Scrap Strip Squares, Ironing Boards, and More on Doll Clothes

My husband also bought me a new ironing board cover. I had texted him saying I need to do something with this ironing board, the batting I had in it somehow came out... I don't even remember where or when I got this ironing board. It was probably when we lived in Nevada, and I joined the quilt group there. And I probably got it at the Goodwill there, or a garage sale. I miss my quilt group friends... 😔

~Anyway~ This was the old cover. It was pretty stained, and it was just the fabric, there was nothing underneath it except the quilt batting I had cut and put under there. My new cover is so padded and nice!  A new ironing board with a cover is around $80. The cover cost $14 ish. So...

I've finished two more squares. I had to iron a bunch of fabric and cut out some of the new fabric I had bought...  I still don't think I have very much in the way of scraps.... I feel like I have to wrack my brain coming up with the next strip, every time.

I can't remember which one I did first. I think I put them in the correct order they were finished. This one, I used a strip of navy blue (towards the top left corner) that was pretty thin, one and a quarter inch wide. I didn't know if it would work. LoL But it did. I guess I will try not to go that narrow again.  

I laid out all the squares I have done so far, on the bed....  I thought I had five squares done. But... Apparently not. 

Look who keeps trying to "help" me sew..... Sigh...... Cosmo keeps trying to help me, too. Ughhh. The whole basement, and they have to lay right on the things I am trying to do. 😻

I was looking for my quilt rulers, everywhere.... I know I had a few. But, I found a Jo-Anns bag in one of my bins. It had some stuff in it. I told my husband "It's a collector's item now, since they closed." LoL   That's actually sad...    Anyway! I swear I will be looking for one thing and I don't ever find it But then when I'm looking for something ELSE, completely unrelated, I find it... Well, that happened to me again yesterday. I was looking for some crochet cotton someone gave me, and some 14 inch dolls someone gave me, (I think it was the same person for both things-it was for a Pine Ridge Indian reservation group I was in on Ravelry)...What was I saying? Oh I was looking for cotton and dolls, guess what I found????  ALL my missing quilt rulers!! I literally ordered a 12 inch ruler (for my squares above) and it came the DAY before yesterday. Then I found all my rulers yesterday. Guess what the first ruler I found was? A 12 inch ruler. I forgot I had even bought one....  🙄 Well, now I have two I guess...   I did find the dolls, last night. I have been looking for crochet clothes patterns for 14 inch dolls. There aren't very many out there. 

Wellie Wishers Doll Autumn Lace Dress Pattern

That site does have a few, here are all of them.

Here's one with an adaptation to make a 14 inch doll outfit.

Here's one, I think there might be more on this site, too.

A skirt from the same site.

There's some paid patterns for 14 inch doll clothes, too.

I guess there's more than I thought...  That gives me some more options.

This is some apple butter we bought a few weekends ago. I had bought some biscuits in a tube, but they weren't very good.  Maybe I will try to make some homemade biscuits. They never turn out super good though. 

That black cat has been coming around here more. Or maybe I just haven't seen it, and I'm looking outside more. I feel bad for it. But I felt really bad for Spuds, and it got me bit bad and scratched bad... I don't want to start feeding it. The one place we saw it about a week ago, was down by the rocks in the front yard. There's a bunch of chipmunks that live in there. There's chipmunk holes all over the place. So maybe it is hunting chipmunks. 

 

Guess What Time It Is?...

Strawberry Time!! 🍓I always love strawberries. But they don't always look very good in the store... These looked better than the ones we saw a couple of weeks ago.  I got a new "nutri-bullet" type blender (I left my Nutri-Ninja at the old house for Eon, because he makes more smoothies than I do). Well I wanted to crochet strawberries, too...   

I saw the cutest strawberry water bottle holder on Pinterest. But there was no pattern. Sooo.... I improvised.  I used the same strawberry pattern as the tea cozy pattern (which I found while unpacking, and I should finish that, too!) I used the same flower pattern as I did for the doll set (I did this before I finished the doll set, actually). I don't remember what leaf pattern I used, it was on my phone..

Then I added the strap and I made it super long so I can put it "cross wise" on me while I'm walking... 

This is the water bottle I made it for. A Strawberry Water Bottle holder for my strawberry water bottle. I don't actually like the water bottle though. I like the way it looks. But, 1. the first time I even used it, the strawberries were falling off. 2. You have to suck really hard to even get any water out. Who wants to deal with that while you're walking?.... Or even sitting there doing nothing. Anyway. 

I Can't Keep Up With Myself...

I have too many unfinished projects going on. Sigh... I've been trying to do "Finish It Friday". I had this yarn leftover from the doll pajama/afghan project I was working on. I wanted to add to it. 

