Doll

drumroll please… random number generator picks #53-

Liz Noonan!

Thanks to everyone who joined in to wish me a Happy Birthday! It was wonderful!

Coming next from the studio-

There are 15 men dolls, cut out and stitched together, hanging from my rack. That is what Sage (intern) and I did last week. Next comes clipping, trimming, turning and stuffing. I am hoping to have about 4 done for Chicago. I am thinking ahead for the fall already- stocking up. Before I continue with them though, I need to get a few Tiny Worlds finished. I promised someone when it seemed like loads of time and now I have a deadline looming.

And the Fresh Fish class I mentioned in the last post? Here! It looks like a fantastic weekend of fun!

It has been a crazy busy week. All kinds of things going on.

Today is the last day to enter the birthday giveaway. If you want to join in the fun, add your comment to the birthday post.

5 weeks until Renegade Chicago- Yikes! I am feeling the push. It is actually less then 5 weeks because I have to send out the work beforehand. This is my first travel-by-plane show. It will be interesting to see how it all goes. I am thinking a lot about the booth and how to set it up with the minimum of props.

I am going to be teaching in October. I will be doing a Tiny World class at my house on Saturday, Oct. 30. More info here. Email me if you’d like to join the fun. It looks like I will also be teaching a Fresh Fish class- more details on that coming soon.

And now a technical question- I KNOW that Bloglines is lame and all the cool kids are over on Google Reader, but, I started on Bloglines and moving everything seems like a big chore. I subscribe to several feeds for my own blog so that I can see how they look and when the new posts get published. About a month ago, one of my Doll feeds showed up with an exclamation point next to it. That one feed has stopped working- and of course, that is the feed with the most subscribers. Arg! I figured it would fix itself, but not so far. I checked out several other blogs in my list that also had the exclamation point- Yikes! Some of them hadn’t been working for many months! Does anybody know haw to fix this? It is making me sad.

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming… it turns out that mid-summer is a great time for thrifting after all. Well, this year it is anyway. I went to my favorite places on two Wednesdays in a row. I now have enough gorgeous wooliness to get me through the fall and beyond. I shouldn’t go back until January at the soonest. Right, shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t.

And lastly, I am actually going to be participating in a few shows * in galleries*  this fall. WooHoo! More news on that soon, once I have some links for you.

The months ahead are beginning to look very busy. Full steam ahead!

wow- I just realized that I will have gone a month without posting a new doll. What a crazy month! It is not that I haven’t been working.

Sage (my intern) and I have been working on a big pile of girls. We’ve got ten going. When I get home from Paris, these are going to get finished up. I also was working on a project that is one of those fun things that I can’t tell you about quite yet… actually, just having a project that I can’t mention is a thrill in itself! And, of course, there has been all my Paris prep. I am making myself a few new skirts and shirts. Hopefully I will actually finish them before we leave tomorrow.

If you are interested, here is the google map I am making with all the interesting suggestions people have made. I sure I won’t get to everything, but I have a lot to choose from.

And the garden is thriving. I’ve got my tomatoes in, using my containers, but this year I tried lining them with corrugated cardboard before stretching the t-shirts. So far, so good.

I am growing Carbons, Pink Brandywine, Copia, Bonny Best, Opalka, and Isis Candy.

Well, see you in Paris!

So I mentioned back here that I am going to Paris- less then 2 weeks now! My life has gone into warp speed. Crazy!

I’m getting psyched. I borrowed some cds from the library to see if I could remind myself of some basic French. The conversation that I am learning seems to lean heavily toward picking up the mademoiselle. Hmm. I might have to see if they have Conversation for Middle-aged Lady who likes Needlework. I took out these movies too. I just find it difficult to make time to actually watch them.

I’d love to meet up with any like-minded people if you are near Paris during the last week of June. I’d love any suggestions for fun places to go, especially related to what I do. And I speak virtually no French and will be on my own for the weekdays. I know there are lists of a sewers guide to New York- is there something similar for Paris?

