A Little Helper

Well, here's how I filled that hole in the third side of the Parts Dept. quilt top:

And then it took me the better part of the week to create the fourth side:

Which doesn't sound so bad now but it sure felt like slow going during the week. Of course, the migraines don't help. I still haven't laid out all the blocks around the top to make sure I'm happy with their current placements but that day will come.

Because I haven't felt up to that task but because I had to stitch something I turned to a UFO. This one happened to be a doll. The pattern, some of the fabrics, and the inspiration came in a package from Alma Stoller early in 2010 as far as I an remember.

She's only a little stump doll (meaning she has no legs) about eight inches tall.

Longtime readers may remember the stamped swatch of muslin that crosses her chest:

That was in the package of goodies from Alma. I foundation pieced the scraps of fabric to create the front and back body panels. Her arms are stuffed with a bits of Warm & Natural batting. Then she was whammied by my magic beading needles. ;- )

Even on her back!

Her hair is a bit of fancy trim. I debated whether to leave her face without features, like the Amish do. In the end I used a couple of beads for eyes and a heart sequin for her mouth.

I'm especially pleased with the application of the 'dream' charm.

Since she is part self-portrait and part motivation angel I gave her scissors and something to work on.

All I have to do now is clear off some space near my main work station so she can be nearby to do her job!

Colorful Additions

If you've stopped by my blog in the last few weeks you know I made this 12" x 12" quilt for a swap over on the 15 Minutes of Play blog.


This was not a direct swap but more like a round robin swap. So instead of receiving a quilt from the person to whom I sent my quilt I received a quilt from someone else in the group. In this case, I was given this absolutely delightful quilt from Nancy over at ColorFiberTexture:

When she showed it on the 15 Minutes blog I admired the happy colors with the black and white prints. Now that I have it in my hot little hands I see that not only is the center of the star made up of scraps ("made fabric") but so is the narrow border between the picot ribbon trim and the binding. And I love that she hand quilted it with embroidery floss. What a cheerful piece to have hanging in my home!

On another front, DD gave me a bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day. One of the little carnations was too short to fit in the vase with all the longer stemmed flowers. My begonias were in need of trimming so I combined a bit of the cuttings with the carnation in a bud vase. There's also one leaf from another house plant whose name I don't remember at the moment.



The arrangement made Miss May Belle's walk with the hounds this morning a bit more colorful.

Here's wishing you a colorful walk through your day!

Year's End

I know there hasn't been any new quilty (or beading) material on this blog in a while. Bear with me, it's coming. Even though I'm pretty much at home 24/7 the holidays always manage to throw me off my game. It's beginning to take a toll too. I'm missing my blogging buddies, wondering what they've been up to, and I'm afraid my sewing machine won't recognize me when I return to her. I just hope a battle doesn't break out between the sewing machine, Phoebe, and Ruth, my new NookColor. That could get ugly.

For now, let me take you back in time by two weeks. Or maybe a little before that even. When my Darling Daughter was a wee tyke one of my friends made a cloth doll for her. This was in the 1980's when "country style" decorating was in vogue. The doll is quite big to a little girl, maybe 24" tall. I'm sure she came with a dress and apron but I don't remember them. What I remember seeing the doll dressed in was my own little girl's clothes.

Years pass. My little girl now has little girls of her own and they want to play with Mommy's "Emily doll". Mommy reluctantly allows it. Suddenly Emily's head is about to come off. DD brings her to Grandma's Doll Hospital and Grandma does her best to fix her up.

It's hard to tell from the photo but I freshened up her mouth a bit and secured her eyes after strengthening her neck with a strip of bias tape. I decided to leave what's left of her hair as is. She came to me naked (no surprise) but I found this T-shirt that my daughter wore in pre-shcool to send her home in.

The next order of business was to create new "Emily dolls" for the two oldest Darling GrandDaughters. Son helped out by drafting patterns and cutting the body parts out for me. Rather than try to precisely recreate my daughter's doll we decided to make contemporary versions. Besides, the ribbon flowers I used for hair was significanly cheaper than the number of snaps I would have needed for two doll heads!