I first crocheted the little flower (I did one for a different project, so I used the same pattern). For the little afghan, I thought "I should just do a little Corner-To-Corner, that would be so cute." I had a bunch of ends to weave in on that.  The hat was from the Sweet Pea Outfit. I just made up the pillow. I chained 21, hdc in 2nd ch from hook. Did a few rows, made two then sc them together and stuff before I finished crocheting them together. I did the afghan, then the flower, then the hat, then the pillow. In that order. I can't think of anything else to do for this set..

I had started an Amish Friendship Bread Starter about two weeks ago.... (Recipe is in that post). Well on day 10, I did everything. Put one cup in four separate bags. Went to the store and got two boxes of vanilla pudding mix (and freezer bags, for the extra starter)....   I made the mini loaves, using the muffin directions. They would not get done in the middle! I baked them at least twice as long as the directions said. And they still were mushy. Then I took them out (I stuck a thing in the middle, and it came out clean). But they still were mushy. So while I put the bigger pan in the oven, I put all of these on a cookie sheet and stuck them back in too.  Sigh...  My husband said they're good and he's eating them. I can't get past the mushiness. 😔  Now I think all the starter is probably not good and I don't know what to do with it.

 

Cosmo's Gotcha Day

 

Eight years ago today, I went to the Animal Shelter because it was "Maddie's Pet Project Day" where we lived. I was just going to look.....    😻 Well you know how that usually ends up.. Hee hee. Here he is today. I think he's feeling his age, lately. He just turned 10.  I still think he needs to lose weight (but so do I...) He just loves to eat. 

Yesterday, we went for a little drive to the Dixboro General Store. It looks so big. And nice.. (The house on the left is not open for customers.) I used to love going there. It's not so great any more. And it's super expensive. (Sigh..) I couldn't find anything I liked. They did have some stationery. But, I have enough stationery. LoL... The doily in this post (second picture from the bottom) was inspired by a doily that my boss bought from that store. Hers was with navy blue roses. She let me take it home and try to copy it. Then we went to Spicer's. Same. It used to be fun to go there. They had big bins of candy, you just scooped some out and put it in a bag. Stupid Covid ruined that. Now, it's turned into... I don't know. Not what I would think a gift store for an apple orchard would be. All sports team stuff, and 800 weird ceramics that wouldn't go in anyone's decor. Weird salsas. Even the donuts aren't so great anymore. My husband got a bag of donuts and I found a jar of apple butter. Then we came home. When we were driving back from the Dixboro store, I said "I'm in the mood for soup and some cheesy garlic bread."  I was looking for recipes for bread and I found this one I liked: Cheesy Pull-Apart Garlic Bread. And I have been wanting to make this soup for a while, now: Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup. I had a big bag of frozen broccoli, and we had carrots and cheese...  I did not put celery in it because I hate celery. It was so easy! The hardest part was cutting the carrots into matchstick pieces. And it was so good!  My husband was fixing the lawnmower, and he mowed the lawn. I decided to make the soup, while he was outside doing all that.. 

Today is "Day 6" for my Amish Friendship Bread Starter. I have to add a cup of flour, sugar, and milk... 

Another Doll Project..

I must have eaten my Wheaties yesterday. (I didn't...) I vacuumed, swept, unpacked four more boxes. I don't know what else I did. Oh yeah, two loads of laundry. But then I felt like crocheting...  I looked for more 7 inch doll patterns. And I found some that are free! Of all places, Crochetville. I don't know how the page came up. I found it on Pinterest and it worked...  I remember Darski. I kind of miss Crochetville. It was a lot of fun at times. Then irritating... Not being able to post links for crochet patterns that were "copyright" infringements, getting a message about something every other time I posted it seemed. 🙄 Anyway. This is a nightgown. It reminds me of a hospital gown. LoL...  I feel like I want to add something to the front of it. A litle crocheted flower, maybe?   

Quilting Baking and Flowers

I baked some cupcakes for my uncle for his birthday. I was racking my brain trying to think of what to do for his birthday.... He can't really have a bunch of stuff where he lives. I thought "cake"... But, it wouldn't be very nice or practical to bring him a whole cake... Then I thought "Duh, cupcakes..." Then I could bring some for everyone else, too...  There are 11 residents there. Plus the nurses for the day.  I bought the "Happy Birthday" cupcake pokes at Hobby Lobby...  I got a big box to transport the cupcakes in the car because I really didn't have anything else...  I put my uncles' on a plate. He has a little fridge in his room. My other uncle got him. 

I had done a bunch, I don't know how many pans. Then I just put the rest in a little pie tin. I used the Best Chocolate Cake recipe (my go-to birthday cake recipe)....    It would have been my Dad's birthday, too. (They were twins..)

