Miscellaneous----clearing out the camera

Here are some pics I wanted to clean out of my camera....



My niece Michele sent me this on my birthday; she wrote this in the snow outside her cabin in Big Bear.  I love the lighting.

 

I made and laminated this sign to wear into surgery.  Hey, ya gotta have a good sense of humor during rough times.

 

  

I've been making these for the Center for Cancer Care.  They have been placed in glass or crystal bowls (each set consisting of a small plastic Ziploc jewelry bag, a business card, and gold star) and have been received well by patients, caregivers, friends, and family.  I've done about 750 so far.

 

 

We have a plethora of wild bunnies around the place.  I love looking out at any given time of day and most likely seeing one.

Update on weaved scarves

Note the addition of completed scarves in the previous post.  As I make them I go back and add them in to the post.  My favorite is the Tropical Resort.  Definitely my colors!

Center for Cancer Care and weaving

A bit of disclosure here....I have met some of the most incredible medical staff  at the local Center for Cancer Care.  My journey has been made easier by the fact that the Center is within 30 miles of me.

JoAnn's had a great deal on chenille yarn...who knew one could weave a scarf for $3?

I am getting some Christmas-gift weaving done...

100% merino wool

"Doctor's House Call"

This is for the oncology surgeon who took excellent care of me with his DaVinci procedure.

 

 

100% merino wool

"Physician's Assistant"

This is finished, but not bathed/conditioned yet.  It is for the surgeon's physician's assistant (PA) who just happens to be his wife.  She has done all follow-up care and is a stellar woman.

 

Physician's Assistant, completed.  Soft as flannel-----mmmmmmmm.

 

 

This is made of acrylic chenille (boucle)

"Moonlit Night"

This is for the secretary.  I am trying to show here how the fringe gets twisted into a ply-cord.  If I didn't do this the chenille would completely unravel.

 

Moonlit Night, completed

 

 

Acrylic chenille

"Mossy Brook"

This is for the financial advisor.  She is much more than someone who helps you get assistance.  She chases down all sorts of paperwork and has the most calming effect in her dealings with me.

 

Mossy Brook, completed

 

 

 

Here are some more yarn options:

 

Acrylic chenille

"Jelly Jammin'"

The color isn't showing true here....think of grape jelly on white bread.  This is a true PURPLE in every sense of the word.  Darker than it shows here.

 

Acrylic chenille (boucle)

Jelly Jammin', completed

 



 

Acrylic chenille (boucle)

"Tropical Resort"

 

Tropical Resort, completed

 

Acrylic chenille (boucle)

"Artist's Palette"

 

Artist's Palette, completed

This is for the "scheduler", who handles my appointments.  What a diverse woman.  But then, all at the cancer center go above and beyond, so it is no surprise.

 



 

"Moonlit Night" skein

 

 

 "Mossy Brook"

 

Long time no see

My, it has been a long time since I've posted. 

I've finally been able to start creating again.  I am a snob; I almost wrote "crafting" but that conjures up images in my head of glue, paper, and other oddments.  Meh.

I hate being a snob but there it is.

Here is a little view of what I've been doing.  Keep in mind that most of these items were made before the end of May.  I've only done the kitchen towels, the teething toy, the scarf, and the wedding sampler from May through August....

I penciled an old photo of Harriet Tubman then embroidered it.  Lolita

has the selling rights to this pattern. 

One of the ladies in one of my doll clubs wanted "table favors" for a doll convention she was attending.  Voila!  It's one of her dolls in the photo on the label.

 

Years back I made a Civil War "hospital quilt" reproduction. (Well of course it was a reproduction; the Civil War has been over for 150 years. Ahem.)

The quilts were stamped with logos like this one so that it would be apparent that the quilt was taken from the hospital if ever one ended up in someone's home (or so I've read).  I designed this image, along with three others, to be penciled on to the fabric and then traced over with MicroPens.  Lolita has the selling rights to this grouping of logos.

 

New packaging for a new batch of plantation dolls, for Lolita's shop.

 

What a lot of work; what pleasure to see them all lined up!

I've told countless people that I should have been born an assembly line.

 

I get blank stares.

 

I went online and looked up plantation records. I put real names, age when possible, and locales (but not the name of the plantation owners) on the packaging to drive home that these dolls represent real people in history.

