Lemon Tree Tales

The big 4-0!

Birthday cake photo from the lovely Pink Cake Box bakery and blog.

Today I turn, gulp, 40! Wow it's still amazing to me that I've been on this earth for that long. At times I still feel like I'm just a kid and at other times I'm more my age. No big party for this one because I'm at the race track with Steve for his very first official race. Whoo-hoo! Maybe one of these years I'll throw one with a cool cake. Hmm, or a tea party would be nice as well. That would probably be more of a girl's day outing. Somehow I can't picture my Steve sitting down for finger sandwiches.  :-)

Also it was my blog's two-year blogiversary on February 27th but since I had bad news that week I postponed any celebrating until now. So for two happy occasions I'm pleased to announce that I'll be having a drawing for not one, but two wristlets. They're made of a lovely pale butter shade of yellow linen accented with a beautiful Liberty floral print. Pictures to come next week but in the meantime go here to see the teaser accent shot. Drawings will be held on Monday April 14th so there's plenty of time to come over here and put in a comment. What was your most memorable birthday party moment? It's a party, so the more the merrier. Tell your friends to drop by for a visit too.  :-)

Colored pencil face

My first week's homework from Angela Jarecki's Windows class. It'll be interesting to see what my last week's face will look like. Already I like how she approaches drawing a face with shadows rather than lines. Back to the drawing board for more practice. I desperately need to get an electric pencil sharpener for my colored pencils. They dull so very quickly on fabric.

Spring teaser

I'm finally starting to feel better thank goodness. Now all that remains of that nasty cold is a cough due to throat irritation. Hopefully that'll pass soon enough. In the meantime I wanted to work on a little project that should be finished by Saturday. Here's a little teaser shot of it. Yes, I still have a few little quilts to work on and a doll or two that need to be finished ASAP. My energy level isn't quite up to working on those yet. In the meantime check back in soon to find out what this is all about.

Spring Fairy Dotee

Although I'm still sick I needed a little something to work on while trying to get some rest. I just can't seem to breathe well enough to sleep so rest is the next best thing. At any rate, I recently came across instructions for making a dotee doll. [EDIT: The instructions are no longer on line, but you can find them for sale on Dot Christian's etsy store here.] I had never heard of them before but they're so cute and very easy to make. Here's my little Spring fairy dotee that's intended for someone via swap-bot. These may just be the thing for me to make while I'm at the race track. If you don't attach a top strand and sew on a pin-back it'd make a great pin-doll or decoration for a purse.

Here's the full view of this little dotee:

Those butterflies are coming in very handy as wings for dolls. It originally was part of a banner from Michael's or JoAnn's. I thought that it would be a nice accent for my studio window. I have a few left so I may still do that. You can't tell very well from this shot, but the bottom bead is a rhinestone ball - leftover sample trim from my days as a swimwear designer.

Fashion Flashback - 1995

I'm a little sick right now ... sore throat and achy body, most likely a cold caught from young Miss L. So no working on the quilt today, but since I had to go through some of my old design illustrations the other day I thought that you'd get a kick seeing one of my earlier creations that I did in design school.

Project: design an urban cowgirl look for the Guess? denim collection. We were given fresh denim (that almost black inky stiff denim) from Guess? to make our designs. Then they stone-washed it for us.

Here's my design/illustration:

I made the patterns and sewed it. Here's a clipping from the local newspaper that has a picture of me during the first fitting (that coat ripped in the stone-wash process and needed to be redone) and one of me at the industrial sewing machine:

Here's the model wearing it at the jury show. This is where all the students' creations are sent down the runway and the top ones are chosen for the fashion show at the Beverly Hilton every year. Luckily my outfit made it! The coat's reversible with faux fur, welt buttons and hand embroidered arrows at the welt pocket edges.

And finally here's a photograph taken of the outfit in MacArthur Park. It was supposed to go in the yearbook but it didn't make it in. So the school gave it to me instead.  :-)

Somewhere I have a picture of my model and three others at the fashion show. They were all wearing long duster-like coats so it looked like the female version of the shoot-out at the OK Corral. Ah, crazy ideas back then. Okay, now it's back to bed and rest for me.

