Animals

I babysat my friend's dog Shatzi again this weekend. She is such a cute dog and my granddaughter really likes her.

My cat Kato is about 7 years old and was a ferel kitten rescue. I got to bottle feed her. She can still be wild at times.

I also have a rooster and a hen.

You know the story.....Grandma, we don't have enough room at our house so could you keep the chickens at your house. Well I said yes. Guess they are my chickens now! That rooster is mean. He is always pecking at my foot. I have little black and blue spots all over it!

Grandkids Weekend!

The grandkids were here Sat and today. As usual they were a bundle of energy! Here is Kassy painting away at her pictures. She is so much like me..... very artistic. The other picture is of Calvin and my husband 'building' a house that Calvin designed! LOL They even had a faucet hooked up to the hose for running water! It was so complicated this time (Papa and Calvin always build together) that I don't think Steven will want to exert the effort to take it down and put all the bricks back down at the bottom of the hill!

Grandkids and things

Well, it is the weekend and Kassy and Calvin are coming to visit and stay the night Sat to Sun. Kassy is going to sew with me and Calvin is going to build with PaPa. Always fun to have them. It rained this evening really hard so I hope it isn't too wet to play outside tomorrow!

I am working on my black and white challenge doll. I have stuffed her and now have to put her together. No pics as it will be voted on and I am not sure if it is anonymous voting or not. I have a few ideas for the costume using all sorts of black and white fabrics. I think the hardest will be the face as we can only use neutrals and no color.

My quilt retreat starts a week from this Sun. Looking forward to it. Got the info pack in the mail today. I still have to make my PJ bottoms from the same fabric as the pillowcase. The pumpkin fabric that is fab! I did make my bingo card. It is made from 2 1/2" squares. We are going to take all the bingo cards made for retreat and make them into quilts for our charity quilt program.

Weekend art works

Well I finished my pindoll for Connie and my

ATD for Holly.

The Sept swap for pindollalley was literary character so I love Sherlock Holmes and found a cute graphic on the internet and made a cloth likeness of him for Connie.

The theme for this month's ATD was back to school. I had some nice school related mixed media stuff and made this little doll. Her head is a face of a child on top of a globe. There are reading stamps and school sayings. Her arms are long rows of books. Hope to get these off in the mail Wed. I also have a mini group meeting. It is a quilting group and we haven't all gotten together in three months. So I am not going to my guild board meeting but 'playing' with my friends! We are going to discuss our group quilt we are going to make for a local Breast Cancer Auction.

more presents

My daughter Samantha gave me a sweater some perfume and the elf Annalee you see in the pic. Isn't he cute! I just love Annalees and collect them. My other daughter Stephanie gave me the mini rose plant and the grandkids gave me the Halloween kitty. Isn't he cute too! I collect kitties too! In fact I collect a lot of things. Probably too many things as the dust piling up is awful! LOL I shall have to clean house one of these days!!!!

day after birthday

Here is a picture of my birthday squishies from My Yahoo group. It is fun to get packages from all over the world. This pile has them from Australia, NewZealand, England and the USA. FUN!

I had a great day and my daughters and grandkids came over. My granddaughter Kassy(8) made me a pillow with the new found sewing talents I have taught her. I am so proud of her!

My B-Day!

Well today is my birthday, 56 years young! I am having a good day so far! Got paid for my two dolls and sold another!!! I get to open my birthday squishies (as the Aussie ladies say) from a birthday swap on my CRAFT yahoo groups. We send birthday girls fabric. Loads of fun! I got some cards and some lottery tickets from my SIL. Got one three dollar winner so far! I spread it out during the day! My daughters are coming up later this afternoon. I am not cooking! Double Yea! Will post pics later of pressies!

Jabberwocky done!

Well I am finally done with the Jabberwocky. The mermaid and him will go off tomorrow on their journey to Florida. I almost forgot to take pics! Egads! Got him out of the box and took these quick ones. I think besides stuffing the longest part is the sewing on of all his claws and teeth!

Jabberwock coming along nicely

My Jabberwocky is well on his way to becoming a finished doll! All the parts are stuffed and I have attached the legs. Decided to sew the claws on the hands befor attaching them. Got the eyes in and the nose sculpted even though it doesn't show well in the pic. Tomorrow I will finish putting him together, sew the rest of the claws, teeth and head horns on and do the coloring with the oil pencils. Then I will be able to send him and the mermaid off the the customer! Yeah!

I'm okay and Work in progress

I went to the Pulmonary Doctor today to get the results of my CT scan from last week. The spot is the same......not cancer! What a big relief off mu mind that is! Maybe I will be able to de stress a little.

Just a picture of what I have done so far on Jabberwocky. Sewed all the pieces and now am stuffing them and working on the armature. Got to review my armature tutorial from Colleen Babcock.

http://www.themagicbean.typepad.com/

Then I will put him together and do the needle sculpting and eyes and detailing with my oil pencils. I am so relieved to be working on him finally!

Look what I got!

Whoopee! My pindoll from Ellen Haytas came in the mail! Isn't she cute! She is painted with glow in the dark paint! How cool! She is a glow worm!
I finally started the Jabberwocky today. Yeah! Did have a problem remebering how I did the mouth but think I got it. Get that done and then I have to make my September pindoll for Connie. The theme is any literary character! Still trying to figure out who I am going to do. I think I have it narrowed down to three. Somehow before my quit reatreat I have to fit in my black and white challenge doll. Hummm! I do have the pattern as everyone uses the same one and the fabrics. Just got to get the time. Isn't it always finding the time. Where does it go??? It sure passes a lot faster the older I get. LOL

Calendar quilt squares done

These are the squares from a block of the month from one of my quilt guilds that I have finished. One for every calendar month. I am not sure if I am going to put shashing between the sqaures or not. I thought maybe a batik that has a lot of the colors in the squares. I have lots of multi colored batiks. They are done with fusible applique and I used different colors of threads with a buttonhole stitch to go around each piece in the applique. I will get a picture after I have finished the quilt and post it!

making pillowcase

Today I went to a get together with the ladies all going to quilt retreat to make pillow cases. I chose some Halloween fabric as the retreat is in October and I thought perhaps I could just fill it with chocolate from the market instead of trick or treating! LOL I can't wait to go as i have never been on a retreat before. It is at Zephir Cove in Lake Tahoe. Couldn't ask for a more beautiful place!

I have been thinking on what I should take to do. At first I thought a new quilt. But I do have so many planned projects in the wings I think I will take some of those. Mostly they are Christmas quilts I want to make and never seem to get around to. This time I will make a Christmas quilt before Christmas!

Here is the pillow case.

Under the Sea swap finished

Well I have finished the swap I almost forgot. Looks like a lot of others signed up for the swap have forgot too! No mention on the list. Sure hope the one who got me doesn't forget. Anyway, here is a picture of 'Sea Foam and Rip Tide' from a pattern by Donna Schramek. The little imp Rip Tide sure has a lot of parts. The seahorse is about 12" and the imp about 6".

Next I REALLY have to do the Jabberwocky! No more procrastination! Then I have a list of Challenges I want to take part in too. Always so much to do!!! I am going on a quilt retreat Oct 7-10. Looking forward to that! Maybe I finish some of those quits I have been wanting to do.

ATD's from recent swaps

I thought I would post a picture of some of the ATD's (Artist Trading Dolls) that I have gotten in the last week. These are like paper dolls but an artist one of a kind! Aren't they great!

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I have started another swap that I almost forgot about. I am making an imp riding a seahorse for a under the sea swap. Guess I am procrastinating on the Jabberwocky. I think I will just make the Jabberwocky after this and forget about trying to make it a pattern for now. It is putting me off making the commissioned piece thinking about taking pics and writing instructions and I need to get it done!

Oh well, There is next year!

Here is a picture of the doll I sent in for the Hoffman Challenge. She wasn't selected this year and was sent back I wasn't really too happy with her face but had run out of time. She is sitting on a large flower. I used quite a few of the companion fabrics this time as I had gotten a sharm square pack of all the challenge fabrics. Each petal in her skirt is a different fabric on the underside which I turned slightly and tacked down with a leaf bead. Next year I will get an earlier start hopefully! I did get some fat quarters back as they were giving away fabric for the 20th anniversary. How many times you entered, won, traveled etc. I got four nice fat quarters and the pin.

ATD swap and Round Robin

The blue one is a ATD (Artist Trading Doll). It is my swap for August Under the Sea swap. It is fabric and paper and beads on Pellon. An octopus uder two waves and they are attached with brads so the all move. I will be sending this out on Tues as well as the Round Robin doll.

Here is a picture of the doll I worked on for this last month's round robin. I added the hat and the shoes. All the dolls have one stop left and then they will be sent home to the owners. Yea! I will get to see what everyone has done. FUN!!!

Name Game

TAG - NAME GAME
I've tagged 5 others, so if you've been tagged here is what you do.........Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your name. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My name is:
K- Knowledge of cloth dollmaking and getting better at it is my quest
A- Artistic is what I am
R- Rich in a loving family
E- Everyone I know is talented in some special way
N- Never quit

Here are my people I have chosen
Nita
Kat
Connie
Shashi
Yvonne