Okay, so I don't post often, but when I do, look out.

This is my latest fiasco, (I find that a better term than latest "work") This is Libelle, the dragonfly by Sherry Goshen. You can find her class here.

http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=922212312342489222&Store_id=235&page_id=23&Item_ID=1365, I think this doll (Sherry's version) is fabulous. My SIL would love her. So, my mom bought me the class for my Christmas present and the plan was for me to make Libelle for my SIL for her Christmas present. So, I jumped in and got started. Sherry's class is great and so are her instructions. I am the problem. I got her to this stage, but cracked her poor face and she had cracks all over her body. I tried to photo the cracks but they didn't turn out too well. Sherry gave me some great advice on how I might fix the cracks which I haven't tried yet. I am debating about just starting over since her face is cracked too. I came home on the eve of Christmas eve, after taking Christmas Eve off from work in hopes I could finish her before Christmas and discovered all the cracking. I pretty much scrubbed her for Christmas but am looking forward to trying again. Learning new things is such fun, even when you screw it up. I gave my SIL a different doll and told her about all the drama and she was perfectly happy with her substitute. She is great. She always loves whatever I make for her and really values that it is hand made and not bought. Here is the one I gave her (the fairy) from a class by Paula Johnson and Emmet who I made for my mom. I told mom I got her a man for Christmas...one that doesn't talk back, but he does have a comb over, hair in his ears and skinny white legs with big feet. He is from a pattern by Plain Jane Dolls.

My niece got her hair cut and I have always asked her to save me some because it is a beautiful red color. Last summer she did give me an envelope with her hair. I was planning to use it on a fairy or something. About Halloween she asked me to make her a doll using her hair. Well, of course I will. I went on a search for which doll. She is a little beyond a "baby doll" and a little before an "art doll". This doll is from Judi Ward's Whatever, Whatever class. http://dollnetmarket.ivisions.com/product.php?productid=110&cat=13&page=1 I have to say that this doll is well worth the price of the class. She goes together beautifully, stands on her own, I just can't say enough good about it. Anyway, I have never worked with real hair before and had to weft it first. I found different instructions on the net. One way was to sew it and one way was to glue it. Glueing was easier, but it was pretty stiff on the glued ends. The 2 rows of hair above are the 2 techniques. The bottom one is sewn and the top one is glued. Then I followed instructions to put the hair on. That is the next couple of pictures. Yikes, talk about a bad hair day. What you see is how the hair sat on the head and it did not want to move. Course I glued it on and didn't sew it to the head. It is about 2 days before Christmas and I have no more hair and if I can't salvedge this hair then what is the point in the doll? I am fretting.....big time at this point. The hair is too short to really pull it up like the directions suggest in order to hide all the wefting, but in the end all turned out well. I took her to work and everyone went crazy over her. My niece just loved her. The only thing that might have been better, in my niece's eyes, would have been if she could play with her. I was pretty proud of her too. Did you check out those gorgeous feet? I did have to remake the skirt because since she stands rather knock kneeed and pidgeon toed it makes the back of the skirt kind of ride up and the first skirt was way too short. With that skirt, Whatever looked more like a floozy than a tween.

This is a quilt I made for my BF. She was living in GA and had no family except her DH. One day she was telling me that there are days she doesn't even speak till 4pm or later and that she does get really lonely since all their family and friends are here in Ohio. I felt so bad for her that I decided to make her a quilt. Something she could wrap around her whenever she felt like she needed a hug and know I was giving her one. She loves flowers and likes oriental so I thought this quilt fit perfectly. She was really happy with it and I wish I had made one for myself because on a dreary winter day those flowers are surely uplifting. She has moved back to Ohio now and DH is coming in February. I am so HAPPY. I missed them more than I ever could have known I would. YIPPEE 2009 is looking better already.

