Quilt Making and Paper Dolls

Hello future readers!

This morning after Vivienne and I got dressed, I was helping make her bed. I really like the bedspread on it and asked her where she got it.

"My mom made it", she explained. "Only it's not called a bedspread, it's a quilt. You make it by sewing little squares of fabric together."
"Oh OK."

We really hadn't made any plans for the day yet. We were just hanging out in the living room. Vivienne was playing the piano.

I was laying on the couch, when I spotted a book in a basket about quilting.

Hmmm....I've never tried sewing before. I wondered if I could make a quilt too. Maybe not a big one like on Vivienne's bed, but maybe a doll quilt for Lucy, My Real Baby doll. Mrs. Walton came into the room looking for her glasses.

"Mrs. Walton, does it take a long time to sew a doll quilt?", I asked her.
"No Julie, if you have the right amount of squares. Why do you ask, honey?"
"Well, I was wondering...could you maybe teach me to make one?"
She smiled. "Sure Julie, I'd be glad to teach you. Just let me find my glasses and we'll get started."

She found her glasses and took me to the sewing room/laundry room.

Groovy! There was even a dressmaker dummy standing by the washer. My mom doesn't even own a sewing machine. This was gonna be fun! We found some extra quilt squares in a basket. I looked over her shoulder as she showed me how to work the needle on the machine, and how to sew the squares together.

That looked easy enough. So I sat down to try it myself.

I messed up a couple of time, because I pushed the cloth through too fast and jammed up the machine, but Mrs. Walton showed me the right way to gently push the cloth through slowly, and soon I could do it without jamming up the machine.

After a while, Vivienne came in to see how I was doing. I was almost finished!

Far out! Only a few more squares and I'd be done.

Finished at last! I held it up to show Vivienne.  "What do you think?"

"It's super!" Vivienne told me. "Lucy will love it!"
"Thanks! Will my mom ever be surprised I sewed something all by myself!"
"Hey, do you wanna cut out our paper dolls now?"
"OK, sure."
Mrs. Walton was vacuuming in the living room so we took everything out to the sun  porch.

"I've got mine cut out", Vivienne said.

"Me too!", I answered.

"Hi Charlotte!"
"Hi Karen!" *giggle*
We pretended Charlotte and Karen were fashion models and wore all the new outfits we made for them on the runway.

:"My, my, such busy little bees you are out here", Mrs. Walton said as she came out to the sun porch. "I thought you girls might like a treat." She held up 2 chocolate ice-cream bars. All right!  We thanked Vivienne's mom, and I started to take a bite from mine when Vivienne stopped me.
"Wait don't bite it yet."
"Why not?", I asked.
Vivienne stood up and said in her best grown-up voice, "I'd like to propose a toast."
"With ice-cream bars?", I giggled.
"Sure why not? I like to propose a toast to Vivienne and Julie, the 2 best friends on Planet Earth!"
"Cheers!" (it's a little hard to clink 2 ice-cream bars together.)

We ate our ice-cream bars, cleaned up all the scraps, and took our paper dolls up to Vivienne's room. Then suddenly she got a brainstorm.
"Hey Julie, what's the one thing we forgot to make for Karen and Charlotte?"
"Uh...boyfriends?"
"No, a house, silly." She got out a large piece of oak tag and started drawing a chair and a bed.
"If we fold the sides in, it'll stand up like a house."
"Terrific! Now we need a kitchen, I said. So I drew a refrigerator, stove and sink.
"That looks great, Julie! Now let's color it in."
So we did. Pretty neat, huh?

I think Charlotte and Karen really like it!

Until tomorrow, future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman