turkey feathers

Little Things

There's nothing like flowers to bring life to a room, even if it is just a dollhouse!  I'm having fun designing these little vignettes to showcase some of our miniature items.  The brass lamp and vanity table are not for sale, but the flower vase has just been added to the Winky shop.  We have a few more on hand, but our supply is limited.  I think these are so cute!

     

As for Calico Kitty, there's no need for laments because I have a few left!  What I have here is three sleepy heads and one starry-eyed doll.  These (and Pinky Rose), are all samples I made for my book, and are featured posing together on page 95 along with the pattern to make them.  So I guess you could say, these could be a bit of a keepsake.  I would really love to keep them (all), but I've got to make room for the next litter of little lovelies.  Still, it will not be easy saying goodbye to my lean and lanky friends here.  They are up for adoption here. 

Sweet dreams!

Calico Kitty:: Winner!

Ready or not, 2012 is here.  

Happy New Year everybody! 

Well, Miss Pinky Rose is on her toes, and is ready to go to a new home. 

Who will it be? 

(Insert drumroll and fanfare . . .)

The winner is Sharon of A Merry Heart Journal! 

Congratulations to you!  

Potato Soup

Grandma and her friends really knew how to have fun!  No snow here yet.  Just lots of rain. Like six inches in the last few days.  I might need a small boat instead of a sled if this keeps up.  These last lingering days of 2011 have been a whirlwind of activity inside the house though.  The girls and I have been crafting up a storm, so to speak, with various projects that we can't wait to share.  Oh it's all very exciting.  In between the paper mache and the modge-podge, my to-do list has also kept me rather busy:

1) Re-open the PatternBee Vintage Embroidery Shop.  I'll admit, it was nice to have a little break from all the printing and shipping, but I'm getting excited about jumping back in and conversing with everybody again on Tuesday.  I miss you guys!

2) Finish vintage pattern restoration/contribution for "Baby Blankie".  Thanks again Cathy, the new pattern will be on its way to Canada soon.  (For everybody else, find it on the website under 'New Additions'.

3) Create the January 2012 Bonus Design.  I went straight to Valentine's Day with this one, with a LOVE theme, so you have plenty of time to stitch up something cool for gift-giving if your heart so desires. 

4) Make my special crock-pot potato cheese soup for our New Year's Day Open House.  This was by request so how could I say, no?   Obviously, I am making no diet-related resolutions this year.  (ahem.)

5) Choose a winner for the Pinky Rose Give-Away!  I know you are holding your breath; I'm rolling up my sleeves.  Check back tomorrow to find out who won.  It might be YOU!  If you haven't entered yet, hurry and do so before the comment section is closed.

OK.  I think that's it for the blog, 'til next year.  See ya on the flip side friends.  Have a safe New Year's Eve! 

Afterglow

Well, another Christmas has come and gone and I can confidently say that we did our best to make some happy and lasting memories.  Everyone had a fine time.  We missed our little love, Lily, curled up under the tree though.  It was quite sad to not see her there.  Or napping in the wrapping.  As she loved to do.  And, I didn't mention this before but Marshy, our dear little hampster pal died two months ago of "old age", which is not very long in people years.  What's funny is, last Christmas, when both pets were still with us, the Mister and I went to a vintage mall in the next town to poke around and we found these two adorable ornaments.  Both handmade, and old.  I immediately thought of Lily, when I saw the white kitty on a cloud.  On closer inspection, I realized she was made out of a painted walnut and a chestnut!  We brought them home, wrapped them up and gave them to the girls to remember their pets by.  Little did we know then that they would lose both pets this year, and how special these little ornaments would become.  To all of us.   

 

 

There was also baking! 

 

All this and more...

. . .went into decorated cookie boxes tied up with peppermint bows for special friends and family.  

These are some of the candies the girls made for their dad. They counted 96 candies when all was said and done.  Enough to last 'til his birthday in April.  But I wouldn't count on it.  They are really GOOD!

