Lemon Tree Tales

Whiplash: Zakka Pocket Pouch

Now when I read about this month's Whiplash Challenge I wasn't sure what to make because zakka is a hard concept to completely grok as a Westerner. I tend to think that it's something with a practical use, but made to be either very beautiful or very cute. That may not be the correct definition but it's one that I can live with. I've seen quite a few of these darling pouches this past month that were inspired by a Japanese craft book ... here  here, and here. Leslie Molen had some with appliqued dolls on them that she used to store her doll turning tools. Mine is a variation of the same theme, but with two interior pockets, not one. This is the first prototype but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The buttons are all vintage glass buttons. It's hard to see, but the brown fabric has advertising from the now defunct Sears Roebuck Catalogue. Great Japanese fabric that I bought from a LQS that sadly went out of business last year.

Nice Matters Award

Connie of Clothmatters was kind enough to give me a "Nice Matters Award" a couple weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to it. If you haven't visited Connie yet, go take a peek at her blog. She makes cloth dolls and the most amazing pin dolls. Every month she's participating in a pin doll swap with other doll artists. The things that they come up with are just so creative and a joy to look at.

For some information on this award:
"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award."

I'm supposed to nominate five others, but it's so hard to come up with just five. I don't have blogs listed on my blogroll or on Google Reader if they're NOT nice.  :-) At any rate, here's seven blogs to go and check out. The first three have the most amazing tips and are nice bloggers because they share so much information with their readers. The last four are nice bloggers to me personally because they take the time to share a little of their daily lives with me.

Judi of Art Dolls - has one of the first blogs that I ever found out about, great info on dolls and other crafts. In fact she started a spin-off blog just to answer all your crafting questions, at Ask the Crafter.

Rene of Fembellish - has the most amazing blog about machine embroidery. Wow, is this woman generous with her talent, tips and techniques. Look at this post about my favorite Bernina, the Aurora 440 QE.

Sharon B. of In a Minute Ago - shares her vast knowledge of embroidery stitches, especially in regards to crazy quilting. She recently moved her blog to wordpress so go check her out and say hi.

LB of Needleroozer - is such a nice lady. She and her daughter Piano Girl, have been fans of Lemondrop's new home right from the beginning. They're one of the reasons why I enjoy sketching so much.

Tracy of Pink Purl - is an all-around sweet lady who shares her life in Norway with her readers. She also makes a point of visiting other bloggers regularly and just recently celebrated her first year of blogging.

Natalie of Chicken Blog - is another sweetheart who regularly visits other bloggers. She also is so doggone funny and has amazing adventures with her family on the road. Kim of Calamity Kim led me to Natalie's blog and I'm so happy that I dropped by to visit her.

Heera of Let's Talk About - is a cloth doll maker and pin doll maker extraordinaire! She's just the kindest person that I know, plus she's a member of the Gals & Dolls club in San Jose, CA. And I'm so sad that she's moving away soon. It's just not fair I tell you! But anyway, go on and take a visit and look at all her cute little pin dolls.

As I said earlier, I don't know any bloggers who aren't nice, so if you haven't been nominated before, consider yourself awarded!

My 222K Singer Featherweight

Finally, the pictures of my lovely little 222K Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine. It traveled across the pond to get here. I'm so happy to have found this little beauty. And of course I'm fortunate that I have such a sweet generous hubby. He's the one who asked whether the seller would be willing for us to meet him in London to pick out a machine. So back in July when we went to Scotland, the first thing that we did was to drive over to Graham Forsdyke's abode. Graham used to be very much into motorcycles, racing and Formula 1 cars, so, as you probably have guessed already, he and Steve spent quite a long time shooting the breeze and being all manly. Graham almost forgot to show me the machines!  :-) (Check out the long list of books that Graham's written. We were in the midst of a celebrity and didn't even realize it.)

My little machine was made in 1956 at the Singer Factory in Kilbowie, Scotland near Glasgow. This area is also known as Clydebank. Interesting history. Here's a little video clip of the production line in this plant, not of the 222K but other machines. Click on the quicktime clip to see it.

Now the reason why I really wanted the 222K model as opposed to the 221K model is that this one has a darning feature. Remember when I first discovered them? This means that the feed dogs will lower and that it can be used for free-motion embroidery. It also has the nice handy little feature of being a free-arm machine with the removal of one little screw. Cool, huh?

Rachel insisted, once again, to be part of the photo shoot. Here she's demonstrating how easy it is to lower the foot to start sewing. Also, if you'll notice closely at the motor that it is an official Singer 110 volt motor. That's Graham's specialty - he switches out the 220 volt European motors in favor of the 110 volt North American motors. Apparently there's many American quilters here who love to buy his machines.  :-) And the little black case that it goes in. The entire machine is pretty lightweight .. about 1-2 lbs heavier than the 221K model, but still manageable.

