EVERYTHING ROSY

Christmas Wreath

2011-12-07T18:06:00.000-05:00

I have been dying to do this wreath from two years ago. I have finally done it. I love it. It may be too big for my door but I don't care lol.....

Don't forget to check the doll blog. I will be posting an ornament doll there in a few....

Time to Paint

2011-11-07T13:37:00.000-05:00

My quilt and doll room is over flowing with rolled up quilts on large cardboard rolls. So, what does one do when that happens? One switches to another craft lol.

My mode has switched to painting, even though I have two more dolls to finish. I will do those in between. I have been painting a few little things to get me going and purchased a few patterns from JoSonja Jansen. Her patterns are so professional with lots of color pictures, and a delight to just look at. Just go look at her website, click on shop and each icon you see there is a selection of patterns. Here

I have already got the two Whale cribbage board patterns and will order the boards to go with those patterns today. One is for hubby and one is for son, both fishermen lol, the younger being a surfer also.

I love JoSonja's whimsey. Her Thumbelina pattern is so wonderful as is the Owl and the Pussycat, The Pirates and etc etc etc...you have to go look to appreciate all the wonderful paintings.

Today, I will show you a very large ornament.

I know, my studio is a bit messy but that is from all the stuff I have been doing and all of it will be totally put away when I start to paint. Anyway this ornament measures 13 3/4 inches tall and a has a diameter of 8 and is shaped beautifully with the point going down and the name escapes me at the moment.

It is plastic. I thought I would put JoSonja sealer all over it and paint one of her Christmas scenes on it. I will have to give it a good think and decide just what and will post when I get started. I will be using her paint line, of course.

The little guy you see there at the bottom is called a "Humbug" lol...isn't he just miserable? I am painting a bunch of those for a little craft show I am doing in December.

Ok, back to work and I will be getting back when I start, stay tuned. Remember my other blogs, where I post dolls and quilts. The link is on the left.

Wall Angle

2011-10-25T18:35:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted to this blog for ages. Anyway, I got in the mood to paint and I thought I would do a little demo for those interested, who would like to see how to do some of this Folk Art, as its not that hard at all, and also tell you a bit about this Prolific Artist who died many years ago

This angel may look complicated but she is not hard if you know a little stroke work. There are books on the market that can teach you that. I would recommend, "Jackie Shaw" books, for beginners, for the basics.

Folk Art or Decorative Painting consists of basecoat, highlight, shading and strokework.

I have many many wood cut outs from my painting and show days. This is one of them.

The pattern I will be using is one by Joyce Howard which is very rare and hard to find. Joyce published 6 books in her liftime, one of them a quilting book with painted blocks and I think that will be my very next project. I have wanted to do that for years.

Joyce also published very few patterns. A dickens series ( I found a set in Washington many years ago at a close-out). The only other Patterns would be ones in the posession of students of Joyce. I was not one of the fortunate ones to take classes from her as I hadn't started to paint then. I am fortunate to have friends who have shared with me tho. I have bought and begged and borrowed for years. I now own all six of her books and a few of her patterns and I am finally happy lol.

This angel is just called, Wall Angel and measures 18.5 X 15 or so.

To begin, the wood piece must be sealed and then basecoated with acrylic paints and I am using Decoart Americana paint. I basecoat, let dry and lightly sanded and basecoated two more coats and let cure 24 hours.

The pattern must be traced onto tracing paper (transparent) and then positioned on the wood piece and taped at the top in just a couple spots, graphite is slipped under the traced pattern and only the main areas traced and blocked in with colors as per instruction.

As I block the entire angle in I will put a pic up and so on..the picture above is the Pattern Picture.

This is the pattern. It must be traced onto tracing paper.

Here the pattern is traced on with graphite paper.

Here is the angel all blocked in. Now I have to trace all the strokework and flowers on and start to paint those.

For the strokework pattern, I just trace lines for directions of the strokes and the brush and paint does the strokework. Most of the florals are also strokwork, where the brush is loaded with a couple colors and applied. I will post as I go along and try to show some of it.

I just finished the Wall Angel. This is the painted stage. After 24 hours, it will get a coat of glazing medium, that has to dry and then, I will antique it and flyspeck it. I will use black and white for the specking and will post another pic. Flyspecking brings the open areas together.

I just notice that I didn't put the white flower centers in lol.

Necklace Mania, The Wedding Cake Necklace

2011-05-07T23:14:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhh a change of pace and something different. I am posting this quickly as I want to go bead some more. The pics are not so good as I took them at night inside but will post more later

I have the Queen of Necklace Design, here with me, Marylyn Doyle from Arizona. We went to the hugh Gem show a week ago and bought lots of beads etc. This is a necklace she made for me. The earings, I made. The beads used are, semi-precious, fancy glass, Trade beads, Venetian beads etc.

A word about Trade beads. You can google them and find more than I can tell you here.

She makes a very strong necklace and so I had a few lessons. This necklace is called the Wedding Cake Necklace, because.....on the left is a powder blue, Venetian glass bead with lots of lovely decoration. I have had this and it's brothers and sisters for over 20 years in my collection. The decoration on the bead looked like fancy frosting to us, therefore the name applied lol.

I made the necklace above. This one has a red Venetian, Meliflori heart, peppermint jasper, spottes jasper, fired glass and so on....I made all the earings.

Here are all three of them.

Here are some of the Trade beads up close. They come on ropes as they are heavy. We only put about four on a necklace.

Some more beads. Ok, back to more fun.....

TURTLE PINCUSHIONS CONTINUED

2011-04-13T19:02:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is Fred. I don't know why they look masculine to me, even tho I beaded them some lol.

I gave him light tiger eye beads for eyes. His house is covered in June bugs so he won't be going hungry in a while.

I tweaked the pattern some more and I think I like his house, not sure yet. I might make it a bit bigger. I like the tail and everything else. I might make do another version with a shorter house to see if I like that.

I did some beading all around him here and there. You can still use him as a pincushion.

TURTLE PINCUSHIONS

2011-04-12T16:52:00.001-04:00

EDIT: I switched out the two top photos as I made him a bigger house.

I am so enjoying the pincushion craze that has been going on, on the web. I decided to jump and try a few of my own too. Here is a little cutie that I made out of scraps. These are making me smile and I hope they make you smile as well. As long as it's an animal etc, it's always adorable....

I made this fat little bugger first after three or four trials and errors. His house seems to be a bit small for him hahahah....anyway,

I wanted a realistic face and I think I captured the turtle face pretty good. I made his shell and body as one piece and then made the cover for the shell seperate. I took a T-pin with a round loop and forced a huge plastic pearl on it and then wired some seed beads in the loop of the pin.

He is definately a snapping turtle with his mean look lol. I rouged his cheeks with crayon and outlined his mouth with a black Identi-pen, two black/green seed beads for his eyes. In this model I made a seam on the bottom and it raised his head and I like that.

I think I want his tail a big longer for the next model.

The next model: Then I decided to make another one with the shell not included with the body to see if I liked it better. I used the fabric from a little embroidered dress for the body. I then made the shell seperate.

The shell is just stuffed a bit and pinned on the turtle so far.

I adjusted this pattern for a longer tail and tried to make the beak longer. I rounded the head a bit more on this one. I still need to adjust the shell, it is still a work in progress.

I didn't put a seam down the bottom like the first one and his head is therefore lower. I like the higher head better.

Here is a pic of the mess made when trying to design your desire lol.

I made about four models and kept adjusting until I got it. I did sleep on it and as usual, I woke up with the plan. This was great fun.

Hazel Quackenbush

2011-02-19T15:47:00.000-05:00

Just a note to remind you that I will be posting the dolls in my doll blog. The link is on the right side.

Here is one pic of Hazel...the others are at the doll blol.

Uma

2011-02-09T02:09:00.001-05:00

These two dolls are from a pattern called Uma and she is a forest Elf. I made two of them and changed the names to Autumn and Nightshade.

This is Autumn

I used Batiks for her body and clothing. She wears cuffs on her ankles with jewels attached. Her fitted outfit is all wired to resemble some sort of forest plant. All the clothing is wired and quilted except for the cuffs.

Close-up of her jewelry, made with glass beads, semi precious (japanese turquoise) and Swarovski crystals.

This is Nightshade

She is made the same as Autumn, only darker and also bejeweled, she has more turquoise lol.

Close-up of jewelry.

Here they are together. I love that I can pose them anyway I want.

More poses..

I used eyelash yarn for the hair. I just knitted a patch and sew it on. I sewed beads here and there on the clothing and painted the faces with fabric paint and glittered them.

I painted the faces with Decoart American SoSoft fabric paint. I also used the Shimmering Pearl and the Metallic lines as well. Painting your doll faces make them so much more realistic and natural looking. The paints blends very easily and even a beginner can do it. If you live in Orlando Florida, I will be teaching this doll at the Sewing Studio. I will teach you how to paint a doll face....write to me if you have any questions.

LOG CABIN DIAMOND STAR QUILT

2011-01-24T15:51:00.001-05:00

This is the last step for the CLCS. I quilted it yesterday and instead of binding it with a seperate binding, I left a 1 1/2 inch of batting and backing all around the quilt.

I then mitered the corners by folding the two ends at the corner, on the wrong side, together and sewed a seam down leaving a 1/4 inch for the turning under.

