Hello From Chicago!

It’s been a while! We got to Chicago on April 3 with the kitties. We spent 2 months in Airbnbs- one month each so it wasn’t too terrible but really, it was enough. So, we have found an apartment and we will stay here until we find our next home. We moved in on June 1 and all our stuff arrived on June 7. We have spent the time since, setting up, sorting boxes, and all the rest of what you do after a move. I am working on getting my studio set up again. Also, acquiring all the necessities for shipping since I left that all behind. Baby steps to getting back to work. Once I have my new shipping label printer figured out, I will be able to re-open my etsy shop. I do know where the post office is so that’s a step in the right direction!

While I was in studio limbo, I had a few projects to work on. I worked on some summer clothes and some quilts. I had 2 quilt tops done but not backed or quilted. Here is the big quilt, laid out on the floor of an airbnb, getting basted together.

The apartment for the first week-

And then our stuff arrived- and that is just the beginning of the moving-in day.

This is going to be my workspace- I just have to figure out how to make the space useable-

It is all coming along. I have to get back into practice doing my blog and all the rest. We are settling in, even the kitties. They have their condo even if we don’t have ours yet 😸

I’m Moving so I’m having a Sale!

I am living in chaos right now- so many boxes and bins!

This was last week maybe? There is a lot less recognizable stuff and more taped up boxes.

I have no idea when I will be back to work. We will be out of the house by the beginning of April and into some kind of temporary situation. Then we wait for things to happen.

Anyway, all that said, I don’t want to put my finished work into storage for who knows how long. I am post here first for my blog friends- a 25% off code at my Etsy shop. MOVING25

The sale will include all the dolls and the Tiny Worlds, but not the patterns. The sale will go on until I am too busy to ship anything else out- sometime towards the end of March. Help me lighten my load!

Man With Chinoiserie Tattoos

The weather here has been terrible for my photography- it is rainy, or snowy, or everything is wet. Finally yesterday morning the sun came out so I rushed to take some pictures of the few things I’ve finished!

I will be finishing some random things as I work on the sorting and packing. The pieces that get finished are ones that are sewed and stuffed and just need their handwork. This fellow with his chinoiserie toile tattoos was the farthest along so he got finished first.

2022- Dolls in Review!

I’m a little late with this- that sums up what the last 6 months have been like around here! Among other things, when I went back over my photos, I’d messed up my counting and I had to clean up that mess. So, here we are finally!

I will start with 25 Tiny World pincushions, not dolls.

Tiny World 2, 2. Tiny World 5, 3. Tiny World 4, 4. Tiny World 3, 5. Tiny World 1, 6. Tiny World 7, 7. Tiny World 6, 8. Tiny World 9, 9. Tiny World 8, 10. Tiny World 11, 11. Tiny World 10, 12. Special Order Tiny World, 13. Red Transferware Tiny World, 14. Fancy cup pincushion, 15. Tiny World with Blue Flower Bush, 16. Farmyard Pincushion, 17. Farmyard Pincushion, 18. Desert House Pincushion 1 and 2, 19. Tiny World Pincushion, 20. Tiny Snowy World, 21. Tiny Snowy World, 22. Tiny World Pincushion, 23. Tiny World Pincushion, 24. Pincushion in a Calico tea cup

36 Fresh fish-

Red Fish 3 and 4, 2. Red Fish 1 and 2, 3. Blue Fish Pillows, 4. Blue-Green-ish Fish Pillows, 5. Green-ish Fish Pillows, 6. 2 Gold(ish)fish, 7. 2 Purple-y Red Fish, 8. 2 Green Fish, 9. 3 Wool Fish Pillows, 10. 2 Sweater Fish, 11. 3 Green Fish, 12. Blue Fish and Blue-Green Fish, 13. White and Gray Fish, 14. Pink Fish, 15. Autumn Fish, 16. Red Plaid Fish, 17. Blue Plaid Fish, 18. Purple Fish, 19. Purple-red Fish, 20. Blue-green Fish

14 Kitties, 1 Cat Lady

Untitled, 2. Mamma Cat, 3. Blue-eyed Kitty, 4. Kitty is shopping, 5. Untitled, 6. Going Fishing Cat, 7. Kitty in a Red Jacket, 8. OrangeMan 2002- 2022, 9. Aqua Kitty Girl, 10. Black Kitty, Liberty dress, 11. Black Cat in Striped Jacket, 12. Cat in a Plaid Jacket, 13. Charlie, 14. Fancy Fox Lady, 15. Fox Lady Goes Shopping, 16. Cat Lady Pillow Doll

12 Mermen

Blue Merman, 2. Merman with tall ship tattoos, 3. Merman with skeleton tattoos, 4. Orange Hair Merman, 5. Red-Haired Merman, 6. Purple-haired Merman, 7. Silver-tailed Merman, 8. Tentacle Merman, 9. Dark Blue Merman, 10. Merman with sea creatures, 11. Merman with Whales, 12. Purple Merman

18 other men

Corn Farmer, 2. Man with hunting tattoos, 3. Greenman, 4. Greenman 2, 5. Big Blond Lumberjack, 6. Lumberjack in Red-check Shirt, 7. Lumberjack 3, 8. Lumberjack 4, 9. Lumberjack in Plaid, 10. Man with Red Pants, 11. White-Haired Pirate, 12. Man in a Kilt doll, 13. Strongman with Goddess Tattoos, 14. Big Man in a Red Kilt, 15. Big Man in a Striped Bathing Suit, 16. Sepia Man, 17. Tattooed Man in Red Pants, 18. Man with skater tattoos, 19. Owl 1, 20. Owl 2

26 Owls

2 Dark Owls, 2. snowy owl, 3. Snowy Owl, 4. 2 Brown Owls, 5. Brown Owl Face, 6. Brown Owl Face, 7. Gray Owl, 8. Brown Owl, 9. 2 Snowy Owls, 10. 2 Dark Owls, 11. 3 Brown Owls, 12. Rust Owl, 13. Brown Owl, 14. Tan Owl, 15. 2 more owl dolls, 16. 2 owl dolls

And 3 Swaddled Babies, 11 Dogs…

Blond Flower Baby, 2. Blue Flower Baby, 3. Magenta Flower Baby, 4. Black Pug Fellow, 5. Pug Girl 1, 6. Cute Girl Pug, 7. lady gardener dog, 8. Cowboy Dog, 9. Bird Dog, 10. Dapper Dog, 11. Little White Dog, 12. Hiker Dog, 13. Folktale Puppy Girl, 14. Dog with a pipe, 15. Greenman 2, 16. cats – 1

and me. And Winifred and Jasper, the adorable kitties that came into our life almost a year ago!

That is 121 dolls plus 25 Tiny Worlds. I am surprised that so much got accomplished while I was clearing stuff out of the house, having a huge yard sale, flying to Chicago, and all the rest of the work of moving house after 36 years! We are still hoping to relocate in the Spring so fingers-crossed that our perfect new place will show up soon!

The last dolls of 2022

Happy New Year!!! I’m not sure how many new pieces there will be in 2023 since I will be packing up my studio and setting up a new one somewhere. But, these are the last 2 of 2022- one that I forgot to post and the other that I finished yesterday.

Yesterdays doll is this dark purple merman.

It is hard to tell in the photos but the tentacles are printed with silver dots and the gold color “leaves” are also metallic.

Also, more hair/horn/dreadlocks… I spend so much time fussing over the hair details and then they hardly show!

And one last fish; a 3/4 size one-

and a comparison to my regular fish-

Okay, now I am really done with 2022!