Well, here it is New Year's Eve and what do you suppose I am doing? BABYSITTING!!! I am, as I write, watching Horton sees a Who giving you some idea of how exciting this evening will be. DH is working till 10pm and very likely will get froze over to 3rd shift. My SIL, who always spends New Year's Eve with me worked 3rd shift last night and forgot to bother with sleeping today so she is sleeping instead of partying with me and my 3 year old GD and 8 month GS. My BF, who I just went to Georgia and picked up last week, went and got herself in a car accident yesterday (thankfully she is ok) but today is sore and bruised and not moving much. Sighhhhhhhh, so this must be a true sign that I am getting old....all alone with the babies on New Year's Eve. But hey, Horton is starting to look pretty interesting. I went to the video store and rented a bunch of "chic" flicks but they are so much more fun when you have at least 1 chic to watch them with. Kyleigh is just too young to get it. TeeHee.

I also knitted a scarf for a gift exchange at work, which I didn't remember to get a picture of. The recipient loved it tho. I think that about sums up all the stuff I worked on this year. Course, we aren't adding in any of the UFO's. I think I have 4 or 5 dolls in some stage of completion, several dolls with "stuff" gathered for them and so many patterns that I want to make. I started a cathedral window quilt. I am mixing machine & hand sewing on those. I'll post some pics of the progress on that next time. Speaking of patterns, I just have to put a plug in to go check out Shelley Hawkey. Her muse has been working overtime and I have been snapping up her new patterns as fast as she has been creating them. http://www.abracreations.net/

I am fairly happy to start a new year. This year has seen the loss of a dear friend, an old friend, a favorite aunt, and a niece. On the up side, I have wonderful grandchildren, my health and those closest to me and we are all working....at least so far. Here is to a peaceful and fullfilling year to come with as little heartache and as much joy as possible and the strength we all need to deal. God bless till next time.

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No Pictures, Just Talk

In an effort to continue with my blog, I am back. Since last post I did decide to switch to the 7-4 shift and I love it. Some days I stay and work 7-7. Last week I did that all 3 days. I figure my day is already pretty well shot so might as well go for 3, 12 hour days. I really want to go to AFIC in Columbus this year at the end of April and to take Natalie H's class on Doll Street. That is my plan and I am sticking to it!!

My DS significant other decided she didn't want to wait while he got a job and got settled so she moved here with their 2 children. There are 10 people living in my house, 6 adults and 4 children (3,2,6mo,5mo). Yippee skippee is about all I can say to that. 5 days at work is starting to look pretty good to me and I figure with winter coming and we are all cooped up together should be an even bigger adventure. The good news is that I have not given up my sewing room (said in a whisper so no one can hear), the bad news is.....who has any time to use it with all these people and kids here? Do you reckon those 4 kids could ever take a nap at the same time, want to eat.....at the same time, need diapers changed, baths at the same time. NOT Then add in adults who can't get along except maybe in hours, never days....week, whatever. And, do you all remember how wonderfully a 3 year old and a 2 year old play together with their toys? I feel like a referee most of the time. But, there is hope, I think, that my sewing machine will get used again soon. Oh, the other good news is they are all working except the oldest DD so just maybe there is a light at the end of this very long tunnel.

I have my newest traveling visitor, Varsha from Shashi in England. She is lovely and I hope to have a few pictures to share on the next post. I think I have her for 2 weeks and I hope to take her Amish Country to an awesome fabric store and I will post pics so you all can drool. There are some events going on this month that I hope to get to take her to. Next week I hope to take her to see some Clydesdale horses get shoed with a farrier (sp) friend that I met through my new job. I am taking DH too and he is really looking forward to seeing those horses up close and personal. They are at a place called Malabar Farm which Louis Bromfield owned and Bogie and Bacall were married there. One thing about this traveling doll group has made me realize how much we have here in this small town that I don't think about much because I live here.