I then folded that exta binding to the right of the quilt and turned under 1/4 inch and proceeded to sew it down on the right side. When I got to the corners, they were already mitered, so all I had to do was turn under the 1/4 inch, I had left free.

You can't tell that the binding is a self binding unless you turn it over.

This is a total scrap quilt, using only lights and darks but one theme (Christmas fabric). I love all the effects. I see the star, boxes, baby blocks and buildings.

The strip on top is a crazy patch I add later to make the quilt longer, using all the left over scraps.

One could have make the plain blocks also striped like the rest of the quilt blocks, but one was getting sick of it and wanted to move on to something else lol, and the plain blocks look just as nice.

Since this was a custom quilt, some things had to be custom cut. Looking at the quilt, you can see that when the star is finished, you need to fill some spaces in with half diamonds and that was easy. Just cut a plain diamond in half and leave 1/4 inch seam allowance before cutting.

I found some nice Christmasy rose fabric for the back.
For the four ends, I layed the quilt corner on the cutting board, lined up the top and the side and made a paper pattern of that area and added the 1/4 seam and cut that from fabric.

I am happy to report that I have put a good 12 to 15 yard dent in my stash lol.

LOG CABIN DIAMOND STAR QUILT

2011-01-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

The quilt fits a single bed nicely but needs just a bit more to tuck the pillows.

I worked on the extention. I had some strips left over and quite a lot of odd pieces, there was a basket full of them and so, not wanting to waste, I decided on S&C (scraps and crumps.

I started working on some areas. I say areas because I dont' want blocks, I want the extention to kinda melt together as one piece.

After I had sort of a beginning on three different pieces, and a couple small ones. I started to built on them. I decide on 17 wide by 86 long, the width of the quilt. This piece will look nice on the pillow.

I feel great about using all the left over scraps. This will take a nice chunk out of my Christmas fabrics, after the backing etc, I will have to take a look and see what is left now.....I might have to do another.

These are the three area that I am going to join for the extention.

LOG CABIN STAR QUILT

2011-01-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

HOW TO FIX A QUILT THAT YOU CAUGHT ON FIRE LOL. I will be the first to admit that I am a dummy hahahhaahahahahah..long story short, I lit a candle in the studio and thought I had more that enough room to finish my quilt top.

Somehow I flung the top around to sew one side and thought I saw a flash of light and low and behold the quilt was on fire.

I wasn't too unhappy when I saw that it was small, so I started to cut away the burnt parts.

Here it is all fixed.

The top is all squared up and ready for quilting.

DIAMOND STAR QUILT

2011-01-06T22:57:00.001-05:00

I have been working on this quilt since before Christmas for next Christmas lol. I call it the Christmas Star Quilt and the purpose is to use up the Christmas fabric entirely. I think I have to make a couple more quilts to accomplish that feat.

This is what I have so far. All the main Paper pieced blocks are done and all that remains is to figure out the plain print diamonds and what value and where. I have it on the board to see the effect and I will switch it around here and there.

I love seeing more than one thing in a quilt. I love the box look and then the star and who know what else one can find when it is finally finished.

I might make a tutorial.

Pumpkin Seeds and Pumkin

2011-01-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

My neighbor gave me two pumpkins the other day. I decided they must be dried up but the seeds would still be good. Sure enough they were. Where I grew up, we always had fresh pumpkin seeds to eat.

The seeds, however, came with their own superstition. They were actually called Macobi Seeds and those who were love sick or their lover left them, they would be eating these seeds. They were said to have Macobi. They were also called pepitos for those who were just eating them to eat them.

When one would eat these seeds, one would be quick to say, "I don't have Macobi" lol. I am just eating them.

I don't know what effect these seeds were supposed to have on love sickness. Imagine the seed itself, it may have some properties that was good for the feel good hormone " Serotonin". I would see people eat a whole bag full and say they felt much better lol.

How I made the pepitos: I washed and drained them and them put them on towels to dry. I then put them on a cookie sheet and all spread out and baked them for ten minutes on 350 to dry some more. I then removed them, sprinkled some olive oil (tiny amount ) and some sea salt and stirred them good and put them in for another ten min. I would stir them again and check to see if they were done. I think it took 20 to 30 min, depending on your oven.

To crack the peppitos (I am assuming that you don't have Macobi lol) put the seed between you teeth on the sharp end of the seed and bite down just a little and the seed will pop open and you can just pull the seed out with you teeth, it's all in the learning lol.

The pumpkins, were also good so I put those in a pan with a rack with water and steam baked them for pies and cakes at a later time. Here is one all done and scoped out.

Lone star

2010-11-17T15:47:00.000-05:00

Oh gosh, I have been working on so many things. Here is one project I just finished. I took me a couple years to tackle but it is done. All quilted, binding and all. It's a king size 107x107.

Another view....

ok blogger won't let me upload anymore pics. I will try again later or from the other computer.

Checking In

2010-10-30T21:40:00.001-04:00

Just checking in to let you know I am still here. I have been extreamely busy. I have lots more new stuff to post both on the this site and the doll site. I will try to do that by early next week.

Mindless Finished

2010-10-01T00:26:00.001-04:00

All done with the black, one inch borders on. I enjoyed making this scrap quilt a lot. I see different scenes in it that were totally unplanned, except for the dog and the houses.

Mindless Continued

2010-09-29T23:03:00.000-04:00

I finished the third piece and have join it to the rest. The section on the right bottom has an airial look about it. This is where value plays a major role, not that I intended anything of the sort lol

The white comes forward and the black on each side of the track, make it recede so you can see a little depth. Then the section behind the white strip looks like a little town lol....one never knows what will come out of the S&C.

I will work on the long bottom piece next.

A friend sent me this link. I thought it so very sweet and the song by Demis Roussoss is just beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfbchq0xQmQ&feature=player_embedded

MINDLESS, MINDLESS, MINDLESS

2010-09-27T23:59:00.001-04:00

This project was started on the 22nd, so I am a bit late with the posting.

I love my scraps and crumps, as you all know from the mindless stuff I post lol. Crumps, being a word I learned on a Quilt Board lol. I assumed the crumbs were the tiny bits that you couldn't call a scrap and which I don't throw away anymore.

One of my darling friends, knowing of my fetish, dumped some of her scraps and crumbs here. I keep the scraps from different friends seperated, as their stuff is unique to them. I can look at one of my scrap quilts and know exactly who is in them...yes, sometimes I do add and combine but mostly it is from the one person about 75%.

Because of certain circumstances, I have the need to do mindless right now, so all other started projects, that require some thought, are on hold. It is nothing too serious, just some things that happen and are normal.

So here I am with my S & C (scraps and Crumps). I sewed into the wee hours of the morning as I could not sleep and was feeling quite energetic and excited at the prospect of creating something from nothing.

This is what I started with.

I sorted the heap into HST (half square triangles), squares, long pieces etc. At that moment, I didn't have a clue what I was going to do.

Then I piled it neatly by the sewing machine. Remember, I am not even thinking, I am just sewing here and there and I am feeling very joyful just doing that.

I knew my brain, given a chance, would kick in eventually as it knows what I like. It is a funny thing, you know?

I started to sew all the HST together, all sizes. Then I sewed a long string of strips and they were going every which way but the mind was saying, " keep going". The strips was long and curving and etc.

I started this block and left it at that, as the brain wanted to do something else with another block. Then that was left and another started.

These are not finished by any means. I don't want a block to block look. I want it to flow together as a whole, so I have to do a connection somewhere.

I put the three together and I can see, where there is an outside strip, it gives the block appearance. I turned the top two with no strips on that side and I can see the look I like. I love the black intersperced here and there.

I now think I should put a cat and dog and a house in. I got some neat blocks out of the "Sew Precise" software.

The two blocks on the top, show the striped pieces of the long string that I did. I filled in the curve at the dip and left the round part alone and then I cut the whole strip straight. I just add and square up as I go but love the crooked things inside.

I have finished four pieces so far and there's not much of the S & C left from this donation, lol, but I have more from another friend more or less the same taste in fabric.

I am calling them pieces because I don't want a block look. Here is how I started the fourth part and then the bottom half...it's sew as you go.

I have made stairways or ladders and when I do the next one it will be better. The more I do these the more I learn.

I even managed a house lol. These are the four areas now. I won't sew them together yet.

Here are four pieces together, so far.

Ok, that mess of S&C that I started on, is gone and I had to empty another bag but these are larger piece, thank God! lol.

I am working on a long part going down one side of the four pieces and have more than half done. Notice my little doggie with the kerchief?

Then I just took a ladder and placed it in the bottom space and will work from there.

I will probably switch the pieces around once I get them done, After I finish the bottom of this piece, I will make a long piece accross the entire bottom, so the quilt will be about 58x58 more or less.

Teddy and the T-Shirt scraps.

2010-09-13T11:09:00.000-04:00

I thought this was so cute I had to share. I am in the process of making a T-shirt quilt for someone. I started to cut the fronts out and would throw the rest of it on the floor.

My little Shih-tzu, Teddy (he is 12 1/2) was watching deligently. As soon as a scrap would fall, he would grap it and stuff it under his tummy (mine, mine). Eventually the heap got a bit big. He then proceeds to jump up and down on it, throwing them in the air and then plunks himself down on top and went to sleep lol.

He woke up when the camera clicked. He doesn't like his pic taken.

