I received the Hansel and Gretel panel for my birthday, which resolves whether or not I will make it for my niece. I looked at the panel and found that there is a pet, two dolls and a quilt. There is also a skirt and a pillow. Brother and sister will be very cozy together.
I am still not very confident making the skirts. Coral didn’t need one, but Gretel does, so I will get some more practice. I also need some more stuffing. I might try bits of batting. I have a lot of thin strips, which might be appropriate. I am not in the mood to store a giant bag of stuffing. If I knew Moda would come out with new dolls every year, I might change my mind, but for now I will make do. If the batting doesn’t work, I’ll get some stuffing.
I was at Craft Night last night when my SILs showed me a piece by their grandmother (DH’s grandmother also). They had gone through her bag of crochet, which SIL#2 has had since she died. They wanted to make something out of the pieces for our niece who is getting married in April.
We have, or had, a doily that was similar made by my great grandmother (Grama Johnson). I showed my mom and she thinks the cream portion is tatted and the rose and leaves are crocheted. I don’t tat or crochet so I have no idea. I have seen tatting and the outer cream work does look like tatting.
Of course, I did a web search to see what I could find. Lots of Etsy patterns that were not relevant. I did find Picmia, which has lots of flowers. What I would really like to see is an index of patterns by technique.
I thought that Workbasket, an older magazine that I believe is out of print might have been a source of the pattern. I found a pay per view resource. It has a free history of the magazine. This is clearly a labor of love, however I found it a little difficult to navigate. I also found an index of Tatting patterns from Workbasket. I didn’t find the pattern for the piece above.
In my web travels, I found some interesting sites. Needlenthread has online resources that include historic needlework sites, coloring pages and vintage pattern sites. The resources appear mostly to be about embroidery.
This is the sort of reference project into which, as a librarian, I could sink my teeth. Too bad nobody pays me for this.
Let me know if you have seen such a thing. I have a couple of vintage books I can look at and will do that later.
Coral is ready to be sent off to my little niece for Christmas. I showed her at guild on Saturday. I even have the perfect box.
This all came about because I finally decided that Coral the Mermaid is finished. What the means is that I am not going to make her skirt. The skirt directions are too complicated. She can share Red’s skirt.
I visited the Granary last week and found a new panel in this series: Hansel and Gretel. I didn’t buy it, but I was sorely tempted. It would be fun to keep sending the girly these dolls periodically. I’ll have to think about it.
I do wish Moda would come out with panels of clothes for the various dolls. It would be fun to give them a new wardrobe periodically, though such a project might be more than I am willing to tackle.
However! The napkins for Thanksgiving are done! As I mentioned last time, one got eaten so I went and bought another pack. The dusky purple was an inspired choice. All of the motifs turned out really well on that background.
Leaf Embroidery on Purple
Tree Embroidery on Purple
Turkey Embroidery on Purple
Even the Pennsylvania Dutch style turkeys is appealing.
I think my last update about this project was in August. A lot has happened and I think we are nearing the end.
SIL and her machine have been working hard. She has to recolor all of the designs so use just 6 colors. Sometimes that is really hard and she has to make compromises. Still she has done a great job and I can’t wait to have the napkins out at Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Napkins, mid October 2016
My job has been to wash and press all of the embroidered napkins. I have had no bleeding or fading of the designs. I have used a lot of Flatter and Mary Ellen’s Best Press!
The embroidery machine had a hissy fit and ate one of the yellow napkins. While there were probably enough napkins for everyone, we decided to get one more packet (World Market Buffet napkins). I bought a dusty purple and these came out SUPER well. I am very pleased with them.
I really like all of the napkins. Not only are they pretty and festive, but they are also large enough to keep laps clean.
Now that Red is finished, I can focus on Coral the Mermaid. I have been working on her in bits and pieces, but focusing on finishing Red. One finished is better than none finished.
Coral is sewn, but not yet turned and stuffed. I decided I would reinforce the sections of stitching where I have to clip as I had some almost seam failures after stuffing Red.
Coral’s quilt just needs to be quilted to be completed. I suppose I could tie it with some embroidery floss. I haven’t that and it might be a good excuse to learn how to do it.
Coral’s Fin
Mom put elastic into the fin for me. I thought that would be better than having ties. Less frustrating for little fingers.
Recently we started having Craft Night again.I am not sure when we stopped, but I know that I was able to finish my Sampler because I took it to Craft Night. Life became too busy with little kids around.
This time the attendees consist of my two SILs and me. Almost all of our kids are out of the house. One left Tuesday for college, three are out on their own with jobs, families, etc and my YM is back at school and out of my hair until Thanksgiving. (I say that in a loving way) We alternate houses and mostly do crafts rather than quilting, though all of my projects are quilt related — or fabric related, I guess.
Craft Night Selfie
The other week the SILs made cushions for SIL #3’s couch. SIL #2 has a lot of fabric so they used fabric she had on hand. SIL #2 had all of the supplies on hand including pillow forms and by the end of the night SIL #3, who did the work, had two new cushions.
I have been able to cut up Triangle Technique pieces, finish Red, work on Under the Sea and do other handwork. It is sometimes a crush to get there, but I am getting a lot done and having fun catching up with the SILs.
Little Red Riding Hood is finished! She went from a panel to a finished doll in not very long.
Craft Night Work
Red and Wolf
I did need some help. Mom helped with the gathering of the skirt, SIL #3 gave me some stuffing and SIL #2 offered various types of advice and some ribbon for her necklace. Group effort.
Red detailRed pieces
I am pretty pleased with how the whole group came out and I can’t wait to send it off and see what happens.
