Dolly visits my sister

After checking out things around our house, Dolly took an excursion up to my sister's. It was an idyllic afternoon to sit on the porch. We sat int he shade but Dolly wanted to get some sun.

She sat in the boat for a bit but decided against venturing out onto the river. It was a very busy afternoon with a lot of traffic and activity.

Last, Dolly poses in my sister's garden. She really liked this cushiony plant.

Dolly's adventures continue

Dolly decided to take a tour of the garden last weekend. Rain was predicted all week so she wanted to get some sun before it hit.

First she sunned herself a bit, snuggled up in the evergreen in front of the house. The needles are quite soft. The weather on Sunday was perfect for an afternoon snooze in the branches.

Then she stopped to view the back yard from the top of Tim's fence. The milkweed is in our yard (the butterflies love it) and the last of the roses on the other side in Tim's. We kind of share plants back and forth across the fence. The perch gave Dolly a lovely view of the side and back yards.

Later on she wandered over to sit by the roses next to the garage door. Steve made the trellis, more to hold them back from blocking the door than support for them. They've been there since we had the garage built (30 years) and do just fine. It made a lovely perch for Dolly to sit and just smell the roses.

Dolly's Adventures

Dolly had an exciting weekend. First her abdomen and ankles were toned up and strengthened and then she had a hip replacement to even up her legs. While she was recuperating, her dress was edged and a snap sewed on the back for closure, her rose was stitched and attached to her hair and her wrap belt neatly tied. Dolly was ready for an adventure.

Stepping outdoors for the first time, Dolly poses with the mum plant I was given after graduation on Friday. She then ventured into the yard and found a seat for sunning herself on a clump of oak leaves (a very small oak tree that's taken root this spring).

to be continued...

Hello, Dolly!

That's what I've been calling her, Dolly. She's patiently waiting for me to finish her dress and get that pin out of her head, the one holding the flower together. This is a pattern by Mimi Kirchner that I found on Purl Bee. It been great fun.

Dolly is all felt and wool from my stash. The threads are silks and pearl cottons. She's sewn all by hand. The instructions in the pattern are clear and easy to follow. I have a list of "next times" that I should jot down.

I think I need to make a less serious doll. Above she just looks patient, but she's got a more wary outlook below. I stole the "flirty eyes" idea from Susan M. Hinckley. Her blog is Small Works in Wool.

New nametag

For years I've loved the doll designs by Patti Medaris Culea and have avidly read all of her books, followed her blog, etc. But I'd never actually made a doll from her patterns. Recently she posted a free pattern for a nametag doll, Natania, on her blog and last weekend I decided I needed a new nametag!

It was quite a challenge to stitch, turn and stuff those teeny-tiny pieces but I managed to do it. I used muslin for the doll; happily it was a good quality muslin that didn't fray to bits in my struggles. You draw the face on after you've made it and let me tell you once I had that thing stuffed, that head was going on that doll no matter how the face came out!

It came out pretty much okay, thanks to Patti's directions. The eyes aren't quite level and it's a little high on the face but, hey, I'm pleased with it as a first attempt.

Her armature is pipe cleaners, her blouse a bit of lace. Her hair is hand-dyed silk threads from Treenway Silks (Gulf Island Series, Poet's Cove, about half-way down this page on the right)--their fibers are amazing. I used a wire "armature" for the hair. I used Pigma Micron pens for the face and the name banner, with some Sharpie fine point markers for some of the color.

I'm really glad she added this little pattern. Now that I've dipped my toe, I'm ready to dive in.

Not so quiet week

Well, I thought this week would be quiet but it's as busy as last week. I hired a part-time assistant today for the summer. Jacob has already helped immensely. Yay!

I was exhausted this weekend and didn't do much. I can't seem to get up enough gumption to work on the Take It Further project this month. I'm happy with my plan and want to finish it, just not enough to pick up a needle right now.

I did some stitching on the needlepoint pincushion while working the conference on Friday and Saturday. It's coming along. It's a really nice exercise in how colors change depending on angle and stitches. The same colors worked next to each other but with a different stitch look quite different. I'm not sure how I like the color combination. It's taken from the backing fabric, which is also an interesting way to select colors for a geometric project like this.l

This weekend I played with felt. First, I made these dolls. They try out an idea I'd been considering for a while and use my new Cartwright's sequins. The faces of the dolls are large flat paillettes with one hole at the top. They're iridescent and change from pink to purple to green depending on the angle as you look at them.

I plan to send the two smaller ones to Pat at Gatherings for her Comfort Doll Project. I think the mermaid may be a bit too big for that. I drew on faces and attached the sequins to the dolls using shisha stitch. They were a lot of fun to do and I made all three this weekend as I sat around.

I also made the two bottlecap pincushions shown here. One is supposed to be a strawberry. Hmmmm. The other is for my niece, from her graduation water-bottle cap.

I'm becoming a connoisseur of bottle caps. I like the ones from my husband's juice. The ones on our water bottles this weekend are a good size. A bit deeper than most. Many are too tall and narrow or wide and shallow. My sweetie now saves all of the pull-tabs from our soy milk cartons so I can use them for finger pin-cushions. Never ending fun!