Another small finish this week...

I've actually made this little doily before.  Twice in fact, and they've been given away.  Always wanting one for myself in this pretty green color, I made a third one.

I've been asked from time to time about blocking doilies, so I'm going to discuss the process, with before and after pictures.

Admittedly, this isn't the most wrinkly doily I've made, but you can see how the corners curl up and some of the picots are a bit stunted. It just isn't as nice in this unblocked state as it will be blocked:

I soak the doily in running tap water, and then saturate it with spray starch, crumpling and squeezing the sopping wet doily to work starch into the fibers.  Then I roll it up in a towel, and squeeze most of the water (and probably starch) out of it.  The above is actually how it looked after going through that process.  

I'm trying to use up this very old can of spray starch that I brought home from my mother-in-law's home five years ago:

I can't quite decipher the code, but I'm curious if anyone wants to take a guess as to how old this can of starch is: 

After all that, the doily gets pinned on a foam mat to dry overnight:

Yes, that is a lot of pins.  And this is just a 5 1/2" doily. You  can imagine how many more pins a large doily takes.  

The way to block a doily is to begin in the center, working one's way out.  Generally, (and especially as I get further out from the center), I try to pin on opposite sides of the doily to achieve as even a shape as possible.  I'll try explaining like this:  I pin one point of a leaf, then turn the whole thing around and pulling the doily taut, I pin the pointed leaf on the opposite side.  Then I'll pin another point a quarter of the way around, and the next pin will go into the point opposite of that.  Each little picot around the outside edge has a pin dedicated to it.

Once it's dry, all those pins come out, and the result is a prettily formed doily.  In case you're wondering, this doily isn't stiff (even using "heavy" starch), but it does have body and will hold its shape until it's washed, or gets wet again for some reason.

If it were to get crumpled up or creased somehow, I would put it flat in a folded towel and using a steam iron press it flat again.  If you ever bring home a musty old doily from a flea market, or grandma's attic, I recommend washing it by hand, then using my steps above, block it.  Or you might try pressing it in a towel like I explained above.  Picots may not come out perky, but I'd think the doily would at least lay flat.

Doily # 8 from the book, 99 Little Doilies.  

I've dubbed this one "Elm Leaves".

Some colors are just weird...

While I'm working on some projects in the background that I won't be able to show for a while, I decided to give myself a break from a somewhat complicated pattern and crochet another small, quick doily.  This may be how it goes for a little while.  And Marsha, I'm not working on a Hiddleston doily.  I'm still not quite confident enough to tackle one of those.

All I have to show today is a humble 5 1/2" doily named #29. 

But first, here is a picture of how #29 was presented in the book, 99 Little Doilies:

It's okay... Very unassuming.  Honestly, I had written "meh" beside the doily number on the record I'm keeping of this long-term project, with the intention that I'd probably never make it.

But I decided to look on Ravelry for what other people have done with Doily #29.  I thought I was just looking for pretty colors, but someone decided to take a different approach to blocking it, and I didn't have to think twice before following suit:

Are we all in agreement that this is so much better than the original?

Now for a little experiment with trying to photograph it...

The crochet thread I'm using is Artiste in the color, Antique. It's not a particularly pretty color.  A kind of dutsy mauve is the most generous way I can come up with in describing it.

A picture I pulled from Hobby Lobby's website:

This is it at home outside in the natural light:

Pulling the camera back, this is it (top center) next to three neutrals:

Honestly, it's not nearly as pretty, or pink as it appears in any of the pictures here. Truth be told, I only bought it because 1) it was inexpensive and being discontinued, and 2) I kind of felt sorry for it.  Along with feeling sorry for it, I imagined it might crochet up prettier than it spools up.

What I didn't quite bargain for is that in person, the color totally depends on the lighting, and the surface it's laying on.

So, like I did with another doily a few weeks ago, I photographed the same doily in the same room, next to the same windows, just minutes apart, on different table tops.  The difference in how my phone camera picked up the color is crazy.

Neither one of these is bad.  But neither one is true, either. The first picture (just above) is truer in its coloring, but it's not quite that pretty of a pink.  Clearly, this color is going to do whatever it likes, whenever it likes. I can only imagine how long the designer looked at the color before giving up and simply called it Antique.  Antique is a hard name to argue with for such an odd color that in person looks old and dusty.

Not sure what I'll ever use it for again, but for now it goes into the bin of other threads!

Year Of Projects 2025-2026 Roundup!

On this last Sunday in June, it's time for another annual Year of Projects round-up of crafty goodness!  As is normally the case, the commentary accompanying the pictures is mostly for the sake of my remembering these things.  While I sometimes share time frames when things were worked on, this post isn't really in chronological order.  Feel free to read along, or just scroll through the pictures. 

To start the 2025-26 YOP year off,  I finished these two Celtic Knot stitches (from a Reader's Digest book called Celtic Cross Stitch), and turned them into miniature pillows:

And I learned how to use my Kreinik Custom Corder.  My first time was a bit of a rough introduction, but I eventually got the hang of it.  Being able to make one's own cords from something like embroidery floss is very handy!