As you can tell, I have been creatively stifled just because of lack of time. If I do run into some peace and quiet I just sit on the couch or the patio and revel in it. I have a wizard doll started that was for a challenge on one of my yahoo doll groups, but alas, he has a body and a head in this world, the rest of the poor fellow is still in my head. I have some things I made for my traveling dolls Sage and Ella Mae that I finished but cannot show till their mom's get them, and I have 2 more to finish for my next 2 visitors. I have a quilt cut out ready to sew up for a dear friend that moved to Atlanta, GA last year and I miss her dearly. We are still in touch but it is just not the same as going over to her house and visit. And, she was a great cook who often fed me since DH worked 2nd shift and I do not cook when he is working. Miss those home cooked meals too.

In the midst of all this my computer got a virus and Best Buy wanted $130 to fix it, mind you I was still under extended warranty..... what a waste. DD #1 managed to get me working again. Whew.

Well, guess I am done talking to myself today...all out there take care and God bless.

Pitiful Blogger

Ughhhhh. I am such a pitiful blogger. No posts since May!!! Lets play catch up. My DD moved home from Missouri and just got a job that she starts on Monday. DD #2 also just got a job and is living at home with the two babies. She also starts Monday. DS is moving home on Sunday and going to look for a job on Monday. Yikes. At least his significant other and their 2 kids are staying at home while DS finds a job and gets settled. Still a houseful and that makes for a zoo around here.

I got a job at the hospital in June, just office work, but it is a good place to work. This job started out M-F 3:30-8:30. Not the greatest schedule, but doable. Since then it has changed to M-T-W 11:30-8:30. Now that is a sweet schedule. 4 days a week off and I make as much as I did at my old job working 40 hours a week. Now, that is what I call a blessing. Things have a possiblity of changing again. I can work 7-4 M-T-W if I want, which, in my world is the best schedule. I like to get up in the morning, go to work and get my work day done. But, if I do that it will cost me about $120 a month in shift differential. Now I am torn and don't know what to do. I can live without the extra money, but to lose it just because of the different time of day I am working.....I don't know how smart that is. But, for me personally the hours are better at 7-4. Isn't it funny how when you get a job the money is all great and it is ENOUGH. Then maybe you work a little overtime, like I did last week. Those 16 extra hours were pretty nice on the paycheck and I still had my weekend off. I have visions of doll classes and doll conventions and, oh yeah, there is the scooter I want to buy and gee, if I just work a bit over I could have all those things. Next thing you know, you are back to just working for mo money. I am at a time in my life when I want to slow down, enjoy my family (even if it is really screwed up...I mean 3 kids from 26-32 back at home...that is screwed up), enjoy my grandchildren etc, etc. But, it is sooooooo easy to get sucked into that "if I work a bit over then .......... I have a couple of weeks to decide what I am going to do and it is all because I opened my big mouth and pointed out that they have 4.5 hours dead computer time by having me on the shift I am now. They could get more productivity for the same amount of hours by changing my schedule. THEN I realized what it was going to cost me. DUHHHHHHHH. So, I have been trying to adjust to some kind of schedule which is no easy feat when you have all these people moving home and you are trying to make room for them without giving up your sewing area and adjusting to working again. So there are my big excuses for being the "pitiful blogger".

I joined a group from doll street dreamers that made traveling dolls. Each person in the group made a doll complete with passport and journal to travel. The idea came from the cost of travel being so high that the dolls are traveling in our place. There are 48 in the group, I think. They broke us down into groups of 4 or 5 and we send the dolls RR style to each other. While we have a doll, we take her sight seeing and souvenier collecting for a week or two then send her to the next person on the list. This has been such great fun and everyone has given their dolls such personalities, you would think they are little people instead of just a doll. I am kind of hoping that after the 1st of the year they might mix up the trading partners and send them out again. My doll went to Shashi in England and Shashi has taken her to India. Wow. I live in Ohio and would be happy to go to Niagera Falls, let alone India. Since Shashi went to India, I have to girls visiting me right now. Well, I was trying to add pictures here, but it added them at the beginning of the post. Boo Hiss. The redheaded trollish looking lady is Izzie Sue and her moose Willie. She is in the garden waving goodbye to her fairy friends just before she left for England. The other is her close up. She keeps Willie with her at all times and if anyone gets "fresh" with her, and that is based on her definition of fresh, she is inclined to whack them with Willie. I have spoken to her about this behavior, but she just tells me to mind my own business. Same thing with her skirt. I told her she was too old to wear her skirt that short and she let me know that she was old enough to wear what she d___ well pleased. She can be quite a handful. She left out of here with no underwear but Shashi was kind enough to make her a pair of knickers that match her outfit so Izzie was happy with them, but then she was showing them off for pictures!! Shashi sent me pictures on the yahoo site of this latest behavior and I can't share them with you because I don't know how to get them from there to here. Oh, and Izzie is made from an Ute Vasina pattern. Thank you Ute.

