...putting it all together in one place...

a new year...

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 10:29:26 -0700

...some new projects. I was worried that as this new year came crashing in through the doorway, that I would, once again, find myself behind on, well, everything. It always seems that I’m running a day or two behind schedule. No, it’s not that it “seems” that way, it’s that it’s reality. I’m always behind. And no, I’m not making a resolution to get on schedule, but I am going to make an effort to plan better. So this year, or rather, right before this new year started, I wanted to get a jump on some of the things that I had promised myself, and others, that I would do. I started with some doll making. My niece...sister to one of the girlies that got a doll last time...asked for a doll of her own. And on top of that, her mother also put in a request for a doll, but she wanted it to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. These requests were made many months ago, like, 5 months ago. :sigh: See, behind schedule! But I gave myself a new goal date, December 30th. Why December 30th? Because that is my sister’s birthday, and even if I couldn’t have the doll in her hot little hands to open as a gift, I at least wanted to post a photo for her. Did I make it? Well, almost. My niece’s doll was done, but Dorothy was still a WIP. I stopped to have dinner and then delighted myself in spending the rest of the evening curled up on the couch with my hubby and little boy, unashamedly so. But I did finish her the next morning and had pictures posted before the end of that day. Wanna see?

This doll was the hardest one that I’ve made so far, mostly because I was trying to figure out how to add the sleeves, collars and cuffs to her, as well as the braids. As you can see, I didn’t wind up doing braids. After I cut the felt it was far too delicate to braid, pieces were coming out in my hand, so I opted to just tie off her little pigtails and leave it at that. I LOVE this doll. I think she’s so adorable and I’m glad that she was so well received by my sister.

Okay, I really am running behind and I have some responsibilities to take care of for Club Thread next week so off I go!

5 months later

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:29:09 -0700

Part of the reason that I don’t blog regularly is because I’m frustrated by the formatting of the page that I’ve chosen. Whenever I add a photo into the body of the text, everything gets displaced and I wind up publishing and editing and publishing and editing until I get everything situated correctly. It’s quite frustrating, and while I suppose that I could choose a different page setting, I really like this one, so it’s a bit of a catch 22. Kinda...

Anyway, so here it is, 2 days after Christmas, and I find myself quite tired and feeling out of sorts. I know, for certain, that I’m out of sorts because I’m watching “the Sound of Music” and crying every other song. LoL Yup, that’s a sure sign. Anyway, this entry is just a “Hey, I think I’m going to try this again” kind of post, so, we’ll see.

dollies...by request.

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:21:46 -0600

Last month found us packing up in the truck and driving across 3 states to visit dearest friends and our lovely family. I thought that by going in June, instead of our normal August trip, the weather would be a little bit easier on us, but alas, it was not to be. Houston was having an early heat wave and since we were coming from an extremely cool and rainy start to the Colorado summer, it was quite a drastic change. Thankfully the truck has a pretty nice ac system so we were able to drive to and from our visits in relative comfort.

Duncan is always happy to go to Houston, but he was particularly happy because he knew that he’d get to see his favorite cousin, Ashley. Only 1yr apart in age, they have always gotten along like gangbusters. A few days after we came home, I received an email from Ashley asking if I could “make one of those Black Apple dolls” for her? Frankly, there’s no way that I can say no to that beautiful girl, so I asked her what her favorite colors were (blue & purple) and set about to working. I knew that I wanted her doll to have pigtails and that I wanted the hair to be pink, but other than that, I was going to have to peruse my stash to see what I could make up. This is what I ended up with:

Her dress is made from a beautiful SisBoom fabric...and if you look really closely you can see the bird that I centered on the front. The skirt is made from a two-tone pre-ruffled fabric (lavender base and pink ruffles) and vintage lace from my Grandma’s stash. Her tights are purple pindot, face and arms are cream linen and her pigtail holders are Grandma’s vintage buttons. I painted her face and used some fun sparkle paint for the lipstick. I love how it turned out.

Now, the reason that Ashley knew that the doll that I had made was called a Black Apple doll was because I had printed the pattern out at my mom’s house and it was in the back of the car for me to take to get enlarged. I wanted to make a doll for my older niece, Marielle, who is turning 21 next month...and I wanted to leave it with her mom so that she could give it to her on her birthday. Well, I went in and out of places for days on end and never once remembered to bring it with me. So, I made her doll at the same time I made the other. I had no direction for this doll other than the fact that I had decided to give it purple hair...other than that, I was flying by the seat of my pants. This is where I landed:

She has a turquoise dress and vintage lace necklace, green pindot tights, tan linen face and arms, paisley Amy Butler apron and a vintage earring to top her off. Since Marielle is older, I painted her face with a more mature lipstick color:

All in all, I really love making these dolls and was happy to make them both, especially after hearing how much Ashley loved hers...and so did her older sister. Guess who’s making another Black Apple doll in the VERY near future?

