Lemon Tree Tales

Two more UFOs bit the dust

Last night I put the finishing touches on two more UFOs. They just needed some beading and a hanger for one, and a pin-back for the second one. Woo-whoo! 

Now I can cross these two off my UFO list. It's slowly getting shorter. Next thing to complete is the flower doll from Cyndi Mahlstadt's class - I anticipate a few days to really do it justice. I really like saving these touches for the evenings so that I can relax in the living room with Steve. They're perfect to work on while he's watching races. Every now and then I look up and see what mayhem is on the track and then get back to my handwork. Right now we're watching one of the Australian race series that he saved for winter viewing.

Cyndi Mahlstadt doll class and show

Last Thursday our doll club, the Flying Phoebes, hosted a doll class and trunk show by Cyndi Mahlstadt of Meadow Bug Studio. She taught us how to make Evie Mae, a flower doll with a wire form base. As usual I'm a bit slow so my doll isn't finished quite yet. I DID learn a lot of interesting techniques and how to use Sobo glue.

Here's Cyndi's Evie Mae doll with a covered wire stand:
(This picture is taken from Cyndi Mahlstadt's website .. not taken by me)

and here's my unfinished version:
As you can see, I'm missing the ribbon on her right arm and a whole lot of fibers, leaves, beading etc until she's complete. I think that she'll be best displayed as a wall doll so I'll get a hook to decorate as well.

Cyndi was such a sweet and funny lady. She's originally from soCal (just like me) but moved to Iowa last year. Unfortunately we didn't have our usual beautiful California weather while she was here. It rained most of the day and night during our class and meeting. We managed to stay warm in spite of it.

Here's a quick picture of Cyndi presenting her dolls (okay, bad picture taking on my part because other than this shot Cyndi was smiling all the time):

and a closeup of one of her sweet ribbon dolls:
  

Cyndi's dolls are mostly wire armatures with covered fibers - ribbons, fabric, dyed cheesecloth, etc - that are then embellished with beads, velvet leaves, buttons, sequins, ribbons, glitter, basically anything pretty will find it's way into her artwork.

Go take a look at Cyndi's website and blog to see more of her darling creations. In the meantime I'll work on the finishing touches on my flower doll.

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On a side note, make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Reader installed on your PC. I didn't have the most up to date version and there is a virus that exploits the older versions when you open a PDF that has the virus attached. My PC was attacked on Saturday morning. There wasn't too much of a solution other than to reinstall everything on my machine. Thank goodness Steve is a computer guru because he was able to copy all my files, pictures, etc to an external hard drive before wiping out my machine to start from scratch. So now I'm reinstalling my programs - a pain, but now my machine is happy once again.

Tiny World Creamer Pincushion

I finally saw my friend Daisy last night to give her the last Tiny World Pincushion that I made - hers is the creamer. So now all my mini doll group friends have Tiny Worlds of their own - creamer, sugar bowl and teacup with saucer. These are so addictive to make! If you want to make one too, you can buy the pattern from their designer Mimi Kirchner at Mimi's Etsy Shop.

Now as to the fun I had yesterday -an all-day doll class followed by last night's doll club meeting- that will have to wait until Monday when I can take some good pictures of my doll project. It's been raining all this week in northern California. We've been in a drought for quite a few years so I'm sure the water is much appreciated. I'm just wondering if perhaps it couldn't have been spread out over a month rather than one short week.

Neighborhood Quilt from Jacquie

A few months ago Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio held a 'Joy in the New Year' challenge to complete as many UFOs by midnight New Year's Eve. I was very ambitious and said that I had ten to complete. Alas only two were done by the deadline. Of course the third (Miss Molly) was completed just a few days after the deadline so I felt pretty good about that. For some reason the roll of the dice chose me as the winner of one of Jacquie's Neighborhood Quilts - winner's choice. Yippee! This lovely red/aqua combo was calling my name and our friendly neighborhood mailman delivered it yesterday in the midst of a crazy storm that's been raining down on all of California.

When I opened the box, this is what greeted me:

It's still raining so no outdoor photos, but still you can see the wonderful houses:

My two favorite houses, the little mushroom one:

and the cherry house:

Thank you so much Jacquie! And what did she do with the other three quilts? Why, she's auctioning them off on her blog to raise money for the Red Cross to assist with the disaster in Haiti - A Neighborhood to Help a Neighborhood. She's donating double what the quilts raise. Hurry, the auction ends this Friday.

