the tale of 2 dolls

This is doll #1 that I started knitting eons ago.  Read -->long before Christmas.


The pattern is from this book that I found while scrounging at the thrift store.

So cute & so scrappy !  I couldn't wait to get it done and have it sitting on the shelf in the living room looking all festive & lovely during the Christmas season.

There was a just a bit of a teeny problem.

The obvious of course is that Christmas has already come & gone and look! this doll still has no arms attached and is totally faceless.  And doggone it! I am so close to being done.  But I am trying to come to grips with the very real, very cold reality I may never get to finish this doll.

Why?

Scroll back a few stories and I was being very witty about playing tennis.  Not real tennis of course, but I was injecting humor in my very catastrophic inability to knit or crochet because of 'tennis elbow'.  (And please also note ----> I am feeling extremely foolish for being so whiny about this.  I mean!  Seriously!  I know that there are people out there having to deal with waaaaay more serious stuff than this...)

So my bag of knitting sits next to me all silent.  And I wonder if I will ever be able to knit or crochet again.  The possibility stuns me.  Really?  It can't be!  And take it back out & knit a few stitches only to shove it back into the bag because my. elbow. hurts. way. too. much.

What's left?

Feel sorry for myself?  Tried that and my kids & husband were ready to throw my out on my backside.  Seriously, Mom?  It's just knitting! (Plus that gets real old, real fast.)

I started paging through this same COUNTRY DOLLS book and there are lots of cute patterns...oh, look! a pattern to sew a doll...using scraps of fabric and my sewing machine.

Well, it HAS been a bazillion years since I did anything like that...

...but here she is.  Doll #2

I must say, I had forgotten what a treasure it is to sew.  And when she came out looking like this?

...I knew that all is not lost.

granny squared

I have a great-aunt who is so lady-like in her dressing (she would never been seen in pants -- dresses only!) and unfortunetly has become wheel-chair bound. Being self-conscious about some changes in her legs, she feels the need to cover them. But she still wants to present herself as very classic in her attire.....what to do?

A lap-sized, dainty, crochet afghan sounds like just the answer!

And I have the perfect pattern from this book from Annie's Attic:

"I "hook - Hospitality Garden Pattern - Caron Simply Soft & Bernat yarn

So the granny squares begin. There are buttery-yellow flowered blocks.

And plain whisper-white blocks, crocheted into a pattern that just says ---> a great-aunt lap quilt!

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And just look at what I 'inherited' this weekend. While I was working on the above granny squares, my mother-in-law looked over and said,

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"Oh, I have some granny-squares that my mother was working on a long time ago."

"And I think there is an afghan somewhere around here that she was putting together, too."

"........would you like it?"

Whaaaaaaaaat?? I had to remember my manners and not race her to the basement stairs.

After rummaging through an old chest of drawers in their basement, she found it!
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Don't you just love the vivid colors of these blocks?

I just wanted to drape it around my shoulders and wear it everywhere.

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(Yes, that *gasp* you just heard -- is from my husband & children...)

So instead, I will drape it on the chair.

daisies & doilies

The Field Daisy
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I'm a pretty little thing,

Always coming with the spring;

In the meadows green I'm found,

Peeping just above the ground,

And my stalk is cover'd flat

With a white and yellow hat.

Little Mary, when you pass

Lightly o'er the tender grass,

Skip about, but do not tread

On my bright but lowly head,

For I always seem to say,

"Surely winter's gone away."

Ann Taylor (1782 - 1886)

Yes, indeed.

A little yellow hat.

Daisies picked from our garden, wearing little yellow hats.

They surely announce spring, don't they? And the pureness of the white petals -- so easily mimicked in this pale crochet thread. So, of course, I must get started on yet another doily...

The doily is called Garden Party and once again -- is a pattern found in the no-longer-published-Magic-Crochet magazine. I am using #7 steel crochet hook and size 10 thread.





And the vase? Oh, my! A thrifted find at a rummage sale. A mere 50 cents.

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A perfect color of blue.

apple blossoms & why I love lace

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The apple blossoms are blanketing our lawn like pink crocheted lace.
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...and I just finished this doily from the previous post.
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This is the first time that I have used size 30 thread and I must say that I truly love the delicate feel of it! The thread was actually a thrift store find, but it worked up so elegant and subtle.

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Such a delicate lacey look -- do you have such a passion for lace, too?!
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This is why I love lace. Crocheted or otherwise.
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This book shows a gorgeous bedroom laden with lace & beauty! How breath-taking is this bedroom!? Ahhh. Someday, in my quaint farmhouse, my husband & I will have a master bedrooom just like this.........complete with the exquisite lace that drapes the bed.

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More reasons why I love lace ~
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...this just steals my breath away.

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Last summer we toured a settlers' village and all of these fine examples of lace were showcased in the dressmaker's store.
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...and this magnificent, hand-made lace that was made to look as if the lady was about to come back soon to complete.
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...or this adorning this antique dress-form.

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All of those tiny stitches taken either out of necessity or out of need for fashion speak of such subtle beauty. And if I can come even close to making that same type of lace, well that is my desire.
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99 cents

I lifted the lid off of this box at the thrift store yesterday and I think I actually *gasped* when I saw what was in it.

Reading the title on the box (and can you believe?---a 99 cent price tag) I was immediately taken with this treasure.

The directions were included in the box. Very brittle and very yellowed with age. Imagine the woman who so painstakingly took the time to cross off each tiny numbered block to complete her quilt. I was so silent and hushed when I carefully opened this..........(my husband loves moments like that.)

Each 2x2 in. fabric block is stacked with a numbered cardboard tag.

I don't think you can know how much I positively love the print and design of these fabrics.

Quaint. Simple.

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And I wonder about the quilt. Was it finished? Were these just the left-over fabric pieces? Is the quilt out there somewhere?.......

Ahhhhh.....a Rainbow Walk through time.

1980's facelift

I have a bare spot on the wall in our hall and it needs some sort of wall-hanging.

Here is the first block that I am working on for that wall-hanging. I want a somewhat folk-art feeling to the small quilt and just used iron-on fusible for each piece and button-hole stitched to finish off the edges.

The pattern came from a book I found from the thrift store---an applique album quilt with a 1980's copyright.

Obviously the 80's involved quilts being verrrrrrrry puffy and ruffly....and not exactly my kind of color scheme.

So I pulled colors from fabrics I like and put together this block called Tulip Time:

And this block which is called, Peaceful Dove (and yes, with the colors I chose, mine is more of a Chubby Robin....)

And this one, which I love, is called Tulip Ring:

A nice face-lift for a beautiful block. I even find myself back-tracking when I walk past this when it's just sitting there my table waiting to be finished----wow. A timeless pattern that is still so desirable.

dresden plate mat

I recently found this book at the thrift store and paging through it found so many cute fabric crafts to make.

Now, how cute is this pattern for a Dresden Plate Mat?.....(and the house tea cozy and cat tea cozy that you can kinda see in the upper corners are just so, so, so adorable! The house tea cozy reminds me of dutchblue's tea cozy ----hers is so doggone, incredibly enchanting, I could move right into it!)

and improvising, I pulled together fabrics that I thought would work........

added rick-rack (my new love---I swear I have to add it to everything!)

And because the middle looked a little too plain (okay, sometimes I can't leave well enough alone) I rough-appliqued the flower and petals.

Not too bad for a vintage book find and scraps of fabric---especially for me.

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Okay, so there are some lumps and it doesn't totally lie flat....

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But ha! I love this!--check out this video --it gives reference to the 'Quilt Police'--and having those unsightly mistakes on a quilt---thank you, Lisa.