Border Choices

Last week I received this quilt block from Julie of Floribunda for the center block of the Spring Fling Round Robin quilt. Now it's my turn to add the first border to it. I wasn't sure what to do so I figured that I'd just start by sketching ideas while Steve raced around the racetrack this past weekend.

Just random little sketches. I want to try traditional needle-turn applique for this round robin at some point. But no matter how I tried different variations the floral just doesn't seem to mesh well with the strong geometry. Why fight it? So I'm going with the triangular designs.

Before I start digging in my stash, I wanted to get a better feel for what this would look like. So a bit of EQ5 was in order. Did you know that it can become very addictive playing around with that program? Here's six variations, which one do you like the best?

A


B


C


D


E


F

Click on each design to see it bigger. Should I go with one of these, or go back to the drawing board?

I'm enrolled in my first online class

I've been a fan of Angela Jarecki's art since the first time I found her Windows class online about five years ago or so. Unfortunately I didn't sign up for it in time and it hasn't been repeated until now. It's being hosted over at Doll Street Dreamers and looks like it'll be a great class. If you've been hesitant about drawing faces, Angela's the one to teach you. Just look at some of these amazing ones that she's drawn. I love that she has more than one type of look. These are realistic people of different races and ages. Can you tell that I'm excited about taking this class? Hurry, there's still time to sign up for it over here. It starts next Friday, March 21st.

After you do that take a little time to check out her blog whimsymoon and her website to see examples of her art. If you think that some of them are a bit familiar looking, it may just be because she was an illustrator for Hallmark for ten years. Simply gorgeous work!

Polka dot fantasy stash basket

Last night at doll club, we held a Stash Basket Silent Auction. Members donated baskets (or any type of container) with some type of stash .. fabrics, trims, patterns, etc. This was the one that I came up with. I'm definitely attracted to these vibrant colors but it was time for these fabrics to go to a good home. Some of them have been around since I went to college! The orange polka dot is what's left after making the lining for the orange leather jacket. (Oh yes, I made a leather jacket complete with five zippers! I'll have to get it out one day to show you.) Hmm, there's also the little bit of hot pink raw silk that's left over from my very first design project. Then there's the yellow mesh that was used to make a swimsuit cover-up. I sold the matching yellow lycra on ebay to a fellow who has an ebay business that makes/sells specialty men's swimsuits. You know what kind I'm talking about right?  ;-) Finally, there's a pattern included that I never got around to making. It's one by Patti Culea and I already have quite a few of her patterns and books so one for donation won't be missed too much. It was so much fun pulling things together from my stash. Hopefully the winner will think that it was good too.

Third times a charm!

After taking another look at my second attempt at this block, I realized that Margaret was right. It really would look better if the stripes were mitered. So I ripped off the old strips and cut new ones. Per her advice I tried hand stitching the miter as opposed to machine sewing it. I used a ladder stitch and it worked great! I normally only use ladder stitching to close up doll parts, but apparently its more common application is to hand sew matching stripes and plaids.

I also found a Kona cotton in that wonky chartreuse color for the flower centers (mini yo-yos). I liked that side better than the smooth one. After I make the label it's off to the second person of the Spring Fling Round Robin for its first border. I can't wait to see what she does with it.

Here's a close-up of the center flowers:

Yippee, there's a party!

I'm so glad that you could come and join in the fun for the Ultimate Blog Party, March 7 - 14th! Welcome new readers and hugs and kisses to all my regular readers too.

My name's Tami and I love to quilt, sew and make cloth dolls. I've tried knitting but so far I've only made one scarf. So I'm not really a knitter, at least not yet. Most of my quilts have been baby quilts, like this one and that one. Lately I've been making doll/mini quilts like here, here and here.

Please make yourself welcome and wander around.  :-)

Isn't that cake amazing?! It's from the Pink Cake Box bakery in NJ and I love looking at all the amazing cakes that they make and post on their blog.

[EDIT]: The party's over and it was fun meeting new visitors to the blog. I hope everyone else had a good time as well.