Dolls and Clothes

 The embroidery machine is humming. I am working on 'paper' dolls and doll clothes. There is a 12 inch doll pattern and a 16 inch. I started with the 12 inch. There are 8 dress patterns to go with it.

You might remember my cousin has 7 grandkids....all under age 7. 5 girls....so, hopefully I can make 5 dolls before I poop out. haha

This is the back of the doll. I had to make the head twice. her directions put the back piece on first, so that when you embroidered the face, the doll had eyes in the back of her head.  haha   i don't think the kids will like creepy zombie dolls with eyes in the back of her head. I have to do a little thinking on these to make sure it comes out like i want it to.

The face still seems a bit strange to me. I think it should look 'younger'. maybe it's just me.

She has a princess dress. She can go to a fancy party.

When she goes to visit her grandparents on the farm, she can wear her overalls.

For playing in the park, she has her romper.

When she goes shopping, she likes to look good.

 

 

 

 

I'm going to put a piece of velcro on her belly and on the backs of the clothes. 

She is made in 3 pieces....legs...body...head....and then stitched together in the hoop. the only concern i have is that the neck is not very sturdy. There are about 7 layers on all of these, but still the neck is narrow.

Some ladies on their website have stitched a piece of plastic canvas to the back to help hold the neck. i was thinking i might glue on a popsicle stick. haha   have any ideas for me? ideally, i would like to put something inside the doll in the neck area, but i would need to be able to sew through it. it's a dilemma.

Broomhilda's Bakery

 Although it is just a top....and not quilted yet....it is an accomplishment. I have been working on this off and on.....mostly off.....since the middle of 2018. 

I started embroidering these blocks before Halloween in 2018. I didn't really think it would be done for that year.....but, neither was it done for 2019. .... nor was it even done for 2020.  sigh!!   But, it is all embroidered now....the top is sewn together. I just need to quilt it....someday....and add a few embellishments. I am hoping for Halloween 2021.  Really!!

It is called Broomhilda's Bakery and was SOOO much fun to do. It's too bad I am such a procrastinator.

These blocks all had special things. It's amazing what an embroidery machine can do. The broom's bristles are 3D. The sock in the boot is chenille.

The 'caramel' on the apple is felt. The frog is a glittery fabric.

I love the glass top stands...they are vinyl.  I still need to add a cord to hang the spider from the frog plate. The jar of eyeballs is also vinyl.

Sparkly, glittery fabrics for witches hats. Spiders are 3D. Double flowers and a button on the black sparkly hat. Buttons in the candy corn flowers.

Purple glittery sparkly boots and chenille socks. The glittery 'fabric' was almost a paper like product. You pulled the backing off and it stuck to the fabric and you just sewed through it. 

3D spider on the pie...very cool.

More sparkly boots

More vinyl jars with candy corn and cupcake. The candy corn pieces are separate and not sewn down...just in the jar...as are the eyeballs in that jar.

Separate sign that will be hung from a button hanger after quilting.

This sign, too, will hang from a button. I think I will tack them down, though, so they don't come off and get lost.

This sign hangs from the button on the top of the quilt...over the orange and white blocks. I will tack them down also after quilting. And the little spider still needs to be sewn down.

This will be the border. 

I'll have to make myself a note to get this out about July and get started quilting it, so it will be ready by Halloween. haha  I actually have a couple more Halloween tops to get done, too.  sigh!!   I give them to my cousin, who loves Halloween.

MIA...kinda

 Yes, I've been MIA for a couple months. Actually, for several months I have not cared much about blogging or quilting or much of anything. But I might be getting a bit of energy and mojo back. 

Between life issues and virus and health issues, life just sometimes sucks.

I have been working on an applique row quilt called garden party. Here are a few of my blocks so far. The fusible part is done.

This bird in the birdbath was paper pieced. what a job!

And I got a new embroidery CD with dogs and doggie sayings. So far, I have made one saying.

My cataract surgery didn't do all that well. On Tuesday I get to go get a new prescription for glasses. But, then, It usually takes a couple weeks to get them. So, hopefully, in a couple MORE weeks I should be able to see and use that embroidery machine.

