Copying

I saw this on Judi Wellnitz's blog and thought it looked like fun, so I did it. Here's how- and I copied this from her

The Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. (Use the advanced search and scroll down and click on Creative Commons License so you use shareable photos!)b. Using only the results on the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
The Questions:1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.

Answers and Credit for the pics:

1. StephanieChamelaucium uncinatum "Lady Stephanie", 2.Peanut butter cup Peanut Butter Cup Heart, 3.Freehold Santa's Clock, 4. RainbowAn Extreemely Rare Rainbow Zebra, 5. harry Potter nick / harry potter and his juicebox - _MG_3189, 6.Chocolate Milk Shake 59 Diner Chocolate Shake, 7. Road Trip Gatlinburg Road Trip Week of February 15, 2007, 8. Cassata, 9. Accepted I accept all kinds of challenges!, 10. Nature Natureza e Agua / Water and Nature, 11. Unusual Color, 12. Apple Blossom

Harrisburg Quilt Show

I am catching up with my posts. I was able to attend this show on September 5th. My Ms. Peacock was there. I also love to see the other Hoffman dolls since they are all so amazing. Here are some pics. Didn't get to see many of the quilts though! I didn't get there until around 2 pm and had my cousin in law and MIL (92 and kept up with us).

The first pic is the second place doll. I also took a pic of her back which is beaded. Love the ephemeral quality the doll in cream with barefeet and of course the Jester is amazing.

What a wonderful lot of eye candy. I was glad we went - it was a 3 hr ride one way! Worth the expense and my Hubbie got to visit with his cousin and her husband.

Another collection of Hoffman Dolls will be at the Quilt show here in March. Can't wait to see them! I am also excited about the fabric for next year's challenge. You can see it here http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/SuperStore/SuperStore-Assortment.asp?AssortmentID=130 lots of gold which I love!

They are also teaming with Sulky. How exciting!!! Some changes though--maximum height for the dolls drops from 24" to 20". Mine seem to average around 20-21 so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Rag Doll Swap

Because I am not busy enough ( DUH!!!), I decided to take part in the Rag doll swap on FOCD. My swap partner was none other than Teri Jones who has a wonderful book Easy to Make Dolls with Ninetheenth-Century Costumes (by G.P. Jones). It's a great book filled with wonderful dolls and costumes - very detailed and authentic. Her doll for me is just beautiful. She has removable clothes and is wearing boots (which are amazing!), bloomers, chemise, petticoat, skirt, bodice, and hat. Here are pics.

Here she is in her chemise and Petticoat which are separate. pieces. The chemise has tiny pin tucks! I know I didn't warn you there would be nudity, but here she is in her pantaloons and boots. Aren't they great???? Love all the little buttons.

Teri also sent with Aneilia Rose (what I named her) her pet cat and her toy doll. Aren't they just adorable?

Here is a close-up her her face. All the features are embroidered as is the hair. She is wearing a Poke bonnet which is reversible. I still marvel at all the little details.

Now I am going to post pics of the doll I sent to Teri which pales by comparison. Her clothes aren't removeable, but she does have articulated fingers and her own chair and is a thoroughly modern miss. She is also holding a small wrapped gift since she is dressed in her party best, but I failed to get a pic. I also didn't get a pic of her standing. Oh well. Per Teri, she said her name is Lacey Monique. She is made entirely from materials left over from other dolls. Her dress fabric was used on Gloe who appeared in Patti Culea's Creative Cloth Doll Couture Book. The legs on her chair were recycled from placques with wall pegs - they are the pegs. Her hair was left-over from a scarf I knit for my DIL.

The trims on her chair were left from items made for my stepson's wedding two years ago. The chair back is recycled Matte Board.

I really enjoyed making her. She is about 16" tall and has a flat weighted bottom so she can sit on a shelf or the chair easily. She also has a pancake face and body and half stuffed arms and legs. Her shoes are painted. I used her as a prototype for another pattern that hopefully will appear in the next issue of Soft Dolls and Animals.

I'll post when and if it is printed.