And on the life front- I feel like I am just settling down from Renegade. There is so much to think about. I continue to be amazed at how fantastic it was. Travel plans always make me feel like I need a new wardrobe, so I’ve got a pile of fabric and maybe it will turn into some shirts and skirts in the next 1 1/2 weeks. The garden needs me- the weeds are taking over and I still haven’t got all my dahlias in the ground. The tomatoes are looking very happy though. And, my intern has started- 2 days a week.  I have the projects that she can help me with and the other projects. I’m going to do dolls with her and my other projects when she isn’t here. That means the dolls will get finished slower but hopefully everything will move forward. Yes, it is busy around here.

Packaging up the new magnet sets. Until I ran out of bags. Now I am waiting for new ones to arrive.

Hard copy patterns. I still have to make the cds. Each step is a learning process, including getting my files to the printer.

And the dolls. In progress and also a few are being re-thought and tweaked.

Countdown to Renegade.

I’m off to Minneapolis tonight. It always seems to take me a few days to get back into things, once I return. I am leaving some partly finished dolls, all ready to work on. I am hoping this will help me jump back into the studio when I return.

3 tattooed ladies and one tattooed man-

And here is what I am stitching- a grey-haired, mostly bald dude. I’m having fun with my variegated floss.

See you next week!

That week flew by. And now a new one begins. Happy Mothers Day!

My tree peony bloomed- always a treat.

We’ve had some crazy weather in the few days since I took the photos- wild thunderstorm, torrential rain and now some very windy weather. The plant is looking a bit tussled today. The flowers rarely last more then a week so I appreciate them while I can.

On Friday night I went to the MassArt Senior Fashion Show: Current 2010.  I was offered complimentary tickets (not sure how I got on that list!)- it is not something I would ordinarily think of going to. Well, it was so much fun! I have never been to anything like it- there was the runway, the models, the collections. I tried to find photos but there wasn’t much. I did find this one of my favorite dress of the evening. I hope I can go next year- it was a blast!

Saturday, doll club. We did needle felting. I will not be changing over to needle felting any time soon. Sorry about no pics- the photos I took were too awful to post.

And today. Working on- gladiator sandals.

Maybe too much fiddly work. Piled on the table are men in progress, paper pattern pieces, fabric marking tools, trims…

And the desk, looking cleaner then usual.

This coming week will focus on finishing those guys and then I’m off to Minneapolis on Thursday for J’s graduation. Life seems to have suddenly shifted to high speed.

I’ve been working on basting the quilt together. It progresses slowly. I have an idea now for how I’m going to quilt it. But, on the basting- I collected all of my almost empty spools of thread and some random bobbins with thread but no sewing machine to use them in, and used that to baste the quilt. It is so satisfying to be finishing up all those last little bits of thread!

My desk, this afternoon-

And today we had our Patriots’ Day parade. This is Mass Ave in Arlington, about a half hour before the parade started. Sort of eerie.

And this group made me laugh-

Hope you had a great weekend!

I finished these up over the weekend and this morning. Enough for now.

Two woodsy ones-

and two fairy houses-

*okay- they are all in my Etsy shop now*

Now, onto the girls, who have been waiting very patiently.

and a little bit of that.

This happens to me all the time. I finished up the fish project, went to NYC, had my class and then … well I am completely scattered. I’ve got a group of tiny worlds started-

and I’ve been wanting to dye a pile of toile fabric- I’d been in the middle of that project back at the beginning of February when I veered off to the fish. And the pile of fabric, the pots, the dye, have all been sitting on the kitchen counter for the month. So, I did that at the beginning of the week-

Okay, and then there are the girl dolls that have been haunting me since last summer. They were cut out in August, put in a bin and have been sitting there, waiting for me.  I really think I need to make them before anything else. Really, yes, haunting me. There are 4. I sewed one together last night.

And lastly, there are the partially finished projects that always seem to get left behind when I move on to the next thing- one fish, one tattooed man-

It will sort itself out as it always does. Things don’t progress in a nice straight line- just wanted to make sure you know it is not just you.

* Fish Sightings! * Here and Here! See- nobody can make just one.