Lemon Tree Tales

Kitties and a WIP quilt

Well the Wee Wonderfuls kitties are finally finished and all packed up, ready to make two little girls very happy. I like how the ribbon picks up the different shades of the print. After looking at them, the only thing I may have done differently would be to use a pale green felt for their noses instead of the pink. It just blends in with the pink trim of the fabric. I opted not to make little shoes for them because the body fabric is already ornate. I made sure to stuff them less than I normally do. Now the arms and legs can bend a little more. All in all, I'm pleased with the result. Maybe next year I'll practice my photography skills and shoot more stylish pictures. For now it's quick little snapshots here and there.

Tomorrow we're invited to our friends' house to share Christmas eve dinner with them and their two little girls, Miss L and J. Earlier this week on Wednesday night they invited us over so that we could share Hanukkah with them. We brought over a menorah and candles so the girls could light them. There was also an exchange of gifts ... cute little sticker books for the girls and beautiful candles for us. I also picked up the most sugary Hanukkah cookies from the market for dessert. Unfortunately for the adults they were sickly sweet. Luckily for the girls they were considered delicious. Of course the sugar buzz helped the girls to an impromptu dance recital. These friends mean the world to us. They're family and it was just the sweetest thing for them to do. Now tomorrow we'll go over and share their traditions. (I'm making the sweet potato casserole for dinner. Yummm!)

After finishing the dolls, I laid out the cut pieces for the sock-monkey baby quilt. What do you think of the layout? My friend Rachel gave me a piece of yellow polka-dot minkee so I replaced some of the monkey squares with them. I'm so late with this ... didn't I originally say that I wanted to get this made back in September? Well now I'm one more step closer. Gotta get some of the strips sewn so that we can reclaim the living room floor. Happy Holidays everyone!

Flat Kitties

I couldn't resist taking a quick photo of the kitties while they were in this flat "pancake" stage. There's something rewarding in seeing a little mini production line of them. Although I'm not quite sure that two constitutes much in the way of mass-manufacturing. I used a dark purple craft thread to chain-stitch embroider the girls' initials. I really like how the turquoise flower buttons look as eyes. Okay, back to the sewing table ... I'm almost finished, yay!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah everyone! This is a quick picture that I snapped Saturday night of one of our menorahs. This one is from my good friend Rachel when we swapped art. In return I made two little dolls for her sweet little granddaughters. I really enjoy the little faces as they sing their songs. Did you see the little cat that's holding the shamash candle? It's not really laid out in a traditional manner, but it's a beautiful piece of art. Rachel's work is stunning in person. I'll have to ask permission to photograph a few of her pieces the next time we meet for a sewing circle.

This year I also found a nice electric menorah for our windowsill. Somehow the thought of candles next to the blinds makes me nervous, but electricity is fine. The little light bulbs flicker like real flames. I'll have to brave the cold one of these nights and take a picture of it. Maybe I'll wait until the eighth night so that you can see it fully lit.

So I managed to send out my Hanukkah presents to everyone in the nick of time. This just leaves Christmas presents for our friends who celebrate that. Okay, I've been procrastinating as usual, but here's the little piles of a few of the presents to be completed. I guess I'll have to really jump through hoops to get these done. Maybe next year I'll be more on top of everything? Is there a 12-step program for procrastinators? Hmm, somehow I'm thinking that they don't even manage to get to step #3.   :-)

This is the sock-monkey quilt for Tina's new baby and these are two Wee Wonderfuls' put-together kitties for my two favorite little girls. I'll have to embroider their initials on the dress after I sew it together. Did you see the little turquoise flower buttons that I received from Petulant Feminine in last month's pincushion swap? I couldn't wait to use them in a project.

Okay, it's off to sewing ... can I make it in time? Stay tuned friends and find out.  :-)

My very own fairy!

Look who came to live at my house the other day! She's a cute little 8" inch tall fairy that I was lucky enough to receive as part of the Secret Pal doll swap at the Gals & Dolls doll club meeting Tuesday night. She's just adorable and so perfectly suited to my personality!

Here's a closeup of her sweet face, notice the beads as eyes ... a Barbara Willis design touch.

The lemon tree was too crowded to get a good view of her wings, but finally she obliged and flew to the bistro set. I love the iridescent colors! And purple hair ... fabulous!

