Dog Block

This block is part of the Dog Park quilt designed by McKenna Ryan.  As soon as I saw it I knew that I had to make this block for my son because he is a lover of Bernese Mountain Dogs and has two of them, Nancy and Ronnie.  The block is a gift for him for his office at home or his office at work.
It is the first time that I used Steam a Seam II and it was not fun.  After speaking to a friend, I loosened the tension on my machine and lower the speed and was able to machine stitch around the pieces.  I did hand tack the eyes and noses because they are so small. It took me about three months to make this block while doing other projects.

A New Irish Crochet Necklace

I am determined to learn more about Irish crochet and this necklace is the result of my learning how to make a different flower, leaves, and the chain part of the necklace.
I saw the flower on Pinterest and was able to follow the directions to make it.  The leaves were from a book that I purchased and the chain came from that book also.  In addition to the above, I learned how to use a knit pick to make the bullion look center of the large flower.

Samantha's new winter coat

The last Embroiderer's  Guild meeting was called Play with Dolls.  For this occasion Samantha needed a new winter coat.  I had a pattern for a coat with a cape that I thought would lend itself to embroidery. From my stash I found a pretty piece of wool that a friend had given me and even had lining fabric in the right color to go with the wool.  After several tries I decided to use number 8 pearl cotton for the embroidery, lazy daisy stitches and bullion roses. This turned out to be a very enjoyable project.  I really enjoyed doing the embroidery.  The stressful part was making the buttonholes.  I tried many different sizes until I was satisfied.  Then I was able to make the five buttonholes that were needed.

A Productive Weekend

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Camp Wannastitch sponsored by the Embroiderer's Guild in Ocean City, Maryland.  I went with a friend on Thursday and stayed until Monday morning.
I spent many hours stitching and was able to complete a crewel piece and an applique piece that is part of the calendar quilt that I'm making and even worked on a bird embroidery piece.
On Saturday another friend treated our group to high tea in Berlin, Maryland.  It was a delightful experience.  I hope to be able to attend camp again next year.

Holiday gifts

Emily, our four and a half year old granddaughter, is in love with all things American Girl.  I gave her a Bitty Baby doll last year and a Bitty Baby Twin doll at Thanksgiving.  Her parents bought her a bunk bed set and I was asked to make doll clothes and bedding for the bunk beds. It has been a year or so since I made our other granddaughter's doll clothes and thought that they were finished playing with their dolls.  When Eva, the seven and a half year old heard that I was making doll clothes, she asked if I could make her doll a dress.  I said yes and somehow got the dress done in one day.  I think that because I had the dress cut out the night before, it made the process go much more quickly.  The dress for Eva's doll has blue lace on it and is for an 18" doll.

Belinda's Daughter

I just finished knitting this rabbit for Eva.  Her favorite color is blue so her rabbit was done in blue with black shoes.  I think that the next time I make a rabbit, the shoes will have to be a different brighter color because the black is so difficult for me to see when sewing up the shoes and knitting them.
Knitting the rabbit this time was easier than the first time but sewing in the loose threads and sewing her together is very tedious.  I will not be making another rabbit very soon but after a rest from her, I'm sure that I will make another one and probably make some new dresses and maybe a sweater for my rabbit.
She will be delivered to Eva on Sunday.  All Eva has to do is choose a name for her and love and take care of her.

Sunny Sunflower

  On Thursday, I decided that I needed to do something different and a doll kit by Barbara Willis fit the bill.  My friend Pat gave me this kit several years ago and I have been wanting to make this doll.  I used my own fabric for the petals, the skirt and the body of the doll and the rest of the fabric was part of the kit.  Making the body was a challenge because of the way the face had to fit into a small circle.  Once that was done and the parts were stuffed, I painted the face. I think that painting the face is my favorite part of the process next to deciding how to dress the doll.

An Evening Bag

Several years ago I saved a pocketbook pattern and never used it.  When I looked through my patterns I saw this pattern and thought that if I reduced it 20% it would make a pretty evening bag that is to be a gift for a friend.  Off to the library I went and copied the pattern at 80% which seemed like a good size.  Over the last four days, I completed the project.  To embellish the bag, I made a rose from gray ribbon with sparkles and green leaves.  The rose and leaves are on a pin back so they can be removed if my friend doesn't like them.  I also added a magnetic catch to the bag, a first for me.  I will use this type of catch again as it is easy to install.  I'm happy to report that the magnetic catch was the only thing that I had to purchase for this project.

Sew Together Bag

I needed a gift for friend who does needlework and thought that this bag would be the perfect gift.  After buying a few pieces of fabric and all of the zippers, I checked the pattern and was happy to find an address with instructions and photos that were given step by step. The address is:  quiltbarn.blogspot.com2014/03sew-longhtml.  This bag is a challenge to make but it does turn out well.  My friend liked her bag and I made another one for myself even though I'm not sure what I'll use it for.

