I love watching That’s Clever on HGTV. The artist shows a project, goes to their imaculate work space and in about 8 minutes, it is all done! That’s not how it works at my house.

I was thinking, back on Friday, I really want to get to work on some more Fat Fairies! Up to my attic… pull out the fabric, try to find all the pieces for the patterns. Then I realize that I don’t have enough pinky skin- toned wool left. That means I’ve got to dye some more. Which involves finding a selection of white (ish) wool fabrics to dye. And finding the dye. I KNOW I have both of these neccessities somewhere. First, find the fabric. Okay, look through all the bins that I’ve been trying to organize the wool into. Nope. Then pull out everything in the attic (studio) closet. I didn’t find the fabric I want but I decide to try reorganizing it again to see if I can make the space work any better. And get rid of some of the stuff. Now go into the deeper attic storage areas. Actually I’ve been meaning to sort through that stuff anyway. I now have a big pile of stuff to sell on ebay- related to wool rug hooking- and another pile of fabric to donate to the Fashion School in Boston. And I finally did find some white fabric, although I’m pretty sure there is more around here somewhere. Finding the dye was a similar adventure, but now- this afternoon – I have a nice pile of pink skin tones in a variety of wooly texture. Here they are, pre-ironing, ready to join my bin of multi-hued skin tone fabrics!

sometimes ideas get stuck in my head, fermenting for a long period of time before something related to said random word or image pops out again. Many, many months ago, I read Jane’s brief mention of fat fairies. This connected in my head with a very funny fairy song that someone sang at a voice recital that my daughter was part of about four years ago.

Anyway, here is what I’ve been working on-

I didn’t like those eyes though so I did them over …

and here she is, all done. I am hoping the weather will be better tomorrow and I can take some better photos.

well, it seems there pretty much hasn’t been any. I feel as energetic as a deflated balloon- I’m not sure what it is. Every fun thing I’d like to be working on requires doing a hard and boring clearing up and organizing job. Groan… so thank goodness I signed up to do the Valentine ATC swap

I had to clear some space around the sewing machines, sort through the stuff on the chair and get out the fabric. I am pushing myself to work on these- it is what will get the creative juices flowing again, I hope.

My very good friend Lyn Lidsky gave me an amazing present last week. Here is the beautiful card-

and when I unwrapped it-

doll fashion! Will it be the next big thing? I know I will proudly wear my doll scarf to proclaim my doll-making self!

More pics-

Can you see the Salley Mavor doll? And there is one of my Christmas 2003 dolls. There is also a little house ornament that I use to make back in my clay days. So much fun! Thanks so much Lyn!

No dolls lately. I am doing various January things- catching a cold, trying to get my house organized, general fretting about plans for the coming year; you know the drill. On top of that, I’ve been distracted by car stuff and camera shopping. I am at the fantasy stage of shopping for a new digital camera. It’s very time consuming! Anyway, I have been doing some more knitting. The yarn is so pretty and also very soft- I think there is mohair in it, but I’ve lost the label so I’m not sure. I am making another triangle scarf like last year. This one will be bigger though- this yarn came in a 100 gram skein and I’ll just keep knitting until I use it up. I have really liked my other one and have worn it a lot.

Skinner Auction House is having a doll auction on Nov. 3. I hope I can get out to the preview. There are some things I’d love to see in person- deco ladies, pin cushion doll, Door of Hope child, Dewees Cochran doll, and some great automaton toys.

Did you get your copy of Jess Hutch’s knitting pattern book? I can’t wait to get mine! I really admire anyone who can put patterns onto paper for another person to use- I have tried and find it incredibly difficult.

And I’m working on more ways to make an animal head… doing the teddy bear pattern is fun, but not really what I’m looking for- there are 21 pieces in the pattern! And it is only going to be about 5″ tall! I am trying to make a sewing pattern that will produce a look similar to the kitties I knitted, especially this one.

I’ll stop whining and get to work here! I have been trying out some patterns for soft animals and other ideas running through my head. The drawings are Richard Scarry inspired. The body on the right is my first try, using a pattern from Sewing Tiny Toys by Carolyn Vosburg Hall. I was aiming for a cat, but I think it looks like a fox. On the left is my second try- my own pattern. More cat-like, but still needs lots of work. Right now I am trying a classic teddy bear head- well actually I’m doing the whole bear, not just doing the head. It is a 3 piece head pattern- 2 sides and a piece that goes down the middle of the face. I’ve never tried this design before.

In the middle of the picture is my Santa face experiment. Something else I’m stewing about,,,