All Those Fabric Bits

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Last time, I told you about watching Kate’s videos at her YouTube channel, The Last Homely House. I went back to her channel to watch more and chose a video about using up scraps – because it was first in the queue of her most popular videos. (It’s right here.) She shares her enthusiasm for Terry Rowland’s scrappy quilt. I was sufficiently inspired to see what I have in my bag of bits and ends.

A lot of my bits are from specific quilts. For example, I had a bunch of half square triangles leftover from this Lady of the Lake quilt. The palette is pretty specific on this quilt, all olive greens, pinks and burgundies. The first fabrics chosen were a selection of fat quarters featuring Alphonse Mucha drawings, all Art Nouveau ladies. I just love those prints.

Lady of the Lake quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

I started to piece the leftover bits into blocks:

leftovers from the Lady of the Lake quilt, pieced together for a mini quilt by Deborah Cooke

I have a few strips of fabrics from the quilt and will add as many borders as possible. This will be a mini quilt to practice my machine quilting – although it’s a good size to be a matching pillowcase. Hmm. I’ll show it to you when it’s done.

I also found the Franken Fish, long forgotten by yours truly.

I called these the Franken Fish because I made a mistake and patched it up. These fish were cut from charm squares – each square was just enough for one set of pieces, so there’s a fish of any given fabric and a background of any given fabric. I made a cutting mistake though and because there was no extra fabric, I patched the pieces.

Their scars are all in the same place. They are Franken Fish.

I must have seen the block somewhere and liked it. I have a vague memory of scribbling it on some random piece of paper in my purse. Now the Franken Fish need an ocean to swim in…

I found a lot of bias already cut. There’s a tremendous amount of the pink, which probably means I had plans for it. I wonder what they were.

And I found these two pieced stars, fussy cut from Kaffe Fassett’s Kimono print.

Star cut from Kaffe Fassett's Kimono, fussy cut and pieced by Deborah Cooke

Interestingly, the camera reset itself on the second one and dimmed down the colours, as if it was saying ‘whoa. That’s a lot of fuschia and orange together.’ LOL It is!

I must have made these while piecing my Pineapple Star, which used a lot of that Kimono print.

pineapple star quilt made by Deborah Cooke

Somewhere (ahem) I have many bits and pieces of Kimono in triangular shapes. I need to find them and make more of these smaller stars because I really like them.

There are more bits and ends, too, but let’s start with these. 🙂

This exercise proved to be more like poking about a hard drive of saved works-in-process than opening a dictionary. Instead of raw materials (bits and ends), I found all sorts of forgotten beginnings. I’ll be finishing these incompletes up first – then I’ll have a look at the remainder for a true scrap-busting project.

First one to be finished will be the Lady of the Lake scraps. Stay tuned!

Living Vicariously

Posted on September 5, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Last week, I saw a post go by on FB with a link to a video from the Festival of Quilts show in the UK. I had a click through and a watch, and really enjoyed the video. It was posted by Kate at The Last Homely House and was just lovely. I felt as if I was at the show, too. (That link is to her YouTube channel.)

I won’t embed it here, but here’s the link if you want to watch it on YouTube. It’s 26 minutes long.

I so enjoyed this video that I ended up doing a bit of shopping!

Alice's Wonderland sampler quilt by Alice Caroline

About 11 minutes in, Kate talks to Alice Caroline in the Liberty booth about her book, Alice’s Wonderland Quilt Book. She talks about it as a block of the month kind of project, with instructions for beginners. They show the quilt in the booth and it’s so pretty.

I have to love the idea of making an entire quilt with Liberty Tana Lawn. Of course, I had a little hunt online and ordered a copy of the book from the big river. (The link on the book goes to Amz.ca.)

At 16 minutes in, Kate talks to Sally Kelly about her fabrics. Wow! Sally is wearing a dress of cotton lawn in her own design and I just loved it. She also shows her original drawings used for the designs.

That print. I knew I needed some, so I had a little hunt online. I found it for sale at a fabric store in Alberta called Along Came Quilting – here’s the link for Gardenia sold by the meter. (It’s so exciting to find more online stores in Canada.) I also bought a length of cotton with a double border design by Sally Kelly and am curious to see both when they arrive. I’ll make shirts for myself first, then use the leftover bits in quilts.

