Rain rain go away

Mean old Mother Nature (!) gave us 5 days of sun in a row last week, and then she took it away!  Ok, it wasn't "full" sun but it wasn't rain all day every day. Can you guess what we're getting this week! Yep, back to too much rain -in my opinion! Darn!!

I'm in full sweat-shoppe mode.  April 24 is the last day you can register a finished quilt for the May show.  It's the "finished" part of it that creates all this work!  So I have 3 more little quilts to finish.  And it always takes longer than planned to do so.

I entered a fabric post card in the "Wish Upon a Card" exhibit for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in July.  It looked so innocent ... but I ended up making 1" finished Half Square Triangles.  They were not easy!  I was inspired by a block on Pinterest (of course) and reduced it way down to be 4x6.

Here is the original link of the heart block.  It's cute and very 'modern'!

And here is my post card.  I ended up taking scant seams (quarter inch looks enormous on 1 1/2" squares!) so had to cut off parts of the outside rows.  Luckily the required fabric (black square) was close enough to the heart to make the cut, the other black square got cut away.  What do you think?

Another task that took up more time that planned:  Miss P's Target Brand 18" doll (American Girl Doll Wanna-be) was having trouble with her hair do!  It was a mess, and P had been trying to comb it, and make it better.  A friend gave her a new doll and now the first doll really looked bad!  So I asked her if she would let me take "Evie" and have her hair done.  She immediately agreed and then spent the next 10 minutes deciding what Evie would wear to go to Nana's!

I tried to find someone who would redo a doll's hair - and couldn't.  The local doll gal retired, so to speak, (She passed away.) last year.  So I got on the web and googled doll's hair.  I didn't take a 'before' picture of the doll, it didn't even occur to me. I may be on instagram, but I'm not of the instagram generation!!

Here's what worked.  BUT don't go volunteering to redo anyone's doll hair - it was a pain in the neck!!

Apply Fabric softener or Human conditioner to doll's hair.  I used Suave $Tree conditioner - a 1/2 bottle of it!  Rub it in, making sure all of the hair is covered.  (You do know the secret for shaving legs - shave with a cheap conditioner!!)   I left the doll hanging off the edge of the sink because it gets messy.

Leave conditioner on for 2 hours or more.  Do not rinse yet.  Separate the hair into small bunches. Taking a very wide tooth comb, and starting at the ends, comb the snarls out.  It's surprising how little hair comes out! This is tedious and took me two hours!  I recommend watching tv while combing away!  You comb and comb and finally you're on the last bunch of hair!  Celebrate!

Using warm running water, rinse the conditioner out.  Lay the doll out on a towel, fanning the hair out and let it air dry overnight.  You shouldn't use heat on doll hair - nylon hair would, of course, melt.  The other type of hair ... well, who can tell which is which?? Better to play it safe!

The next morning, the hair was still slightly damp and I cut chenille sticks (pipe cleaners) in half to make curlers.  Taking small sections, I rolled the hair around the pipe cleaner, twisting the ends to keep it in place when done.  Then let it sit for a couple of days. (We do have high humidity on the coast.)  Then carefully unroll the 'curlers' and arrange the curls a little.  I haven't brushed it, but so far so good!  It's a good bet that the hair is going to be easier to play with - you can get a wide-toothed comb thru it!

Evie reading a book while waiting for her hair to dry!

Finished curls!

I'll let P fashion it around her face - Evie doesn't have bangs.

And that is the start and the end of my career  "Hairdresser to the Dolls!"