 

Slaves were not only sold (often to pay toward outstanding debts) they were also given as wedding gifts.  I can't imagine ripping a family apart all for the sake of giving a plantation owner's offspring one (or more) as wedding gifts.

 

 

Lolita has selling rights for the dolls.

 

 

A local Amish man made this quilt frame for me, to my measurements.  It is 55" wide.  Hospital quilts were 4 feet by 8 feet to accommodate hospital cots.

Thanks, John!  You do such lovely work!!

 

My Sarah Cole Resin Hitty that I painted is named Seraphina.  She sits at my dining table windowsill.  Every day I see her and she brings a smile to my face.

 

 

Flannel "ears" on a teething ring.  Baby grabs the ears and chomps on the ring.

 

Brian is my nephew-in-law.  He loves to grill.  They live in Orange County, CA, and have a cabin in Big Bear.  (His wife is the baby in the photo with my sister.)

For his birthday I embroidered these towels from Hobby Lobby.  A very good deal if you use the 40% off coupon.  Embroidery is the back stitch, over penciled-on letters.

(I love pencils.)

This Norwegian sampler was originally meant to be needlepointed.  In the 1970s I needlepointed a few of them.  This time I did it in cross stitch for Brian and Michele, since we (Michele) are descendants of Scandinavian background (Sweden and Norway).  I love it; I'd forgotten how lovely it looks.  I want to make one for myself. You never know, people marry at all ages. HA!

I saw painted clothespins online...I painted these for Michele's classroom as

"printing spacers" for her students who tend to

writealltheirwordswithnoseparatingspaces.

They were fun to do but tiresome as staining them first created a need for several layers of acrylic paint. Boring!

When Everything Old Becomes New Again

While I can enjoy technology as well as the next person, I try not to think about what it means for our future....

I've been embroidering for Lolita, finishing some projects she had stacked.  I don't recall when I learned to embroider nor who taught me.  I am old enough to have had Home Economics in middle school.....hated sewing the apron we had to do but I am sure I enjoyed a lot of the other skills we were taught.  Perhaps it was the teacher who stressed me out?

Was I just drawn to handwork and most girls my age weren't?  I do recall learning to crochet when I was 14...thus starting my obsession with just about any handcraft I've ever seen.  I don't know many people locally who make much with their hands.
(Farming doesn't count, though it is a lovely skill!)

What do people DO with their time??  I laugh as I read that sentence, remembering that I can't comprehend not having several projects awaiting me, nor the glee I feel when faced with being cabin-bound due to a snow or severe thunderstorm...for many projects patiently await my completion and bring hours and hours of deep satisfaction.

I will admit that I like to find old British comedy movies from the 30s and 40s to keep me company while I embroider since "redwork" (in my case, blackwork) is pretty brainless.

I was in a restaurant the other day and watched a family of three not even look up once into each others' eyes.....they were glued to their IPhones, and the teen (with mom and dad texting at breakfast) tried so hard to get her parents' attention.

The loss of handcrafts pales in comparison.
We are in danger of losing ourselves.

The Gnomist

Many things going on in my life right now; things that run deep in my soul and cause me to grab hold of and hold on to whatever isn't blowing over.

I just saw this short on YouTube and though I found it very sad, it was also uplifting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLoBWpiOczQ

Hope, wonder, and miracles are the BEST.

Lately

Busy designing "this and that" for Lolita's quilt shop.....see the 36 YARDS of Civil War reproduction fabrics that are mine!  I used to have a collection of CW fabrics; quilts have minds of their own and alas there is little of that original collection left.

I've been plotting the next group of quilts, though.   Lovely thoughts.

 

Here is the miser's purse (used in the nineteenth century) that I designed:

The purse is 12.5" long.  The fabric is a repro from 1830.  The gray is really a lovely plum, as are the beads. 

 

 Miser's purses usually had two different style pouches as you see above....one squared at the bottom, the other rounded.  If you had to get money out of the coin purse you were able to feel which side you needed for your denominations.

After all, there were no streetlights to assist when it was time to pay the coachman.

 

The copper rings slide to each side, allowing the split in the fabric to be opened so you could access the coins.  It is said the purse got its name due to how hard it was to retrieve the coins from the narrow slit.  Miser's purses are a great Civil War reenactment accessory.

