pin dolls

These are the two pindolls I have made this week. It has been so hot here in Northern California ( 100+ ) that I haven't wanted to do much. The beach babe is for Marti. She has a totally beaded one piece swimsuit and holding the beach ball. The other is June Bug for Ellen for my Pin Doll Alley group. This month's theme was insects or reptiles. Hard to see her antennae in this picture.
They are each five inches tall.

Well, my Mayor candidate is finished. She has her vote for me sign and her little jester staff. I added some bells and ribbons. Believe it or not the hair is a blue fur scrunchy. They are fun things to use as hair.

I have sent the pictures off to Molly at Doll Street. There is a close up too! Jill Maas' pattern was really fun to do! I have some of her other patterns too and want to make those now too!

Here is a picture of the fur I bought for the Jabberwocky. I know it is two colors but I think it looks cool and the texture is much the same as wht I used the first time. Has to look a little distressed as he is a monster!

Doll Street Challenge Doll

This is the challenge doll for the Mayor's race at Doll Street. I have been working on her all week. I wanted to make a Jester for a dark horse in the mayor race. LOL She is from the Jill Maas pattern 'Jude'. I still have the embellishing to finish and the little jester to hold in her hand.

As you can see I still haven't made it to the store for the fur to make the Jabberwocky. Thursday I might go out to lunch with my friend and go the the fabric store and get the fur. That will be my next project!

This is a mermaid I finished today for a swap. She is about 12" from the top of head to tip of tail (straightened out). I embellished her with beads and lace and shells. The fabric is doe suede for the body (torso is dyed with Jaquard dye) and the tail is batik. I fill the tail with waterproof sand for a more natural look. I use sand for all my dolls Unless I mailing a doll to another country.

MY WEEK

I got my blood work done on Monday and saw the cardiologist on Wednesday. He said everything looked good as I had passed the stress test back in April with flying colors and now my cholesterol is where he wants it too!

The CT scan didn't happen on Tuesday as schedule. The pre approval from the insurance didn't come thru. I guess those insurance guys know more that doctors! This is for an ongoing monitoring of a spot on my lung too. So I have already had two scans. The doctor just wants to make sure the spot isn't getting bigger. That bummed me out, but I picked myself up and made a mermaid. Dollmaking is very theraputic!

Monday was my first quilt guild meeting of the week. This one meets on the second Tuesdays of the month. We had our ice cream social and played a game with 2 1/2" strips of fabric. FUN! i shared the mermaid I made in the previous posts.

Wednesday was another guild meeting. This one meets on the third Wednesday of the month. We met at a pizza place this month as Aug is always hot and our regular place has no air conditioner. I run the raffle for the guild and love to buy the fabrics and such for my 'pots'. It is called Pot of Gold! We had lots of pizza and fun. I am also going on a quilt reatreat in October with this guild. That is going to be fun and I have to decide what I want to work on now to get my kit together.

I have been tagged "nice"

I have recieved a Nice Matters award from my online buddie Connie. I am to nominated five other nice people. They are to copy and paste this award to their blog and nominate five more people! Here are my people and their blog sites:

Yvonne Nathanson http://ynotart.blogspot.com/

Sandy Walker http://glitteringthreads.blogspot.com/

Venus Thomas http://www.hmbv.blogspot.com/

KateHampson http://raggedyrambles.blogspot.com/

Noel Wolfman http://clothdollpatterns.blogspot.com/

It seems I have no fur to start my Jabberwocky so I must get some fur this week. I have a couple of doctor's appointments this week and two quilt guild meetings so it promises to be a busy week.

a pig pincushion

Kassy is already hard at work today sewing away on two pillows she is making for her friends. She is a fast learner!

Today I finished the pig pincushion I am making for another swap. This one is going to Australia. It is made from wool felt that has been hand dyed. (Not by me, bought it that way! LOL) I think it turned out cute.

Teaching Kassy to Sew

I spent yesterday and today helping my granddaughter get familiar wiht her new sewing machine I got her for her birthday. It is a really easy machine so we were sewing soon after. She had already started a patchwork top on my machine so I helped her to finish that and then she made a small pillow to go with it. We ran out of time so I hand stitched the opening closed. She sewed and stuffed it herself. Yesterday after she got her she asked if we could go to the quilt shop. That is so thrilling to have a kid ask to go instead of running away screaming! LOL She picked out some fabric and I got it for her. She liked those little rolled fat eights.

Here is a picture of her in the dress I made for her to be flower girl at my daughter Samantha's wedding in June. Isn't she adorable. I really treasure the sewing and crafting time I have with my grand daughter as neither of my daughters was really interested in learning to sew.

Round Robin and other stuff

I was working on a round robin doll today. Sometimes it is hard to think of what to do but this is nearing the end of our swap and she still didn't have a face so of course I gave her a face and I also gave her a wrap skirt for the beach. As you can see the head is a gourd. I am doing journaling in the book that is with the doll too. Hope to finish that tomorrow in between teaching my granddaughter to use the new sewing machine I got for her birthday. She is spending the night so we will have all day to get to know her machine.

I belong to a couple of mini groups and one of them met tonight. This group is friends who bead and quilt and make dolls. We always meet at my friends house and her hubby cooks us a great dinner.

Finished the mermaid

I have finished with the mermaid! She has her crocheted wig on and her bra and jewelry and rhinestones on her tail. i have beaded around the wrist to cover that seam. She has some glass fishes in her hair too but they don't show up in the pics. It is hard to see in the pics but the quilted stitching on the bottom fin on tail and the flukes is done with metallic thread. I use Glitter Thread by Superior Threads. It is very strong and hardly ever breaks.

beading the doll

Jabberwocky

Well I have started on the freeform beading of the mermaid. Hopefully I will be done with her by Saturday evening. Then I an going to start the next doll I am making for the same person. It is called Jabberwocky and is a pattern I designed myself so will have to work out the bugs in the pattern as I go along. He uses doe suede and fur and those fun claw beads!

Close up of face

Here is a close up photo of the face

More working on doll

This is the body dyed yellow and greens. I think I will use it. I wasn't going to but i can make it work. I have added her head and tail and fluke. Now I have to embellish with beads and such.

worked on doll

I stuffed my flesh parts of the doll today and also found out the colors I need to make the tail and fins and flukes. I need bright yellow, aqua and bright green. Yeah, I have all those colors in my stash of fabric. Here is a picture of part of my stash.