Tag Archives: garden

What Day is it again?

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I don’t know about you but I have been feeling like I stepped into an episode of the Twilight Zone. Life is very strange these days. What has been happening here? Spring has arrived and the garden is happy.

My seeds are beginning to grow.

I made a baby blanket gift.

I learned something new. I had never heard about stack wound vs cross wound threads. I read/learned about it here. After reading this, I set up my sewing machine like this for when I use Gutermann threads-

I used the water cup for my iron because that was the closest thing at hand in my studio that worked. I will be keeping my eye out for something a bit more practical/permanent since I’ll have to use the water cup soon for it’s intended purpose! And here is the clip as suggested in the article.

So far it has been working great! At least half the thread I use is Coats & Clark which is stack wound so I don’t have to use this method for all my thread.

And lastly, I have been working on pugs. I haven’t made them for a long time! I don’t have any idea why all the sewing seems to be going at glacier speed, but little by little, hopefully I will get something finished. As of today, I have 8 sewed up and turned so hurray for that!

Me-made shirts

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Besides the quilt, I got 2 shirts finished up. This butterfly one-

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Quilt-weight cotton fabric, designed by Lizzie House. I don’t think she is designing fabric these days, but I have loved her prints and this is at least the third shirt I’ve made using them.

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And this dark blue linen shirt which feels so nice to wear but I made kind of a big mistake.

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You know how buttons are on one side on a woman’s shirt, and on the other for a man’s? Yep, I got it wrong. After I had it all finished and buttoned up, trying it on for the first time, I looked down and thought to myself, Something doesn’t look right here! Oh well, it is absolutely not fixable so I will enjoy it as it is. And yes, pockets. All my clothes have pockets.

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Other than sewing, I’ve spent time in the garden. The flowers are beautiful this year with all the rain. This hydrangea is looking especially gorgeous right now.

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I am back to work, putting together some new mermen. Nothing will get finished until late next week at the earliest as I am off for more road tripping this next week. Busy summer!

August Fish

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I have been busy working on some other projects, namely making more room in my scraps drawer… I mean, making a quilt. But, I will be back to the dolls in a minute or so, starting with some August fish.

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I am happy to admit that the garden has been a big distraction this year. We’ve had perfect weather, rain and sun. So I will leave a few photos here-

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dog 5- a beret!

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6:14:curlydog 6I love this curly fabric (formerly known as natural color boucle sweater). It is so perfectly doggy.

6:14:curlydog 26:14:curlydog 1Add to that, my old fair isle sweater that I was very sad to have to relegate to the recycle pile.

6:14:curlydog 36:14:curlydog 4And a soft cashmere scarf and beret. This doggie is a winner!

6:14:curlydog 5And the garden is pretty amazing these days too!

feeling summery

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and not much is happening around here! Things are going on in my life- they just aren’t showing up here.  I’ve been doing boring projects like cleaning and weeding, projects that I forgot to photograph before I sent them out- sleeves for some computers, and secret-for-now projects- gift type things.

The garden is looking amazing. So many colors!

Lavender-

Poppy season!

The crocosmia are just starting.

Coreopsis “moonbeam”

and Butterfly weed.

Daylilies-

And in the back, my favorite combination. Blue lace-cap Hydrangea and anything.

And an oakleaf hydrangea.

My desk is not completely bare of dolls. Now that I finished the *secret project* (I’ll tell later), I pulled out some partially finished dolls from before Brooklyn and I’m giving them faces, and hair. And life.

Speaking of Brooklyn, I will be going to Renegade Chicago in September- hope to see you there!

Okay, what else? I’ve been going through my scrap box, thinking quilt thoughts. We’ll see if anything materializes. Tomorrow I am driving up to Vermont for a few days. I am going to visit the Shelburne Museum. It looks like there is a lot of interesting goodies there- I’ll give the report when I get back. I think that’s it for now. Hope you had a great long week-end (in the US). The Boston fireworks were amazing!

the last few days

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Fall! The last things blooming in my garden- chrysanthemums and dahlias. I love how all the blossoms on the mums are facing in one direction.

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Walk in the neighborhood. It is surprising what you see when the leaves start to go.

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And my class on Saturday- so much fun! There were 5 of us all together.

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This is the Haunted house!

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And here is the table with all the felt and wool-

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The market on Sunday was canceled- we were having a nor’easter here in Boston- wind, rain, cold… I was not sorry to miss standing under a tent from 7am to after 4pm. And then it snowed! It was the right call. Still, I’m left feeling a little deflated- all the anticipation and hope that comes as I prepare for a show. The next show I am scheduled to do is the South End Holiday Fair– Dec. 12 and 13.

new doll and temporary photo solution

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One good thing about having a camera that has the option to take huge photos- I took all of these photos on one side of the frame and cropped out the spot! Next, I might have to try Photoshop. On Monday, I will call Canon and get advise.

She is my Garden Girl-

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I gave her pigtails. I’ve been wanting to figure out a way to make them and I am pleased with her hair.

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a detail of the flowers and her shoe bows-

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and in the garden.

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update 9/21/09- I redid her face and changed the photos.

garden baby

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This baby is the same color palette as this garden lady. I love, love, LOVE these colors together!

Okay, sorry about that. Back to the topic at hand.

Did you know that Firefox can make all the colors in your photos look terrible? I could not figure out what was wrong- my photos looked fine on Iphoto and totally washed out when I put them on my blog or flickr. When I whined loudly enough about it, my sweetie figured out the the problem- check it out.

garden lady

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Are you thinking, now wait a minute! I thought you were working on swaddled babies?! Well, yes I am. And I also had/have 3 ladies, waiting in doll limbo since before Christmas. When I started in on the babies, I pulled them onto the desk too. And now look who showed up!

Don’t worry though, tomorrow- another swaddled baby to show.