Graham was such a pleasant man and a great person to buy a machine from. It only took a day or two for the machine to ship from London to California. (I'm the one who's been holding back on photographing it.) He's also the best guru out there for any information you need about the Singer Featherweights.

Since then I've compiled quite a few websites about it:

• To purchase machines: Graham Forsydyke

• To purchase machines and hard to find accessories: April 1930's

• Some facts: Planet Patchwork's Featherweight Facts

• Book on maintenance and repair: Featherweight and I

• Featherweight parts:  221 parts

• Discover when your machine was born: Singer Serial Site

• Maintenance ideas: Care and Feeding of Featherweight

• Best repair book: Bert's Repair Your Own Machine

• Interesting stories: Singer Sewing Machine Memories

• Yahoo support group: Featherweight Group

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to talk about the lovely quilt that is in the photographs. My grandmother made that for me when I was a young girl and it's seen a lot of use. It's starting to have a few rips here and there that I need to mend but I don't want to just put it away. I get more pleasure out of using it on a daily basis as my lap quilt, than I ever would if it were stored out of sight. The pattern is a churn dash, directions for it are here.

Make-do Pincushion

Isn't this little make-do pincushion adorable? It's a vintage/thrifted piece that Dee was selling at Doll U. He also had a brother wearing a white quilted jacket, but I love green. Yes, I can't deny it any longer, green is turning out to be one of my most favorite colors.  He's just the cutest thing ever and is now sitting on my desk (which is now cleaned off!)

Here's a closeup of his face. Just a bit of crackling but not much. He had a chipped toe but I quickly covered that up with black marker. Now he'll serve as inspiration and as the occasional pincushion when I sew at the computer desk. (Hand sewing happens whenever and wherever I happen to be.)

Goodies from Mimi

Look at what came in the mail from Mimi Kirchner of Doll. How cool! She was printing her own fabric for the fat quarter swap that Bethany of Bitter Betty Blogs had hosted. Mimi had a bit left over and held a giveaway. Unfortunately I didn't win it, but Mimi was so sweet as to send out a little fabric patch to the "losers". Well, I'd have to say that I feel mighty lucky getting this adorable hand. Hmm, now I wonder what it should go on?

And just look at the card it came in ... this looks like it's a reproduction of one of her lovely fabric postcards that she makes. Great stuff!

Doll U: More Pictures

Here's the Gals & Dolls members who attended Doll U posing along with elinor peace bailey on the final morning. We're all a little tired but had a great time. Too bad we didn't think of taking this picture the night before when Barbara Willis was still around. She was busy teaching classes but you know, she also belongs to our doll club. (Inside joke from Doll U.)

More pictures of class work: Flat dolls taught by Karen Shifton as a mini class. Some of the doll tripping dolls made by elinor's class. A few of the mother crows made in Ute Vasina's class. (Aren't they cute? Luckily Ute will be teaching at Gals & Dolls this January so I'll still get an opportunity to learn from her.) These last two cuties were made in elinor's Doll-Maker's Choice class.

I also couldn't resist a final picture of Maria with her doll, Princess Priscilla of the Purple Passion. I hope that I got her title correct, wouldn't want royalty to be upset you know. But seriously Maria is an awesome doll maker and everytime that I saw a doll on display or in the opportunity raffle section that I especially admired, it turned out to be made by Maria. That girl has a lot of talent!

Well that's basically it for pictures. I may show the ATCs that I got in a few days, but now I really have to try to get caught up with all of you bloggers. There are so many posts to read that Google Reader just says that there are more than 100 in each folder, wow! Plus I need to get cracking on more Lemondrop sketches. She finally has a new friend, Thistleberry -- yippee! Oh and there are some dolls that need to be completed.  :-)

Doll U: Pindolls

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? It's my pin doll from Maria Roxborough in Canada.

Here we are wearing each other's pin dolls. I ended up using a face from a Patti Culea pattern (Radical Rachel) that's a tad too big for a pin doll. Maria was very sweet and said that she liked it. I hope so because I just love my little hula girl.

I must have caught the pin doll fever because here's two that I had to have. The first one is a lovely mermaid made by Lorna Jo and then the next one is made by Karen Shifton .. that's one of the lovely ladies who makes Doll U happen every year. She also makes some great original dolls and sells patterns here.

Doll U: Judy Skeel's Altered Fabric

If you got to Doll U one day early you had an extra class to choose from. I went with Judy Skeel's Altered Fabric. I figured that it'd be fun to play with dyes, paints and heat guns.  :-) These two are my marbled silks. Pretty interesting and a lot of fun to do. I could have done more of this.

Step one: use shaving cream and add little drops of All-Purpose Ink. Step two: take a toothpick or something equally pointy and swirl up and down. Step three: Once you've made your design lay your piece of fabric on it. Easy peasy.

