Lemon Tree Tales

Doll Quilt Swap II: Look what was in the mail!

Oh my goodness, look what was waiting for me at the post office this morning! It's this lovely doll quilt from Liz of Florence's Attic. It's so adorable! I wish that I had clothes pins so that I could style a better picture of it. But I thought that fresh grass would be a good background too.

What is so amazing is that I was showing my little friend Miss L all the doll quilts on Flickr just yesterday. We giggled together over this one in particular. She and I both thought that the dropped heart panties were the best part.  :-)

And just look at the outline quilting of the clothes on the polka dot backing. Simply perfect! Liz wrote that she was unsure of the pink as the border, but I think it's the perfect balance to the greens and blues of the main design. Plus it emphasizes those darling pieces of lingerie!

Thank you Liz! I'm going to find a nice place on the wall for this in my design/sewing studio. All the dolls will love looking at it. As will I! And thanks to Lisa K. at Doll Quilt Swap for organizing this fun swap!

WIP for Camp DollU

I've been working on this doll from a pattern by Betts Vidal - appropriately named The Princess of Procrastination! She's a simple stump doll so I think that she'll be finished fairly quickly. (I'm in an aqua mood right now.) I still have to work on some pre-class homework, pin-dolls, and ATCs. I'm signed up to take Judy Skeel's Lady Grace and The Three Gossips by Leslie Molen. It should be a lot of fun!

POP! goes the power

I heard two loud popping noises this morning right after our power went out. This is what I saw when I ventured out later. (It's a good thing that automatic garage doors have an emergency manual release.) I guess that the system was overloaded, but it seems like we have had an awful lot of power outages since we've moved into our house. I think it's been between six and eight in less than two years. That seems like an excessive amount, doesn't it? It took them four hours to get everything repaired. Actually that's not too bad when you consider the amount of damage.

Only 24 hours in a day?!!

Lots of things happening here at Casa Limone lately. On Monday the last piece of lost luggage finally showed up on the porch - 30 days after it went walkabout! Amazing! Then I realized that something must have happened to the Maytag repairman. He never returned my calls and no one ever answered his phone. Finally his phone stopped ringing altogether. Unfortunately I think that something bad may have happened to him. (He was an older gentleman.) So we came to the conclusion that we needed to buy a new washer.

I wanted to get one that matches our dryer but you know, after two years that matching washer is discontinued. Wow, the shelf life of these machines are way too short nowadays, don't you think? I chose another model at Fry's only after they checked on the computer for the one I wanted. But when I went home I thought that I just wasn't being persistent enough. So I called three other locations before I found one that had a demo model on their floor. I figured that I spent at the most $2.00 in gasoline so that I could save $400.00! Not bad at all! The first Fry's gave me a hard time when I wanted to return the first washer even though it wasn't scheduled to be delivered to my house for a week. I guess they really didn't like losing that money.

Then this morning I went to get x-rays of my right foot. It's been hurting for over a month now and I wanted to make sure that I hadn't injured it some how. Nope, nothing's really wrong. I just have to get better shoes, orthotics, and then ice my foot and take some ibuprofen.

Now I have to figure out what to get for my little nephew that Steve and I are going to meet for the first time this weekend. He's almost two and I haven't seen my brother and sister-in-law since we were in Florida back in 2002. I'm looking forward to it!

I also have to get supplies and projects ready for Camp Doll U! I'm sooooo psyched to be able to do this. It sounds like so much fun and a few of the Gals & Dolls will be there too.

And on top of all that, poor Lemondrop still hasn't finished her last two flying lessons. I really need to get those done so that she can go playing with her friends. Is there some way to make time stand still for a while to catch up on the to-dos?

Thank you!!!!

I owe a huge THANK YOU to everyone who's been commenting on the quilt that I made for the Doll Quilt Swap II! You're gonna make me blush. I even had Kaye Wood, quilt teacher and author extraordinaire, stop by and leave a comment. Wow that's so cool. I also forgot to mention three things that I did differently on this quilt that's made a HUGE difference in how the quilting turned out.

1. I taped the backing flat to my table. Everyone from Kathy of Pink Chalk Studio to experts such as Alex Anderson says to do it. Trust me, it does help.
2. I spray-basted the batting on to the backing and the top with 505 Spray and Fix instead of using pins. It kept everything nice and smooth. Here's the how-to information. I've heard that the Bernina Aurora's BSR doesn't like it, but since I wasn't using it for this I thought it'd be okay.
3. I got out my Bernina's walking foot and used it! I've used it in the past, but I got lazy and didn't think that it'd be worth the hassle of getting the box down from the closet. Not anymore, it's so worth it!

Doll Quilt Swap II: Purple Rain

Yay, Paula of Coffee Time Quilt Studio received her doll quilt today and it looks like she loves it! I'm so thrilled that it's now in a good home. I had a lot of fun finishing it up. I used a cotton hand towel for the border. If you'll remember from way back when, it's the same fabric that I used for a Wee Wonderfuls Put-together bunny last year. The design is from a book called French Braid Quilts by Jane Miller. Basically it's a version of a cornerstone log cabin. Pretty easy to put together.