Ok, the first picture is Sage (on the right) by Becki Proctor and Ella Mae (on the left) by Sue McFadden. This is a picture of them at our Ohio State Reformatory, which used to be a prison, but is now a historical site. Here the girls are posing behind bars...that will probably have their moms worried until I explain. The next picture is Sage, Ella Mae and Bear sitting with GD Kyleigh. The next picture is Sage and Ella Mae sitting with Gertie who sits on my mom's porch and keeps mom company when she sits there and watches the deer across the street. The last picture is of Sage and Ella Mae on the carousel horse at our carousel which was built in our downtown.

Well, guess that is all for today and hopefully, I will improve on my pitiful blogging in the future.

More Spring

I do not know why the first posts left all that space between things, and I don't know how to fix it either. Would also like to know how you put a link under a word, life folks will write.....go "here", and the word here is a link. How do you do that?

Spring

Here is one of the fairies I have made from Paula Johnson's baby fairy class that was offered on Dollstreet. I have 2 others done except for their wings so figured I would wait and post their picture when I get the wings on. Taking a small doll break and making some summer clothes for my GD. Pictures of those on next post. This little fae does not have a name yet, so if one hits you, leave me a note. The class was great and they are really sweet little fairies. I think the class is being offered again right now.





























Meet my newest and only grandson Kamden Edward McNeil. I think he is such a handsome fellow. Born April 8. I also have 4 granddaughters, poor little guy is going to be so outnumbered on the estrogen around him. DH is glad for the company tho. He has been dealing with it 4 ever.

This is my dogs. Ernie with my granddaughter Amiah, then (l-r) Pudge, Abby (mom), and Maybe, who all need a haircut. There was a time that I thought I was going through empty nest syndrome (cause I thought the kids were moved out and gone-ha ha) and I think I replaced kids with dogs. The dogs are much more enjoyable than the kids were/are. This excludes the grandbabies who are enjoyable. Can you relate?

Mother's Day. Yippee. Spring is here, although pretty wet and chilly. But, we have had a few days of sunshine. I thought I would share a few pictures of my patio and lilacs. I so enjoy sitting on my patio, listening to my fountains and the birds and smelling fresh air. Just some things I am thankful for. We are putting in an above ground pool just on the other side of the fence this year. Grandkids ya know. Plus, I can not take the heat in the summer anymore and living in a 100 + yr old house with 3 stories makes air conditioning almost impossible. I put room air in certain rooms but that is it. I am thinking I'll just lay on top of the water in that pool in the heat this summer and maybe try to do some walking in it for exercize. I try to walk every day, but in the summer I have to wait till it cools down after dark and then I don't feel comfortable walking by myself. I am just so looking forward to summer this year.

Guess that is enough for today, hopefully, I will be a little more prompt about updating. I kind of felt like only posting when I had something to show, but have found in following other blogs that I am interested in just daily things they might be thinking about, pics of their work areas, or gardens, or a special flower, anything really. Makes you feel so connected. That being said, I plan to muse a bit more and if you are interested great and if not, that is great too.

Happy Mothers Day to all.

