BlytheCon 2011 in Portland, Or

Sweet little sailboat print dress with ribbon trimmed detached sailor collar, button accent, comes complete with a white eyelet underskirt. The dress has back snap closure.

I pre-registered for the Portland BlytheCon 2011 and scored a vendor table! Yay!

Uhhhhmmm, now what? The event will be June 20th; with a nautical theme.. guess that means red/white/blue with ... hmmmmm... I'm thinking, I'm thinking...

I have a stash of African cotton fabrics in red/white and blue/white. The cotton is heavier than quilting cotton, so lends itself well for a crisp garment. This is the first set made up in one of the red/white prints. Both will go to the event in advance as prizes. The sailor blouse fits both Blythe and Momoko dolls, as does the pleated dress.

White cotton twill was used for the sailor hat for Momoko; it actually is a perfect fit for Petite Blythe, so I will be taking some with me!

I made the Blythe Kozy Kape shopping bag; a few of which will go for prizes, and I will have more at my table. Made of the same twill as the sailor hat, and features Clair in her Kozy Kape earmuff. I hear there will be lots of Kosies there!

Now THIS was fun! I was foolin' around with sock yarn and a doll in front of me... A pretty new Italian sock yarn to work with that shades from greenss to browns. Shown on Clair in the redwood forest out my kitchen door. I love how the colors blend into the forest!

I hate weaving in yarn ends and even more so to sew up seams once the knitting of a piece is finished, so I am forever experimenting with my patterns to eliminate seams and minimize ends to weave in.

This set is a versatile one.

The hat is shown worn 2 ways: tied under the chin, and tied under the hair in back.

The sweater is shown worn 4 ways: frontwards, backwards, and upside down both frontwards and backwards!

Awesome super big cowl neck "happens" when the sweater is upside down; and it fits as a middie, or tummy baring top.

I only put 2 buttons/snaps on it because I didn't want to interfere with the drape of the collar when worn upside down. The waist is shaped by eliminating some stitches for 4 rows, then adding them back.

The head wrap/scarflette is shaped by means of short rows so that it hugs the head no matter how it is tied.

I initially designed this hat for Momoko dolls; much, much, much smaller of course.

Sewing for Clair and the newest member of the doll family, a Momoko, who is as yet un-named.

Jenny and Momoko having a cup of tea ....

It has been interesting to see which of my patterns can work "as is" for Momoko dolls. The hat that Jenny is wearing was too big for the new girl; she has such a delicate face! So, I modified it a bit resulting in a perfect fit for Momoko. The hearts are in anticipation of Valentines Day.

The Blythe wrap skirt is a perfect fit; shorter than on Blythe of course, but not too short!

The sweater is a pattern I wrote for a Blythe tunic sweater; perfect!

This Blythe outfit works well for her too. The sunhat ties at the back under the hair; the halter top ties at the back waist.... I had considered changing this pattern to have a snap at the back instead of the ties, but the ties make it more versatile for other 1/6 scale dolls.

I need to make more of these in other colors to list in etsy.... so many fun things to do!

The doll family is growing by leaps and bounds! Seems like I keep adding them, rationalizing that I need the variety of sizing for my knitting and sewing designs for etsy. (ha ha)

This photo includes Clair, my Blythe doll, as well as a new strawberry shortcake, a LPS petite Blythe, the twins aka: what's her face dolls, and the bodiless head I use for adult hats.

All the girls seem to be eager to get the new kid out of the box!

Blythe and Strawberry Shortcake

Clair (my Blythe doll) looks a bit peevish, as though she was a big sister made to dress like a little sister; well, guess what?

In this case, the Blythe sweater was made first, then modified for Strawberry Shortcake.

The sweaters have back snap closures. Strawberry's sweater has minimal shaping, but I gave quite a bit of waist and neckline shaping to Blythe's sweater. The yarn is a "bamboo from rayon" blended with wool and nylon... maybe it's a bamboo yarn, and maybe it isn't, but it's lovely to work with, and soft with a sheen.

The skirts are rayon; elastic waist with pink tulle underskirts attached; rickrack trim at the hem.

I'm not going to post the sweater pattern as I am not totally satisfied... it needs a bit of rework which I will save for another day.

Room with a view; a FS Lookout in the Pacific Northwest.

Elevation: 4300 ft.

13 miles east of the Pacific Ocean; overlooking the Pistol River watershed, and the Gardner Ranch, which was settled in 1885 by my great grandmother Rebecca and her husband Ben. They had two children; Harley and Ina..

Ina was my grandmother; she was married to Jeff Forkner and had 4 children with him. They built a house on her 1/2 of the ranch; purchasing lumber from the mill on Carpenterville Road.

Later, she was married to Keith Dunning, and had 3 children with him. It was he who talked her into selling her 1/2 of the Gardner Ranch and moving south to the land of opportunity: was it Fortuna, CA? In any case, he left her there with the three chiildren and the 4 older children. I heard it said that the older boys ran him off.

Back in my own childhood, my parents would spend a couple of weeks each summer at the ranch, with all us 6 children in tow. They helped with shearing the sheep; we children played.... there was a very steep slope where we used to climp up to the top with pieces of cardboard and sliding down... someone invariably got hurt, but we loved it! Memories, memories.

We began going to SnowCamp LO in 1995; it was no longer "manned" or "staffed", but had been turned into a vaacation rental by the FS. It became one of our "go to" spots.

Later when the 2003 Biscuit Fire ran amuck, and burned the structure, we were among the group that volunteered to rebuild the structure. Since that time, Frankster and I have volunteered to "open and close" the lookout each season.

We couldn't have asked for better weather! Sunny, warm and no wind! Yay!

Often we are there when the winds are 40 mph, gusting to 80 mph. It made the job of putting up the shutters so much easier not to worry that one would be blown out of your hands and over the mountain! Our good friends, Stephen and Cris, were there to help us, so the job went quickly and smoothly!

Can't wait till opening next season!