Just before seeing this video, I’d surrendered to temptation and ordered some Liberty Tana Lawn from another store in Alberta to make myself a shirt. I’ve bought fat quarters from Studio 39 before for the girls’ dresses, but decided I should get a nice shirt too. This print is called Ciara and it’s colourway C.

So, I’ll have some sewing to do for myself this month. 🙂

I went back to Kate’s YouTube channel and watched more, but will tell you about that next time.

Heaven Scent Shawl Blocked

Posted on September 4, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I blocked the Heaven Scent shawl last weekend, and the lace opened up beautifully!

Heaven Scent shawl by BooKnits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball Merino

I still have to sew in the ends, but it was a good day for pictures.

It blocked out to a really nice size. It’s about 20″ deep at the middle back, and that long curved edge is about 84″ long.

And one last detail shot. 🙂

There are three more shawls in this pattern bundle. One is rectangular, so less interesting to me, but I’ll have a hunt through my stash for candidates to knit the other two crescent shawls.

Quilting the Mermaid Quilt

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

You might also remember my mermaid quilt, which used some pre-printed panels and coordinating fabrics. This one wasn’t a kit. I just made it up.

It’s been to the long arm quilter, too – the dragons and the mermaids went on that adventure together – and now it’s all finished up as well. Here it is:

Mermaid quilt, assembled by Deborah Cooke, finished

The print was called Mermaid in Blue Jeans, if you’re looking for it. I think it’s so cute. There’s a blog post about piecing this quilt – from 2022! – right here.

When I pieced the top, I really wanted to use that allover print from the border for the backing, but at full price, it would have been pretty expensive. I decided to look for something that coordinated and was cheaper (I needed 6m.) About six months later, I was at my local fabric store and they’d marked down this entire line. I think it was $5 a m. So, I got my 6m and another one too, just because, and was able to make the backing match the front. It’s seamed and I was able to match the print, too. (Ha.)

Again, this was quilted in a meander pattern, also with blue thread.

Quilting the Dragon Quilt

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

About five years ago, I had a pandemic project of assembling a quilt kit called In the Beginning. Here’s the finished quilt top from the final post about that project:

In the Beginning Dragon Quilt Kit pieced by Deborah Cooke

And here’s the final blog post about it.

I’d decided that this would be the first quilt that I had quilted by the shop with the long arm machine and took it in there last month. I picked it up and have been sewing on the bias binding – I sewed it to one side by machine, then handstitched it on the back all the way around. This is a big quilt!

In the beginning dragon quilt in blue, assembled by Deborah Cooke, and completed.

The binding is the allover print with the Celtic knots. You can see it more clearly in the detail below.

In the beginning dragon quilt in blue, assembled by Deborah Cooke, and completed, detail

I chose a meander pattern for the quilting and they used a blue thread. It looks really great!

Another Wardrobe

Posted on August 28, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I don’t think there’s anything worse than a summer cold, and I’ve had a whopper of one this past week. Ugh. I shared it with the mister, so this is officially The House of Misery. I think we’re starting to improve, though – at least today, I did some crafting that I can show you.

I made another wardrobe for the girls, given that their selection of clothes is constantly increasing. This time, I’ll show you the process a little more.

First up, I started with a storage trunk from Michaels. This series had a nice big size, and the outside pattern didn’t have a direction – when I stand it on end, nothing is sideways. (Always a bonus.) This one is 16’5″ tall, not tall enough for the girls but perfect for their clothes.

I took the handle off one end – the left side, which will become the bottom. Again, this particular trunk was an excellent choice as it had tied cords for handles. I undid a knot and pulled out the cord on the left side. I added some felt feet, too.

Next, I added that cord to the top, doubling up the handle.

Stand it on end and open sesame!

inside the Michaels box, as it becomes a doll wardrobe

I papered the inside with gift wrap – this is from Hallmark. I cut a pair of 6mm bamboo needles from the dollar store to the right length and secured them in blocks of foam board (covered with the gift wrap) for the clothing bars. (That little block is necessary on the door to hold up the organizer so that the box will close. Trust me. You’ll see.) I also glued in some ribbons.

The ribbons are to hold two organizers from the dollar store. The large one is in with tools in my dollar store, not in craft supplies and organizers. The little cabinet with the pair of drawers is in the make-up section.

The large one is perfect for shoes and jewellery, while the drawers hold hats and purses. (See why we needed the lift?)

organizer in the doll wardrobe, full of shoes etc.

