Lemon Tree Tales

You're invited to the Ultimate Blog Party 2008

Come on and join in the fun for The Ultimate Blog Party, March 7 - 14th. Apparently last year there were over 1000 blogs that joined. It'll be nice to meet lots of different women bloggers. Hurry, go over and join today! This will be my first year trying it out.  :-)

When fabric origami goes wrong

Okay, so I finally decided to go with what Rebecca Wat calls inside out flowers and narrowed down my fabric selection. There was an olive green polka dot fabric in my stash that helped add a bit of contrast to all the purples of the flowers. At first everything was going to plan. But when it came time to unfold the flowers nothing spectacular happened (see the block on the left). Back to the directions where I realized that I had missed one teeny-tiny little step. So I made four new flowers the correct way. Perfect! Since I had to sew another block anyway I took another look at my original selections. It just didn't work for me. The asymmetrical design wasn't a good choice for a center block. Not to mention that the stripes were a fairly harsh choice for that set up. The pale periwinkle/lavender fabric in the second block was originally destined to be appliqued centers for the first block. They look much better as the background instead. Overall I like the second block but I still need to find a little bit of a yellow/chartreuse to applique for the flower centers - just for a bit of punch.

A close-up of what the flowers look like as they're unfolded and tacked down. What do you think?

The politics of doll club

It's interesting what happens when you get a group of women of varying ages into the same room. Lots of laughter, even more chatter, club politics, gossip, some stepping on toes with an overall tendency to share life, compassion and a love of art. Since May of last year I've been the president of our local doll club, Gals and Dolls. Now this is a very established organization. It was created in 1986 and still has quite a few of the founding members as active participants.

Of course over the years membership has ebbed and grown as some move away, some lose interest in doll-making and others simply come to the end of their life. Replacing those come the newcomers, the ones that are new to the art of dolls and are passionate about learning and the ones who already are amazing artists. Some of them are young, some old and others are somewhere in the middle. We are married, divorced, single, widowed. Some like traditional cloth dolls, others prefer bears, a few like to experiment with paper-clay at times and then there are the ones who constantly break out of the box and bring new ideas like so many summer breezes - refreshing and reinvigorating of the creative spirit.

We've banded together as members have personal tragedies and rejoice when life brings good tidings. We have a member who's an established doll designer/teacher and a few who have published doll patterns. At meetings we share tips, techniques and our recent creations (or sometimes purchases). Of course I mustn't forget to mention the treats that are always present. One member works at a bakery and brings the most delicious birthday cakes at our Annual Birthday Party meeting. Yum!

It's been a great year and I've learned a lot but now that the club year is nearing its end I'm ready to pass on the baton to the next president. There's much more work involved in being the president of even a small group such as our doll club. First you're the cheerleader/teacher/nanny at meetings (yes, I did use my gavel at times). You're the first one that gives a flavor of what a group is all about and that's a huge responsibility. Did you remember to send reminder emails to everyone about the upcoming show? Who's volunteering for what job? Did you make sure that new members feel welcome? Should you make minor modifications or will that be too much change?

I've LOVED helping out but I need to spend more time as pit crew for Steve with his racing (oh, did I forget to mention that he just got a race car?!) and that doesn't leave too much extra time to devote to running the club. Well I guess that I could, but then I wouldn't be able to spend any time at all creating, blogging, taking pictures, or making any dolls, not to mention that my house would probably run away in tears from all the neglect. So for the next club year I'll simply be a member and who knows, perhaps I'll even bring in some finished dolls for Show & Tell. Yes there's a bit of guilt about this decision, but sometimes you just can't do everything and have to make choices according to your priority list.

Have any of you held similar jobs in creative guilds? How was your experience with it?

Spring Fling RR Quilt: Center Fabrics

Here's the fabrics for the Spring Fling Round Robin quilt center block. I'm not sure yet whether I'll use the Hoffman paisley but it did serve its purpose nicely as a starting point. My two favorite fabrics are the stripe (by Holly Holderman of Lakehouse Dry Goods) and the gorgeous magenta batik on the bottom. It has such a saturation of colors that it makes me happy every time I look at it. I've decided upon a block to use and now it's just a matter of which exact fabrics and what type of folding flower to choose.

Home again

I'm finally home after spending a few days with my grandma and dad. Lots of emotions, both ups and downs. Not much to say or do to comfort my grandmother. All you can do is give her a hug, a smile, and some company. Her journey through the first days of grief are mostly traveled solo. And my dad's dealing with a lot too since grandpa was his stepfather, his dad. Now that I'm home again I think that I'll rest for a little bit before getting back to the routine. Of course now I worry about how my dad's holding up too.