There was a lot of crafting and paper rustling going on behind closed doors these past weeks.  These two colorful gifts were for my granddaughters from their Aunties.  Grace knitted sweet little hats for both her neices; Ginger made the cute flower hair clips.  Not only are they wearable, but make pretty package toppers too. 

 Time out for cookies and coffee.

That's it in a nutshell for another year! 

Toy Balls & Dottie Pig

With these short, dark days suddenly upon us again, I decided I needed a little saturated color in my life.  So...I looked around and found these scrap bags from Anna Marie Horner.  Which certainly did the trick, and they turned out to be perfect for this project because I got a nice variety of coordinated prints to work with.  I wanted the balls to be a bit more substantial so lined each section with heavy muslin, using a machine zig-zag stitch around the edges to hold the layers together.  It worked pretty good, but I might try using an iron-on stabilizer next time.  I've found that lining the fabric helps soft toys hold their shape; important if children are actually going to play with them, as they will undoubtedly get squished and squashed and eventually tossed into the washer.  These two balls happen to be presents for the 'sandbox crowd' in the family.  Namely, my two darling "grand-dotties".  (I've since gotten a request for another, so I'm working on it now as a surprise for a certain someone.)  Cloth balls are pretty easy and can be made in any size.  Patterns for them have been around for ages -- for convenience sake, I used the (medium size) template offered here though. 

Naturally, I couldn't resist putting a little embroidery on them either.  I'm sure you must know by now -- if you've been following this blog for any length of time -- that nothing is safe from my embroidery needle around here.  Besides, it's nice to have your own and know whose is whose, and since these are going to reside with sisters, it just makes sense in order to keep the peace.  So they've been personalized.  This monogram pattern is one of my favorites--the little flowers are very sweet and fun to do.  The initial is worked using a satin-stitch, in chocolate brown.  Yum.  Pretty on the candy pink background, a scrap from my own stash.  For the other ball, I traced the design from cute Japanese embroidery book and added letters to spell out the name, using the yarn ball as the "O".  Used a red transfer pen for that.  I'm still swooning over that book, trying to find ways to use more of the designs.

While I'm at it; must mention sweet piggy here.  Grace made it -- used the pattern from this book again--with her own spin.  She stitched this entirely by hand in just a few evenings.  Loving those hamhocks.  There is just something so intrinsically *right* about pink polka dot pigs.  I think this one deserves a little shelf space.

OK.  Without further ado, (I love saying that) the winner of the embroidery pattern give-away#1 is "shy" Arlene.  (hee hee)  Congratulations, my dear!  Please contact me with your shipping info and I'll get your prizes on their way lickety-split. 

Babe in a Bag

After all the heat, the rain returned with thunder and lightening that woke the whole house.  Quite dramatic and a little spooky, but it’s nice to get some moisture back in the ground and pick up my sewing again where I left off before I melted.   My three, soon to be four year-old grand-daughter has a birthday coming up this weekend so I got busy and finished this.  I appreciate so much, all the great ideas that came in at my request.  It was hard to choose just one.  But since there’s a new baby in the house I thought this might be fun for her.  It was fun for me at least!

BTW does anyone have an opinion about which die-cut system works the best?  I’m thinking about getting something for the girls and I to fiddle around with, but know nothing about these or where to even find one.  I wanted to look them over before purchasing anything, but our local craft stores don’t stock them due to “space limitations”.   So if someone knows of a good one and an online source, please pass it on.  Thanks!    

 

Daisy Hill

I love how daisies project sunshine even when its cloudy.  We were expecting thunderstorms with heavy rain over the long weekend but surprisingly never had a single drop.  Apparently that particular storm missed us by about a hundred miles.   It was however, cool and gray with glimses of blue sky.  Perfect gardening weather.  There was a fair amount of puttering that happened too, mixed with movie watching (The Water Horse was quite enjoyable), some home cooking, a three day game of Monopoly spread out across the floor, chocolate-chip cookie baking (and munching),  a backyard BBQ, and a little crafting.  A new foal has joined the menagerie!  I think I'm finally getting the needle-felting down.  Fewer needle jabs to the fingers anyway. 

