Monday, June 7, 2021

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



13 comments:

  1. Summer travel plans are still up in the air. It is the 100th anniversary of my husband's grandparents homesteading in Colorado and we would love to go to the celebration but that depends on COVID status and if the CDN/US border is open yet. I hope you have enjoying some summery weather.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My daughter visited Theodore Roosevelt Park a few years ago and was able to catch a video and some photos of bison fighting. It's quite something. I learn so much from your posts!

    ReplyDelete
  3. These little dolls are so cute! I loved playing with paper dolls when I was a child and this is a whole new level of fun!! As for summer plans, we'll go somewhere, just not sure where yet - either the Gulf coast or the TN mountains! We usually reserve the mountains for cooler weather because we love getting a cabin and just lazing around in the hot tub! Summer is not the best time for hot tubs in the south!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your Santa Fe Trail quilt - drop dead gorgeous. Lots of other fun things, too, in this blog. The little block, the bingo, and the quilt dolls are all fabulous. My grandnieces, who I just met (over a year old each) due to covid. We traveled to Pennsylvania (were in Maine/Massachusetts) and are off to a high school reunion in MN for my husband. Hope to get to NJ to see some more family and maybe one other trip....all to be arranged!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Melva! WOW! Your Santa Fe Trail quilt turned out gorgeous. What I love the best about it is the multi-colored borders. Those rectangles really pull those colors out in the blocks and tie everything together in a nice bow. How very fascinating that the buffalo paths always ran north/south. I'm so glad you're back working on the dolls. Yippee for a tutorial - I am looking forward to that very much. It is just such a labor of love that you make these. You do need to keep some of them at your house - just in case you need to make more outfits, like for the holidays as you mentioned. When's your first road trip now that you have the camper on the truck??!! This weekend, maybe?! ~smile~ Roseanne

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the little dolls! No travel plans until at least September. Just dreaming of what to do when I feel better. =) Have a wonderful summer and take pictures, as you always do, to share the places I will probably never see.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful Photo shoot! Everything is so green and pretty! And wow - that quilt! love it!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heading for Rockport Texas for a week in July to be right on the Bay!! Yea! Enjoy your trip! We still miss our RV, but better as we get older. Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  9. Santa Fe Trail is lovely and that outdoor setting is perfect for it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful quilt! Can't wait to see it on the trail. Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What an adorable quilt! Definitely make one block for your own enjoyment! Thanks for linking up with To-Do Tuesday! Good luck with next week's goals.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ignore the other comment from me. LOL. I meant to post, Love the doll blocks, you must make one for yourself. Thanks for linking up with To-Do!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sante Fe is stunning! The paper dolls are such a fabulous gift for your grand girls, I will keep that in mind for future reference!. 🙂 I would so love to go camping again...maybe once we have a plan to manage DH’s AERD, we will be able to go again. We were in Montana last week, Tuesday thru Sunday and it was a lovely break away even though crazy busy with wedding prep. My daughter is soooo organized, it really was easy, even had some bits of time in the evening to work on her wedding quilt. Now it’s to the garden, which became a jungle while we were gone...weeding is my big task along with harvesting chamomile!

    ReplyDelete