I tied them into the carrier, then hung up the clothes.

This particular wardrobe holds the original clothes that came with my Tonner girls. I label them (with tags from the dollar store) so I remember what came with each doll. The clothes are pretty easy to remember – the accessories, less so. One of my girls had a wig so I made a stand for it and it’s in here, too. (I bought her a different wig, which she wears most of the time.)

I buy these hangers for the wardrobes. You can find them on Etsy or at I sew for doll in several colours and sizes. (That link will take you to the product page. I have no affiliation but have had good experience with this site.) These are the large ones in bronze. They’re about 4.25″ wide and perfect for the 16″ girls (although they might push out the shoulders on a snug sweater). I hang hats with my homemade hat hangers – this is made from a mini-clothespin and a piece of wire. You can find mini-clothespins in packs of 50 or so in various colours at the dollar store or craft outlet. When I make more, I’ll make the hook a little longer, as they tend to jump off the rack.

I also add thread loops to skirts and trousers to keep them on the hangers. I use buttonhole twist and don’t fasten it in too securely – it will hold the garment on the hanger, but anyone could remove it easily to return the garment to its original state.

Voilà! The girls are organized!

I also have a new Instagram account, which is as yet quite sparse, but you can follow me there and watch things shape up.

Those Two New Girls – & Théâtre de la Mode

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I mentioned a bit ago that I’d bought a pair of Tyler Wentworth dolls from an estate sale. They were NIB and arrived recently.

The two dolls are Capital Investment (2002) and Théâtre de la Mode La Petite Ensemble Noir (also 2002). Yes, I really should have been buying dolls in 2002. It’s amazing how many from that year (and 2003) are in my collection now.

Here are their official pix:

2002 Capital Investment Tyler Wentworth — 2002 Tyler Wentworth Capital Investment

2002 Theatre de la Mode La Petite Ensemble Noir Tyler Wentworth doll — 2002 TDLM La Petite Ensemble Noir

Why these two? Well, I was curious about the knits on Capital Investment and whether I could copy them. I also liked her blonde bob. My other blonde Tylers have updos. And I’ve wanted a TDLM doll all along, so this one spoke to me. They’re both BA body types.

And here they are in real life – I suspect that after 23 years, they were relieved to get out of their boxes.

Tyler Wentworth dolls Capital Investment and TDLM La Petite Ensemble Noir in Deborah Cooke's collection

Both dolls have earrings – the blonde’s earrings are on, while the TDLM doll’s earrings were still in their little bag. I also found a second pair of earrings in CI’s handbag, which is a bonus.

One thing I’m loving about these girls is their footwear. The boots worn by Capital Investment lace up the back, which was a nice unexpected detail. The laces are very thin elastic. (You might also notice that one heel is broken. I noticed that when taking the picture, so checked in the box in the hope that the piece was there. It was! So, now I need to get the mister to figure out what glue or epoxy will stick on this kind of plastic. Fortunately, he loves these sort of challenges.) The shoes for the TDLM doll are wonderfully detailed and very vintage-looking. Peek-a-boo toes!

boots for Tyler Wentworth Capital Investment

shoes for Tyler Wentworth TDLM La Petite Ensemble Noir

I also think that Capital Investment’s knits will be easy to replicate. In fact, all of her outfit could be copied. I think I’ll make her one in a different colour. Maybe plum.

clothes for Tyler Wentworth Capital Investment photographed by Deborah Cooke

And now that I’ve laid out her clothes to photograph like this, I think I’ll document the outfits of all the dolls in my collection this way. Since I do undress them, this would be a good way to know what pieces belong to which doll.

Here are the clothes for La Petite Ensemble Noir. This doll often sells at a low price on ebay, I think maybe because she doesn’t photograph very well, but her clothes are a delight and very detailed.

clothes for Tyler Wentworth TDLM La Petite Ensemble Noir

The black fabric feels like a fine wool. The white top is made of that taffeta that they use a lot for the Silkstone girls, as well. I’m not so much of a fan, so I may try to replicate that in silk.

The hat is amazing. From the top, it’s a swirl of feather fronds. From the underside, you can see the hat itself, a little felt (?) cap.

underside of hat for Tyler Wentworth TDLM La Petite Ensemble Noir

When you put it on the doll, the fronds spill down (in artful disarray) and you can arrange them so that they hang away from her face. It’s a bit of a precarious balance, so I think I’ll make her a little hatpin with a headpin (probably gold) and some black beads. It’s a good model for making other hats, though, maybe with fewer feather fronds.

