Christmas Swaps

We've been busy with Christmas swapping.  First, we sent some peanuts to a friend.  Did you know that a peanut is half a fat quarter?  We included some ribbons, buttons and a little doily.

Here's Rosina Hittykin and Hitty Grace with the peanuts our friend sent to us.

Then we made a Christmas quilt for another friend.  Here's Hitty Grace posing with it before we put the quilt in the mail.  I wonder, has our friend received the quilt yet?

We then received a Christmas quilt from a third Hittygirl friend!  It is really colorful and sweet.  We really like it.  After we stood around admiring it, we put it on our bed.And today, we decided to surprise a 4th Hittygirl friend by mailing a surprise gift to her.  We didn't take a picture of it, we wanted the fun to just be knowing we did something nice for someone without any expectations of anything in return.  

In which we prepare for the cold

It was a lovely fall Saturday, and Hitty Joanna, Hitty Rosemary and I decided to put on our new fall clothes to go outside to get some sunshine.  The Autumn Joy Sedum has turned a lovely shade of deep rose.  It seems like only yesterday when it looked like pale green cauliflower!

I wore my brand new winter bonnet that Jen made from a Gail Wilson kit.  I think it looks rather nice with my fall dress and pinafore.

 

Hitty Joanna wore a new crocheted cape that Jen made using a pattern she'd found on the web back in January 2003 - guess it needed to wait in the project queue a while!  She used Frog Tree alpaca wool.  It was the first time she'd worked with fingering weight wool.  Hitty Joanna was pleased with the results!  I hope that Jen will make more.  Another trip to the yarn shop to pick out some new colors is in order, don't you think? 

Hitty Rosemary (who is Hitty Beatrix's twin sister), wore the new hooded cape that Jen made using the same Gail Wilson kit from which the winter bonnet, nightgown and cap came.  I think she was a bit over dressed, but she was excited to try it out.   There will be days when it is needed soon enough, I'm afraid.

We brought in the potted scented geranium and basil plants for fear of frost tonight.  We hope that we can keep them alive through the winter.  I'm afraid that Jen doesn't really have a green thumb, so we'll see.

- Hitty Grace

In Which Hitty Beatrix gets a new nightgown

I had been hearing the sewing machine running and the iron hissing on several evenings of the past week.  On Saturday morning, I was taken from my armchair in the roombox on the piano and placed carefully inside my traveling box.  After a little while, I was taken out at a strange kitchen table that I did not recognize.  Jen told me we were at her mother's house, spending the day with her grandmother.  While the grandmother got ready upstairs, Jen produced a new nightgown from another bag and began to sew a button upon the back.  She then made a nice little loop for the button and then proceeded to use the crochet thread to gather the neckline and sleeves.  Then she took out a little circle with lace sewn to the edge, which soon became a little mob cap or nightcap.  She fitted everything carefully to my measurements and dressed me in the new nightclothes for inspection.

When the grandmother saw me, she said that I had a really sweet face and was amazed by the lace and little stitches used to make my clothes.  Jen told her all about ancestor Hitty and how her story came to be told.  That was just part of a lovely day filled with talk about many different crafts, gardening, house plants, fashion and football!  It was very nice to meet the grandmother person.

Here is a photo of me back at home, all ready for bedtime.

- Hitty Beatrix

In which the Hittys move it

Our roombox was finished with a nice Early American stained wooden floor.  We moved our furniture off the shelf and into the roombox.  It was tricky fitting everything in.  We managed to acquire a Rement table for next to the wing chair.  It holds our sewing things nicely.  We have already decided that we are going to need more room, but this will be a nice home until we can invest in new real estate.