...and in case you never saw the doll that I made for my mom, here she is:

Isn’t she lovely?

a party with the mad hatter...

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:57:09 -0600

I haven’t made any felt foods in quite some time...I think the last ones that I made were some time around last fall...maybe even longer, but when Club Thread decided to do a tea party theme, I was a bit thrown for a loop. I wasn’t really feeling like doing playfood, but I couldn’t think of anything else to make. So I flipped through some books and came up with a plan. And then just as I was in the home stretch, one of my fellow congo members asked to do a collaboration so I had to double time it to in order to get those things out and shipped to her in time. On my menu I had tartlettes, slices of cake, and cake rolls...and then for my last minute entries, I made donuts and candies..

As everything started taking shape, I have to say, that they were making me smile more and more. I was particularly happy with the way the donuts came out. I’ve struggled making them before...well, not with making them, but with getting them to look precisely the way that I wanted them to look. I tried a few different techniques and voila, success!

I was also happy with how well they looked with Allison’s cloth baskets. I hope they make it onto someone’s Easter table! Here’s the rest of what I made : cake rolls, tartlettes, and candies (with a felted lollipop)

and last, but not least, I remembered the sweet Japanese Alice in Wonderland fabric that I have, and decided to make a little coin purse out of it. I embroidered a whimsically colored tea cup on some light pink linen, and then used lavender pindot as the accent.

I love the March Hare popping out of the tea cup, and the look on Alice’s face. Poor Alice, she really had no idea what she was getting into.

feeling qulity

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:15:29 -0600

I’ve had a real fear of quilting for a long time, a fear that only got worst when I took on the task of creating a gift for a friend who was going through chemo. I was able to piece the entire front together and get the back measured out but once I tried to add in the batting and start quilting it, the quilt and my resolve fell to pieces. Eventually I got it done, but not without actual tears and many swear words. I may not seem this way, but I can be really stubborn sometimes and I started feeling really stubborn about letting quilting get the best of me. Now let me say this, I hold no lofty ideas of being one of those quilters that you’d see on tv, or who’s pieces hang in folk art museums, but I do want to be able to piece together some of my favorite fabrics and see them around the house...and it’s a bonus if those pieces can keep me warm at the same. Oh yeah, and there are those 4 pieced and quilted placemats that need binding...but I digress.

On my many hours spent browsing and moderating at Sewing Mamas, I had noticed season themed doll quilt swaps going on and I was very tempted to join one. I resisted until the winter and then it really started gnawing at me that I should do it. I knew I could, but Christmas was coming and I always run out of time during the holidays...sigh. But just before we left for London I saw the final call for the SPRING doll quilt swap and I jumped in with both feet. Unfortunately, with that whole London thing, well, let’s just say that I have a very understanding swap partner cause my quilt is late...really pretty, but late.

Kelli said that Spring reminded her of earth and flowers popping forth and birds singing...a girl after my own heart. I pulled out my current fave fabric, Alexander Henry “Birdseed” in the pink colorway, and paired it with a Ginger Blossom medallion print. I thought that no fabric could do the sashing justice except for 100% linen. It was easy enough to figure out how to cut my squares and piece the front and back together, I didn’t start to get nervous until I had to start quilting.

I decided to listen to many of the quilters that came before me and used some adhesive spray to hold the three layers together. That stuff works like a charm. When I put the pieces under the presser foot, it didn’t shift at all. I made sure to use my walking foot, as well, to ensure that I wouldn’t get the layers bunching up as I sewed.

After it was all machine quilted, I wanted to add some hand quilting to the birds.

Hand quilting is incredibly soothing and fairly quick for me. I think handwork in general goes quickly for me...it’s in my genes. All those millions of sequins and beads that my mom and grandmother hand sewed onto wedding dresses has been passed down to my fingers.

Unfortunately, after all of those steps, I still needed to face my most dreaded task, the binding. I remembered a binding tutorial that one of the other sewing mamas had posted on her blog and I pulled it up and got to work. I have to say that her instructions were SO clear and her pictures went right along with each step so I had no problems putting it on.

http://sewinspired.blogspot.com/2007/09/quilt-binding-tutorial.html

The handstitching of the binding to finish it all off was as relaxing as the hand quilting, although by the end of the evening my finger was sore. I thought it came out really, really well, though, and I’m no longer apprehensive about finishing a quilt and I think I’ll finally be able to get my placemats done.

And I want to show you the gorgeous quilt that Kelli sent me. My pictures are horrible but it’s so so beautiful and totally me!

I see many more doll quilts in my future!