Meet Belinda Bunny

About a month ago, I discovered the site, "Little Cotton Rabbits" and had to make one.  Julie Williams sells her patterns through Revelry so they can be downloaded.  I had three of the yarns needed and bought one more for this project.  I consider myself to be an experienced knitter and this pattern was a challenge for me but I enjoyed every minute of working on it.  Julie's directions both words and pictures along with the commentary and pictures on Ravelry made this project a success.  I plan to make another rabbit soon and also make more clothes for Belinda as Julie has published patterns for other dresses, tops and sweaters.  She also sells patterns for other adorable animals which I can see making in the near future.

A UFO completed

The Show and Tell for the November meeting of the Embroiderer's Guild

was for completed UFO's.  Some time during the 1970's I started this Maggie Lane needlepoint from a chart and finished it except for blocking it and making it into a pillow.  I found this while sorting through a drawer and decided to finish it.  I did one more row of needlepoint around the edge, steam blocked it and made the pillow.  It is now sitting on my sofa in the living-room.

Betsy Ross

One evening I got a call from Adina saying that she needed help with a puppet.  She had to do research and do an oral report with the puppet.  After reading a book about Betsy Ross, I came up with this puppet.  When I showed her to my quilting group they persuaded me to make a Quaker bonnet for her which I did.  Her dress was made from some of my Dear Jane fabric and the rest of the materials came from my stash.  Her hair came from a friend who gave me a large shopping bag of yarn.

Holiday Gifts

Two of my granddaughters told me that they wanted me to make them pocketbooks for their holiday gifts and matching bags for their dolls.  Since Emily, the almost four year old wasn't there at the time, I made her a pocketbook also in her favorite color, red. Eva wanted blue and Adina wanted pink. I had the fabric for Emily's bag and had to buy the fabric for the other two bags plus all of the ribbon to make the ribbon flowers and leaves, that is the part that I love to make.

A Cabled Vest

Several years ago I saw a knitted vest with lots of cables and fell in love with it. After looking and with much research, I located the patterned and ordered the yarn, Donegal Tweed by Tahki Stacy Charles, in a pretty green. The pattern was complicated because the cables started and ended in different places. This was a project that I did at the dining-room table with a pencil and piece of paper to mark off each row. I've worn the vest several times and am very happy that I made it.

Catch Up if Possible

It is already March and I haven't written in a very long time. Why? I'm really not sure. I have completed many projects and will attempt to show them here in this post and in the following posts. My biggest accomplishment was to complete the center of my Dear Jane quilt, all 169 blocks of it, sew them together with the sashing and make a few triangles. I am trying to work on a side of the quilt at a time and make those triangles. So far, I think that I only need two more triangles to complete the bottom of the quilt. I do have triangles made for the other three sides that I will work on when the bottom is complete. There are 13 pieced triangles on each side and then 4 corner triangles plus plain triangles make up the border of the quilt. So for I've worked on the quilt for three years and hope to finish it within the next three years.

Irish Crochet Necklace

I especially love crocheted flowers. When I saw this necklace on Revelry, it became my challenge. After much trial and error, I was able to crochet this necklace. Now I'm making another one but this time the flowers are lavender.

A New Summer Bag

A few days ago, I decided that I needed a new bag for traveling that would hold my large sunglasses, keys, wallet, cell phone, and a few other things. Also, it had to be a shoulder bag and have a front pocket that would hold a train ticket as I frequently travel by train. Once I decided on the size, I gathered all of my supplies and found everything that I needed without having to go to Joann's, a real plus. I didn't use a pattern, I just cut the size rectangle that I thought would be correct and went from there. The pocket was made from a pattern that I drafted from a previous bag and the back pocket was added before I sewed the side seams. The shoulder strap was sewn to D-rings for stability.

Bettina Bear is Finished

Last night I finished Bettina Bear after working on her for probably three years. I started using a book and then took off on my own with different embroidery and beading. She was lots of fun to make. The most difficult part of sewing her together was making the head, especially sewing in the ears. Other than buying some rayon embroidery floss, I think that I already had everything that I needed to make her.

Emily's Pocketbook

I had enough scraps leftover from Emily's jacket to make her a matching pocketbook. I used the same pattern for this as I did for Adina and Eva's pocketbooks that I made for them for gift exchange. For the closure I used Velcro as I thought that would be easier for her than the snaps I used for the girls' bags. I wasn't able to turn the strap so I used some matching Shaker tape that I had from another project for the strap and added the yellow

trim.