The good thing about machine embroidery is that it can happen while the maker is piecing since the machine works independently. Still, SIL is making crazy good progress. After a few napkins last week, she gave me a bunch this week.
Pumpkin motif for napkins
This group of motifs is fun. The pie and the corn, along with the pumpkin, which you saw last week, are two of my favorites. I took a close up of the pumpkin, so you could see what a nice design it is.
SIL is embroidering napkins for the napkin project at a furious pace. I need to get busy on the tablerunners. September will be here before we know it and October and November will be hard on its heels.
SIL has finished some more napkins.
Two motifs included in this most recent batch came out very well. I really like the tree and I, especially, like the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Napkin
I think they are coming out very well and I will be happy to put them on my table at Thanksgiving.
I am making progress on the dolls I talked about that I was making from a panel.
This doll is Little Red Riding Hood. She doesn’t really look like Red riding Hood to me as I always thought of Red as more of a little girl. This doll looks like an adult to me. What do you think?
I got the stuffing from my youngest SIL who happened to have some laying around. I was pleased that she was willing to offload it on me.
Red Riding Hood Back
I haven’t stuffed very many toys — or anything, really. I worked really hard to make the doll stiff and full feeling. Not sure if it is too full.
The legs and arms are really skinny and I hope they are sturdy enough.
I finished the dog (probably really The Wolf), the quilt and the cape. I am now working on the skirt. I finished it and then I decided it didn’t fit well and I took it part to remake.
I also started the mermaid, which came on another panel. Mom is going to put elastic on the tail for me.
The other day Julie and I went to The Granary and saw a doll made from a panel. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anymore of the panels, so we went on our merry way with our day.
A few days later, I was at Always Quilting and I saw the panel plus one other. I was kind of thrilled to see them. I am not exactly sure why, but I have been wanting to make dolls/doll clothes on and off for quite a while.
Coral: Queen of the Sea
The one we saw made was a mermaid, which was very cute. I decided to buy them and make them for my little niece.
The panels have a lot of pieces including a quilt for each one. I plan to make the dolls and the fin for the mermaid as well as the skirt for the Red. Then I will see what happens.
Perhaps this will quench my thirst for making dolls.
Little Red Riding Hood detailCoral: Queen of the Sea detail
A photo like this makes me want to send these nephews more gifts. 😉 I don’t even care if the photo was staged! It makes my heart warm to know that they were willing to stage it. They seem to like the Star Wars pillowcases.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Thanksgiving napkins that SIL and I** were in the process of making. We have finished some of them.
There is some trial and error in the process, but SIL is working hard to minimize the loss of any napkins. So far so good.
Progress is good.
The process is
wash napkins
press and starch napkins
pick embroidery designs
figure out thread colors
test embroidery
embroider on napkins
rip off excess embroidery
wash
iron
Repeat
Warm leaf napkins
I did the washing and ironing. As I do with all of my fabric, I washed these napkins in hot water. Hot water is the worst than can be done to them, I think, in terms of washing. I ironed them with Mary Ellen’s Best Press, mostly. I used some Flatter, but I really don’t like the smell of the one I bought.
SIL had a few embroidery designs in her library that were suitable. I went looking at a couple of sites she suggested and bought a few. We plan to reuse the designs. I don’t want or need 30 different designs. using different threads and stitching them out on different colored napkins makes the designs different enough.
We do all the napkins we are doing to do with one design before we switch to the next design.
We had to simplify some of the thread choices, because SIL has a machine that can accommodate 6 thread colors. It is easier not to have to deal with thread changes in the middle of stitching out a design. I kind of wish she had bought the 10 needle machine, but I wasn’t laying out the cash. 😉 Also, I wouldn’t be doing this at all if she hadn’t brought her machine to live around the corner from me. I had planned to make napkins the normal way I make them, which is odious at the best of times. It would have been a ton of work as well as a ton of money for Thanksgiving appropriate fabric. If my math is right (1/2 yard of fabric for each napkin), I would have needed 15 yards of fabric. I love buying fabric, but this is much easier and much more cost effective.
More leaves
SIL had some tension issues at the beginning. After much fiddling, she resolved them, but thinks the machine may need a spa day.
So far, we have about 6 done. Fortunately, once the machine is set up, it stitches the designs out without someone standing over it pressing a foot pedal. It is still a lot of work and I am trying to help as much as I can.
**Nota bene: Most of my part is making color choices and buying stuff. I also wash and iron the napkins as needed. She is operating her massive embroidery machine.
I ironed some fabric last week and came across three fabrics that were intended for pillowcases. Feeling the need for some finishes, I sewed them up over the weekend and will send them off to three of the nephews. The YM made it clear he was not particularly interested in these fabrics.
Big Check Star Wars Pillowcase
As usual the cuff fabrics were the most difficult to find. I have been working hard to cut pieces out of new fabrics in such a way that I will have a 12″ x WOF or so piece available should I want to use any fabric. I was fortunate to find two different check fabrics that go together, but are different enough to allow the boys to have their own.
Angry Birds Star Wars Pillowcase
The fabric in which the YM is really not interested is the Angry Birds Star Wars fabric. Even when I asked him if his new roommate would like it, I received an unequivocal no.
This is a clear indication of my sometimes uncoolness as a mom. 😉
I have 3 young nephews, though young is relative as the youngest is about to be 10 and the two others are 12. They are the youngest of all the cousins and I can still indulge in a little bit of silliness with them.
I know at least two of them will enjoy receiving mail, so I will get those off to them soon.
As a bonus, I got to mark 3 more yards off fabric used on my list.