We have been getting more flowers come up in different areas around the house. And different colors. Some pink Hyacinth.

White Hyacinth.

And purple Hyacinth (my favorite ones). 

And yesterday I noticed these little purple violets. I am not an expert on flowers. I just have an app and you put the picture in and it "diagnoses" what flower it is... It's called "Leaf Snap".

I got another square finished the day before yesterday. I thought I have enough blue to do a scrap quilt! Um... No, I don't really...  I was racking my brain trying to think of what strip to do next...  

We had gone to Walmart Wednesday night for something...  I can't even remember what for, now. But I went straight to the fabric. I was really disappointed. I was able to find three different blues. That might work. But, I don't really love them. It was all Disney fabric and kids stuff... Or solid colors. LAME.  Then yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby to see if they had anything......  (Sigh....) They didn't really have much of a selection, either. What the hell...   I miss my old quilt group. 😢 I miss the stage where you could take what you wanted for free, or leave what you don't need... There was always free fabric.  Sigh...   Well, I have a few more blue options now.  I saw some garage sale signs yesterday. Maybe someone will have some fabric at a garage sale.

I also started some Amish Friendship Bread Starter on Wednesday. I have been wanting to try my own starter for this, forever. I don't know what it's supposed to look like. But it doesn't look right to me.... 👀 Shouldn't it puff up, and get air in the bag? It just looked like this basically, yesterday. I guess I will find out. I didn't use any metal. I used a glass bowl, and a wooden spoon.....  I don't know what I will do if I have too much extra, but I don't think I will.  I don't have anyone to give extra starter to...   Today is Day 3.

 

I Got A New Sewing Machine!

My husband surprised me and bought me a new sewing machine! It got here last Saturday. I came home from visiting my Uncle, and it was on the porch. 😁💓I don't know what happened with my old sewing machine (which wasn't that old, makes me mad...) I would push the "back" button, to reverse stitch. And it would get stuck, and go super fast then all the thread would get bunched up....  Well, then it just died and wouldn't even sew at all. I have no idea where to take it to get it fixed. And, for what they charge you to fix your sewing machine, you could buy a brand new one... (From past experience...)

Does Eri look like a little Gremlin there, or what? 😹

Well, I got it out of the bags and set it up yesterday. Actually, I started to iron and cut fabric first. Then I said "Oh yeah. Duh.... I still have to set it up. Ughhhhh".  Sewing is fun. All the problems with the sewing machine are NOT.  And I 1. Feel like I forgot how to sew....  Even how my quilt group taught me to cut the fabric...   😔 Maybe there's something in my quilt class book. Anyway. I watched a video on my specific machine, and used my phone camera to see if I was doing it right....  I tried to do the threading mechanism but I doubt I will ever figure that out. Okay, and 2. I miss my old quilting friends. 😭  I have looked for new quilt groups in my area. In each area that we have lived in, since we moved back here, actually. And there are a few. But, I feel like I will never find a better quilt group than my old one. (Even though I was stressed out a lot, the good memories over ride the bad).  

~Anway~

See what I mean? I forgot everything...   My first square and it was already messed up. Oh well, I sat down and ripped out that whole side. 

😁 I had to use a different piece for the last corner. See the blue flowered piece in the bottom right corner? I actually like it better than what I originally had there, anyway. That was the only piece of that fabric I had left. 

I put it on the sheets to see how it matches. 😄 Only 71 more squares to go! LoL....  

I was looking for all my scrap blue fabric, and I found some things that I had started. Like this string quilt I started with scraps from the stage in my old quilt group...  

And I found a square from the quilt I made for Eli. 😢  It mad me sad.... That quilt is gone. I don't know what to do with this square. But, I am thinking about taking it apart and using it for my quilt I am working on now. The pieces that are too little (and the burgundy center) I will put in my crumb quilt bin.  I thought I have enough to do a quilt with. But, I might need more. I found a big piece (I was so excited), I thought it might actually be enough for the back. Then I notice a stain on the fabric. Well, I washed it (the stain came out, yay) and dried it. And it isn't big enough. I don't know what I will do with it now. Sighhhhh.....  But, I did find enough muslin for the backing pieces! Which I also had to wash because it had a bunch of cat hair on it (I don't know how that could have happened...)

😹😹😹

(Yes I do...) I went upstairs for something yesterday. When I came back down, Eri was sitting on the cutting mat. So cute.

Then I went back upstairs and when I came down again, Cosmo was on it. So funny....  

They're the Quilting Kitties...  

I realized very quickly I cannot cut fabric on the floor anymore. 😒 Since my surgery...  And, the floor (under the carpet) is cement. Very hard.  So, I cleared all the fabric off the table and set up a spot there.

You can see the post about the first string quilt I started, and Eli's quilt in this post.