Lemon Tree Tales

Two creative pushes

I'm a very lucky girl! Look at what arrived in the mail last week - this gorgeous print by Rosie Posie. She's back to blogging and has opened up her very own etsy shop, little nest. I admired this illustration the first time that she posted it to her blog a year ago. When I saw that she had a few prints for sale I had to jump over and order one for my birthday last month. It's very sweet and soothing. And I get a little giggle out of the fish with the man mask on. Do you see it?

And to top that off, this is what I found sitting on my computer desk a couple weeks ago - the 8000U Pro Hyper Pen by Aiptek. Steve thought that I would like it. Boy do I! Of course I have to practice with it, but I'm sure that it'll get easier as I go. He also ordered me the Adobe Illustrator CS2 upgrade so now I'm all set to work on my own illustrations. I have something fun in the works. Stay tuned for the reveal in May.

Ruby's Mermaid

I've been remiss in my posting of this lovely mermaid from my Secret Pal, Ruby. Isn't she bright and colorful? Ruby was worried that I wouldn't like her because she's a fairly new dollmaker. She has nothing to worry about because I think this mermaid is GORGEOUS! How could I not be swayed by her neon colored bralette and her wild hippy hair?! And if you look closely in the next picture, you'll see that she has a rhinestone belly button. She's made from a pattern by Barbara Willis called the Shore Maiden. She's a perfect companion for the fairy that Ruby made me back in December. (Of course she does wish that my red rock wasn't in the front yard but at the sea shore. But she said that she'd make the sacrifice seeing as how I enjoy her company so much.)

All in all, a fantastic job from a dollmaker with the kindest heart. Now Ruby doesn't have an internet source, so I'd be very pleased if you could tell her what a great job she did. That way I can print up all the comments and bring them to her at next month's doll club meeting.

Arley Berryhill Class - Day Two

I just have to post this close-up shot of Arley Berryhill's Harem doll. Aren't her eyes amazing?! This exotic beauty has painted buttons for eyes with fabric eyelid and false eyelashes. It definitely defines her face and gives the entire doll attitude. (She's also sporting real earrings! Arley said to always be on the look-out for jewelry bargains. You never know when it'll come in handy for your next creation.)

Today we fit our bodices and made pattern corrections. We learned how to manipulate the patterns for a variety of sleeves and skirts. The highlight of the day was watching Arley demonstrate how he decides where to place his fabrics on a doll. He pulled out a pile of gorgeous silks, shot velvet, print cotton, metallic sheers, and brocades and started draping them on the doll. He said that the key to making a doll interesting was to use as many fabrics as possible. Don't repeat a fabric. So if you used the velvet for the skirt, use the brocade for the apron, a print for the sleeve with a metallic sheer puff .. you get the idea. Overloading the textures vs. the colors will give you a luscious result. Of course you must maintain some type of color scheme so that the entire effect is smooth, not jarring.

Look at what Bonnie did with her doll! I think that this sums up best what this class was for everyone ... lots of information but most of all, fun!

Arley Berryhill Doll Costuming Class

Today I went to Arley Berryhill's Costuming the Doll class. Very informative. Basically we learned how to drape a basic bodice and skirt sloper on our nude dolls. Most of us used his La Femme pattern which gives an extremely female silhouette that's great for costuming. Mine is to the far left and is missing a few body parts (a second leg, arm, hands, and a head)! We used paper towels to drape and then transfered that to paper. Then we trued up our patterns. Tomorrow we'll correct any fitting mistakes.

Once we cover that we'll be turned loose so that we can make similar costumes to the ones that Arley's made. Here's pics of his 2002 Hoffman Challenge Doll (Masquerade), the Harem Doll, and Minerva the Mermaid. I just love the over-the-top costumes ... beautiful use of jewels and beads. My goal is to use the fabrics that I bought from last September's Sew Expo to finally make my Venetian Renaissance lady. Arley had a great suggestion to make her dressed for Carnivale. That way she can have as many feathers and beads that she desires. Brilliant idea!

Victorian Doll

Now that the Secret Pals have been revealed I can show you what I made back in December. When I read that Mary wanted a Victorian doll I had no idea what I'd make. But then I remembered a Kezi Matthews doll pattern that I had back in the filing cabinet. Hindsight being 20/20 this is what I would have done differently:

• I would have reduced the pattern by 60% because this turned out to be a huge doll!
• I would have used the recommended knit fabric instead of a cotton for her body.
• If I did use cotton, it would NOT have been the hand-painted sparkly cotton from the Quilt Expo. (Pretty, but no forgiveness at all when it came to stuffing it.)
• I would have made shoes and given her jewelry.
• And I would NOT have tried a new pattern without testing it first.

Here's shots of her bustle, stockings (made from one of Steve's t-shirts), and finally a quick shot of the final doll. Can you see the mess on the living room table? Even though I have a nice craft room, I seem to always turn to the dining room to work these projects. I think this means that I really need a large table for the craft room. Even a folding card table would be good. I'll have to look into this.

The making of the peach doll

I thought that I'd share how I approach making a doll (or any other project for that matter). The first thing is to gather inspiration. Usually I'll just rip tear sheets from magazines and stick them in a file. Here I've collaged a few of the colors that I liked.

