turkey feathers

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 Christmas 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. 

Next up for grabs will be a variety of holiday counted-cross-stitch magazines from yester-year.  If  x-stitch is your thing, be sure to check these out. I'm going through the issues now and finding so many cute projects, samplers, crafts, and x-stitch charts of amazing things--will show you on the next post.  Whenever that happens to be.  Soon I hope!

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.

Gourdelia

Meet Miss Gourdelia, debutant princess of the Pumpkin Ball.  She's a little shy and insecure and when that happens her Peter Lorre eye begins to wander.  Yikes! Here she's clutching her new Halloween picture square ( a surprise gift from Jenny, more about that below) and has lovingly gathered her pumpkin subjects around her for support.  Literally.  As her head is so big and wobbly that without them she'd be in a heap of trouble flopping helplessly all over the place.  I don't know where I was going with this crazy gal, but I couldn't get the idea for it out of my head until I made her.  The gourd head and arms are cut out of an old t-shirt; the dress is linen and lace that used to be a bedskirt.  Her pointy shoes are black wool from an outdated skirt.  Used felt scraps for the other features. Teeth: roasted acorn squash seeds.  Which we discovered are just as tasty as pumpkin seeds, but maybe a little harder to eat because they are smaller.  But don't they make lovely goulish teeth?  So funny.  More pictures here.  She's loosely based on a ragdoll style pattern.  I just cut out a shape for the head, like a bow and added some long sections to the back.  She looks a little like E.T. though, not my intention, but there ya have it.  While I was researching the internet for ideas and possibilties for this, I came across many fabulous fun patterns and ideas.   Like this one for a stuffed pumpkin.  Another one for a spooky pumpkin.  Darling Halloween Mouse Pumpkin: picture & pattern.   A darling crochet pumpkin.   And since I received many requests for my felt pumpkins, I just posted free patterns on my PatternBee website.  There's also this new Halloween redwork print-out too that's really cute.  So now you have a few projects to ponder over this weekend.  Enjoy!

So.  A busy week here:  painting, painting and more painting by day.  Crafting and sewing by night.  But the highlight of the week was getting Beautiful Cakes here and this adorable surprise Halloween square along with it!  This was the one I was going to buy next, so Jenny read my mind and gifted us with it.  Wasn't that so sweet of her? It totally made MY holiday anyway.  The work that she and her hubby are doing is amazing.  You have to check out their new Christmas Holiday square that is so crazy sweet you won't believe it, and these fun cake ornaments she recently introduced on her blog have me drooling and clapping like a lunatic.   Really, you should see the detail on these.  I'm so tickled and thrilled with both of them.  They will surely be cherished. And...the last time I checked, there was a teensy little something in the works for someone who just had a birthday.  I think I saw it up there in the dollhouse kitchen.  Yes, I'm sure I did.  And I think this someone is going to LOVE it.  No more hints though.  Can you stand the suspense? 

Summer Twins

The cooler weather this weekend was perfect for getting out in the yard and catching up on gardening chores.  We got a lot accomplished but I'm definitely feeling it today.    With August only a day away there's suddenly that "lost summer" vibe in the air even though I'm not necessarily feeling that way.   There's just an awareness that the season is nearly over and I should make the most of it.  Which accounts for my sporadic posts anyway.  It's a busy time, I tell ya!

So, going back to Friday, I finished this pair of seasonal dolls, (formerly known as 'thing one and thing two') in the nick of time; one's for Ginger and the other was a birthday present for a little friend.  I thought it would be fun to make matching dolls, and it was, but after wards it was kind of hard to break up the set.  Especially after I saw this picture, with them looking so sisterly and all.  Kind of like separating twins at birth or something.   In the end I added a flower to one (to tell them apart) and made a little bag to go along with her.  I used rainbow colored embroidery floss for the name patch.  Love how it turned out.  The birthday party was a lovely morning affair; a brunch with delicious homemade strawberry shortcake.  We rode over there with friends who live nearby and after a couple of hours, Missy and I left the kids bouncing on the trampoline and headed up the road a ways to a farm stand and found fresh picked peaches, corn on the cob, and cucumbers waiting.  All of which ended up on the menu this weekend. On the way back, we stopped at a quaint Mennonite bakery, to find the most heavenly cinnamon rolls, soft raisin cookies, and homemade noodles.   The bakery doubles as a home, or vice versa, with the front part of the house set up as a little shop with handmade quilts, plain and simple dresses, needlework, teacups, books, and that sort of thing.  The kitchen was sparse with a table and a rack of bakery goods. Out in front, a collection of wooden patio furniture caught my eye.  Swings, picnic tables, benches, all beautifully made.  Definitely going back for more of those cinnamon rolls.  They disappeared rather quickly here this weekend. (ahem.)

Lambkin Love

We were driving through the country last week and passed by lots of 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.  Sweet 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.

                                                            

Spring Forward

Two lovely bunnies, hopping merrily down polka-dot lane, singing as they go, "to market-to market jiggety jig", on their way to find a lovely chocolate egg to put in their basket.  (Little do they know, I've already eaten them all.)  Made from this kit (now discontinued). 

Miss Bliss

They say, "third time's the charm", and it certainly seems to be the case here. Meet my "official" wee bunny, Miss Bliss. The first two attempts didn't seem to be quite right, and I kept looking at the others over here and wondering why Petula and Chocolate Bunny (see below) were so different. So I double-checked to make sure I was using the same pattern as everybody else. Indeed I was. But it turns out that, if I had put on my glasses and actually read the directions I might have discovered that I was one piece short! (Very possibly one short of a full deck too, if you know what I mean.) Oh dear is me, and my sincerest apologies to Hillary; I am thoroughly abashed over my blunder, as it was never my intention to alter your perfect design. So here she is...and oh my stars, what a difference that one little piece makes. Here is my wee bunny looking precious and plump wearing *GingerBliss* Amy Butler designer fabric. The eyes are wooden flower beads stitched down with embroidery floss. They do look blissful don't they?   Now I have to confess that this is all just slightly embarrassing. What a pitiful poor state I'm in now, so much so that I can't even bring myself to show you the bottom half of Chocolate Bunny, attempt #2. In fact it has been suggested (by certain children in the house) that she looks more like the Velveteen Rabbit. So let's just pretend that this was *intentional* and leave it at that.  And, maybe not mention that there's no wee family resemblance here either, even though she is a distant relative.