We outfitted them with dresses we found at the thrift shop. I think one was actually meant to be a child's top, not a dress. We found a little crocheted capelet that fit the dolls perfectly too. Son made a second capelet out of fabric using the crocheted cape as a pattern so both dolls would have something to wear to keep them warm. The dolls were well received on Christmas Day. The babies thought they made great chew toys. It's probably too soon for the girls to have christened the dolls with names that will stick but I'm curious to see what they end up being called.

While my husband has been home this week he has been taking care of some home improvement projects that have been long on the To Do list. The worst of it was the kitchen faucet. He toyed with the idea of just replacing the O ring or whatever was wearing out. In the end we decided to upgrade to a new faucet. It took some stepping to find just the right one of course. Then getting the old faucet out of the sink turned into a massive undertaking.

The job is done now, the new faucet is beautiful (but the kitchen is too big a mess at the moment for me to photograph it for you) and we even have a new light fixture over the kitchen sink to go with it. Hallelujah!

Over the last few days I've culled some books and back issues of magazines from my studio bookshelves. The rest of the studio is still a mess though; both the sewing and cutting tables are buried. I'm anxious to get back to piecing scraps and orphan blocks into new quilts. I've got to finish up my Sketchbook Project and get it submitted and then settle on a new form for this year's Bead Journal Project. I think I may need to heed the wisdom of Helen (who has no blog as near as I can tell). She says, "Quilting is chicken soup for the bewildered. Make two blocks and call a quilter in the morning." Well, I'll make two blocks and then go visit quilt bloggers in the morning!

Helping Haiti

Like everyone else I've been overwhelmed and tortured by the pictures and stories coming out of Haiti after the earthquake. I've already donated money to Americares but it felt like such a little drop in such a huge bucket. Today, courtesy of Michele at Quilting With Heart and Hands, I found out about a fund raising effort through crafthope.com.

Artists and crafters are donating their handmade goods to be sold on in a special shop on Etsy.com. The funds are going directly to Doctors Without Borders. To that end I have submitted two pin dolls I made a few years ago. They probably won't show up on the site for a few days since this whole effort is being spearheaded by a couple of stay at home moms with young children. If you're interested, though, these are the dolls I'm donating:

They are both about 4" tall, hand beaded, have a pin finding sewn to their backs, and are signed by the artist (me!). They're fun to wear or just hang on a wall to brighten up an empty spot. :- )

Even though my dolls may not be listed for a few days I would encourage you to hop over to the Craft Hope Etsy shop and see whether there isn't something there now that you could use or purchase as a gift for someone you love. There's lots of good stuff available!

I Understand

For the first time in my quilting life I can understand the need for more than one sewing machine. I always thought it would be nice, if I had the room or the money for a second machine, but never really thought it could be a necessity. Now I wish I had the room to have two machines set up all the time. That way I could leave out the flannels, continue playing in those scraps, and not have to switch out the needle and the tension settings all the time. I could begin making blocks for DarlingGrandDaughter's quilt without getting the two projects all mixed up. It would also be helpful to have a place where I could sit and do the hand work I like to do from time to time. Right now I have to juggle all my projects and the stuff that goes with them in pretty much one space. This is going to require some thought on my part, to see whether I can come up with at least a partial solution. I only have a couple of months before the Bead Journal Project starts up again. I don't want one type of creativity to suffer because of another.

And speaking of the flannel scraps, I made this little dog using some of them.

He will probably be another drop for The Toy Society, maybe for their Christmas Drop. He's a pancake dog so he has only two legs. DH suggested I figure out a way to give him all four legs.

That's been in the back of my mind and I'd like to follow through before I put the flannels away. I want to shorten the muzzle on the pattern a bit too.

I finally found a piece of yardage in my stash that I like for binding on the Lincoln Logs quilt.

It's a paisley from RJR Fabrics. I don't even remember when or where I acquired it. I was thrilled to discover that there was enough to make it all the way around the quilt though!

