Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Shakespeare in the Park

My newest project is a quilt called "Shakespeare in the Park". The pattern comes from a book written by Judy Martin called the "Creative Pattern Book".

I have admired this quilt for a really long time and purchased the book several years ago. A short time ago, a group of quilters decided to do this quilt together. The time was right for me to jump right in.

Our first assignment was to select the fabrics to use. I have decided to make a queen-size Shakespeare and the colors I selected were purple and deep teal for my dark colors with white, pale teal, pale lilac and light gray as my light colors. Many of the fabrics that I will be using came from my "stash" of fabrics.

The next assignment were to do the flying geese that would make up the small dark stars on light background.
Today was a very productive day! I finished the 20 small dark star blocks as well as the center stars for the 8 larger dark stars blocks.

American Girl Dolls

Now that my eldest granddaughter is the proud owner of a "real" American Girl doll, it's time for this grandma to get back to sewing doll clothes! I found two really great books that include patterns so that I can get started. I also decided that I needed an American Girl doll of my own so that I can make sure that the clothes that I make will fit.
I found a "gently played with" Samantha doll on ebay for a reasonable price. She has arrived and is really a nice doll. She doesn't stand alone so could use a re-stringing, but I have too many irons in the fire to attempt that now. I still have a few doll stands from my earlier days doing doll repair, so they will work for now.

I also found a doll on ebay that was advertised as a "Real American 18" Girl". Please note - this is NOT an American Girl doll. It isn't even a good quality knock off. I realize that I was wrong to think that this was an American Girl doll, but the posting was written specifically to mislead people. She is a pretty little blonde and I should be able to use her for sizing some clothes. I suspect she will be used in the toybox at Grandma and Grandpa's house. :-(