Hi, my name is Tami Levin (née Tami Cohee) and I live in the Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale, CA) with my husband Steve, who is part of the internet revolution. I studied fashion design at Otis College of Art & Design (formerly Otis/Parsons) and English Lit at UC Santa Barbara. After a decade in the fashion industry (designing swimwear - mostly for juniors and missy, sometimes for children too) I'm now lucky enough to devote time on my artistic pursuits: doll-making and quilt-making. Of course our dog Fearghus (a cairn terrier) also takes up a lot of our time, the little terrierist.
I've been sewing since I was a little girl. My grandmother taught me a lot of things - how to wing a pattern from newspaper, how to make binding, and how to use what you had in your stash. And my mom taught me how to embroider. She also enrolled me in a sewing class when I was in grade school. Ah, if only you could see the little calico print blouse that I made. It even had pearl snaps on it.
My first quilt was made for my aunt's baby shower when I was 12 or 13. It was part of my home-economics class in junior high school. I insisted that it be fluffy so I used a super high loft batting. Machine pieced but hand-quilted. You could tell that I was young because I used unicorns and pegasuses as the corner quilting designs. Apparently my little cousin loved that quilt until it fell apart. I made my first doll many, many years later when I was at college. It was a present for one of my sisters. I'm not even sure if she still has it, but I had a lot of fun making it.
Since then I've been collecting doll patterns and slowly dipping into them. A few years ago I met fellow doll-makers for the first time and have been having a ball ever since.No quilts bigger than a baby quilt, but one of these days I'd like to make a bed-sized quilt. I'm not sure if I'd like to quilt it myself, but since there's so many nice long-arm quilt services now that shouldn't matter.
My favorite colors (right now, this changes all the time) are: turquoise, aqua, cobalt blue, yellow, sometimes red (but mostly only for cars) and of course, GREEN. When I was a kid the crayola crayon that I used first was blue green (sniff - I'm sad to say that color has since been retired).
Oh, and the reason why I chose the name Lemon Tree Tales is because I have a very nice lemon tree in the backyard. (And lemon trees make me smile!) So now I look for lemon print fabrics whenever I get a chance. There's just something about a bright yellow that's so cheerful.
If you want to read a little more about this lemon tree and its magical inhabitants, then go visit Lemondrop and the other orchard fairies at 101 Fairy Lane. (Sorry to say that I've been neglecting the fairies of late. The dolls and quilts have taken over.)I try to make a point of responding to all comments because I want to let you know that I appreciate my visitors. If you'd prefer to email me directly, you may do so at:
tami.levin( at )gmail( dot )com
Thanks for dropping by Lemon Tree Tales.