Here is a double block that I built to accomodate the size I was working on.

Here is a single bock with a little building on.

I will post after it is quilted.

ODD BLOCKS FOR SURPRISE QUILT

2010-09-01T16:34:00.002-04:00

I decided to go search for some quilt blocks I had made about 10 years ago. I thought I would make every block that was ever made and published. How was I to know that there are only 4,500 quilt blocks to do hahahhaha...so scratch that.

I found 20 blocks, 12 inches square. I also found about twenty four, 5 inch blocks from the time that I thought I was going to make the Dear Jane quilt...well so much for that and 5 or so years later lol.

Here is the collection of Dear Jane's.

Aren't they sooo cute. At 5 inch, you only need to make like 250 of them, I forgot now but it's a ton.

I played with them and put one of the bigger blocks that I found and surrounded it with the DJ's

The center block, the two large ones in the second row and the third one in the first row, were all Judy Martin free blocks a long time ago. I am so glad I got Them.

Here is a close up of how it's made.

See all those little slivers in the star point? It makes the star actually twinkle at a distance.

Here is the quilt finished with all the blocks I found. I still four left over but those can be thrown in with another quilt I have in mind with some other little block from another project that I stopped lol.

I love it. It measures 59x71. I might add a border and make it a wee bigger.

I just made the border, I will try to quilt it tomorrow and post the final pic.

I have also started Mrs Farmer at my other blog.

Underground Railroad, all done

2010-08-21T19:16:00.001-04:00

I have finished the quilt finally. It turned out to be 85x103, more or less. I used all joined plaid for the backing. I am not buying any fabric for a long time, so I am using what I have, besides I like a patchy backing, makes it cozy. I also used two different plaids for the binding which is about one inch wide.

Here it is on the bed.

Here it is hanging on the design wall. It is way too big for the wall.

Here is the back.

A closer view of the plaids.

I used a very nice soft poly batting as I want the quilt to be soft and cozy.

Underground Railroad

2010-08-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

All the blocks, but not arranged as yet the way I want them.

All that is left to do now, is the sashings and the corner stones and then on to the quilting.

Beauregard Surrounded, a block to recall the civil war.

Birds in the air, a block to recall freedom.

Lincoln's Platform, a block to recall the Emancipation Proclamation.

Rocky Road to Kansas, a block to recall the Exodusters.

Here is a tutorial on doing the Bird in the Air block.

Trace all the bird parts onto very light interfacing (iron on type). Place right side of fabric to the glue side of the interfacing. Sew on line and cut out leaving an 1/8 inch seam allowance.

Turning the birds. I used finger turning tools from my doll kit. Cut the interfacing down the middle but not all the way to the points of the birds. Place tube inside and poke the corresponding tube down into the other tube and press on the fabric side until it enters the tube, then just turn it out.

Here you see the hollow tube going up and the solid tube going down into it, poking the fabric in. Just doing the points, the rest is easy.

Here you can see them turned and pinned. Now I will steam press the birds onto the block and the glue side of the interfacing will stick in place. Then I topstitch all around the birds. Start in middle not at the point.

Underground Railroad

2010-08-15T12:12:00.001-04:00

More Blocks. These two blocks were really easy, like beginner.

The one on the left. "Underground Railroad", a block to recall the network of help.

The block on the right, "Jocob's Ladder." A block to recall buying freedom.

Block on the right, "Trip around the world", a block to recall colonization. B.ock on the left with the Lincoln pic, "Quilt Box", a block to recall the Abolotionist Movement.

Underground Railroad

2010-08-13T21:17:00.000-04:00

More Blocks. Catch me if you can. A block to recall escape.

Creole Puzzle. A block to recall free Blacks.

North Star. A block to recall abolitions Fairs.

Three rows. I change them around, once I finished them. I have 8 block to go to finish this quilt.

Underground Railroad

2010-08-13T13:59:00.001-04:00

More Blocks.

North star and Aunt Dianah. I only managed half of the North Star. Aunt Dianah, a block to recall Americanization. North Star, A block to recall Abolition Fairs.

Cotton Boll, a block to recall the slave economy.

Underground Railroad

2010-08-12T19:02:00.000-04:00

More blocks. "Charms," A block to recall African Traditions.

Slave Chain, a block to recall the slave's clothing.

The blocks so far.

The UnderGround Railroad

2010-08-10T23:22:00.002-04:00

I did four more blocks. This is "Cabin windows." A block to recall Plantation Housing. Even tho I have the book. I use Block base and pull the patterns into EQ7 and print out paper pieced patterns. I can print on 11x17 paper. I delete parts I don't want or extra pages.

Christmas Star. A block to recall the Plantation Calendar.

Here are four blocks together. Lost Ships, a block to recall the Ocean Voyge. Chained Star, Cabin Windows, Christmas Star.

Triple Link Chain. A block to recall family ties.

I love this block. I pulled the pattern into EQ and made a paper pieced patt with it and it went together so smooth. I can see this block made with all scraps for a whole quilt.

I only printed out the first quarter of this block as you only need a quarter of it to make all four sides. I deleted the extra pages and the extra pattern pieces.

I don't even do freezer paper. I print right on plain cheap paper and just pin my fabric pieces and use just like freezer paper.

On to more blocks, see you tomorrow.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

2010-08-08T00:45:00.001-04:00

A block to recall capture in Africa

I know, I know. Lots of people say it's not true and yada, yada. But I choose to belive that some of it, is true. I wasn't there, so what can I say. I have always loved this quilt and have always wanted to do one for myself and the time is just right.

I purchased the book, Facts and Fabrication , Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery by Barbara Brackman. There are 20 blocks in the book, lots of stuff to read and pics etc.

I did a search and found some more blocks that were used in this particular quilt. Each block represents a message or so they say and it makes sense to me.

I have started the quilt with this first block, "Chained Star." It was a bit hairy but doeable. It was very enjoyable for me. I forgot to take pic of the work-up but try with the rest.

I pulled out some civil war fabrics, some Pat Sloane and some of my other stash . I will post some more tomorrow as it's a bit late now.....

The Colorful Quilt All Done

2010-07-31T15:14:00.000-04:00

I made a mistake and posted the quilt in my other blog.

Thank God lol. I really wanted to leave it and do something else but I had so much invested in it already, that I just had to finish and I am glad I did.

This is outside in the yard so you can see all the colors. I spray starched and blocked it with a steam iron. I checked to make sure the borders were all even. One wasn't. It could have happened by not paying close attention to the markers.

No problem, it is a patchwork quilt, so I inserted wedges to match were it was needed. I bet you can't tell lol.

I will post one more pic after it is quilted and then it will be on to other things.

All in all I did enjoy making this quilt. The instructions were so precise, it made the journey very enjoyable. I believe anyone can do this quilt. All that is needed is a little experience with quilting.

The Colorful Quilt Section J

2010-07-30T19:56:00.000-04:00

Section J is done and here is a work up so far.

I left the wrong side up. Here you can see all the parts for that section. All the pp is done first, then the background pieces are cut and any other pieces of the patterns.

Here are the peices on the right side all ready to be put together according to the instructions.

here is the block all put together for half of that section.

Now I pin that part on the map and match all the marks. As you can see, the other part of J on the right.

Here the other section is sewed on. This is the wrong side of the quilt and as you can see I am almost done. Just one more small block to do.

The Colorful Quilt Block F & H

2010-07-26T23:16:00.000-04:00

Block F was a little block. I made it the other day. Here are the parts.

I am going to make a freezer paper pattern of the star part like I have been doing. The outer ring I will leave as is and PP and just leave enough extra for the 1/4 inch seams.

Here is the ring on the map, ready to be put into the main quilt. Next I will put the star in, after I mark everything.

I only pinned this part of the quilt up in order to place the ring in. I then put the star in and that block was done.

Then I tackled Block H or area H which was a lot of work, two days straight sewing.

I pp the star part and then just pp right on the pattern pieces. See where I have left the extra fabric for the seams?

Here are the parts all pp and ready to put the area together. I have cut the background pieces and the border that is going in this piece.

To the left of the purple star is section H. I was able now to sew the D block in permanently. This is the right side.

This is the wrong side the way it fits on the map. I ripped out the bottom left as I didn't like the way it hung. I will fix that later. I only have one more section and one more block to do.

The Colorful Quilt Block E

2010-07-22T11:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, I did the E section. Yesterday, I showed the cut- out pattern pieces, in three sections. The parts for the background, pp parts, parts of the border that are include in this section.

Now I line them up according to the instructions. Here you see the Background (top) the pp strip and the last two are just cut from fabric. This is the first part of E.

Here is the second part.

Here you see the part of the border that has half the star (bottom), then the other half of the star block, above that the fabric piece and the two little pp parts. These two parts are all sewed together now according to the instructions.

Here I have pinned the sewed parts on the map and marked the marks. Then I will take it down and sew these parts to the rest of the quilt.

Here it is on the wrong side. I wanted you to see how it looks on the map.

So far I think I am 3/4 of the way. I am encouraged today to do another section lol.

Here it is on the right side. I'm afraid I pinned it a bit crooket.

The D circle is still free as some other parts have to be done before that part can be sewed in. I hope I have helped to show those who are interested in doing something like this, that it can be done if done a piece at a time.

