Original one-of-a-kind folk art dolls, Beatrice and Beulah, and Emily and Edwin, are up on our Ruffing's site

Beatrice and Beulah, our lop bunny rabbit dolls, and Emily and Edwin, our ginger tabby with her pet elephant, are up on our Ruffing's site now. I just finished up their web pages.

Please click here to read Emily and Edwin's story,

and please click here to read all about Beatrice and Beulah. There a plenty of other photos on their web pages to enjoy too. It's been lots of fun creating them, for both myself and Max Bailey. More to come!

Rainbows

I finally received my Kona Cotton Solids card this week, after ordering one from an online store last February and receiving the Moda Bella Solids card below by mistake. From what I understand, the Robert Kaufman Fabrics company was waiting to add the new colors, and so it took a long time to get the new cards in. It's pretty exciting to see all the choices they both offer, and it is so much easier to match fabric for doll dresses or quilt projects from home, than it is to drag all your stuff to the store. Plus, no one gets freaked out when you pull a cat doll out of your purse! One quilt shop lady once gasped, "I thought it was REAL!" when I did that one time. That was kind of confusing, for me, since I don't normally see cats wearing pantaloons and stockings. But, that's okay. I think she recovered.

Everyone is working on recovering here too, since the past month's hospital and illness upsets. I think the calm after the storm is actually when the feelings catch up with me. I think it is so important to handle everything that needs to be done, during any time of crisis, that you don't have time to let yourself feel too much. You know you have to keep going. So, once everything calms down, you start to feel the stress and the sadness and the loss.

I also find myself thinking about my own bout of illness, now fourteen years ago, when my own life turned upside down. I think about how far I have come, and how lucky and grateful I am to have such a wonderful family and friends and pets who stuck by me through everything. I also think about how my life changed, and what those changes have meant.

This may surprise you, but the drawing below is not from my childhood. I drew it when I was in my twenties, and it was truly the best I could do. On the right, are my attempts to draw Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and on the left is Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, both wonderful books and characters, by the way. I was not beginning to learn to draw or paint; I had already reached a professional level. This is just where I ended up. I needed to draw with a brace to keep my hand steady, and I could only draw for short amounts of time.

I can remember my parents giving me a coloring book and some crayons, to work on my coordination, and I could not stay in the lines. I remember holding onto book shelves so I could walk across a room, sliding down the stairs while sitting on the steps because it was too difficult and painful to walk, and I remember crawling across the floor sometimes too, all as an adult, recovering slowly. Year after year, I got better and better. And I know it changed me.

I became more acutely aware of other people, what they said or did. I saw the good and the ugly in them. I learned who was kind and who was not, and I appreciated the kindness tremendously, when I found it. It became harder for me to do my own projects, and so I focused more on what other people were doing and tried to participate. I lost some confidence, but I kept going, kept trying. This week, while I've been thinking about these things, I've realized I still need to put up more of a fight to express myself, to be who I am, and to do what I want to do. I am afraid I have not been trying hard enough. I'm not sure it ever becomes easy to be a creative person, or perhaps, to be any person. It takes courage and perseverance.



We watched Phoebe in Wonderland this weekend, and I was touched by it. There is a nice quote in it, where Phoebe's drama teacher reassures her, that goes like this...

At a certain part in your life, probably when too much of it has gone by, you will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are, especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals. And you will say to yourself, "But I am this person." And in that statement, that correction, there will be a kind of love.

I think it is that love, the love you must have for who you are, that makes expressing yourself and being true to yourself worth fighting for.

Wandering through the fabric forest

My workroom doesn't always look this chaotic. I decided I felt like making some fabric art toys today and yesterday. I kept pulling out boxes of quilting cottons, combining them, cutting out bits and pieces, and fusing them together. Then I'd see another combination of fabrics that I liked, and I'd do the same thing, again and again. By the end of the day, I had sixteen toys waiting to be sewn. I had been aiming for twelve. It remains to be seen just how many of these I will actually sew. Of course, I plan to sew them all. I still plan to sew a lot of things I have waiting around. At the moment, I've resolved to work on this the issue steadily, or at least frequently ;)

Raining on my photo parade

I think there just might be a conspiracy against my getting the rest of these doll photos done. It's crazy how many things have stopped me lately, with all that's gone on these past few weeks. I'm now even more determined to get them done a.s.a.p. My mom was actually well enough to give me a hand today, helping me set up and holding things steady. So, I ironed everyone's doll dresses, and set them on their stands.