The doll herself has beautiful vintage make-up and hair. Her fingernails are red like her lipstick, and her hair is several shades of brown. I’ll be sewing a lot for this girl!

Tyler Wentworth TDLM La Petite Ensemble Noir

I haven’t written about the Théâtre de la Mode here, but have been fascinated by it for a while. The original exhibition was assembled in Paris after WWII, to draw attention to French couturiers and encourage people to support them. It was a touring exhibition of 1/3 size dolls (70cm tall and made of wire) each one dressed by a different designer or couturier. There were 237 dolls in total, and 15 sets designed by artists. The collection ultimately ended up at the Mary Hill Museum of Art in Washington state, where they are still displayed in rotation.

Robert Tonner took inspiration from the collection for a number of Tyler Wentworth and Sydney Chase dolls, all labelled TDLM. You can read more about that (and see some pictures) in this wonderful post at The Bold Doll. (Note that the picture beside the doll I just acquired is not the inspiration for her.)

Théâtre de la Mode book by Edmonde Charles-Roux and others

Here’s an article on the exhibition on a dressmaking blog where you can see the wire dolls. The one on the left in the third row is Marcel Dhorme’s suit and Tonner’s inspiration for La Petite Ensemble Noir, my new girl.

There are several books about the exhibit. I bought this one which includes a catalogue at the back of all the mannequins. This is an Amz.ca link. (No affiliate link on that one.)

There isn’t a really great picture online of Marcel Dhorme’s cocktail suit, so I took a photo from my copy of the book. It’s not a great picture either but it’s the one on the left.

Marcel Dhorme's black cocktail suit from Théâtre de la Mode

I had a peek at the Dreamcastle Dolls Tonner reference and they list 23 TDLM dolls by Robert Tonner. (You can find them listed in Doll List Q – Z.) Surely, I won’t collect them all….

Here’s a wonderful video by the Bold Doll site, showing the Tonner TDLM dolls and their inspiration, as well as a bit about TDLM. You can also read their blog post here.

Another Project Finished

Posted on August 7, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I showed you this scarf and mittens in progress last month in this post about Comfort Knitting. The project started with a bag of mill ends from Spinrite of Patons Rumor, a long discontinued yarn. Here it is on Ravelry. It’s a bulky weight yarn that’s mostly acrylic but also is 15% alpaca, which makes it very soft and a bit fuzzy.

This colourway, which is a light purple, is called Hibiscus Heather. This was the picture I showed you last month of the mittens and part of the scarf.

Mittens and scarf knit by Deborah Cooke in Patons Rumor

The mittens are from the Tin Can Knits’ World’s Simplest Mittens pattern. (That’s a Ravelry link.) If you don’t have a basic mitten pattern, this is a really good one – and it’s free! It includes instructions for four sizes of mitten, each in four different weights of yarn. I used the chunky instructions for an adult small.

The scarf is a design I made up as I worked. It ended up with nine diamonds – mostly because I mucked up the fifth one and made it a bit smaller by accident. It thus became a midpoint design element. 🙂

Here’s the completed scarf.

scarf knit by Deborah Cooke in Patons Rumor, no pattern

I think it could do with a blocking. The edges are very curly.

Rowan Gypsy hat designed by Grace Melville and knit it Rowan Cocoon from Rowan 48

I have enough yarn left for a hat, but I tend to dislike knitted hats. I had a sift through my library on Ravelry (I love that search engine!) and found a possibility – it’s Gypsy from Rowan 48, a seed stitch hat with a cable trim. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I like the brim on this one. The pattern specifies Rowan Cocoon, which is similar in weight to Patons Rumor, so I’ll give it a try. It’s a hat, though, so I’ll probably have to knit, frog and reknit at least once.

Of course, now I’m flipping through Rowan 48 and being distracted by other designs. 🙂

Heaven Scent Shawl – & Playing Yarn Chicken

Posted on August 5, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I told you last week that I’d cast on this shawl, Heaven Scent by BooKnits in Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball. (That post is right here.) It turned out to be a compulsive knit and I charged right through the charts. I knew it would be a close call to make it out of the one ball, and ended up playing yarn chicken.