Colorblock quilt top

Last summer I participated in Margaret's 4SQS Block swap. I made 40 blocks and they were sent all across the world. In return I received 40 blocks from other quilters. They've been sitting on my desk waiting for something to be done with them. They were so colorful that I knew that they would be perfect as a cheering up quilt so they were donated to the Shir Hadash Quilters - my quilting bee. We make quilts for Shir Hadash's rabbi to give out to congregants who are sick and/or in need. So far our little group has met every month or so to cut/sew/quilt lap-sized quilts.

Our next project is to make a runner/wall banner to donate to the spring auction. Two ladies have some lovely hand-dyed batiks that they purchased at the Pacific International Quilt Festival last October. We've decided on making a French Braid quilt. I can't wait to show you the fabrics that Amy & I bought at the LQS to coordinate with one of the batiks - gorgeous purples/reds/gray-blue-lavender all accented by a subdued gold. Some of the fabrics are sparkly Fairy Frost (love that fabric!) and other tonal batiks. I'll remember to bring my camera to the cutting meeting.

Foxy trade

My friend Rachel and I often swap artwork. In December I gave her two of my fairy prints as Hanukkah presents for her granddaughters. Oh, they look so wonderful with the custom framing that she did. I wish that I had taken pictures. Then she sewed decorative pillows to match the mat colors. Her granddaughters are going to have a fantastic room. To thank me for the prints, Rachel gave me one of her clay pieces. Here is the plate called 'Sour Grapes' after the Aesop's tale about the fox and the grapes. Isn't it a delightful piece? I need to find a good spot for it in the house.

Miss Molly cloth doll is done!

Yay, the sun finally came out a bit today so that I could show you the completed Good Golly Miss Molly cloth doll. (Designed by Colleen Ehle Patell .. this one made by me)

The vest is "foundation pieced" directly to the flannel "batting". It was a fairly free form sketch done very quickly New Year Eve's night. The back is pretty exciting.

And finally a good overall shot of Miss Molly posing in the winter garden.

Goals for 2010

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday. I was frantically trying to get Miss Molly's vest completed but then decided to relax once it was 10:30 pm or so. I'm glad that I did because it turned out that the vest needed more work. That's now done and I'll post pictures tomorrow when the light is better. We ended up spending a quiet evening at home relaxing and contemplating the new year.

I'm not really big on follow-through with my resolutions every year. Perhaps this year will be different? The main thing is to simplify/organize/reduce. I think there's too much hidden clutter in my house - in closets, kitchen cabinets, and the garage. So I'm going to tackle one area at a time. A couple weeks ago I got to the two drawers in the master bathroom. They're now clean, organized and only hold the items that I need. It's a nice feeling. The main goal is that by the end of the year the entire house will be pared down to essentials and things that we really use. Plus it will have been deep cleaned! Maybe even a little decorating here and there.

I'll extend the concept of simplify/organize/reduce to my computer as well. It's so filled with pictures that need to be deleted. The downside to digital cameras is that you can take dozens of shots in the hopes of getting the best one. The problem is that I'm not good at deleting the bad or so-so ones once I've selected the good ones. My poor computer is overloaded. Oh, plus have you ever gone through and organized your browser bookmarks? I have so many that it's not useful at all.

The next one is to really make a dent in my UFOs. Thanks to Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio's UFO challenge of 2009, I'm already on the way. Not to mention that I've been pretty good about completing major dolls these last four months - the Handmaiden Faerie, Lady Henrietta Constantine the Gossip, and tomorrow Miss Molly. Along the way I'll pare down things/supplies that I no longer need in my studio. There's an entire bookcase full of books that's in the closet BEHIND the fabric drawers. They aren't easily accessible so I'm wondering how many of them that I actually need to keep. Look for book sales soon!

The fourth item is the most important one of all - me. I need to get healthy this year! That means eating more vegetables (I do like roasted green beans with new potatoes and shallots), less fast food, and walking. I'd also like to get my hair cut and be more conscious of what I wear. I've gotten into the horrible habit of not wearing thoughtful outfits unless I'm going somewhere nice. That needs to stop.

And finally I want to redo the look of my blog. It's long overdue for a new banner and a complete overhaul. That's not a necessity but it certainly is something I'm looking forward to doing.

Ahhh, it's good to get that written down. Now to actually get to it. In the meantime, I'll leave you with pictures of the two Tiny World pincushions that I made on New Year's Day for two of my doll making friends. There's a third one, but the recipient hasn't seen it yet. (Mimi Kirchner is the creator of Tiny Worlds and sells the Tiny World pattern on etsy.)

Tiny World teacup with saucer pincushion for Valerie

Tiny World sugar jar pincushion for Laurie

2010 is off to a fantastic start!