The Four Cats

2010-07-20T16:42:00.000-04:00

I had every intention of starting on section E yesterday lol. I got side tracked with a quilt I saw on the quilt board. I guess I am still not ready to tackle another section, maybe today.

I saw this quilt of cats. Four cats joined by a block of Snail's Trail Block and I loved it (I distract easily) and it looked simple enought to pass the time and take a break from the Colorful One lol.

I made one block which consists of 4 cats and one Snail's Trail Block. You have to make X amount of ST and X amount of cats and then join in rows to get this quilt here

As for Secton E on the Colorful one, I got as far as this. Here you can see that I have cut the patterns out for that section. I have seperated the pp parts, the background parts, and the plain parts.

First I will do all the paper piecing parts, these are the most work intensive, then cut out all the plain parts and then the background parts. Then I will read her line by line instructions and start putting that section together and adding it to the existing quilt. I do go and pin the parts on the map to get the correct markings of what goes where and continue to do that with everything and lastly, take the quilt down and add the section to it. Since I cut out the patterns right from the copy, I have to make sure that I keep 1/4 seam allowance on everything.

2010-07-18T19:16:00.000-04:00

Wheeeee, I have finished section D. I took about three weeks off to rest my brain lol.

I have been working on some blocks for the Farmer's Wife Quilt, that I am doing with my on line friends at the Quilt Board.

Here is section D. It's all done the same as the beginning of this project. Do all the pieces for that section then follow the instruction of putting it together.

Here is the large circle. All of it was paper pieced then added to the rest.

Here I pinned the large circle for you to see but it can't be sewed in yet, until some other part is done first.

Here is the bottom left part that was done the same way. Paper piece the circle and the star and then join and add to the section.

I am undecided now which section I want to do next. I can work either the right or left side now to finish. There still is a lot of work here lol.

The Colorful Quilt Block C

2010-06-23T13:02:00.002-04:00

Back to block C. I finished that section except for the tiny star. Here are some parts of it. The left goes to the bottom with the border included with the star. Then the top snake is pp.

Here is the placement with the paper still on so you can see how it goes. It is sewed from the left and stops at the number on the pattern and the rest just stays there for the next step.

Each block comes with an extra map and show you exactly where you are and a black line shows where the placements is.

Here is is sewed together with the concave always on top of the convex. The markings are matched up and pinned. I wanted to show you, "The purple Thang". I am sure you know about it. It is so helpful to push the top layer as you sew and it keeps it together, it is a great tool.

Close-up of how it looks when the parts are sewed on.

The bottom star is attached. This is the reverse side. I left the paper on the rest of the snake so I can mark the next piece and match them up. The instruction has number by number so you can't go wrong. I only remove the paper on the part that I am sewing. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have that extra map to work on.

Here I put it on the right side so you can see the real colors and how it looks so far. Now I am going to work on the rest of that section.

Here are the other two part that go to the right at the bottom. As usual the parts are pp and put together with the plain blocks. To the left is part of the background and two half rings and then the half pie shape.

Here they are sewed together as one piece and now will be added to the rest on map.

Now it's back on the reverse side so I can use the map correctly. See the piece hanging? That stays just like that until another section is ready.

Ok, I put it on the right side of the fabric so you can see how it looks. The hole in the center is where the little star will go. I will do that today and will finish section C. I already have a head start on Block D, so that should go quicker but what's the hurry.

The Colorful Quit Block D

2010-06-20T20:50:00.000-04:00

I skipped the C block because I need to colorize the D block which I consider the center of attention. It is the largest star and I wanted it to be hot like Mars so I put lots of red, orange and yellow and little Teal to cool it some. I didn't finish it, I just wanted the main middle part done. The red ring is where it joins the yellow with spikes, that is part of A block. Here you see the right side of it and the rest of the blocks are on the wrong side.

Ok here it is on the wrong side to match the rest. Everything is in reverse when the blocks are done. Below that set of blocks is the C section and there are several parts to C. I think I will start C tomorrow and it will probably take two to three days to finish that section. As you can see every piece fits like clockwork. One must have loads of patience and it all comes together piece by piece.

The block D is exactly like the A block, only bigger and most of the other blocks follow the same proceeduer. If you do them one at a time and just keep joining them, you can do it too...It just takes lots of time and each block is work intensive. You need lot of breaks. I take my time as I don't care how long it takes.

The Colorful Quilt Block B

2010-06-19T11:33:00.001-04:00

Block B. In the background you can see how I have cut the pattern apart. Long snake strips that need lots of coffee breaks as I dont' eat chocolate (I try not to, don't buy it). Those are pp and I use the paper as I was too lazy to make freezer template. I didn't want to do all that tracing. I did trace the wedge for the star, as it's just one little wedge and you can make all eight wedges with one fp tracing.

The star is made and then ring going around the star is pp and the star set in. The two half rings above that are pp seperately after cutting them down the middle first and then joining when done. The the snakes are joined and added to the circle.

Here you can see the block turned on the right side of the fabric. This is the A block joined to the B block. Some seams are only sewed up to a certain point to accommodate the next block.

Now this is the wrong side of the frabric. You can see exactly how they fit on the map and you just continue from there. I could not do it without that map as it can sure get confusing. The 1/4 inch seam is so important here. You can see how everything falls into place.

Now on to Block C. I have it cut apart and haven't got a clue what goes where, so I will go to the map and refer and check my color wheel and start pp. It will probably take a few days to finish the C sections because there are several little half blocks to C. I will post the section as I go along.

The Colorful Quilt-Block A

2010-06-16T15:53:00.005-04:00

Ok here we go. I will post pics of the first block as it is put together, just to give those who need some help a heads up, if they are doing this quilt or are thinking of doing it. It is very important to read the entire instruction and study the layout. It is like a street map. Cut out the blocks and keep them together and do them one at a time. Each piece has letters and numbers and it's not hard really. IN block A, everything went together very nicely. A 11 had no instruction but one can see exactly where it goes.

This is the pattern for the center star of the block. You need to cut it into wedges. One wedge will do. Add 1/4 seam all around and paperpiece eight pieces. I made a freezer paper pattern and so used it eight times.

Here is one wedge with two shades of yellow and majenta background.

Here are all the wedges to be sewed together for the star center.

Here is the center star on the map. Now on to step 2.

This step follows the first. Paperpiece the next section and then cut a plain piece and add to the PP. Now there is an odd size bigger piece to pp, which is shown on the map.

Here you see the odd size piece is pp and added to the rest of the ring. What is not in the instruction is that you need to seperate that odd piece from the rest of the ring and pp seperately and then it's sewed on.

Here is the center block sewed into the ring.

Here is the second part of the block. The outside plain blocks and a pp ring of flying geese sewed together matching all the symbols.

Here are the two parts, ready to combine.

Here they are sewed together.

And here is the entire block except for #11 that I will be working on next and then on the block B. I am showing this block turned on the wrong side in orer to place it on the map. As you know in pp the blocks come out the opposite.

I am having a time with blogger. After I load a pic, I can't seam to get to the left even though I click on the aleigment tab.

I will not be showing the workups on the other blocks, just the completed blocks, unless I find something I have to work out.

Here is a pdf file for my friends at the quilt board of the Cathederal Windows. You can get it Catwin

The Colorful Quilt

2010-06-07T21:05:00.000-04:00

This is going to be my next project. The pattern is by Jaqueline De Jonge. I have had the pattern for about 3 years and paid 50.00 for it in Paducah, when I went to the quilt deal. I just had to have it and I will be disappointed if I don't make it. I don't pay that kind of money ever!! for a pattern. I can see why she charged that much when I open it.

So far I have cut out all the pattern blocks. It took like forever. Ther are eight large blocks with all sorts of rings and things.

Here is one sheet of patterns. Some will be paper pieced and the borders and area in-between will just be plain blocks.

Here you can see all the blocks cut and pinned together and another copy of the pattern to refer to as I make the blocks. It's like a road map lol. I did a mirror image of the of the quilt image so I can have a reference as the blocks will come out mirror image.

These are some fabrics I pulled and more will probably be added as I go along. It will not be the same coloration as the orginal. I feel like all the colors on the pattern kinda just run together and there is not enough dark to emphasise the beautiful blocks and all the work that went into them.

I will be working on A block and will keep the blog udated as I go along.

Indian Orange Peel

2010-05-28T20:34:00.001-04:00

Oh boy!! no wonder it took me 2 years before I got to the border for this quilt. This is the border for the Indian Orange Peel listed in my other blog here. First I had to do all the sections (paper pieced). Now I have to put them togther in four borders. I have them pinned the way I will be sewing them. What a job.

This pattern is not for the faint of heart with no time to spare lol. I will be back with more updates as I finish some more of it.....

See the finished quilt here

Kaleidoscope All done

2010-05-14T21:04:00.000-04:00

I added a pink 1 1/ 2 inch border and did the quilting on the Gammill. Today, I made the label and the sleeve and attached those and did the binding in same color as the border.

This quilt really went to together nicely. I think I only had to rip twice and that is very good lol. I hope you see how pretty the color of the border and binding are.

2010-05-12T17:11:00.002-04:00

A Memory Quilt

“Gloria”

A Memory Quilt is made out of the favorite (or not) clothing of a loved one. It is then given to a daughter or son or someone special. The special one can then wrap themselves up in the quilt and feel close to their loved one.

