Indian Stars, Trail's End and Playing with Dolls

✔  With my finish of the Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail Quilt I did a mini photo shoot on Saturday morning.  I still want to get some shots on the actual Trail, but for now, here is one of the first pictures of the finished quilt, in its entirety...

Just this morning as I was typing up some additional excerpts for future stories of the sew along I came across this...

Our trail often led among herds of buffalo so numerous that at time we were half afraid.  The vast open country that is gone from us forever rippled like a silver sea in the sunshine.  Running across the sea of the grass were the buffalo trails; narrow paths worn deep into the earth.  They were seldom more than eight inches across, and always ran north and south.  A buffalo is a wise animal and knows instinctively  that water flows eastward away from the Rocky Mountains and that the nearest way to running water was always north or south.  Scattered along the buffalo trails were the buffalo wallows, small lagoons of rain water.  They were like turquoise beads strung on a dark-brown string.  The buffalo wallows, they told us, were made by buffalo bulls fighting.  They would put their heads together and slowly walk round and round making a depression that caught the rain water.

I was struck with inspiration and HAD to make a mini-block...  It is 4" finished and will become a quilted coaster.  A new block will be published on Thursday!  Have you finished your Indian Star block yet?  There is still time to link up for a chance to win a free fat-quarter.  (Sorry, US addresses only)  Also on Thursday, The Double Nine pattern will become $2.  Grab yours now while it is still free!

After the mini photo shoot I pulled out the Paper Doll Quilts... I started making patterns and selecting an assortment of fabrics to make shirts, pants, shorts, dresses and more.

✔  I have enough made for the bigger dolls right now.  I will be passing on the patterns and instructions for making more to my Mom. 

And since I have to create a tutorial for her, you will be able to benefit from it as well... when it is done. 😁

But for those have have burning questions now, I am using a Velcro product that you iron on to attach the outfits to the dolls.  I placed a small amount on the underwear near each arm and down around the "panty line".  These are all shown in the picture with arrows pointing to them.  I placed the "soft" part of the velcro on the dolls and the "hook" on the clothing.  I didn't want anything stiff or pokey on the actual quilt.  This iron on product was purchased at our local Wally World, but I need more so I will finding an on-line source for it because... well, I don't really like to support the local big box bully.  These are just my personal feelings and when desperate times call for desperate measures I cave.

You can get the pattern at Red Boot Quilt Company... I enlarged the patterns for the bigger dolls, making it easier for smaller hands to better manage the dressing and undressing of the dolls.  

❧  I have decided that I need to make one more of each sized doll to keep for me.  It has been such fun creating the various outfits!  I think I will be making more in the future with a variety of seasonal themes, such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, etc.  To ensure that I have the velcro placements on the clothes correct, it is necessary to keep a one-block mini quilt for me.  Plus, I can keep the dolls and a few outfits here for the girls to play with. 

I will move on to the smaller dolls (original size of the pattern) next week.  We finally got the camper onto the truck and we are chomping at the bit to get out of here!  

❧  I have several postcard block kits prepped to take camping.  I am all caught up with the blocks for our camping journal quilt so I am working on some rather "generic" blocks for possibilities to use right now.  Like a night sky block featuring the big dipper and a larger star, open space, a pine tree, a barrel cactus, campfire and an Ohio star block that can represent a sunflower or a daisy.

Rachel over at Fiona Sandwich is holding a virtual "summer camp" with a sort of a bingo card and a variety of things to complete.  You can find full details by following the link above. It has been fun seeing the blocks that the participants are making.  I'll be sharing some soon!

Do you have any travel plans for the summer?  

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear what you will be up to.

Piece Happy!

Melva
 

Linking with:

To Do Tuesday at Chris Knits & Sews

Mid-week Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Stitch Sew & Show at Life in the Scrap Patch