When I finished the sweet little Valentine pillow I made months later, making the cording was a piece of cake:

~~~~~

2025 was the year I learned how to make Manx squares.  My first slightly wonky square was turned into a humble hotpad:

And with that first Manx square, I was hooked on these for a few months.  At the beginning, I had some imaginings of making a whole quilt of these squares, but I soon learned that dealing with the potential wonky nature of these hand-stitched squares would frustrate me to no end if I tried to sew them together to make an entire quilt. 

So I settled on smaller projects, like a pillow:

It is on the small side, but I love it and have kept it in the living room, where it reminds me that "yes I do finish things..."

Then four wonky squares were sewn together and the whole thing turned on point makes a decent wall hanging, though it's currently in the living room as table topper:

And before running out of steam, I made a friend a colorful Manx square hotpad:

And she immediately put it on the wall in her freshly painted green and yellow kitchen:

While that was completely unexpected, I have to admit it looks pretty cheery on the gray tile wall. 

~~~~~

In September, a friend and I made lined tote bags together with this fun granny square print fabric:

~~~~~

In October, another friend asked me if I'd help her finish a baby quilt she'd begun 36 years prior for her then soon-to-be-born 2nd daughter.  As happens with us all sometimes, life got busy and all the squares she'd cut out were never completed into a blanket.  

Until she got the idea to finish it for her soon-to-be-born granddaughter - the first baby of the daughter she'd started the blanket for 3 1/2  decades ago.

A simple blanket, and a perfect first quilt project for me.  And since I've known this daughter from the time she was around 10 years old, it was super sweet to me to be able to have a hand in this.

~~~~~

In November, I stitched up some cloth napkins for a Christmas table I hosted for our church's Women's Christmas Brunch:

I learned a method of mitering corners neatly, but the bigger story is that I learned to always, always, ALWAYS prewash printed cotton.  I should have told the story here after it happened, but the non-dramatic version goes like this:  

A color catcher wasn't nearly enough to catch the bleeding red dye in this fabric.  It took many washings of the bleeding/stained fabric, that included over-sudsing of my washing machine and drain - because I had used a non-chlorine bleach dishwashing liquid to treat the stained fabric.  It also meant I ended up with a very clean laundry room floor (a couple of times over) by the time I managed to turn pink polka dots almost white again and my washing machine and the standpipe drain were both finally clear of suds. Sigh...

PSA - never, ever put dishwashing liquid in the washing machine or a dishwasher.  Since you don't need to ask me how I know this when it comes to a washing machine, you don't need to ask me how I know this about a dishwasher. I had to learn the hard way.  You don't!

~~~~~

Also in 2025, I finished off some potholders I'd begun as 2024 Christmas presents for my adults sons and (now) daughter-in-law.  What actually motivated me to finish these was realizing they'd make great practice for preparing me to sew a binding onto the baby blanket above.  What a win!    

~~~~~

2026 started with me crocheting a blanket for a friend.  A blanket with several shades of brown she had chosen.  When it was finished, she dubbed it Cinnamon Latte Blanket:

A lot of angst went into this blanket as so much brown is a bit outside of my comfort zone.  But when it was finished, and I took it to my friend's house, it looked perfect with her warm wall colors.  It was a happy ending.

~~~~~

In January, I had pulled out this unfinished set of Christmas ornaments, and set my mind to completing the crewel work on the teddy bear in a stocking:

Then, in March, I decided, once and for all, to fix an ornament (that was part of the above set) that had gotten stained many years ago from putting potpourri in it:

And with that "repair" done, I finally sewed up the other three ornaments.  Did I mention that this was another many decades-old project?   Finally...  at least four decades after these were begun, I now have a cute and complete set to display for however many Christmases I have left in me.

I hope when I'm gone someone (even if it's a stranger) will love these even just half as much as I do now.

~~~~~

At some point in the spring of 2026, I tried my hand at some patchwork stitching:

I also discovered a fun "moss stitch" granny square washcloth pattern, and I couldn't stop making these for a little bit:

 

It thrills me to finally have a project I can devote all my colorful kitchen cotton yarn scraps to!

~~~~~

I did finally stop, though, and finished my second Granny Goes Large blanket that I had begun the autumn before:

~~~~~

And for the last few months, when I've picked up a crochet hook, it's been to crochet doilies.  While I know this latest fascination will wane eventually, it's still going strong for the moment.  Some of these were new to me, some were favorites that I'd made before:  

And that wraps up another Year of Projects!

Next week begins the 2026-27 YOP year.  Many YOPers will use that first posting to share their creative plans for the coming year.  As for me, it suits my wiring more to go with the flow and make whatever I'm in the mood for, when I'm in the mood - occasionally being distracted by some project that feels pressing to work on for some reason or another.

If you blog and are into fiber arts/crafts, I invite you to join us if this YOP thing sounds fun.  You can click the link attached to the graphic below where, if you already have a free Ravelry account you'll be taken to the Year Of Projects' home page, and you can join the group and join in on this year long "project".  If you don't have a Ravelry account, the link should take you to the Ravelry home page where you can create a free account, and then you can come back here and the link should take you to our group's page.  

And if this stuff is nowhere on your list of things you'd ever be interested in doing, I am so pleased that you pop in here to see some of what I get up to.  The comments on these YOP posts from my non-YOP readers are as sweet as those from my YOP buddies.

See you next YOP year!