I chose Kaleidoscope because of its significance. Every movement or turn, makes another beautiful thing happen. Gloria was Kaleidoscope.

I picked about 24 pairs of her pants, cut them apart and used the legs to cut long, two inch strips. Gloria was a tall and elegant lady, so I got nice long strips. ,

I then divided them into lights and darks.

and sewed up the strada sets. One set of dark and one set of light.

I used six strips. I needed it wide enough to allow me to square the strip to a perfect 9 ¼, as the fabrics do have some stretch. I used a Kaleidoscope ruler to cut the triangles at the 9 ¼ mark. . I used four dark and four light triangles to make up the 16 ½ inch blocks .

Now, I have a choice to either make the blocks square and sew them together as square blocks, which would be fine. Another choice would be to just sew side to side and then come back and fill in the squares and outside triangles that are left.
I will sew side to side because I need the squares that are left, to put her pictures in. I will put in nine pictures and they will be a tiny block to add into the quilt.

Here you can see the blocks pinned to the wall and the pictures pinned into the square that is left by joining side to side.

I took her picture and made a log cabin effect. Since the squares that are left are on point. The pics have to cut on point to the measurement of the squares.

Here she is all ready to be put into her quilt.

Filling in the outside triangles: Here is the corner, which get three triangles. The one going toward the quilt will be joined to the picture square. Now this will create another look. I need to make more strada strip sets, but this time with less strips and one strada strip set at a time. These will be cut into 7 ½ inch squares, which will be subcut into half triangles.

Here is the quilt all pinned in place the way I want it. Now I will sew the rows together and set in the pictures.

Here is the first row with the picture set in. Now the second row is sewed together and added to the first row and the rest of the pics get set into that row.

Here are two rows sewed together. Then the last two rows are done the same way and then these sets of two rows get sewed together.

The more you look at the quilt, the more different things you will see. The dominant color or value, is dark and you will see a Maltese cross. If you look in the middle of that, you will see a smaller Maltese cross in some of the blocks and bigger ones in others. Then look at the picture squares. It looks like a log cabin block but on further examination, you suddenly see a four pointed star with the picture in the middle. Even though this quilt is made with square blocks, you will see a circle movement The texture on the fabric also create movement. If you look into the center of the big dark Maltese cross, the light fabric creates a windmill or blades. If you look at the picture and follow it where it comes to a point (light color) and where it meets the other point of the other picture, a complete circle is formed around the middles of the large Maltese cross.

This quilt was a joy to make for my departed friend Gloria. I have made it in her memory for her beloved daughter Lauren.

I will put the border on and quilt it and show another pic when I'm done.

A note to all Quilters out there. It doesn’t have to be cotten

Spiderweb Quilt all done

2010-03-28T16:03:00.000-04:00

I finished the Spider. I put a piano key border to add more color after all that white. I love it. It came out to be 75x85 more or less. I couldn't decide on a blue or red binding so I did both. I just joined red and blue alternately.

I have been in bed all day watching old movies and of course the rainy weather had a lot to do with it and I need a break after all that sewing. I think it took four or five days? I lost count.

2010-03-27T23:29:00.000-04:00

Here is Spiderweb on the quilter and a close up of the quilting. I just do freehand quilting.

I finished quilting it and did the binding. Tomorrow I will take pics outside and post/

2010-03-27T12:31:00.000-04:00

I had a little time this morning so I decided to work on my blog a bit. I went back to the simple template so I can put links on the side. This template is so much simpler. I will work on it some more after I get my Spiderweb quilt, quilted. I am putting it on the Gammill in a minute as soon as I get more coffee and finish blogging.

I am now thinking of more stripes and strings patterns. I love that scrappy look. You can use anything you have. I usually stick to a light and dark value theory. .

Now that I have arranged all my fabrics, in color codes and did all the drawers and know where every piece of fabric is....lol. This was another inpiration from Fibermania (Melody).

Here is a pic of the book shelves in the front closet. I was able to get one on the side and two to the back. They are about 72 by 30 more or less...

Here is the back of the closet and then all the bulk stuff on the top.

And having still some inspiration left, I tackled the ceiling to floor cubboard in the middle room, this is the doll and finished rolled quilt room. I see I have a little space on that one shelf lol.. and then I did the the two dressers . It feels soooo good. I did this two weeks ago and did knitting in-between as Florida was so cold. That project was posted on my doll blog las tnight.

Spiderweb Quilt

2010-03-23T23:25:00.001-04:00

Oh goodness, it's been like forever since I posted to my blogs. I got inspired by a quilt on Fibermanina blog. It's called the Spider Web and she gave instruction and the template she used. I just had to stop the other things I was doing and do it.

Here are the first blocks.

I did more blocks because they are contagious and I did have a bucket full of strips. I didn't have to cut anything, except to straighten some out. Now I have to fill all those triangles.

Oh Boy, this was a sew as you go deal. Custom triangles and quads or whatever it's called. I filled the outside. Now I have to draft the corners to square it off...

Here is the main quilt middle completed...

2009-10-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted but that happens lol. I have started the painting again and here is a Burgundy Santa I just finished. I took his pic out side and he looks quite at home, don't you think?

He is a bit dark but that is because I wanted the flowers to show up really good on his clothing. He is about 9 inches tall and 5 3/4 at his wides part. He is a chunky, that means that he is made from thick pine wood that is 2 inches thick so he stands real nice.

Here is a pic of his back I like to finish the backs with strokework or something so that the entire piece is decorated.

Well, stay tuned. I will be painting another santa today and then I hope to paint some Jumping Jacks known as Hampleman in Germany. Toys from my childhood. I can't wait. I remember pulling those cords lol.

2009-09-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

I have started a new blog where I will post differnt crafts that I am doing. I have figured out how make it work lol...I just post some painted ornament, here is the link.

http://dollsquiltsetc.blogspot.com/

2009-09-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

I just found the painting seminar that I did in Puerto Rico. These ladies had never painted and they did such a good job. This is a short post as I am busy painting some ornaments...gingermen, hearts, snowmen...I will post more when I get some done..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTT5p-PBcGo

2009-08-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

I am taking an on- line class with Decoart America for their Traditions line of paint. Here are some Travatine stones that I have been testing. They have been painted and thrown out in the yard lol, for weeks now. The paint is like new....

2009-08-12T14:43:00.000-04:00

I am back from my wonderful, wonderful trip to Puerto Rico, where I taught the painting classes for four days. I love!!! Puerto Rico, it took me days to recover from all that enjoyment lol.

I didn't have much time to go around and see everything but I did get to visit Old San Juan and took a few pics. I was tired on the last day so I didn't walk for too long.

I was facinated with the blue bricks. I wonder how they were made.

The people are very sweet and loving and it was my pleasure and good luck to be picked to go there and teach. I would go back in a heart beat.

I am in the mood to do some painting and in a few days I will be painting some ornaments and cards and will post them here. I just have one more project to finish. (a doll lol)

Historic San Juan, is lovely. I could spend a few days there myself. I so wanted to go to the museums but time didn't permit so maybe next time.

2009-07-23T17:47:00.000-04:00

Ok, I edited and cleaned up the box designs.

I will be going to Puerto Rico Aug. 1st to the 5th to teach some painting seminars. Here is the Flyer, in Spanish of course but you can join us anyway, Painting is a universal language. They will be doing all sorts of crafts. Jewely, Scapbooking etc.

That flyer is supposed to be yellow but blogger likes to change the colors lol. Anyway, I will be teaching for the Americana DecoArt Company. I designed these four bentwood boxes. for one of the seminars. I just have the tops painted and they are not on the actual box (the boxes haven't arrived yet lol). These are card stock cut to the size of the boxes. I have to go to the other pc to upload the files so hang in there.

These designs are painted using a multi load technique and are geared to a beginner, so anyone can join this seminar.

This is another seminar of picture frames. A wide one and a slim one. Bow and buds.

The paintings will be a bit messy as I design as I paint, so things are over painted and changed etc. until I get the basic design. Then I will trace it off and clean it up for when it goes on the actual surface. I CLEANED UP.

Sometimes I will omit or add things in the final pattern. I just like to get a basic idea of what I want. If you don't enlage it, you won't see the messy lol.

Folk Rose and wild roses etc.

You can turn those frames any way you want them. They are also cut out of cardstock.

This is another Seminar, using DecoArt SO-SOFT fabric paints. Push flowers on a canvas bag.

2009-07-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

Side 2 of sewing box.

Side 1 of sewing box.

Top of other side of sewing box.

Top of sewing box, side one with drawer out.

2009-07-16T20:36:00.000-04:00

I must not be doing something wrong in blogger. I made another page but all the pics are coming in here. I am trying to put back the pics that blogger lost.

This is a wastbasket that I built out of wood and this is side 1. I wanted a spacey look like out in space, so I looked at the Hubble pictures of space.

This is side 2. Leaves in space? It could happen lol.

Side 3.

Side four. I know you can an apple shape in space lol.

Real apples, one in acrylic and one in oil, guess which one is which.

2009-07-16T20:08:00.000-04:00

Oh goodness, I have been trying to upload these pics to another page that I created but blogger keeps putting the pics here. Oh well.

Holiday bear screen.

Christmas quilt.

Gambling dog quilt

Teepee campfire quilt.

Butterfly 2

2009-07-16T19:08:00.000-04:00

Giant Dahlia Quilt.