Next I played with Dye-na-Flow paint which is thin enough that it shouldn't change the hand of the fabric. Then I used a dragonfly rubber stamp with Lumiere paint. It's metallic and available in gorgeous colors. I used a bit of salt on the Dye-na-Flow to create the little bits of spots. A technique that I've used in the past with silk-painting.

Finally we played with free motion embroidery. Here's the piece that I made. A thin cotton is the base then I layered bits of cut ribbon, angelina film, lame' fabric, and fibers. This was covered with a piece of silk organza that I was saving from a project at design school many years ago. It was all in a machine embroidery hoop and then just random free motion embroidery on it. My stitches weren't great but it didn't really matter because the fibers underneath were doing all of the hard work. And if you notice I apparently was really into dragonflies that day. I didn't see this until after someone pointed it out to me, but I have a dragonfly in the piece made of fibers. I was curious what would happen if I shot the heat-gun over it. It melted a few holes in the organza. But I wasn't thrilled with that look on this piece so I didn't continue playing with it. All in all, a very fun day spent playing with fabrics and fibers.

Doll U: Judy Skeel's Lady Grace

Sunday's class at Doll U was with Judy Skeel who taught us Lady Grace. We were a classroom filled with 17 very tired ladies, a bit subdued from all the intense days of doll-making. But we learned a new way to turn fingers (trick is to use Grrrip glue for strength and to lightly moisten stuck fingers when turning). I'm not sure if any of us really got her finished that day. I still have to put in the armature and stuffing for the fingers/arms. But I couldn't wait til then to show you what I was working on. Here she is on pins and needles quite literally.

A closeup of the almost finished head (still needs a bit of eyelashes and refinement, but she's pretty doggone close) and a shot of her in the beginning stages of shading. Hmm, now that I'm looking back at the pictures I believe that I have a tendency not to line up the irises properly. They always seem to turn out a bit cross-eyed or too spread apart. I'll work on that for the next one. Now I would have made life a bit easier for myself if I had used Pimatex or some other equally tightly woven cotton for her head. But I decided that a batik would be more pleasing as skintone. After all we're not one shade of color but many different ones mixed together. Perhaps the best solution would be to get some of the Pimatex PFD and then dye it mottled shades of peach? I'll let you know if I try that out.

Doll U: Leslie Molen

Here's my Gossips doll taught by Leslie Molen. She's no where close to being complete after an intense two-day class. She's mostly pinned together and still needs hair and accessories. But I learned so much from it. The costume was mostly sewn at home as homework. The colors are a bit different from what I tend to choose because I wanted to challenge myself. So everything is more of a muted jewel tone. I'll work on finishing her by next month's doll club meeting.

The head is fabric covered over a molded face that Leslie made. She showed us the steps to slowly gluing on the knit fabric. Nothing fancy, just Aileen's Tacky Glue and a paintbrush. The eyes and lips are just layers of Folk Art acrylic paints. Leslie uses the kind that's commonly sold in Michael's for tole painters which is good because it's fairly inexpensive. Her makeup is the chalks that they sell to scrapbookers, but I think that inexpensive makeup palettes that you get at the dollar store would work just as well. The trick is to spray a fixative on it afterward. She recommends one made by Windsor & Newton.

Next she showed us how to make our dolls stand on their own. The trick is to use 3/8" copper tubing that's commonly sold at hardware stores as refrigerator tubing. She cut lengths for us and showed us how to hammer the ends flat. We couldn't do it inside on the granite tiled floors so we took a quick trip outside. (We were lucky that the weather was so nice and beautiful. But can you believe that was the only time that we stepped outside during Doll U? Everything was provided for us ... food, rooms, teachers and fun events from early morning to late night.)

                    I managed to get my doll to stand. She's a bit unstable right now, but when her shoes are finished there will be three solid layers of cardboard on her feet to steady her. I may decide to slip in a metal washer or penny in her shoes for extra weight. What happened is that I sewed her legs just a wee bit more forward than what I needed to balance her torso and head. Isn't she slightly disturbing at this stage? But I also liked her too. Poor armless creature. Reminds me of Boxing Helena.

Lots of nice ladies in this class. I was lucky enough to sit at a table with Carol. She was such a hoot! I loved it! Her she is being a bit naughty with her Gossips doll. This is the point where we created leg joints using the longest needles that we had. You don't want to lose those things in the carpet!

Leslie was a great teacher. She had a central table in the room set up for demos. Whenever she wanted to show us something we'd gather around her and watch the next step. Then we'd go back to our tables and work. As you can see we were a happy bunch and probably got as much giggling in as sewing.

Here's the pictures of our Gossips dolls all pinned in place. The rabbits are from her class on Sunday for a sweet rabbit.