The next step is what I think is the most fun part of all. This is where I gather all of my fabrics, trims and embellishments and just look at the pile. This is where you get to see at a glance whether your choices work together as a unit. I ended up not using the red velvet on the doll itself but as the upholstery for her stand. Other fabrics weren't used as well. The main part of this exercise is to get any and all viable materials at hand. Then when you're making the doll you'll have plenty of choices. It's much easier to edit than to add.

Here's the underskirt draped out of paper towels. Notice the trim on the upper leg? That was a thrift store treasure. And since Heera requested it, here's a picture of the back of the doll showing that fabulous fabric. If you look closely you'll see a little bit of that turquoise color that I picked up for her eye makeup and necklace.

What a Peach!

Our doll club has had a Secret Pal exchange going since last December. Everyone made a doll anonymously for their secret pal. Then tonight we were supposed to give another doll and reveal our identity. This little peach of a doll is the second doll that I made for Mary. Of course being the procrastinator that I am ... even though I had from December to make her, I didn't really get a move on until last week.  I like to say that it was in the incubator stage prior to that.

She's a fairly small doll compared to what I usually do (around 8" seated). Her body is made of various body parts from Patti Culea's books (here) but reduced by 60%. The majority of her costume is made directly into her body. Her underskirt was draped with paper towels and then made into a pattern. The top skirt was draped directly on the body then cut and stitched in place. The fabrics were a mix: batik for the skin, cottons for the body costumes, and some luscious fabric from Treasures of the Gypsy for her skirts. Overall I'm extremely pleased with how she turned out. It was freeing not working from a pattern per se. I'll definitely have to do more dolls in this way.

Oh, by the way, I was voted in as the new president of our doll club tonight! I was humming "Hail to the Chief" all the way home. Hee hee.

Porch Decorating

I decided that I needed a sewing break this afternoon and tackled the porch. It's been a bit barren looking and needed some touches of color. The pot used to have some colorful flowers in it, but they died last July. Needless to say, I've been a bit slow to replace them. It also turned out that I put the wrong plants together. Some wanted drought and others wanted the rainforest. It was fated to go badly. So they went out and the standard never-fail geraniums went in.I found the cute little metal chairs from Costco, the tiny mosaic table from Bed, Bath & Beyond, the chair cushions from Lowe's, and the plants from Home Depot.

And just in case you thought that maybe the porch wasn't so bad before, here's what it looked like earlier today. (The table and chairs have only been there for the last month ... it was really sparse looking before that!)

Patti Culea's latest book

Yay! Patti's fourth book Creative Cloth Doll Beading is finally here. Well actually Steve ordered this for me a while back and I'm just now writing about it. This is an amazing addition to Patti's doll-making series by Quarry Books. As always there are beautiful color photographs and line drawings to illustrate how to do beading techniques. A new body pattern with extra goodies are in the back pages of the book. I was lucky enough to see some of the dolls from the book in person when I was at the San Mateo Sew Expo a couple months ago. Wow, they are even more stunning in life!

Here's the other three books in the series: Creative Cloth Doll Making, Creative Cloth Doll Faces, and Creative Cloth Doll Couture. I think they're a must have for any cloth doll maker. And what's even better is that you don't have to worry about buying separate patterns since Patti includes a variety of pattern pieces at the back of all of her books. I can't begin to tell you how fabulous these books are ... the quality is outstanding and the explanations are very clear and easy to understand. Now maybe I'll be able to use some of the seed beads that I've had since college days. I've only used them in little bits for past projects. It'd be nice to use them for more beaded embellishments on my dolls.

Now I just have to get back to work on my Secret Pal doll for next Tuesday's Gals & Dolls doll club meeting. I'll show you pictures next week!

Spring is at our porch!

This is the remains of a little nest in the eaves of our porch. Apparently two amorous birds have decided that this would be the ideal place to store some eggs. Luckily we've discovered this BEFORE any eggs were deposited. Otherwise it'd just be too cruel to destroy the nest. It's a very fragrant nest due to the use of pine needles and leaves from the lemon tree. I'll have to keep a close watch to make sure that they don't come back to rebuild.

[EDIT: Doggone! Those little birds are persistent buggers. Wouldn't you know it, but not 15 minutes later they had built that nest again. This time I got some hardware cloth and finishing nails from the hardware store. I don't think that they'll be able to get through that now. If so, then I guess that they're destined to nest at our porch. It's not that I don't like birds .. I do. It's just that I know from other people's experience, that the mother bird will be flying down and chasing anyone who's at the front door.]

Also last weekend we saw two squirrels "chasing" each other around the tree in our friends' backyard. It's definitely that time of year for our local animals.  :-)

Last week was also a busy one since I started a new work project and I turned 39 on Thursday. Just one more year before the big 4-0! Steve took me to Il Postale to celebrate. It's a cute little Italian restaurant that's in the same building as the old Sunnyvale post office once lived. It's a nice piece of local history, plus they have outstanding food. And I got my very own molten lava cake complete with a candle on Sunday! All in all a very nice time.

Now it's been a very quiet week for our Pesach this year. Just some pastel and maybe some hard-boiled eggs. And of course, lots and lots of matzah! I hope everyone's having a happy Passover!