Butterfly 2

Butterfly quilt.

Cinco de Mayo Quilt

Knitted sockie.

The knitted Hemlock ring.

Booties for hubby

Baby surprise jacket form EZ book.

Nurse bag out of Loralie fabric

Bag made with Laurel Birch fabric.

Bag made from Mary Englebright fabric.

Custom hand bag from designer coordianting fabric.

Custom pillow cases.

2009-07-11T23:12:00.001-04:00

Here is Hilary all dressed.

2009-07-05T22:00:00.001-04:00

Now that the Web Baby Doll Challenge is over. I can post the dolls I entered. I can also post the Penny doll that I entered in my goups challenge. I entered three doll for the challenge.

This is Lydia. She is made from a pattern by Judy Ward. (The Four Stages of Infancy Dolls) (Nine to 12 month baby). If you would like to make this doll, purchase the pattern here: http://judisdolls.com/welcome.html

This is Trudy, she is also a Judy Ward pattern (Little German Forest Folk). she is made out of craft velour and dressed in my painted fabric. She won third prize, people's choice.

This is baby Rose and her baby doll Lily, a pattern by Sue Sizemore.

This is my penny doll from my Yahoo groups challenge. Her body is made out of her dress fabric so I didn't have to dress her again. I thought she was so intricate that I didn't want to cover her with clothing.

2009-07-04T10:28:00.000-04:00

Here is some more stuff from my trip. Shirley taught us how to make custom pillow cases the easy way. I had brought some of my quilting fabric with me and made a pair of these.

And these.

I now know exactly what to do with all that unused fabric.

Here is the wonderful bag Shirley made us.

2009-07-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, I was up in the Carolina mountains for two week and what an enjoyable time that was. My friend Elaine and I drove up to Burnsville where our other friend, Shirley has a cabin.

We quilted, made custom pillow cases, I made doll clothes and blocks and cooked etc.

Here is a pic of the slopes that I walked up and down every day.

I had two friends who accompanied me everyday. Going down the mountain wasn't bad but coming up was another deal. I would have to stop and breathe and the dogs would run up and wait until I reached them and then run up and wait until we all got back. Then I would sit on a rock like a toad and relax for a few and give my new friends a treat. I can't decide who they liked best, me or the treats. I never found out their names, I called them puppy. If I wanted to see them, I would yell out puppy, puppy and they would come tearing down their mountain lol.

I was told that these dogs were abused and they didn't go to anyone easily. Here is what awaited me every morning when I opened the door. The bottom pic is a view going down to town.

My friend Shirley is such a kind and generous soul. She made us each a handbag and a bear. Here is Jackson. The pic got exposed a bit but I have better pics of Jackson. He must be about 32 to 34 inches tall. He is made out of mohair and he is just stunning and elegant. I tied one of my painted wooden doll beads around his neck. He likes dolls. He looks great in my dinning room chair doesn't he? lol

Here is one of the dolls she gave me. Head, arms and legs porcelain and body cloth. I think her name is Kahlie.

Here is Jackson and Kahlie. He likes Kahlie.

This is Hilary, she is another present from my friend Shirley. I took the clothes I made for her off so I can sew the buttons and snaps on. I will post pics of her dressed, later.

Here is a close up of Hilary. Shirley is a beautiful face painter.

This is Jennifer, another present from my friend Shirley. She is also a large doll. I will wig and dress her later. Shirley supplies all the wigs, shoes and accessories too....don't hate me. I can't help it if I'm sweet. lol.

I love the pigion toe look. Her legs can be made straight too. Here is a close-up of her lovely face.

More later.....

2009-06-04T20:43:00.001-04:00

I made these cute little dolls...

2009-05-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

I am so disappointed that blogger has lost over 2 1/2 years of my images and a lot of them were tutorials and I don't have the time nor the know- how to put them back.

I have started another Maggie Bessie to replace the tutorial of the last one and also because I miss the pink one that went away. This MB is enlarged to 24 inches and the pieces parts of the arms and legs are joined as one. The rest of the pattern remains the same.

I sewed up the legs, arms and the body. I stuffed them all halfway and sewed a line accross the point where they were seperate pieces. The body, I sewed a containing seam accross to keep the stuffing in. Then I mixed, modeling paste and gel medium (Liquidtex) half and half. I basecoated and waited 2 hours. I then applied five more thin coats after an hour or so of drying time. In the last coat I put some more gel medium to give me more time to blend the strokes. She is drying in the sun now....

I am using the same pattern from Bradly Justice that you can get here:

E-mail Address(es): shawstein@aol.com

2009-05-29T22:34:00.000-04:00

Somehow by changing templates in blogger, I lost two years worth of pictures. I replaced my last post but I just can't deal with the rest. I have switched back to my old template but the pics haven't come back. Maybe they will, I don't know....

2009-05-26T21:26:00.000-04:00

Maggie is ready to travel to Houston tomorrow. I made her stockings and her shoes. I altered her dress a bit. I made the sleeves longer and put pin tucks in her drawers and slip.

I made her shoes out of wool. I fused two pieces together and put a cardboard sole inside and they look good.

The stockings are out of some real stocking looking material that I picked up a long time ago. I tied some of that thin rolled elastic at her knees and rolled the stockings over it.

I am pleased with her now

If you just love this doll like I do and would like to make your own, get it here: shawstein@aol.com

2009-05-25T22:54:00.001-04:00

I have finished the Maggies. Here they are all naked and fat.

Here they are wearing their long underwear.

Here they are in their slip...

And taa dah! all dressed with bonnet. I am making the other bonnet as we speak....

2009-05-21T13:26:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: I have finished the clothing for the Maggies, except for the bonnets. I will make those out of buckram. The clothes are sooo cute. I really love these dolls and it will be hard to part with one but I must.
Here is the underwear:
Here are the dresses:

I sprayed them with a matt varnish and put them in the parlor to cure for a couple days before stringing them up and dressing them.

I am dying to make a bigger one. I will make a life size Maggy, I just decided that. One would think that I really like this doll wouldn't they?

For full instructions and complete pattern to make this doll, get it here: shawstein@aol.com

2009-05-15T16:23:00.000-04:00

I have been working on two Maggies Bessie dolls. Most of you know about this antique and much desired cloth doll. It's wonderful to be able to get a pattern and make her yourself. I have been waitng months to get this pattern and finally I have it in my little piggies lol.

I have been lucky enough to hear about Bradley Justice, who has done extensive research on this doll and finally he has drafted the most authentic pattern I have seen up to date. It is exactly like the Maggie Bessie with all her pieces parts.

I have some pics to show you so far. Here they are with all their pieces parts. This doll is made very different from any other rag doll. The arms and legs are in two parts. The head and shoulders are attached in a unique way also. Here you can see that the fingers are molded. They are made in Kona peach tone cotten.

Here, one coat of gesso has been applied to the lower arms and lower legs and the head and shoulders. They are on a drying board in the sun. You can see that the toes are now molded also.

Here, they have been sanded down smooth (actully rubbed down with a very fine sanding cloth, just enough to take the grain down. ) A second coat of gesso has been applied.

I am showing the sanding cloth and the nice large brush and liquitex gesso. One must have the correct tools to work with lol.

I have put them in the sun again while I mix the flesh colors. I will give them two coats of the flesh and wait 24 hours for the acrylic to cure and then I will proceed with the painting of the face and hair. Hopefully I will get started with the dress and underwear while I wait lol. I will keep you posted of the progress.

If you make your own dolls and would like to purchase this pattern, you can order it here.

mailto:shawstein@aol.com

2009-04-20T21:15:00.001-04:00

Another short little post. The group I belong to was talking about also making something for boys. We found a cute Sumo Wrestler and I found this cute cowboy by EPB. I made him up real quick today. He is about 7.5 to 8 inches tall....soooo cute.

He is made with stips. Just a strip for all his parts, cut and sew and stuff...pen and ink features and color cheeks and done.....

This is another pic. The camera did a wierd thing. It took the cheeks and made it 3-d, like it's floating.

2009-04-20T12:07:00.000-04:00

This is Twirl, she is not quite done. I still need to make her two horns for the side of her head lol.

She is a wall or hanging doll. I hung her in the tv room, it matches her perfectly.

2009-04-18T16:01:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm back and I finished my little project. This little cutie is called, "Dollscape" It is a little fairy in her swing, sitting inside her own landscape.

Here is a close-up.

First you cut out a picture frame shape, backing and two piece of batting. Sew it all together and do a little quilting. Then you make the inner landscape with crazy patch (well, that's what I did) and then add beads etc. In my case, I added fabric beadz and glitter paint etc.

Here is the inner landscape:
Then you sew the inner landscape to the background frame, add the swing and the hanger. I used the beads you buy by the yard. Set your fairy in it. The fairy is so small that you just wrap her in wired ribbon or anything, underwear and all to make her decent lol.

2009-04-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

I am uploading a rose for you today so you don't think I have deserted you. I am working on something really neat and that will be up today maybe...This rose is out of my garden.

On another note: Here is a 1920 antique doll from an old McCall pattern. I had her all sewed up and just laying around for some time. She she is pen and inked and then put together and stuffed. I love her look. She would be a great inspiration for a 3-d doll.