In the meantime, I have been busy on eBay cleaning out my studio. I have sold almost 200 quilt 'kits'.... things I cut out...maybe did a few blocks...then stuck it in a box when the next thing got my attention. Those are all gone except for maybe 5 or 6.  

I have started listing the quilt tops....I had over 100 of those. I'll never live long enough to quilt them all up, so someone else might as well take care of them. I'm still working on listing those...got about a dozen more to put out there.

And, I have dozens of finished quilts to sell. They sell more slowly. Still have about 15 to put out there.

That doesn't mean my studio is empty. haha   There is still lots of fabric....and projects here and there that aren't finished that I really want to do. But, the clutter is gone, the boxes and tubs are emptying out and things are looking a lot better. Maybe now I can actually keep up with things I want to do and not start 14 more things every week.

Wish me luck! haha

Results of August Color Challenge Report

 Well, I'm afraid I don't have much of a report this month. The color was gray....I keep my grays together with my blacks and wasn't going to separate them out. There weren't many anyway.

So, I decided the month would be piecing together as many UFOs as I could. What you are going to see is just the tops I showed during the month. But, at least something got accomplished.

I finished piecing....

Forest Floor. these are machine crazy quilt blocks in greens and browns.

And .... Green Madness II got put together. A LOT of 6 1/2" scrappy blocks.

And....International Sisters was finished. The sister pattern came from Preeti at SewPreeti. It might get a border before quilting if i can find the right fabric. She has a story about how they hold their hands....whether they want to dance or not.

And .... Krista's Flower got pieced. I like hers better than mine...but done is good, right?

Finally....Valentine Hearts was pieced. It is machine embroidery crazy quilt blocks. 

That is all I managed to get finished. But, I am working on a yellow and blue selvage top that I HOPE to get pieced tonight. I need to make 12 more blocks and get them attached. It may or may not happen.

The thing holding me up the last week is that I had cataract surgery on my right eye. It didn't go well and I can't tell you how disappointing and depressing that is. I have spent the last week putting in 3 different drops.....4 times a day.....plus a pill for pressure 4 times a day. Then one drop was increased to 8 times a day.  I had to make a chart. Every time i turn around I am putting something in that eye. It is looking a bit better today than it did in the beginning.....at least i can see things ... not necessarily clear things....but not fuzzy, foggy things. I go to see the doc again tomorrow.....that is 4 visits in 8 days. And when i don't have an appointment, he calls to check on me. I think we are going steady. haha  Hopefully, it will all work out in the end. I am trying to stay positive.

September's color is pink....and i am ready for some happy pink. At least I can sew a bit....maybe an hour or so at a time....so, something will get accomplished, i'm sure.

Until next time......chin up!!

International Sisters

 I've been working on these sister blocks for a while now. Finally got them all together into a quilt top. This pattern came from SeePreeti quilt blog. 

She has a story on her blog about the reasoning behind how the hands are held. It the lady held her hands in one direction, she wanted to dance....if another direction, she didn't want to dance. My hands seem to be going in all directions, so I'm not sure if any of these ladies want to dance. haha

It's a pretty simple pattern. The lady is a 4 patch with just a few pieces in each patch.

My ladies come from all over the world, so their faces are all different colors.

Now...on to the next project.

Krista's Flower

 Isn't this the cutest quilt pattern? I finally got it put together.

Mine didn't turn out as well...I might have to try that again. haha

I think I needed some better choices of fabrics. haha

But done is better than not. 

Now for it to marinate for quilting.

Valentine Hearts

 These blocks have been machine embroidered....and sitting around waiting for me to do something with them. Since this month the goal is to piece things together, that is what happened.

All pink fabrics were used for the hearts....and different shades of pink threads for the embroidery

I had this purple/pink mottled flannel that I used for the background.

And a piece of Valentine fabric for the border. There was only a 1 inch strip left. It came out 42x52" 

It will go in the 'to be quilted' cabinet and might see the light of day once again some day.