Blizzard

Well it is Tuesday and we had a blizzard over the weekend. It started on Friday, all day Saturday and most of Sunday. I have no idea how many inches we got but I thought we had teleported to Alaska. My perfect timing, I got sick starting Friday afternoon and was really miserable by Saturday. Could not get out of the drive to go get any medicine, therefore, could not sleep. Saturday was a really long day. We have a 4WD p-up, which my DH took to work at 1:00 on Saturday and then got stuck working a double and didn't get home until 6A.M. Sunday morning. By 9 I was out finding someplace open to get Nyquil. Finally I could breathe a bit and could sleep a bit. I am still not completely over it, but can tell I am on the mend. Lord that nyquil tastes so bad!! My good friend Veronica sent me an email with a picture of some mouth watering cinnamon buns that you could almost taste right through the screen. I was sure I could smell them even thru all the congestion. Thanks Veronica.

Monday, took my DD to the doctor and they did an ultrasound. I have never been good at seeing much in those pictures. The baby has already turned and the best we got was a profile of his face, which is still a big old guess in my opinion. Looks like he will be here around April 5. Got to get busy on the spring cleaning and get the crib set up. Would like to be ready when he gets here. Plus, I will be going back to work soon (YUCK) and never feel like spring cleaning then.

I have no pics to share today. Still working on UFO's. Should finish up one of the 3 fairy babies from Paula Johnson's class on Dollstreet today. The quilt that is ready to be quilted is still sitting by my sewing machine and I just keep looking at it. I might feel up to working on that today. Geez, if I would just apply myself it could be finished.

Do you ever feel that you have so many things to do that you don't know where to begin? That is where I am right now. Big old list of have to do, bigger old list of want to do. Seems like I just been pickin at a little of each and not finishing anything. This morning I took down the curtains in the bath to be washed, worked on my doll, played on the computer and game my honey his to do list. Guess that is accomplishment.

More Harpy Info

Anyway, I got carried away posting the pics. Her feathers are from the wing of some kind of pheasant I think and they are amazing the way they change colors in the sun light. Her bolero jacket is from a fox head pelt and where the ears were form her cap sleeves. The halter top is just fabric but it looks like snake skin. She is quite dressed for and with her envirement.

Now on to my Paula Johnson Fairy Babies class. I have 3 about 1/2 done. 2 large and 1 small. I couldn't decide on fabrics so ended up doing 3 so I could use all my fabric choices. More later.

Harpy Done!!

Drum Roll Please...............

Here she is, my Harpy, finally finished after almost a year. I think she is fabulous. I used so many new techniques on this doll and did things (like sculpting) that I never thought I could do so, to me, she is fabulous just because she looks like she is s'posed to. This was a Judy Skeel class, which is being offered at http://www.dollstreetdreamers.com/ in April and I cannot recommend this class highly enough. Many, many very clear pictures with very clear instruction and Judy is right there for questions and input. Well worth every penny. Best class I have ever taken, and I have taken a few.

Just A Note

Your fairy is called Thorn Hailfly
She is a protector of the lonely.
She lives in brambles and blackberry bushes.
She is only seen at midday under a quiet, cloudless sky.
She wears purple and green like berries and leaves.
She has cheery turquoise wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here.
http://www.emmadavies.net/fairy/default.aspx

So, lets see....I have been working on my UFO's still. I got my quilt top finished and my quilt "sandwich" is basted together. Now if I can just figure out how I want to quilt the thing. It has me stumped a bit. So I switched off and worked on my Harpy some more. I have her wings almost completely feathered. Hopefully I can post some pics later this week.

Today we are going to a friend's house for her daughter to braid my granddaughters hair. She has wild curly hair and you can't do much with it because it is soooooooo curly. We are going to try 2 french braids going from front to back and see if they stay in for a while. I think they do if you know how to braid them right. We shall see. I'll post some pics of that too.

My ex-DIL and I went out yesterday on the spur of the moment and bought the book "The Secret". Wow, 15 pages and it is a powerful book and concept. I am studying on it and hope to put it into practice. Ya know, there really is a lot of magic in this world and it is amazing.

