Houses, a Dog, and Doll Clothes

I have been doing a bit of this and that, without a lot of anything being truly finished. Our power went out here last week for 24 hours in the aftermath of a violent thunder storm. The temps hit the upper 90s, but leaving the house closed up, shades drawn, etc. the house never got warmer than 75 degrees. The freezer was not opened, so most everything stayed frozen except the ice cream and ice cubes. Life is better with electricity!

This 12-inch dog block is the August optional block for my guild. There were several small stitch and flip 1.5" square pieces. I learned right away not to cut away the excess until the units were all stitched and laid out. There was some reverse sewing that had to be done.

These are the first two blocks (20" square!) of Carolyn Friedlander's "Local" quilt. The blocks are paper-pieced. I like the pattern, but have quibbles about the way it is printed. There is no way to copy the pattern onto 8.5" x 11" paper. The pieces are too big. You can either go to the office store each month and pay $$ to have them copied, or you can try and break up the individual units that will fit onto normal size paper. The latter method worked for me on these two blocks. However, block #3 consists of many large triangular pieces and short of taping a bunch of stuff together, it is unworkable in an 8.5" x 11" format. I have decided to make templates instead as all the pieces are large and not particularly complicated. Freezer paper on a roll will be used to make the longish triangular templates. My piecing skills are such that sewing straight lines is not an issue. I think so anyway.

Other than surviving with no electricity and looking after Mom who fell a couple of weeks ago (nothing broken, but very achy) I have delved into making clothes for an 18" American Girl doll owned by my great niece. I made a wardrobe for another such doll 7 or 8 years ago for my niece. I really enjoyed it and as I have an extensive fabric collection and several shoe boxes full of bits of trims and ribbons, I have not needed to buy anything other than some Velcro and elastic. Photos to follow but so far completed are baby doll PJs, top and matching miniskirt, and sundress. In the planning are a summer top and shorts, boho chic peasant blouse and long ruffled skirt, and a prairie outfit with bonnet and apron. There are plans to include a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder's  "Little House on the Prairie" to pique her interest.

Oh, yes, almost forgot. I am jumping into Bonnie Hunter's 2016 leader/ender challenge. See the badge on the sidebar to the right for more information. The last time I took the challenge was a few years back when the challenge was little bow tie blocks. I bought an entire bolt of cheddar fabric from Mary Jo's Cloth store for that one.

There is much to like with this challenge. 1. It's controlled scrappy. 2. I have a lot of the correct 2" strips already cut and waiting in my Scrap User drawers. 3. You can complete each round as you have the units made so there won't be (I hope) a big old box of parts to be sewn together at the end. 4. It starts with orange, my favorite quilty color.

The indiviual blocks are hourglass units, which Bonnie points out are made with quarter square triangles. Broken dishes blocks use half square triangles. Don't confuse the two! So here is a tip that I had not previously thought consciously about. Learned something new today.

Happy Monday!