I gathered up all their friends and accessories, and ironed our photo backdrop too. We set everything up outside, and I got some photos of Emily and Edwin taken. I was just about to go for some group shots, which was my main objective for today, when the wind picked up and started blowing things around.

Then the rain came...ugh. Well, we got everyone back inside and no one got wet. But, by the time the rain stopped, the light had faded too much for our photo shoot. Hopefully the stars will align for us tomorrow, or at least the wind and the rain will wait until we are finished.

Pixie Kitten in progress

A kitten in a tutu. My latest project. She has hand-quilted wings that I borrowed from another project that I hadn't finished. Max is going to work some magic on her next. She'll be taking on some Siamese (or Himilayan, or Ragdoll...not sure yet) kitten features soon. We were thinking "fairy kittens" but then I liked "Pixie Kittens" better. It sounds more mischievous. There may just be a "Pixie Cat" to follow...

Dealing with the tulle has been hysterical. Purchasing it was interesting. We piled the bolts up in our arms, and when we got to the cutting counter, the guy there seemed really angry to see us! He looked up and said, "Oh, you're killing me!!" After the twelfth bolt or so, cutting half yards at a time, he seemed to recover a bit. Maybe that was because the end was in sight, or maybe he was due for a break. I prewashed the tulle, and then had to fold and iron it. It does take some patience. It's true.

I cut strips with my rotary cutter, each half an inch greater in skirt length than the next, and basted them together, two at a time. Then I basted the two sets of two together, and pulled up the basting stitch to gather the edge. The longest skirt length goes on top/outside, and the shortest goes on the bottom/inside, so the tutu fans out from the body. The whole thing is sewn to a band, which is then folded under and hand stitched closed. I closed it with a snap in the back, and added a ribbon rosette in the front.

I got a couple of new presser feet too. On the left is my new clear 1/4 inch piecing foot with guide, and on the right is my new clear edge joining foot. The first one allows you to butt your 1/4 inch seam up against the guide, to keep your seam even. I used that when I sewed my doll body. Being able to see through the foot helped me make those tiny, sharp turns. I did mess up the bottom surface of my new foot a little when I sewed over some Fray Check that hadn't dried yet. So, I will avoid doing that again. I tried removing it with some alcohol, but the surface seems a little damaged. It may have reacted chemically with the coating of the foot somehow.

The clear edge joining foot will help attach lace to dresses, and it also acts as a guide for sewing a decorative stitch down a center line.

I used the clear edge stitching foot I bought before to sew my gathered tulle onto my waistband, as I wanted to sew past my gathering stitches, which had built up from so many layers of basting.

To those of you who sent your well wishes for my family, and your kind sentiments, thank you very much. My mom is doing much better, and hopefully she will be all better soon.

A ride in the countryside

My mom is still under the weather, but getting a little better each day, just slowly. I thought a drive might provide an enjoyable change of scenery, and so we took a tour. We drove past such a pretty pasture, with goats, horses, and cattle, all on a hillside. I couldn't get a good vantage point for a photo of all the animals, but I did capture a shot of this pasture-guarding kitty. She even has plastic eyes, like a doll.

We saw lots of green, green fields. Very pretty and peaceful.

I found these bright pink zinnias and got them as cheerful, get-well flowers for my mom.

I have a couple of new doll ideas I'm working on, in addition to trying to catch up on the photos for the dolls we have already. I just might snatch these fairy wings from an older project to use on my new project. You never know when a new idea might seem even more appealing than the first idea you had. It's the same thing that happens when you buy fabric for something, and as soon as you get it home, you think up ten more exciting somethings to make with it.

Another new kitten folk art doll figurine up on our Ruffing's site

Tabitha is Max Bailey's tabby and white kitten original folk art doll figurine. I just finished editing her photos and I put her web page up on our Ruffing's site.

She has her own catnip ball that she loves to chase around. You can read all about her over on Tabitha's web page by clicking here.