One more glance at sunny inspiration.  Enjoy!    

Miss Kitty Takes a Bow

One of the first things I did this morning was check the rose bushes for any signs of foul play, and although I did note a few deer nibbles most of the buds and flowers were still there, which made me exuberantly happy.   Another thing I just noticed is, there isn't an aphid in sight either.  They're usually prolific this time of year because I don't like putting systemic in the ground.   It's amazing, I didn't see a single bug.  The leaves are beautiful and shiny,  no brown spot from the damp we've had either which is also pretty typical in this climate.  I'm telling ya, we may be onto something here with The Misters magic concoction.  I asked him again about the recipe over lunch yesterday.  We were *dining alfresco on the terrace* just enjoying the warm spell of weather we're having.   He comes home for lunch every day, and I usually make something or have a pot of soup ready and we sit and nosh and chat awhile.   Anyway, he was pleased to hear the news that the magic smelly stuff was working and said he'd dig up the recipe for me to share if all goes well.   

So, I'm still thinking about dolls a lot right now, because what's a wee doll quilt without a wee doll?  Miss Kitty has been dancing around in my head for sometime now, and I thought it was about time I got her out of my daydreams and onto the dance floor.  I made the pattern for this doll many, many years ago, when there were babies in my life,  my own, and those belonging to friends, and I was sewing quite a bit, and one day I just started making these crazy little colorful cloth dolls as teething toys.  The long arms and legs were easy for tiny hands to hang onto and they could be tossed into the washing machine.  They weren't made as fancy as this one, no tutu or flowers or dangling strings obviously,  but the faces were embroidered with crazy expressions and they were silly and fun and I made SO many, sold them at craft fairs and gave them to my mother-friends (and their babes) as gifts.  I recently ran across the pattern again, (I save everything; to my credit and dismay), and decided to revamp it a bit and this is what I came up with.  My dancing queen.  (Insert ABBA song.)  In red toe shoes, naturally.  Uh, I think I hear more doll prancing up there in the attic space of my brain trying to get out now.   Maybe Miss Kitty needs a dancing partner, yes?

My Pal Prickles

Look who I found nestled here in my wool blanket scraps. 

Isn't she sweet?  I don't think she bites, but her needles are sharp. 

I really hate to disturb her.  Hope she doesn't mind if I borrow a few of her pins.

Looks like I have a new friend!

~

Materials used: hand-dyed wool felt from this amazing gal.  Pattern found at Urban Debris.  More pincushion love here.

Lambkin Love

 Last week, we were driving through the countryside passing farms along the way with fields of fluffy sheep.  The lambing season just ended a few weeks ago and the mamas and babies have been sent out to pasture, some of them only a few days old but already romping in the grass and kicking up their heels the way only young animals do in the spring.  SO adorable to see that.  There's always the odd black one too; hence the saying, "the black sheep of the family", an old colloquialism for being 'different'.  Sheep can see in color (although not as well as humans), and have wide- angled perception that allows them to watch for predators without turning their heads.  In other words, hard to sneak up on one with a camera!   Anyway, I found an old lamb doll pattern that someone had traced and had tucked inside another pattern envelope.  The pieces were full of pinholes like it had been used many times.  A clue to it's cuteness perhaps?  I'm guessing this is about as old as the pattern it was found with, which isn't dated; guessing 1940's or early 50's maybe.  It has the number 1218 written on it.  Anyone recognize this?  I decided to see if I could make a doll from it using my wool blanket , by omitting the seams and just hand-stitching the wool.  It worked perfectly!  And perfect for spring. In fact, it turned out so darling that I'm offering it as a free print-out here on my website.  You have the option of using wool felt, or cloth--they both turn out sweet as can be!