Dear Secret Pal, thank you, thank you, thank you for convincing this little fairy to come live with me. Eventhough she really liked the lemon tree, she told me that she'd rather live inside the house near the dolls-in-progress. Turns out that she's a very creative fairy and wants to help choose colors. Her name's Bordeaux because she grew up near the vineyards. Her parents wanted her to go into the family business, but she had more fun dyeing fabrics with the grapes instead of making wine. Ooh, maybe she'll help me dye some fabric too?

I can't show pictures of the doll that I made and gave away. We still are anonymous gifters until our second doll is revealed at the April meeting. I can't wait to get started on the second doll ... lots of great fabrics and trim are on the design table in anticipation. Bordeaux's digging in my stash as we speak.

Pincushion to New Zealand

Louise of prairie mouse was kind enough to let me know that her pincushion arrived yesterday. It turns out that the magazines I sent her were the ones that she was craving. How great is that!

I made this using verybigjen's bottlecap pincushion tutorial on flickr. Instead of using a cap from a 2-liter soda bottle, I used the wider, flatter cap from a Gatorade bottle. The green felt is from the thrifted wool sweater that I felted earlier this year. And the little dragonfly pin is my favorite of my shrinky-dink pin creations earlier this year as well. What I like best about using a bottlecap as a base is the sturdiness it gives. And all of those little glass "beads" are pins from Michael's. I also managed to finally get the French knot a go in the centers of the felt flowers. I think that next time I'd like to experiment with cutting them out with a punch rather than by hand.

The buttons were mounted on some cardstock, but first I had to decorate it. I was out of time and couldn't really think. Finally I remembered the yard of printed quilt labels that I had in the fabric stash. This is intended for a baby quilt, but I liked the soft colors and sweet toile motif. So I spray-mounted it to the cardstock and was off and running. Actually it turned out to be pretty sturdy so I'm thinking that if I were to stitch a line of zig-zag around the edges that it would be another way to make a "fabric" postcard. Hmmm ......

OOPS! I forgot to add the link to the Pincushion Swap Gallery on flickr!

Pincushion Swap Goodies

Yesterday I had a very nice surprise from Lenny our mailman. You know it has to be a good package when the postage is stamped by the Royal Mail. I opened it up to see this lovely group of goodies sent from Petulant Feminine of England. I love the colors! The teacup is called Midwinter and is made by a factory near her. She said that they were very popular in the 1950s and 60s. It's very sweet. And look how the little star pins and snowflakes coordinate. A very beautiful gift ... it really cheered me up.

Now I on the other hand have been remiss about sending my package to Prairie Mouse of New Zealand. I managed to get to the Post Office in the nick of time. Well, actually I arrived late but fortunately after a quick phone call to the hubby I found one that was open for another 1/2 hour. I keep forgetting that Saturday hours aren't the same as the weekday. I thought that they'd at least be open until 3pm, but it seems like 1pm is the magic hour. Hopefully the package will arrive within a week ... late, but I hope she likes it. Here's the quick packaging job that I did. I think that it turned out rather cheerful.

However, I've now learned a new technique for future packages. Just look at the clever use of thin ribbons and buttons that Petulant Feminine used to wrap my package ...

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In other news, my visit with my stepdad went very well. I think that he's up to fighting the cancer and it looks like he has lots of people who will be by his side every step of the way. He won't start the chemo until his body has a chance to recuperate from the surgery. He doesn't have insurance so this is all taken care of by Medicare (he's been disabled due to a shoulder injury when I was a very young girl.) They sent a home-care nurse to change his dressings and make sure that he's doing well. This nurse was a firecracker, she called the doctor right away when she found out that no pain medication was prescribed. How can they send someone home after that type of surgery without pain meds? She said that there would be a nurse to see him at home until he didn't need one. Wow! Isn't that great!

Now when my dad had his open-heart surgery he didn't get a home-care nurse. He also doesn't have insurance but since he was in the US Air Force during the Vietnam era he qualifies as a veteran. His medical needs are seen to by the VA  (Dept. of Veteran Affairs) which is really good for him. I saw him last Monday night when I drove down to LA. It's a very long 5 hour drive and by the time I got there I felt that it was too late to drive the additional hour to get to Pomona to see my stepdad. My dad's feeling much better, but he still doesn't have complete functionality in his fingers. They have started doing physical therapy, but I have a bad feeling that this will take a long time to recuperate. We were told that this happens to about 5% of people during surgeries ... something to do with pinched nerves and how the anesthesiologist strapped down his arms.

All in all, it looks like both my dad and my stepdad have good doctors to take care of them. This makes everything much easier to deal with. Fingers crossed that things go well .... and thank you  to everyone who's sent well wishes!