Doll

I imagine a guardian angel/fairy. The idea grew out of this baby. I guess it is suppose to work the other way around- creativity versus biology.

She has a sort of roaring twenties hat or crown thing going on. I love the felt roses. I will post a little tutorial on them later- lots of fun and very easy.

I made her thinking that she would hang on the wall.

I am having so much fun with the wool I dyed in January. I used some dyed angora sweater for the hair. And here are the wings-

I got a little frustrated with the wings. It took several tries. Some times the hardest thing to do is keep it simple.

I am having another attack of studio reorg. I have some great fabric for more tattooed guys- which ought to be happening soon- but I got it in January, I put it aside for later dyeing and now I can’t find it- ARG! Why does looking for fabric turn into clearing off bookcases and going through old magazines!

People often ask me where I get my ideas.  Here is the story on this one.

I was listening to Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.   One of the questions on the show talked about a study that showed how very popular and charming people aren’t good at close relationships.  Interesting.  Hmmm.   And I thought of a doll description- “Mr. Handsome- Not suitable for long term relationship!”  And here he is.

Another guy in a suit. I’ve been looking at mens’ fashion photos and trying to copy the expression that seems to be on every one of the models’ faces.

2 guys-

Other news-

Thanks so much to Lisa Pijuan-Nomura of Girl Can Create, who interviewed me for her newsletter, The Red Letter.

I am planning to do an Etsy shop update over the week-end. Get the fairy grandmothers and babies listed and hopefully some other things that I’ve had a hard time parting with in the past. I took tons of photos today and hopefully that will get me through the process since it is suppose to rain all weekend… no do-overs.

Pretty much the same pattern as the tattooed guys, but in wool-

He is 23 1/4 inches tall.

It is so hard to get a photo with the colors right.  On my computer, the colors on the one below look right.  The herringbone is black and a grape jelly purple.  The yellow shirt is a warm buttery color.

I have a few more coming and then I’ll tell you where they came from.

the last one for now-

the group-

I couldn’t make up my mind which group photo was better so here are both of them.

I was having some camera aggravation-  batteries not charged when the sun was good.  Then later, very dark.  And it is suppose to be a very stormy weekend and I wanted to get this little one posted today… you know how it is.  So, not perfect photos, but you get the idea.

These babies are 11″ high.

Phew- I really wanted to be able to post at least one doll before the end of the month.  Thank goodness for the extra day!

Two little woolly babes.

This one is the day baby with an orange cashmere bird.

This one is the night baby.  I guess I needed to try my hand at owl imagery…  so much owly goodness around the internet- I was inspired!

A moon “hat”-

The owl is cut from an angora-blend printed sweater.  I have found several printed, natural fiber sweaters.  I always grab them.  There is something odd and wonderful about them.  When I found this one, I thought it would be perfect for a kitty or wool hair.  Instead, an owl!

2 more babies with trees to finish.

My new bag is done- another messenger/ schoolbag design. The last one I made was looking very worn out indeed. This is a very similar design. The changes- slightly bigger, longer and adjustable strap, slightly different pocket configuration, button closures.

I took these photos with the bag empty. The front-

You can see that I found my left-over pieces from the first bag and have used them up. With the flap up- 2 layers of pockets in the front.

The back- more of the old fabric. A large slip-in pocket in the back.

It is a real mish-mash of colors and fabrics. The purple on the inside is a home decorating fabric sample. The brown is cotton twill from a pair of pants. I recycled the hardware from an old schoolbag.

I’ve put my stuff into it. It seems so roomy now … but that won’t last long, I’m sure.

Onto other news. First- Happy Valentines Day everyone! And Happy 4th blog birthday to me! That was yesterday actually. I am constantly amazed at the wonderfulness of the internet. I am looking forward to another great year!

I AM going to London- the tickets are purchased and the hotel is booked. I am tagging along on a business trip. If anyone wants to meet up, I will be there from Wednesday through Sunday. I can bring freezer paper as a bribe!

The trip has meant a bit of reshuffling of schedules and as a result, on Tuesday, my son and I drove up to Portland, Maine. We went to visit the Maine College of Art. I love visiting these art schools. It is so much fun to see what is being created, all the tools and equipment, the amazing studios. And it surprises me that mostly I have no desire to go there anymore- I have so much in my head that going back to school would be a huge distraction… even if it would be fun to play with the toys- hee hee! It was fun to see Portland too. It is only 2 hours away but I have never been there before. They seem to have an exciting, thriving art scene. I think it would be a great place to go to Art School. We will see.

On the drive up, an entire thermos of coffee managed to leak out into the bag with my computer. Of course I spent the whole visit with a niggling worry that I had fried my computer. I brought it home for Ben to look at. Not too terribly bad. Now, two days later, I have an odd splotchy pattern on the left side of my screen- not so awful, except when I am trying to look at photos… which is, of course, what I do a lot of.  Hmm.  Maybe we will take it to the MacHospital while we are away…

this is where it started- doodles from many months ago.

this time for me! With a trip to London looking very likely now, I figured I needed to do some wardrobe enhancement.

I’d been meaning to make this for a few weeks. I made the big decision of what colors to use and laid it out for a general idea more then a week ago- and then it just sat there-

When I heard the news about a possible trip, that was the push I needed and I put it together yesterday. I got some input from Eleanor since she has been wearing her scarf for more then a month now. She suggested that I make it wider. This one is about 14 1/2 inches wide. I put a lettuce edge on it. People think it is hard to do, but really it couldn’t be easier. I do a zigzag stitch around the edge- that is it. The zigzag stitch stretches the knit just enough to give it a ripple effect. What would really be hard would be to put a zigzag edging on a stretchy fabric and not have the waves.

Now I need to make myself a new bag!  Back to the drawing board…