- Hitty Grace

In which we begin construction

The Chesapeake Bay Hittys have been residing on the shelf of a bookcase in their companion's bedroom for the past year or two. They have petitioned for a building permit in a more central place in the household, namely, on the top of the upright piano in the living room (which gets more activity than the family room at this backwards residence). So, the construction of a roombox began on Labor Day weekend. It seems fitting that their companion should be enlisted to work for them on a weekend that celebrates labor. The constuction materials were already on-site, except for a few more pieces of foamcore board and some posterboard. Once the floors are installed, the roombox will be ready for inspection for an occupancy permit. Here are a few pictures of the progress achieved this weekend.

Respectfully submitted by Hitty Grace

In Which Hitty Grace Goes to Virginia

As we have family visiting from North Carolina (the husband's mother and his niece and nephew), it seemed very fitting for us to take them on a day trip on Saturday when Jen did not have to go to work. It was decided that we would go somewhere that my family had not been to either - The National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is an annex to the Smithsonian Institute and is located near Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia.

Because there were seven people in our party, it was necessary for us to travel in two vehicles. Jen drove her Rogue behind her husband's Titan. Sometimes it was hard for her to keep up, especially on the beltway around Washington, DC! Even though it was Saturday, traffic was still congested and there's always some sort of construction work going on to complicate matters. We were all very excited to finally arrive!

We paused for pictures out front, before going inside. You can see the museum behind us - it is a building with large hangars, and an observation tower, just like those at airports!

Inside the main area of the museum, you can walk on balconies to see airplanes and gliders hanging from the ceiling, and huge airplanes on the floor below.

We walked downstairs to get a better view of the planes on the floor. There was so much to see there!

Some of the airplanes were very old! But not older than the orginal ancestor Hitty!

After looking around for a few hours, we became very hungry, so we went to the McDonalds inside the museum and grabbed some lunch.

This airplane is called "The Goose." It was designed to land on the water. The rubber tires would seal up the wheel wells and landing gear and the plane could float!

This plane was called "La Cucaracha" - there were others with intersting names, too, like "Wendy" (the first FedEx plane used for overnight packages), and "Winnie Mae" (an experimental US Postal Plane), and the solar powered NASA Pathfinder (not a Nissan)! We had fun looking at the intersting names of the airplanes.

Some planes had other intersting designs on them. We saw a skink, and this one had Felix the Cat (can you tell it was a bomber?).

The museum had rockets and the Space Shuttle Enterprise there, too! It was hard to see everything in one day. We managed to see everything, but wished there was more time to really read and absorb all the information on the plaques.

Our last stop was the observation tower. We had to take an elevator up the six stories to reach it. The new Dulles Airport's tower is 14 stories high. They must have a good view from there!

It was a beautiful day! Here is what we saw:

I hope that I can go on many more adventures to share with you.

Sincerly,

Hitty Grace Sycamore-Brown

Introducing the Chesapeake Bay Hittys

It all started when I read a magazine article about Hitty. I found the idea of having a wooden doll based on a book about that doll very intriguing. Since the book had a historical flavor, it was my cup of tea! I was just getting into making Gail Wilson's historical cloth doll kits, and a wooden doll that had a touch of history would be a nice compliment. So, I ordered a Robert Raikes Hitty from the American Kit Company. She arrived, I struggled though making one dress for her and sat her on a shelf with some cloth dolls I had made. And she sat there watching me continue to live my life.

After a few years had passed, I purchased a Tonner Mary Engelbriet doll and Rosemarie Ionker's Fashion for Small Dolls - I wanted to continue to learn about making doll clothes. While looking at the book, I decided I wanted to try sewing for a smaller doll. I posted some questions about who would be good to sew for, and someone in a group suggested Hitty - Hey! I already have Hitty! I soon found Hittygirls on Yahoo!, and then I fell down the slippery slope into the worl of Hitty. Many Hittys have come to live here, and they have become known as The Chesapeake Bay Hittys (because we live very near to the Cheseapeake Bay in Maryland).

Here's a picture of Hitty Rachel, the first Hitty to arrive here:

This photo is several years old. She was on a cruise on the Bay, and this is the Baltimore Light. She really enjoyed that trip!