2009-03-04T12:56:00.000-05:00

I have been playing around with sculpting faces and they all look like trolls lol. Anyway, I had this doll pattern of a long skinny wall doll. I decided to enlarge her and sculpt a face for her. I didn't like the face or the doll one bit, so I decided to just mess her up good. Here she is.

A sewing lesson: When changing a pattern and enlarging or reducing, some minor hands on alterations must be made to the pattern also. For instance: her hips were way too wide but too late for that now. I took a piece of muslin and bound her hips up, just like they used to do in the olden days when you had a baby lol.

Here is a close up of her face. I am actually proud of this first good sculpt that doesn't look like a troll. Because it's a beginner face and it wasn't perfect, I decided to glitter her up and make her somewhat of an art doll. First I used several colors of Cray-Pas, they are an oil pastel by the Sakura Company, they also make those great Identi Pens and jelly roll pens which are permanent. I just colored all over her face with the Cray-Pas and blended with a rag on my finger. Then I outlined and did the eyes with the Identi- Pen and colored in with the jelly rolls. I then put Sealer (DAC) all over her face and put the the other goodies on.

Here is a side view of the left side. I used Glamour Dust (DecoArt Americana) (DAC) on that side and did the hairline in Craft Twinkles Writer (DAC). Also the the buttons.

Here is the right side. I used Golden Treasure Glitter (DAC), (from the paper perfect line).

I beaded the tops of her ballet shoes with Fashion Beadz (DAC) and painted the bottom a wine color using the fabric paint line. Then I used the Twinkles writer to make the staps and also did the designs on her arm, hands and legs with the gold Twinkles writer.

Her dress and vest are batik and her bloomers and blouse are some expensive fabric I found at the sewing studio lol. I tied ribbons on the arms and legs and cut two crochet dollies open to use for the lace on her bloomers. Her hair is a fake fur I found at JoAnn's.

FYI: I love Identi- pens. They do not dry out as long as you put the cover on when done. they don't bleed and they have two points. One to color large areas and one for finer detail. You can find these pens and the Cray-Pas at an art supply store or go on the web and just type the name in. They also make a neat glue pen. Just make an outline and add your favorite glitter, like an eyeliner etc. For finer detail like pen and ink and color washes, use their Pigma Micron pens which I also find to be much better than most I have used.

If you are afraid to use paint to paint faces. Use the pens. Anyone can paint a face.

2009-02-25T21:07:00.000-05:00

Here is Victoria, all dressed except for her shoes. I used a Pasely fine cord and pulled two color from it for her bow and piping.

2009-02-20T00:20:00.000-05:00

I am working on a new doll. The name of the pattern is Victoria by G.P. Jones.

It was a dreary raining day today and I didn't even notice it go by as I was happily doing my dolly. Here is Victoria in her underwear.

Victoria is about 12 inches tall. Her hair is done with pen and ink and color washes (DecoAmerican Fabric Paints). Her face is painted with the same fabric paint line. Here she is in her chemise top.

Her chemise is suppose to be two pieces but she insisted that I make it in one piece and so I did. I didn't feel like arguing.

Here is a close - up of her face. I did the outline of the hair and scratched in some hair and while it was curing, I did the face then went back and did the two color washes and shaded with Burn Sienna.

I will try to work on her lovely clothing and bonnet and shoes tomorrow. It will probably take all day.

2009-02-16T23:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd get a jump on Easter and make my Rabbit doll now. This doll has been in the making for the past 10 years lol. It started with MaryJane asking me to make her the Rabbit doll so I made two but only finished hers. Here she is naked.

Here she is all dress in her crow dress, wool jacket and lace collar and red bow. The tiny bunny in her lap is a Kate Erbach design, he is adorable.

Her name is Blanch and she is 42 inches tall.

2009-02-08T21:03:00.001-05:00

This doll is another challenge with my Yahoo Group. The doll is an Antique pattern inspired by a doll call the Presbytarian doll. One of the members made a pattern from her orginal doll and shared it with us. Here she is in her underwear.

I signed the back . Her hair and face are painted with DecoArt fabric paint. This is a very simple rag body. I had to sew a seam accross the neck to take out the crease that it formed. I stuck to the pattern except for adding a butt and changing the hands a bit.

Here she is in her dress. The pattern for the dress came with the doll, real cute old fashioned dress.

Here she is with her bonnet on.

And a close up. I really like this doll.

2009-01-13T09:57:00.001-05:00

I will add in the latest of the Hitties. I did the hair in Curley Chenille and painted the shoes in DecoAmericana fabric paint. I might paint some socks later.

To continue with the Hitties. Here they are all dressed. I dressed then in Vintage Aunt Gracie. Now for the hair shoes and hat....

2009-01-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

Oh it's been awhile hasn't it? I have been busy buying and researching all kinds of dolls (fabric)...which by the way is my new passion lol.

I just finished two sizes of Hitty dolls. Many of you must remember that cute children's book called, Hitty the next hundred years? It's a story about a wooden doll and all her travels and adventures..

Here they are naked.

I made one in a cotten knit and one in cotten woven. I think the knit one stretched a bit but it's ok. I will stick to just the woven cotten for this particular doll.

Here they are in their undies. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to work on their clothing and then onto shoes and hair. I will keep you posted.

2008-12-07T00:00:00.001-05:00

This is the Fairy mother...all cloth with wired ribbon for head wrap and wired ribbon collar.

Close-up of face. I did a crazy patch of the black coordinated fabrics and cut her from that. I never know what face I'm going to get when I paint...I like this one.

2008-12-02T19:49:00.001-05:00

More faries..this is the teal fairy.....

Another teal and black fairy....

Here they all are so far with a baby added...she hasn't developed her wings yet lol....

2008-11-30T12:15:00.001-05:00

More Faries, I made the forest fairy last night and then went right on into the Christmas fairy and started another one but looked at the clock lol. Here is the Christmas fairy #1. She is 9 inches tall with her toes pointed and 8 inches tall with her feet turned up. Her head is one of my painted wooden beads. She is totally wired to pose. On her head she has a bee-hive out of wool yarn, but that will change lol. I had to cover the wire loop.

Here is the Forest Fairy #1. She is the same dimentions as above. Her head is all cloth, painted with fabric paint. She is a soft wire, so she is limited in the posing department....I like my faries or dolls a bit on the solid side. I do like the skinny ones but I always tend to fatten them up a bit. This pattern is still in the testing stages. I am working on the third test now and will post her tomorrow or tonight.

I also like to put all sorts of fabic to gether to create one of a kind.

2008-11-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

Still haven't lost the craze to make dolls. Here is a cute Flower Fairy I made on Thanksgiving day. I always do what I want on holidays, that's why I cook the day before lol.

Here is the back view.

Side view. I made her dress and underwear out of my painted fabric. Then I took a silk rose apart and glued the petals on her dress. I used the bigger leaves for her wings. Then I put glitter on the petals, shoes and wings. The face is painted with acrylic. The arms and legs are wired.

2008-11-28T17:42:00.000-05:00

This doll is 33 inches tall and is made out of cotten canvas, she is going to get painted. She is called the Penny doll, a pattern by Claire Pruitt. Body by Fisher lol. I enjoyed making her. I still have to sculpt her face etc. Here she is sitting. Isn't she grand?

Another view of her back side, notice the high heels lol.

Another view of the front, I prefer bigger boobs lol.

Remember this little Pumpking Spirit Doll that I made for a group challenge? Well she won a 25.00 gift certificate which was promptly spent on more doll patterns.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FR-v2BRzxCs/SNk7hbr8ikI/AAAAAAAAAr4/K1wpBQXSe58/s1600-h/etta+whole.jpg

2008-11-28T17:34:00.001-05:00

I am catching up on my posts. Like three days worth lol. Here is another doll challenge from my other doll group. I belong to four. They are great fun and great inspiration. The pattern was given to us and we did whatever we wanted with it. Here is a front view. She is a small doll. I gave her fancy eyelash yarn for hair, purple felt shoes.

Here is a back view.

2008-11-28T17:23:00.001-05:00

The craze is still going on hahahahah...here is a cute couple that I made for my group challenge. I make the cat out of muslin and then painted on some hair. I painted two wood beads for her eyes, made her a red heart, jumpsuit and a green collar, tied fancy ribblon around her hands and feet. The face is slightly sculpted.

The mouse is an old McCalls pattern, very articulated. She is made out of mole suede and craft velour and her tail and arms are wired. I didn't want to hide that cute body, so I made her a pinafore. She is whispering a secret to the cat...probably where the cheese is.

2008-11-16T10:38:00.000-05:00

I have started on some Christmas stuff and finally finished this tall folk art Santa. I had the coat made years ago, tiny log cabin blocks sewed together for the coat. The Santa is a stump doll

For some reason the flash on the camera made the cheeks blotchy, they are not. Here is my guy in his gown and icelantic wool yarn hair. His face and hands are made out of craft velor and he is 22 ins. tall.

His body is made out of a sample of home decorating fabric which I love to work with. Here is a front view with his coat on.

Here is a back view with his hood on.

I still have to make his crazy quilt toy bag. which will be empty lol.

2008-10-25T21:16:00.001-04:00

I have named the doll, "Jubal"(aka NY). The doll is my version of an antique cloth doll, called the New York doll. She is 30 inches tall with a hand painted face and black velvet yarn looped hair (hand sewed). She is dressed in civil war repo fabric. Her shoes are made out of hand painted fabric and her socks are made out of knit. She holds a calico cat. She is sporting hand made jewelry, especially made for her lol. Her clothes are removable.