Before I apply the binding to the quilt sandwich I'll have to get the little scraps out of the way, one way or another. Flannel picks up everything and this is one big quilt. :- )

Old Mother Hubbard

The IBOL Guy has some really powerful contacts. For example, he knows Old Mother Hubbard and Agent 51. Mother Hubbard is gathering shoes and clothing and school supplies and toiletries and even a few toys to distribute among some deserving orphans in Iraq. Agent 51 is overseeing the distribution of all the goodies. Oh yes, the US Postal Service is helping out too. ;- )


I was able to get just a glimpse of some of the things Old Mother Hubbard is sending. Look at this darling doll made by kwilt4u:


I managed to slip a couple of bags of marbles into one box too.

The orphans will receive their surprises before the end of Ramadan if everything goes according to plan. It feels so good to reach out in love to those in need.

Second Toy Drop

Here's the little ball I made for The Toy Society:


And another view:

I used to make these balls for my own children some 20 years ago. The patches for this ball were still in my stash from way back then. The fabric is that polyester sort-of-flannel stuff they make for children's sleepwear. I must have cut the pieces just right because this ball turned out almost perfectly round. If you cut them going the wrong way on the grain of woven fabrics they sometimes come out kind of wonky. Too bad I don't remember which is the right way! (Of course I didn't mark it on my pattern piece.)

I left this toy near the front door of a health clinic in my own town on my way back from delivering the Foodie Quilt. Stopping at the dentist's office for the first drop gave me the idea to leave the ball here. I'd never been to this particular building before so I didn't know what I would find in terms of places to leave the toy. There wasn't much of an entrance. As you can see, I ended up tying it up in a young tree. It will at least be more visible than the dog I left on the backside of the statue.

I could see one of the clients in the clinic watching me through the narrow window when I took this picture so I'm pretty confident this toy will have been taken to a new home by now.

:- )

First Toy Drop

I read about The Toy Society over on Carol's blog a short while ago and then went to check it out for myself on their blog and Flickr site. What a cool project! I immediately knew I had to play along. But what toy to make? I checked out the links to free patterns on The Toy Society's blog. I went through the doll and stuffed animal patterns in my stash. Hmmm...

In the end I designed my own little puppy dog. Just a pancake style toy but with floppy ears that hang loose.

Now, where to leave it? Making that decision actually took longer than it took to make the toy. I had to drive over to a nearby town to deliver the Foodie Quilt today so I took the dog with me, all bagged and tagged. This town has an annual chain saw carving contest as part of its' Fourth of July festivities. A lot of the shop owners have purchased the various carvings; there are statues and benches and all of it is wonderful.

On one corner there's a dental clinic that's virtually hemmed in by wooden statues. Going to the dentist was always a scary proposition for me when I was a kid (to be honest, it still is) so I thought a new little companion might help someone cope today.

Unfortunately I had to tuck the bag in around the backside of this particular statue. I just hope it was spotted and collected before the rain began this afternoon!

It was a bit of a challenge for me to make this drop inconspicuously. I already stand out from the crowd because of the face mask I wear when I go out in public. The carvings gave me an excuse of sorts for taking pictures but I still felt very obvious as I fooled around trying to leave the toy behind. There weren't many people out and about at the time but the street was full of parked cars so I was afraid someone would show up any minute and catch me in the act.

I made a soft ball and dropped it off today too. Stay tuned for that story...

Birds & Dolls

Remember those birds I made a few weeks back for the Birds of Change Exchange? My new birds arrived a few days ago:

They are all so much fun! And so different! I need to take individual pictures of them for you to see all the details. One is wooden, another is knitted and has the cutest wire feet. The wings on the big cardinal move. I'm so happy with them all! Haven't decided yet where they're going to live. I'd like to keep them together for the time being (in one room, in their own vignette). It would be fun to hang them somehow, from the ceiling or as a sort of mobile. For now they're still resting from their long flight north. They seem to get along together very nicely.

Meanwhile, my flannel doll quilt has been appropriated by Raggedy Ann and Andy. I still haven't decided whether to tie or quilt it (or neither), although I'm leaning towards tying it with cotton floss. Red, most likely.

