High Fiber—Happy Birthday, Daphne!

Today is Daphne's birthday! It's hard to believe it has already been two years!

Here's one of her new toys. It's a castle slide, just right for a little princess with an imagination and lots of energy. Baxter, the dog, enjoys watching her play on it, especially because it means she plays outdoors longer. Her little brother is thriving, and I hope to have more photos next week.

Also on the grandchild front, I finished the diaper bag for BS, the grandson we're still expecting. It's the Montana Eco Tote by Tahki Stacy Charles.

I used Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes Bulky in Porcini and Navy. I used Pellon interfacing to give it some body, and a colorful dinosaur fabric for lining and pockets.

The expected new baby is also getting a quilt, of course! Here are the fabrics I selected to go with the dragon appliqué I improvised from an image I found online.

All of the fabrics to the right of the dragon appliqué block are from Connecting Threads, where I found a great sale on batiks. The others were from my stash. Here's a closeup of the dragon's face: 

I used reverse-appliqué on the eyes and nostrils. The irises were tricky. They are tiny circles, and it was difficult to get them round. It would have been much worse without my clip-on magnifiers!

Here's the dragon quilt top finished. Julie, of Mountaintop Quilting (thorum@xmission.com) will quilt it for me.

The block design came from Jelly Roll Quiltsby Pam and Nicky Lintott. It's their "Log Cabin Hidden Stars." I used the blocks that worked to give a starburst effect around the dragon. I'm a fan of Anne MacCaffrey's Pern sci-fi/fantasy novels, which involve both dragons and stars, to it seemed fitting. The backing I found also has stars on it. I'll show that off when the quilt is done. I should mention that both BS and his daddy are from the year of the dragon, and Daddy is a big fan of dragons.

My quilting mini group, Vintage Stitchers, took place at Rebecca's last week. Rebecca had a bunch of fabric she wanted to get rid of. Julie sat down and organized the fabrics after the rest of us had gone through it. She used to own a quilt shop, so she loves to handle fabric.

Brenda brought her finished quilt top, which she embroidered by machine. This has been a long project, but it's beautiful!

During this meeting I CO another Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ, you will have to scroll down) for BS. I'm using KP's Swish DK, so it will be a little larger than the previous one I made for him. I also have some Comfy Worsted for a third BSJ, which will be larger yet.

The snow is finally gone at our elevation, but there is still some higher up. (I say "finally" not because it has lasted longer this year, but because our trip to Wisconsin and Indiana gave me a taste for spring, and it was difficult to come back to late winter and "mud season.") We had nice hikes on Monday with some friends and Saturday just the four of us. Here are my constant hiking buddies:

The tulips in our front yard bloomed just in time for Mothers' Day!

Speaking of Mother's Day, hope everyone had a great one!

 What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, Fiji socks and another BSJ for BS.
 What's on my iPad: Finished A Single Thread by Marie Boswick and am now finishing Death Comes to Pemberly by P. D. James, both from Audible.com. Also reading The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, a free eBook in the iPad library. (If you want an audiobook, the free one is available from Librivox.org, read by Karen Savage.)
 What's my app of the week: Pages, which I used to design the quilt top. I took a screen shot of the blocks from the book, which is on my iPad, cropped the individual blocks and then transferred them to a document in Pages. It worked great!
 What's in my wine glass: Roccalta Sangiovese 2010. Great with the Italian no-boil lasagna recipe we're having tonight!
 
 Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. I used the iPad for the photos with links. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

Tags: BSJ, Comfy, DiaperBag, MontanaEcoTote, Swish, WotA, baby, batiks, dragon, hiking, More…spring, tulips

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Comment by Peggy Stuart on May 17, 2012 at 8:09pm: Thanks, Knit!

Comment by Knit4Many on May 17, 2012 at 4:45pm: Another great blog post!

Comment by Peggy Stuart on May 17, 2012 at 11:51am: Jean, I can't do housework right now. We have pollen from the fir trees, like yellow snow. No point in dusting or vacuuming until it's done. We're supposed to get some wind and rain in the next couple of days, so maybe that will take care of it. I hope so!

Jo, thanks for the prayers for Judith! She's a good friend, and I want her to be happy and healthy!

Barbara, I'm looking forward to your next blog. New photos of Maisie would be nice! What have you been up to?

Comment by Barbara Longley on May 17, 2012 at 1:57am: I've enjoyed seeing the dragon evolve over the past few blogs. It is going to be an absolutely super quilt. You could make some more dragons and make pillows or get one framed for on the wall. Possibilities endless. Doesn't time fly!! Maisie will be 2 as well in a few weeks time. She is still about the same size and weight (7 kilos) as she was at 6 months so we have a very miniature Scottie. It doesn't help that Macintosh is possibly the biggest Scottie at 15 kilos. There is a lull in all the chaos of the past 2 years, so really must do a blog, but as I have left it so long it seems harder to get back into doing one. I have been reading everyone else's blogs though. Looks as if your weather is better than ours for once!! Barbara

Comment by KnitWhich? on May 15, 2012 at 10:31am: Judith, I will definitely pray for you to gain strength and your doctors wisdom.

♥Jo

Comment by Jean on May 14, 2012 at 9:26pm: Every thing is just beautiful I wish I could get that many items done and that perfect. Well done!!!!!!!!

Comment by Peggy Stuart on May 14, 2012 at 8:20pm: Thanks! I've been busy with other things lately. It's nice to finish some projects!

Comment by Yarn Basket on May 14, 2012 at 7:06pm: Lovely Blog! I love the quilts and the knitted bag!

Comment by cherylbwaters on May 14, 2012 at 6:24pm: Oh, Judith, you know we will all pray for you and keep you in our thoughts. Peggy is right. Keep searching for an answer. Don't lose hope.

Comment by Peggy Stuart on May 14, 2012 at 4:28pm: Jo, Dragonriders is available in audio. I'm not sure about "Fagonriders!" LOL!

Judith, I'm so sorry to hear about your condition! I will pray for you! Keep searching for an answer!