning. She doesn’t get out much anymore, so she needed a visit. She had her pine tree quilt on the wall, and I got a photo.

Those of you who have read my blog for several years may remember that several quilting friends helped her paper-piece this quilt. Our friend Julie did the quilting on her long-arm. The fabric choices were entirely Joanie’s, though. 

Ah, quilting! Vintage Stitchers met at Barbara’s on Thursday. Remember her arm-and-leg redwork quilt? The photos I took didn’t really show the quilting, but this one might. (It was the quilting, if you remember, that cost her an arm and a leg.)

Janet has settled on a background for her Dresden Plate quilt.

She has decided to put triangles in the corner of each block, the way Barbara did for this one, which Barbara had handy, because she was sewing on the binding.

Rebecca has been asked to do some embroidery for a sample for one of the quilt shops. She says this is an iron-on transfer. Her work is always exquisite.

Janet knew she would see me, and so she brought this dog for me. He is Tatlo, American Girl Kaya’s dog. She brought the travois, as well, but I will have to give it to them when they come this summer, as it will require a large box. She is keeping her daughter's dolls, but wanted to find a new home for Tatlo.

He made a great prop for showing off Mandy’s Mirabella cardigan. Here she is, modeling how you become acquainted with a new dog, presenting the back of your hand for a sniff.

Then, if the dog allows it, you can give him a good scratch behind the ears.

Here’s the official photo of the new sweater.

The pattern is by Debonair Designs. I used Knit Picks Palette in “Bluebell.” I've decided this is the doll Daphne needs for next Christmas, but supplies are running low, so I may have to buy her one soon.

I had been trying to reproduce a cropped cardigan when I made the lavender sweater for Dolly. Well, I actually made it for Mandy, but it looked better on Dolly and went with her dress, so it will go to Daphne Jr., along with the dress. That’s why Mandy ended up with the Mirabella. The reason I was trying to reproduce the lavender sweater was because the original was in French. My attempts at reverse-engineering turned out OK, but didn't exactly reproduce the sweater.

Someone in the My Doll Best Friend forum had used the pattern a number of times and had come up with the modification I liked. I studied German and can knit from German patterns, but that was little help to me, and I really wanted to try this pattern. She said she could translate it, but not right away. She suggested finding a glossary of French knitting terms. I found one here.

I took the pattern, and with the help of the glossary, found all the knitting terms in the pattern. Then I used Google translate for the words not in the glossary. I sent it to my friend in the forum with questions, and she was able to help me clean it up. She also gave me her modifications, because the sweater was actually designed to be waist length. Someone in the forum has already test-knit the translated original, and I have a good start on the modified version, this one in Knit Picks Palette in "Alfalfa."

Saturday is getting to be march day, even though April is over. This week’s march was for Climate, something we’re very concerned about. There wasn’t one in Park City, so we drove down to Salt Lake City to attend that one. There was a good turnout. We met at the public library and marched up to the governor’s mansion. The pups are getting very good about trotting along beside us.

I’ll have to look and see if we have a march next week. They’re going to be expecting one.

Speaking of the pups, today is Dusty's birthday. He's one year old today. It was also my father's birthday, which I think influenced me to pick from this litter. Happy birthday Dusty!

What's on my needles: French Back-to-school cardigan for Vroni. Doing the hand sewing on the Kaleidoscope binding.

What's on my Featherweight: 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 listening to The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. On the Kindle app, I’m still reading Dying to Read, The Cate Kinkaid Files Book #1.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, a staple.

What's my tip of the week: When taking photos, watch for things that might be reflected in mirrors, windows, even shiny furniture (none of that around my house). Also be aware of any objects in the background that might look as if they are part of what you’re photographing. (My mother once made her younger sister cry by telling her that the knob in the photo of them was growing out of her head, and they had to have it surgically removed. It was really part of the chair they were sitting in.)

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.