An internet friend has gotten me started on an herbal tea and I have been drinking 3 cups a day for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday I had to stop and realize that I feel "different". I mean, I feel GOOOOOD, physically and mentally. It just struck me that I feel like I am in my twenties or something. I had ordered more from her before this revelation but WOW this is wonderful. There you are a bit more of that magic in the world.

I feel like I am also trying to go through some kind of spiritual readjustment in myself and my life. Wish me luck on my journey of discovery and if you have any tips or words of wisdom...pass it to me.

Black and White Challenge

This is Olivia the Octoherpodite. This was done for a yahoo group called Black and White Challenge. She was done in October but she didn't win. I still love her tho. The rules were that everything had to be black & white, but could have subtle color in the makeup and skin tone. My DH built her cage and I love it. Didnt he do a fabulous job? I got the idea for her from Circus De Soleil. The group has changed their name to Technicolor something and every year there is a new pattern and new colors. This year is a circus, mardi gras theme and the colors are purple and gold. I don't know if I'll enter this year or not. Right now I have no ideas but they aren't due till end of October so there is time. Everyone used the same pattern to start with and they, as usual, came out very different.

New Year Projects

My new year resolution was to try and finish up some "stuff" that has been languishing for a long time. I got started on this because of the house/dog sitting for my SIL. I was going to have 2-1/2 weeks of uninterrupted time. I knew that trying to pack up stuff to work on dolls would be next to impossible unless I wanted to move my entire sewing room. We use so much stuff when making a doll don't we? So, I went through my unfinished project piles and pulled out stuff that I could do without dragging everything. Unfortunately, that can be astounding and I am just disgusted with myself for not finishing. That is how I decided this was ridiculous and I was finishing old before starting new.

The first thing I tackled was the large quilt which I had started for DD #3 when she was still in high school and she is now 25!! I had already made her brother and sister a quilt then got waylayed on hers. This is a simple quilt, like quilt in a day. You sew the top strip, batting, bottom strip to the quilt all at once. Since they are less than 6" wide and I used cotton batting, no additional quilting is necessary. I had seen this technique on Simply Quilts and they were using it to make quilts fast to give away to homeless children/hospitalized children. This thing is huge! I wanted to use the pillow panels that came with the center panel as the four corners and they are 8-10". That area of the quilt needed to be quilted and that is where I got hung up on it. My DD made me feel so bad that she never got her quilt that I had to finish it. Yippee.

The table runner was the first thing that DD #1 had ever sewn. I thought she did a fabulous job. I did need to quilt it and bind it for her, but now she let me keep it and I love it.

Then I started on the quilt from h----. DD #1 had cut and pieced the quilt top and it was a mess. I made her tear it out and I tried to get it back together and be usable, at least around the house. After two weeks of fighting with this quilt, I threw it in the trash. I mean, I do have my limits, and boy had I reached it with this top. That day my girlfriend came over and saw it in the trash, dug it out and is using it to make pillows. I consider that a very happy ending to that story. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of it before she took it. Maybe I can get a pic of her pillows to post when she finishes.

That burnt me out and I had another top about 2/3 finished that I was going to start I next. I did start on it, but I was very stressed from the last two weeks about square blocks and things fitting together. So, I sew a bit on the quilt top, then I took a break and decided to get the feathers on my Harpy. I think she has been in the birthing stage about a year now. I really like these feathers. I got an actual bird wing at a shop near here and pulled it apart for the feathers. Boy the colors are gorgeous and change with the sun. God certainly can make some beautiful stuff can't he?

Well that gets me pretty up to date with what I have been doing. The last week I have not been too productive and I don't know why. I have been doing a great job at holding the couch down, but I guess we don't need any pics of that!! LOL

I did sign up for Cyndi Mal...... Caterpillar Class at Lisa Risler's site and Colleen Babcocks Water Lily at Cloth Doll Connection. I can't wait to get started on them, but so far, I am sticking to my resolution.