The one thing that I discovered while reading Paula's blog is that she's recently been stuck on all things stitchery. So I added the little embroidered "dream" at the bottom and four Swarovski crystals for good measure. Here's a little close-up shot.

I pieced the back, both because I like that look and also because I didn't have quite enough of the purple fern print fabric. The quilting is with multi-colored Superior thread which is awesome to machine quilt with. It's so smooth, no problems whatsoever. And finally, my Radical Rachel doll (made years ago from a pattern by Patti Culea) insisted that she matched the quilt and wanted to pose. Ah, what can you do when your doll makes demands like that? The only thing to do - comply!

This was such a fun swap to do. What a perfect excuse to try out a new technique. Now I can't wait to see what my swap partner's made for me.  :-)

Theater doll class from Ulla

Last Thursday I drove over to Hayward's Centennial Hall to take a class from Ulla Milbrath of ULLABENULLA fame that the Flying Phoebes cloth doll club was sponsoring. Luckily there were three of us from the Gals and Dolls doll club of San Jose to join me in the fun. Pictured from left to right are Jane, Peggy and me. It was a great day filled with cutting all sorts of paper treasures that Ulla brought with her. I must be on a purple kick because my witch not only wanted to be clothed in it, but insisted that her skintone must be purple too! I think she's a little more on the Japanese flair than being a truly scary Halloween witch. Right now she's with Jane because I couldn't stay for the Phoebe's club meeting that night. Instead I had an excellent dinner with my hubby and friends. Yummm, fajitas!

Loot from All The Trimmings

Oops, Linda is right, I haven't shown the goodies that I got from my trip to All The Trimmings in Morro Bay. First is this gorgeous vintage flower brooch. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. I'm thinking that it'd be great as an accent on a purse perhaps.

Vintage yellow flower petals made in Japan. They are earmarked to use as the skirt for a doll. And these ribbons were too beautiful to pass up.

This vintage beaded medallion trim is destined to be part of the mermaid's tail that I'm making for the 2007 Treasures of the Gypsy contest. This year's theme is Gypsies of the Sea. I've already filled out the form and emailed it in. Now I just have to get cracking on the doll. She's due in October.

And finally there were these little paperdolls that were made in Germany in the 1940s. Like I said, Lina has some amazing items in her store. She does sell some items via her website so go and check it out - All The Trimmings in Morro Bay, CA.

All The Trimmings Shop

I'd like you to meet Lina G. She is the genius behind a little shop in Morro Bay called Lina G's (the store window has a tagline of All the Trimmings.) It's amazing what can be found in this little tiny storefront - vintage trims, ribbons, millinery supplies, yarns, buttons, and much, much more! (I can't find her website anymore but apparently she also has an ebay store .. trimsandribbons.)

The Saturday before I left for our European vacation, I drove down to Atascadero to pick up my Aunt Geri. She's been visiting the Waltz's, my paternal grandparents. She had told me of this great little shop that she and her Aunt Barbie had discovered while wandering the little streets of Morro Bay. This was the first time that I was able to make the three hour drive down to see what she was talking about. Boy was it worth the drive!

Every nook and cranny was filled with textile delights. In fact it's such a tight fit that you really need to go in sans purse (keep your wallet in your pocket for purchasing goodies). Look at all these boxes overflowing with vintage millinery flower petals made in Japan. And what a great display idea for a vintage garter hook card. That'd be great for those vintage button cards that you can sometimes find at the antique stores.

Pure eye candy! How about gumball jars full of ribbon roses? or stacks of ribbons, both vintage and new?

Look at all those velvet leaves behind Aunt Geri! and the feathers and beautiful yarns behind me! I'm telling you that you just can't take in everything this store has to offer in one trip, or two, or maybe even three. Plus Lina gets "new" items in all the time. So the next time you're in Morro Bay, California make time to visit Lina G's, located at 468 Morro Bay Blvd.

Doll Quilt Swap II: Pieced Top

Okay, I've finished the majority of sewing for the quilt top. (Forgive the poor lighting, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out and wanted to show it off.) I only have to add a border, quilt it and then bind it. But I'll leave that little bit for when my swap partner receives the quilt. Something should be surprise, shouldn't it?

It's amazing what squaring up a quilt block, or in this case braid, can do. The striped fabric is a Liberty lawn from a couple of years ago. I'm finally breaking into it from my fabric stash. Oh and there's been talk of Kaffe Fassett's shot cotton over at Be*mused and other sites lately. The little "solid" green is one that I had in a fat quarter bundle. It's very nice although it's weight is more akin to that of the Liberty lawn. They sewed up well together. I may have to keep an eye out for other colors of it. But it's definitely something that's best left for quilting or other projects where it'll have more support.