Poor Ann. I wanted her so badly for my 9th birthday. I felt like I was getting too old for dolls but I'd never had a Raggedy Ann and loved the books so she was on my wish list that year in spite of my ambivalence. My birthday is in June and we had a picnic party outside. Shortly after I opened the box she came in someone accidently spilled something on her face - I don't know what. I was heartbroken and she's been scarred ever since. But she still loves me anyway. It says so right on her heart. And I obviously love her because I still have her (and Andy, who came later). I have learned that there are some dolls you are never too old for.

When I saw how much Ann and Andy liked the flannel quilt I thought maybe I could make another one for my friend. Didn't feel like playing with the flannel anymore though. I went through my orphan box, then my bin of abandoned UFO's. I found some Broken Dishes blocks that were an odd size - which could explain why the project had been abandoned. They are from the mid 1990's. It was a struggle to find fabric in my stash to make more blocks; I had apparently used everything up when I put the project away the last time. But I found some newer prints that worked and I really like what I have going on now:

This will be bright and fresh, and in spite of the vegetables in the blocks I think some little girl will enjoy covering her dolly with this quilt when it's done :- )

Love Squared

The fabulous Monica Magness has completed the art doll "Love Squared" and sent her off to the magazine Art Doll Quarterly.

Monica created her body and invited artists on the internet to send in 2" squares from which she made the doll's skirt. The whole purpose of this project was/is to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The doll will eventually be auctioned or raffled off to one lucky winner. Can you imagine owning this doll?!! Talk about a show piece!

I sent in two squares, one of which I've been using as my profile picture at the top of my blog. It's the orange one, just under the doll's purse. The second square will be inlcuded in a wall hanging Monica is making from all the other extra squares that were sent in.

Art Doll Quarterly will be featuring the doll in an article in a future issue but right now you can see more pictures of her here.

Oh No Mr. Tangelo!

Look what I scored from Calamity Kim! He is the honorable Timothy T. Tangelo whom she "found" one day in her backyard. You can read his story in full here. It's totally worth the sidetrip, I assure you :- ) Timothy is currently keeping me company here at the computer. So far he has been traveling from one site to another here in the studio, checking out his new digs. I'm keeping him well away from Reilly though, as Timothy has a justifiable fear of dogs and squirrels and other live animals.



I have actually tried to post a couple of times since my last entry but Blogger was having difficulty uploading pictures. I find it interesting that without pictures it seems pointless to me to make a post and yet I am not much of a photographer. Go figure!

There hasn't been much sewing going on around here lately. I had the opportunity to spend time with the grandchildren unexpectedly. That will probably always take precedence over sewing! And I have the closet mostly put back together. There are still a couple of boxes whose contents I will have to deal with but I just couldn't put off sewing any longer. When I start to get depressed I know it's time to sew! And what better to cheer myself up than a bunch of skulls?

I pulled about a dozen prospective fabrics from my stash. Then, as I worked with those, I needed others to provide contrast, etc. Basically I started with the large skull and bones print, isolating bits I wanted to highlight. In the end I only used a grand total of five fabrics. Most of the rest were never even unfolded and will go back onto my shelves essentially untouched. (The black is a tone-on-tone print.) The whole top was pieced intuitively, just adding strips or chunks as it seemed appropriate. I do not hesitate to 'reverse sew' seams (i.e.: rip out stitches) if I decide I don't like the way something looks. In spite of how slow this process can be it is my favorite way to work these days.

This will be my next embellished journal quilt. I've only finished the piecing this morning so I don't know yet how it's going to be embellished, but it should be fun. I'd like to get it done quickly just so I can feel like I'm back "on schedule" for the Bead Journal Project. We'll see!

It's raining here today. How I wish I could send some of this moisture down to California!

Yippee! Productivity!