 

 

This spool and needlecase are worked in Civil War style.  "Moses" refers to Harriet Tubman.

I designed this especially with Osnaburg fabric in mind.  Osnaburg is the fabric the slaves wore (unless perhaps plantation house-slaves?)...the thread count is too small for my eyes to see, so the cross-stitch is a guestimate.  Sort of out of my comfort zone but fun nonetheless.  The ends of the tubular case close like a fabric yo-yo.  The spool of thread can be dropped in, then the ends are closed and knotted.

 

I didn't put needles in the case in the above picture....but therein lies the ingenuity of this case.  You line up the needles, pinned to the printed fabric, then run the thread through each of the needles (or vice versa)...now all of your needles are pre-threaded for easy access for the speedy quilter.

 

Antique button closes the case.

 

End of the case----note I have a twisted thread (used in place of ribbon) going through the spool hole----so the case can hang from a quilting frame.  No more "where did my thread get to?" wasted quilting moments.

 

 

 

The below pics are of Brook's Bleuette wearing the dress and sweater I designed, crocheted, and knitted.  The maroon socks are from a previous outfit I made her, about 15 yrs. ago. Ahem....time for new socks.

Doesn't she have a precious face?

 

 

 

 

 

Seraphina

A dear friend sent me a Sarah Cole resin Hitty.  These are clever kits that you must paint; interpreting your own Hitty.

There are many challenges to this. First, I personally am not fond of the color of resin the doll comes in. I wanted her to have more of a "made of wood" look.  I like the color I chose, but it lends itself to all sorts of problems....

If you paint a doll a different fleshtone, you have to seal the doll before painting the details.  This is not acceptable to me as the sealant usually leaves a residue----this doll is so small that each eye is the size of a grain of rice (uncooked!)......so extra residue is out of the question.

So that means I have to paint right out of the starting gate-----if I make an error, I have to try to cover it up or wipe it off, resulting in the fleshtone coming off, too.  Then it's back to square One.

I usually put these types of projects aside---visible but not in my path.  Today I picked her up and thought, "Meh, I can try" so here are my results.
I'm not over the moon about her, but I am satisfied with the results.  My eyesight is not what it used to be----I am grateful for a steady hand as well as good brush!
The cheeks are blotchy because of several reasons.  I figure is she is supposed to be an old doll (the original Hitty is well over 100 yrs. old) then blotchy is fine.
Do you like my talent regarding excuses? ha ha ha

Her black hair wasn't dry; so into a button jar to "swing" while she dries.

A bit disturbing when you think about it.



Blizzard of '78

When I was in college in Indiana, there was a terrible blizzard that caused the schools to be closed for several weeks. 

I had no project to crochet and felt cabin fever sorely.  I decided to walk across the street to the Ben Franklin store while the blizzard raged.  My "suite mates" (dorm-mates) were quite upset by this proposal.  I told them it wasn't negotiable.

"You'll die out there in this storm!" they bemoaned.

"If I don't go get some yarn to work with, I'll make all of you crazy and you'll KILL me!" was my response.

I remember most the knee-deep snow that I trudged through.  It never occurred to me that that store might be closed.  Miraculously, it wasn't.

I crocheted a fuzzy dog with that yarn------and was so content to work on it while the storm continued to rage.  My classmates concurred that I was more pleasant to be around if my hands were busy.

I don't know what happened to that dog but the memory of getting that yarn has cropped up each time I face a winter storm (again, in Indiana).

Need I state that I am NEVER without a dozen projects I can work on if I am cabin-bound??
These short-sleeved sweaters were worked on during this recent storm----with six more made, to boot.  My Bleuettes are happy with the results.

 

 

Added to the fray

Two new Bleuettes were bequeathed to me recently.  I purchased a Jumeau Premiere Bleuette (reproduction) somewhere around 2003.  I also purchased for my DD an SFBJ.

Upon the arrival of the two new Premieres (again, reproductions) I commenced to design a yoked dress.  I've done about a dozen crocheted yokes (Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Cotton #5). 



My first Premiere (one on the middle) suffers from a wig complex------or rather, I do for her------so I keep changing her hair.

Eventually I want to make shoes for these gals, out of kid gloves I hope to find at thrift stores.