On a personal note, my Mother is making progress recouperating from her surgeries. However, my husband spent 5 days in the hospital for a kidney stone. He is home and is OK. Just some residual pain but not much. What a way to start retirement!!! He officially retired on August 29, 2008. So now I have two couch potatoes - my husband and my dog! She loves to sit on the couch and sprawl in front of the TV. His influence--not mine!

Surprise in Yesterday's Mail

Back in May, I was asked to do a doll for the November issue of Doll Crafter and Costuming. It was short notice but it just so happened I had a doll that would fit the bill. I was experimenting on a two part leg that could be used for two different poses - crosslegged or kneeling, so I worked up the pattern and dressed her as a Native American. I named her "Autumn Harvest." I mailed off the doll and the instructions and yesterday I received her back along with a copy of the magazine! This is the first time I have sent them the doll and they took wonderful pics and the instructions don't have the first letter of each line left off like Butterfly Ballet did. I also have a pic of Hyacinth from Arley's class in the Gallery section. WOW!!! Twice in one issue! Only thing, they have my email wrong. I'll have to send them a note.

Inspiration

One of the things I forgot to mention about Mother Nature is my inspiration. I went to class with an idea in mind to do a doll with dimensional flowers. This was inspired by the work, most noteably her "Spring" quilt, by a talented friend, Allie Aller http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/ who embellished this quilt with the most extraordinary fiber flowers.

Thanks Allie!!!

Finished Doll from Pearl Moon's class - Mother Nature

Well, she is done. This doll sports embellishments made in the class with Pearl Moon. These include collage made with fabric, trims, and wallpaper paste, collage fabric with lace, fabric and paint, fabric pieced with strips of sheers and decorative stitches (I further pieced it by cutting the strips and then sewing them together so I had squares which were used on her bodice), cording made with strips of fabric and fibers (on her headpiece and used to make flowers), Yarn and fabric fringe all around the bottom. There was much free-motion stitching on the wallpaper paste collage fabric and that covers most of the skirt. Some of the dimensional flowers and leaves are made from bits of fabric I created on my embellisher before the class.

Her headpiece fabric was also prepared prior to class. I love making this stuff. It is a piece of painted tyvek, a sheer opal fabric freemotion stitched on top then the back of the tyvek hit with a heat gun. Neat texture! The Rainbow is angelina fibers.

Pearl Moon Class and a New Purse

First, I can't say thank you enough for all the wonderful comments on my Hoffman Doll. I am very excited to have won this special award.

Just a short update, my Mother is doing great and is in Rehab. We are hoping she will be allowed to come home within the week. As of today, she has been away from her home for 2 months.

I have been busy so haven't written. I was priveleged to take a class with Pearl Moon. Learned all sorts of fabric and fiber manipulations. Pearl used the pieces she creates to display on her dolls. Since the class was geared toward the embellishment techniques, we didn't receive a pattern. Well--you can take the girl out of engineering but you can't take the engineer out of the girl! so I created my own doll to embellish--have to have a plan you know. She is a stump doll created using a 6" round wooden base for the bottom. I sculpted her face with scuply and covered it with fabric. I am so bad at this but I am still going to use it. I am almost done with the doll--applying all the fun things we did in class and then some. Here are pics of the doll and some pics from class.The class was great fun and Pearl was a wonderful teacher. Her techniques were unique and really opened lots of creative possiblilities.

Diane, Colleen, Teri and Maria deep in concentration.

Emily and Diane in the forground, Maria in the background.

Pearl and Teri.

Group shot: Colleen our hostest, Maria, Emily, Heidi, Teri, Me, Diane and Pearl.

I also finished a commission piece--a new Collage Purse. I used the grunge board flowers on it and really am pleased with the way it turned out. My client was pleased too! The pics really don't show the colors clearly. It is done on an eggplant background with puple, teal, blue and gold metallics.

Purse back. The flowers were cut out of fabric with my Big Kick machine. I then stitched around them with yarn (bobbin work) and embroidered the centers with beads and sequins.