In spite of the low-grade headache I had most of the day yesterday I was able to finally find some embellishments I thought would be fun to use on a doll body for the Comfort Dolls Project (see link in sidebar). The body was made about 5 years ago so she's been very patient with me, waiting for her adornments! I'm quite pleased with the way she turned out:



The flowers are glass beads, the "vine" is a ball chain I picked up at Wal-Mart some time ago (back when I would still venture into that store). I thought it worked very well.


That success inspired me to add a little more "hair" to the first doll I worked on:


Maybe she's done now. ;- )


When I couldn't post my accomplishments to my blog last night (it was that bewitched time of day when Blogger doesn't cooperate) I surfed some other blogs. I got hooked by the 6x4 Lives challenge at Sharon B's blog. There's so much to see and to read on her blog that I hadn't really looked into it on previous visits. As I read about it last night, however, my mind conjured up all sorts of possibilities for the 6x4 postcard format. I've made fabric postcards before, but using that format for personal experimentation or recordkeeping had never occurred to me (duh!). I got so inspired that this morning I have been going through my stash of batting bits and pieces, cutting them to either 4" x 6" or 8.5" x 11" for my journal quilts.



I haven't come across any yet that were big enough for more placemats. There's another bin for the bigger pieces of batting. Maybe when I get into that one I'll also find a piece to use in the baby quilt I'm supposed to be finishing up for the wee one due at the end of August or early September!

Gifts and Comfort

My birthday was back in June. My sister sent me the dvd of the PBS program "Craft in America" and a note stating this was only part of the gift. The rest of the gift was delivered Friday: the coveted tote bag from Trader Joe's! Hurray! Ever since I caught a glimpse of it on Be*mused's blog I've wanted one. We don't have a Trader Joe's close enough to us for me to shop for one myself but I mentioned it to my sister in Oregon and apparently she was keeping an eye out for me. When she finally found one she bought it and kept it at her house to air out for a few weeks. I don't know how comfortable I'll be carrying it into Fred Meyer or our food co-op to pack my groceries home in but I'll sure enjoy having it to look at in the studio! If I were a knitter I would use it to carry around my WIP. I may have to find a nice big UFO to keep in it so I can justify leaving it out in plain sight! (Shouldn't be too hard, considering the number of UFO's I have on hand...)



By the way, if you haven't seen the "Craft in America" program yet be sure to look for it on your local PBS station. DH and I caught it accidently one day and were mesmerized. That's when I mentioned it to my sister. She had seen it too and was also fascinated by it. I've watched the dvd twice now since receiving it for my birthday a little more than a month ago.


Every day last week I seemed to run into something that made me ill. Just when I'd begin to feel better, wham! a new toxin would hit me. I hardly left the house either. Which means the toxins were coming in through open windows or being released here in the house. I felt well enough Saturday to do a bit of beading on a doll body I'd made a few years ago:


(I wish the beads showed up better in the photo.) I'm not sure whether she's done or not. I'd like to do something for a face but everything I've tried hasn't looked right. I really like the swirls of color in the fabric so that's what I used to direct my beading. My intention is to send this along to Pat for her Comfort Doll Project. I'd like to get another one done and send a pair of them at one time. I have other doll bodies I might be able to use. Or I might make up a new pattern. Just for fun let me show you a few of the small dolls I made back when I was making more dolls than quilts:

This is my first "Belle." The placement of the pattern in the fabric makes this doll. I only added the bells and beads for her hair. I happen to love the tinkling sound the bells make. To me they are the voice of the doll, speaking words of encouragement and comfort.




I think of this one as my "Beach Belle." Same hairdo, button face (mother-of-pearl) and another button I see as a sand dollar or other natural ocean flotsam one would find on a beach (I cut off the shank so it could be sewn flat to the doll body).




Finally there's Flo. Flo is straight out of the 1950's and ready to serve tea. I don't have a clue where she came from. She's very prim and proper and a very conscientious hostess. I am SO not like her!



All of these dolls are original creations. I only have these and a couple of others still in my possession. The rest have been sold or given away. What's amazing to me is how these little inanimate objects - nothing more than fabric, stuffing, and bits and pieces of embellishments - can have so much power to soothe or lift a wounded spirit.