Could I finish with the one ball of yarn? As with many crescent shawls, you increase the needle size at increments in this pattern, which opens up the lace even before blocking. Keeping an eye on my diminishing ball of yarn, I didn’t change needles for the border, but kept on with the ones I’d used for the body.

I made it to the final row and chose not to do the picot edge, hoping I’d still make it.

Nope.

Heaven Scent shawl by BooKnits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball Merino - losing yarn chicken

The cast-off is on a wrong side row, so I made it all the way from the left edge to where you see the last 8″ of my yarn. It’s maybe 3/4 of the way around. I lost yarn chicken.

I also played bead chicken at the same time, but I won that. I added more beads to the border then realized I might run out. I have five beads left in the vial. Phew!

I went through all my stash, and my bits and ends, but couldn’t find anything to match that shade of red in a single ply wool. I couldn’t even match the colour. (The colours of this yarn have photographed to look more vivid than they are in real life. They’re bright, but not this bright.) So, I picked back the cast-off row and cast off again. I thought I’d cast off in purple, a contrasting edge that matched the centre of the shawl, and couldn’t get the shade of purple right either. So, I used two strands for the cast-off, one in Sugar Bush Drizzle in Monsoon Mauve (which is a bit light) and one of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Black.

And here’s the result.

It’s funny that in this picture, the cast-off edge looks too dark. The purple in the middle of ths shawl appears to be the same shade as Monsoon Mauve. You’ll have to trust me that in real life, the colours are matchy-matchy.

Next up, a good soak and a blocking. I’ll show you the finished shawl when it’s done.

I’m kind of amazed that I knit this shawl in less than three weeks. I guess that’s what happens when I concentrate on one project, instead of working on a dozen things at once. (Actually, I had two on the go at the same time and finished the other one, too – it was the mittens and scarf of Patons Rumor. I’ll show you that tomorrow.) There’s a lesson there that I should take on board. 🙂

More Comfort Knitting

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I haven’t knit a shawl in a while, lace or otherwise – well, I’m still plugging along on my Water shawl, but it’s not a very fun knit at this point. I don’t think it counts anymore. 🙂

A LYS had Freia Handpaints yarns on sale, and I simply can’t resist gradient dyed yarns. I ordered some and cast on.

I chose a pattern by BooKnits. I wanted to knit a lace shawl with some beads and I had The Close to You Collection of patterns already. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I had knit Snow Angel from this pattern collection, also in Freia Handpaints yarn, but in their Wool/Nylon Lace which is discontinued. The colourway was Autumn Rose.

Here’s my Ravelry project page for the project.

And here’s that Snow Angel shawl:

Snow Angel by Boo Knits knit by Deborah Cooke in Freia Ombre Wool/Nylon Lace

There’s a blog post for it, which is right here.

This time, I’ve chosen the pattern Heaven Scent, which is in that same collection but also available on its own. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I’m knitting the smallest size, with the stockinette stitch top.

This yarn is Freia Handpaints Ombré Shawl Ball Merino. The colourway is Vamp. Here’s the Ravelry yarn page.

Here’s my progress so far:

The camera is really emphasizing that hot pink. The colourway ends in a bright red.

Of course, it’s curled on the circular needle in the opposite direction of its shape – the shawl will be a crescent curved the other way when it’s off the needles and blocked. (Much like Snow Angel, shown above.)

The yarn is a loose single ply. It’s very soft but tougher than expected – there is the usual thick-and-thin of single ply yarns but it hasn’t been splitty to knit and it hasn’t broken.

And here’s a detail view. I’m using 6/0 purple Czech glass beads in dark purple, which match the beginning of the gradient pretty well.

I did make a slight change to the pattern. The shawl grows quickly in width because you add four stitches on every right side row and two on every wrong side row. The additions are at the beginning and the end of each row, and the pattern uses make-one (slanting left or right). I found that two M1s with just a knit stitch between them, then another M1 on the purl side pretty close by made for a tight edge. I switched out the two M1s on the purl side for YO’s, then the outer M1 on the right side rows to YO’s as well. I’m curious to see how this blocks out. It feels better to me.

I’m almost halfway through the second repeat of the main chart, then have the border chart to knit. I’m thinking I might run out of yarn (the pattern notes that 400m is close) so if I do, I’ll have to find something matchy to finish.

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave