Serval in pes format

This is what I was doing today as well as creating the Autumn Leaves fabric that is on my Yahoo Groups site. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dollssocool/ I hope you like it. It is meant to be stitched in redwork style on an embroidery machine.

Edith

I have spent most of the day writing a pattern for Edith. She is a complete machine embroidery pattern for those who want to do something different. All her parts and sewn on the 5x7 hoop then assembled.

I hope to have the pattern finished by the weekend. Writing a pattern is harder than I planned when I set my goal this morning. I had hoped to just write one off of the Angel doll but found that I needed to take photos as I progressed to help the person using the pattern so had to make another whole doll. Now I have Edith.

Wedding girl

Saturday: I just finished the bride in colors and the last running stitch is off on part of the design so I will have to redo it. . . . It is finished. The black lines are for those that like redwork or what is called one color work. See photo at ( http://www.picturetrail.com/glxmas )

I'm sure my Hubby is happy that the machine is no longer chattering away.

Journaling

I suppose I really should start journaling in this thing.

I will start by covering the past two weeks. My home is very small and I have a lot of stuff. I cleared out a room (10 X 10) to free up area for my computer away from the sewing and crafting area. What a nightmare that was. When you have a room piled to the ceiling where does the stuff go?

I began by putting it on the patio under cover in hot weather. After I did that we got heat to 108 and I could only work out there for 3 hours a day. I did have this empty room so in the 3 hours I sorted out what should go back into the room for an office. Well that was a chore as well. After I got the room looking like an office (with some crafting items in it). I invited Geoff over to help me clear out the garage to give Hubby more room for his hobby.

Geoff found after 3 hours of hard labor that it was too much work so he called in two friends to help. Well I guess what I did I organized their work and set off to the computer and began designing a doll. With two at 15 and a 17 year old on the job it only took 2 more hours. NOW all I have to do is sort out the patio. Where the boys put the stuff from the garage along with my store room stuff.

For a week I spent 3 hours on the patio sorting and separating things in the mornings and then putting the things away that I brought in be for the heat hit in the afternoon, every day. It is 2 weeks later and I now have only a small amount of stuff to sort and put away on the patio.

This work only took up 5 hours a day so I played the remainder of each day. I managed to put the Embroidery doll together and paint her after teaching a class on fabric painting that took up 5 hours of my day in the Lake Oswego area. One of my passions is teaching people how to play. I also designed and put together several Spirit dolls and while showing one off I was asked if I would teach a class on the spirit doll so now I need a pattern and instructions written.

Another afternoon writing the Spirit Doll pattern and I am ready to begin. On Monday this week I received a call from a friend that she needed some embroidery designed for a girl's 15th birthday so I put together a few ideas and she came by. They were okay she said but she wanted something a little different and could I make something that looked like the invitation? I agreed and proceeded to make the bride design she had shown me. I worked up a prototype for her. Also another friend called that afternoon asking if I could print off 100 invitations for her 50^th anniversary.

Tuesday I began to make the angel doll. This is a rescue doll from the Goodwill store near me. She had a soiled body and one broken foot. She came with no hair and was a fright to see. I love a challenge so I tore her apart and disposed of her old body and leg. Now I have a fresh canvas in which to paint on. I designed a body and legs for her and upper arms. Instead of having her standing as so many of my dolls do I wanted to be different so I thought she should be flying. The easy part is making and stuffing the doll. The hard part is embellishing the doll and figuring out how to hang her. You can view all the photos at my site on Picture Trail. (http://www.picturetrail.com/glxmas )

It took all day to design and stitch the wings. I began by drawing one wing in ink so that my scanner would pick it up. Next I scan the drawing. Then I bring it into the software for the embroidery machine (Palette 6.0) and convert it to stitches. This may sound easy but I really have to re-draw it in the computer software so that it has no broken lines. Then I have to create a running stitch of the complete wing so to have one that I can use as redwork and then another with the satin stitch so I can use it for appliqué work if I need it some day. Why do it twice. The next step is to create the fill stitches for the wing to make it look more 3D. After all this I bring each step into the main program in the size of hoop I desire. As a designer I make it in 4 sizes ( 2x2, 4x4, 5x7, and 6x10) that way I can have it available for any size hoop. The stitching takes 4 hours per wing because I placed two parts together and glued pipe cleaners between the layers to make them bend and stay in position. Now I have stitched 2 sets of wings and glued them. I mane a mirror image of the wing to create the second one so they look alike. That took up my day after my 3 hours of sorting on the patio in the morning.

I printed out the invitations and called the lady on the artwork for the pillow for the 15 yr old and managed to get those orders finished on Wednesday.

I got up on Thursday, mixed and poured the plaster casts of 4 doll heads so I could try a new method of Felt doll making. Then I cleaned off my quilting machine. I had found 4 wall hangings that had not been finished, while sorting the patio so now was the time to stitch them, and out comes the thread and batting and I work them up. One piece I did up months ago looked rather plain so I laid it aside for further thought. Not a bad days work after sorting more stuff on the patio.

On Friday I got up and painted that wall hanging I had not finished on Thursday. It is called Illusions of Shore Birds and I quilted it on Friday. What with errands and shopping my day was rather full.

Here it is Saturday and I am stitching out the bride in colors. Pics will go up when she if finished. Hubby is home today so heaven only knows what we will manage to do today. I still have some sorting to complete.

Next week I have a Quilt and Textile show in Tillamook where a dozen of my dolls and one wall hanging will be seen.

2 wings

This project began about 7 am and now it is 8 pm. Who would have guessed that it would take so long to deaign and make 2 wings. Well the great thing about it is that I have them designed for anyother project I want to use them in. I will have the pattern available to those interested for the embroidery machine in .pes for the mega hoop.

First wing

Here is her first wing. It took me all morning to design the wing and 4 hours to stitch only one on the machine. The second wing is sewing right now.

String Blocks

Making a string block is fun and easy. All I did was to draw a design on a piece of wood and then spray the block of wood with "3M 77 spray adhesive, then placed the string on the block following the design I drew. After the adhesive dried I used a brayer to roll the color on the fabric. The results were great. They can also be used as a rubber stamp would be. If you can draw it and lay string over the drawing you have a stamp. "Cloth, Paper and Scissors this month's issue.

Student's work on Painting class 1 Aug

This is Betty's painting in my class today. The teacher will have to take lessons from this gal.
We had loads of fun creating great fabric for back ground work. We are part of the MEOW called the Aristacats.

Student's work on Painting class 1 Aug Caroline

This is Carolines painting in my class today. We are using acrylic paints in a wet wash style. We are part of the MEOW called the Aristacats.

The process begins on this Embroidered doll. She has hair and after my class on fabric painting she has a new look. I will work on her and embellish her as I go. I will keep you posted on her progress.

Machine Embroidered Doll

Here is the lay-up of how I made the doll.

Embroidered doll

This doll was built on the maga hoop of my Embroidery Machine. I got up early this morning and started creating. This doll is the resutls of that time well spent. I drew up the doll then illustrated it in the computer before bringing it into my Embroidery software. Then each section was designed as redwork sothat it could be stitched on the machine. I used dark thread to better photograph the steps then assembled the doll. She needs to be hand stitched but other than that she is a working pattern.

Concept of the Spirit Doll

When I was given the challenge of making something with a flat quarter of Christmas fabric I was stumped for two weeks. On Tuesday I just decided that something had to be done with the fabric. I pulled out a sheet of paper from my printer and started cutting a paper doll. This doll started to take form deep in my memory. Somehow I remember always being fascinated by Archeology and the discovery of old things. One of those things was a stone carving of a lady that was somewhat rounded and pretty much like the what I came up with. Then I needed to make it into a Christmas theme so I called it a Christmas Spirit Doll. This was two fold as my name is Christmas and the fabric was from the Christmas collection found at Jo Ann's Fabrics. As I worked on her I thought that the arms needed defining and so I placed an angel button in both sides of the doll and then the legs needed forming. I hand stitched this in and began putting beads on. The face was one that I made last week and was going to make a doll pin with. That changed when I put it on the fabric it sort of brought personality to the doll. I brought the doll to competition in one day. The people who know me know that I work in only one mode and that is non-stop when I get an idea. Before I went to bed I had created the doll and written a pattern for it.

Now I need to consider what to charge for the pattern and if I will put faces in the pattern packages. Then today I showed the doll along with the 4 others I built since Tuesday to a friend and she asked what I would ask for a doll that has so much bead work and time in it and I just did not have an answer. Before I left her home we had talked about creating the doll and putting it in a kit with various things to be added by the buyer. This would make the doll into the spirit of the buyer and not mine. As a crafter I feel that when someone invests time into something to make it their own it is better appreciated.

Today is Friday and now I have a Mother and baby made. The fabric is Batik but i used discharge paste to discolor parts of it. This was done by applying the paste to a rubber stamp and then applying it to the fabric. When the paste was dry I steam ironed it and it took the color away. The test piece was so good I used it to make the pouch for the baby to ride in. The stamp was of bamboo.

What are your opinions on these thoughts?

Spirit Doll

This Spirit Doll is made of a scrap of fabric from the thrift store.

Christmas in July Challenge by Judy Ward 2006

Judy challenged us to make a doll with some fabric she gave us and here is my doll. It took me most of the day to design and make this doll. I hope Judy likes it.

Topsy & Patsy 1890

I had an oppertunity to see a doll from the 1890's last year and photograph her. Then I re-created a doll like it. Here is the results.

Emma Elizabeth

Emma Elizabeth is my first Hard Surface Doll. She has a Kidd body and her dress was made from a pattern book on clothes from the 1890's. Assembling this doll was a challenge. I am so used to making the face and hands that I had to learn how to put her together.

Indian Doll

I used the pattern La Feme to creat this doll. She just screamed to be an indian and when I found the boots I had to make her some buckskins.

Aunti Faye's new kitchen

I have a new kitchen for Auntie Faye. After finding the Stove and Table I made the cookies, bread and Pie from polymer clay.

She was so happy to be cooking.

Geoffroy

My Grandson Geoff is helping make dolls for the children of Katrina last summer.

I created the dragons for my grandson Geoffroy to embroidery on his clothes. After I made a stuffed dragon he began sewing and re-designs the pattern, now he is making his own dragons and designing his costumes for school plays at age 15.