She is wearing pantaloons and a half slip. Every inch of her is hand made.

The necklace is made out of green glass beads (sand blasted with color) and her ring is a yellow green stone with a copper wire band.

2008-10-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

Here is the N Y doll all done and dressed, with her calico cat. This will be a short post. I need to decide if she needs a bonnet. I know she needs a ring on those long fingers.

2008-10-13T00:20:00.000-04:00

Another doll on the finish. This is a repo of the New York doll. She is considered an antique, I think. Just google New York doll and you can see what the orginal looks like. I have painted her face instead of embroidery. I kept the shape of the eyes and nose and the mouth to some degree and prettied her up a bit. I did keep her serious expression to some degree also. I also did her hair in velvet yarn loops instead of embroidery.

Here she is with her shoes and socks. I make the shoes out of some of my painted fabric and the socks out of some old T-shirt scraps that I saved from my last t-shirt quilt.

Here is is in her underwear.

And here is what she looked like before she got all rouged up and half dressed lol.

And here is her final stage of underwear. Slip and her cat. Tomorrow, the dress.

2008-10-01T20:17:00.000-04:00

Here she is all painted up and wheeeeeeee......oh my, what a lot of work.

A close up of face. No name yet and I need to make some accessories and a stand but not to worry. I will take my time.

I am going to rest now and make a simple doll lol.

2008-09-29T18:26:00.000-04:00

This is the doll I have been working on. Doll all stuffed with her pieces parts.

Then I collaged her with my painted fabrics. Doll front.

This is the back.

Ahhhhhhh, at last. 90% done. My art doll. Well , that's what I call her for now. I had some choice words while I was designing her but that is for another time lol. She is 38 inches tall and she got started with me cutting out what I thought was a head. I sewed it up and stuffed it and liked it. I sketched a pen and ink face for now. I haven't done anything else with the head. The body has consumed me lol. Her body has language, don't you know? she is saying, let dance.

Here is a close up of the body. First I made an armature and then I totally covered and stuffed her. Then I collaged her with my painted fabrics.

Close-up of the back of left arm. I did her entire body in DecoAmerican products. Fashion Beadz, Fashion Beadz Writer, Craft Twinkles, Craft Twinkles Writer. Glamour Dust.

Back of lower legs. I did beadz all around her ankles and just played with the rest.
I made patches of jewelry and had to wait 24 hours for those to dry, then I adhered them to different parts of her with glue.

Back view of her butt, it's nicer than mine lol....I continued to turn her on different sides and just did my thing...she has lot of jewelry patches.

Close of top back.

Full vies of legs back.

Right side view.

And the feet.

Pumpkin Patch Spirit

2008-09-23T14:45:00.000-04:00

I joined a Fall Pumpkin Doll challenge in a group I belong to on Yahoo. I had such fun making this cute doll. Her head is shaped like a pumpkin and her body like a pear. Instead of making her head orange, I decided to use one of my painted art fabrics to make the entire doll.

After I put her together, I made her a tie on -skirt and tie- on sleeves, this way I can change her attire if I want to. I then painted leaves and vines down her head legs and arms. I added glitter to her eyes and hot shots paint to her cheeks. I used glitter writers to make extra vines and to add more glitz.

I have her sprawled here so you can see her entire body ,while she is drying.

Here is a close-up of her face.

Here is a close-up of her arms.

All products I used were from the DecoAmericana Paint line.

2008-09-17T15:12:00.000-04:00

There will two post today to make up for lack of ? lol. Here is our dinning room that hubby has been working on for a month now. He is doing a floor in the mosiac style out of Travatine stone.

He has done such a beautiful job.
Anytime I look at it I just keep looking at it.

I love it!

2008-09-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

This is my idea of a doll. Nice big, substantial body to hold lol. I don't have a name for her yet. I will wait until I paint her and see what character she comes up with. I do love the smaller dolls too. I just haven't seen a nice big one lately.

I wanted a nice round head, so I have been drafting dolls heads in muslin and then sewing them together and stuffing them for the last two days now. I made 5 doll heads lol. Well when I got to this head, I liked it good enough and I decided on the body. The size of the body is measured by the size of the head, so this doll should be about 7 times the lenght of the head. Well it's not going to happen. The head is 5 1/2 inches so the body should be between 38 to 40 inches tall. She looks good at 31 1/2 inches tall, nice.

I really had to jury rig around with this doll as the head was already stuffed and far be it for me to unstuff anything. I did up the body, attached the stuffed legs and arms. Stuffed the body. Then I made a square breast plate? out of muslin and batting, cut a hole in the middle, whipped stitched the head in. Then I ripped open the top part of the body and inserted the head and whipped that into place. Then I sewed down the breast plate firmly. The breast plate came out nice, considering I did it freehand. When I sewed up the sides, it made a nice covering sleeve over the arms.

I will tape her up today and gesso her entire head, forearms and forelegs (is that the correct way to say it?) Well the bottom half of her arms and legs. I have used a brown gell pen to sketch in her features to get a sense of what I want. I like huge eyes.

I will dress her in civil war fabrics and will try not to make her smile too much so she can remain in that catagory of old time dolls. Even though she is new and clean and not a tear on her lol.

Here she is in all her glory. I love her little tummy, oh she has a nice bottom too. I haven't decided if I'm going to paint her shoes on or make them out of suede......

2008-09-08T21:32:00.000-04:00

I have been having fun making and drafting dolls. Here is my latest..she is the napking doll by Judi Ward. Here she is naked. lol

She's sorta skinny, big feet and omg, the ears. Oh well I got her together and this was the first pass, no shoes yet.

I hated her head, her face and her ears, so I lopped off her head and her ears hahahahahhaaha.

I painted her face first on a piece of cotten.

I then redid her head without ears. I had made a little wig, so thank goodness I didn't have to redo hair. I made her shoes. I fused two pieces of each pattern piece together with the pelon stuff. I then sew the shoes and used a large knitting, sewing- up needle to make the holes to lace up the shoes with yarn. I made her a tote bag. Her cheeks came out fat, but that's ok. I like this model better.

Here is another view with a purple ribbon.

2008-08-31T19:32:00.001-04:00

I have made my first Izannah Walker doll. I have researched and looked at pics etc. The orginal doll had a molded face, where cotten and cloth were pressed into a mold with glue and then the faces were painted etc. I drafted my pattern to be something like an Izannah, since I have never seen one in person to know the measurements or anything. So I am guessing at the size head and did the body accordingly. If anybody has an orginal Izannah please email me if you would like to give me some stats.

I made a rag doll body like the ones I saw on the web. I gave the knee and calves a little shape and extend her booty a bit lol. Then I covered her entire head and chest with air dry clay and molded her face the best I could, since I am new at this. I should have looked at a pic but oh well, this is only the first one.

I will gesso her head and breast plate and paint her in acrylics, make her clothes and post another pic of her when I finish. I still have to do her thumbs, they are seperate and added after the hand is complete. I noticed when I posted the pics that one of her legs was sewed accross a bit higher. I have fixed it lol.

It took me all day saturday to make the patterns but once finished, I made the doll right away and did the sculpting today. It was fun.

2008-08-06T22:48:00.001-04:00

Update: I have been busy learning to sculpt, small stuff that is. If I disappear for while, take heart as I am working on stuff lol.

In my spare time, not to be totally craftless, I have been trying my hand at clay modeling. I am going to make the Goblin Princess and need some goblins....well to tell the real truth, I did want to sculpt a pretty face. Well, all I could get were these goblins hahahahha....but that's ok, I love them. These are originals and I will cast papers masks off them and make my goblins....

In the top pic, the white goblins are curved out of styrofoam and cover with glued on cotten. The rest are super sculpty.

2008-07-28T19:35:00.000-04:00

This was not the second lesson. This was the way I decided to go lol. This is the famos Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) from one of the EZ books. It is made like nothing you have ever made. There are just two seams to sew together and they are at the shoulder. The jacket is all made in one piece. I think it is the most adorable thing I have seen yet and it will grace the body of one of my dolls no doubt. I will just have to make a special fairy or troll or whatever. I have also learned to knit the continental way. So now I knit with both hands. I did use the both the book and the dvd to make this jacket.

Oh, I ordered some more doll patterns last night lol. I want to try the celluclay/fabric mask. You make a mold of the face out of super sculpty, bake it (I think) then you cast your mask off of that with the celluclay and then you cover the mask with fabric...and another doll is born. I want to make an ugly doll, like the ones they sell on ebay hahahahahahaha

So long for now, need to check my order and make sure I ordered the correct stuff, it was kinda late.....

2008-07-19T01:06:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note. I did a quick page on MSN for my quilts as I have lost the earthlink page. The link is listed on the right on this page, under links.

2008-07-13T19:59:00.000-04:00

The knitting fever has struck again lol. I am now having classes with EZ at home from her dvd's.

Last night I did the first project and knitted into the wee hours of the morning, 4 am to be exact lol.

I went to bed got up at noon and started the hat again and finished at 5 pm, all the while watching the dvd's of all the other classes. The color knitting was easy....

Side view of the hat and the true color.
Worn pulled down low.
A little higher.

The back of the hat. Neat isn't it?