Loving these Spring Days

Goodness! it has been gorgeous outside. Beautiful blue skies and white clouds and the sun shining softly.

Some of the garden is in. Potatoes, spinach, peas, broccoli, onions etc. The spring stuff. Although, I'm not sure I should say we have spinach. I bought some spinach seed from an heirloom seed place and once again the seed did not come up! I'm about to give up on heirloom seed or at least their heirloom seed.

I've been indoors more than out though. Keeping laundry going, feeding the family, doing school and working on dolls as I can.

2 new dolls are sitting in the shop. Hopefully someone will claim them soon.


This little red is Kelly Jean. I am loving her red curls. Embroidered on her cardigan is a paraphrase from 1 Corinthians 13 "Love hopes all things." There are wool felt hearts stitched on the other side.


Wrennie was a lot of fun to make. I saw her in my mind and she is one of the rare dolls that I saw in my mind and out she came looking like what I was seeing.

Her dress is knit from soft Malabrigo yarn.

I hope all my blogging friends are doing well. :)

Livie Sews

Livia has been on a sewing kick lately. Daily she has been asking to make something for her dolls.
So far she has made the pink shirt that Esther is seen wearing. Both skirts seen in the pictures and a pair of pants for her dolls.

Its easy to see that her seems are getting straighter and she is able to take care of little glitches that come up with her sewing machine.

Spring Spring Spring

Spring is here!
The trees are budding.
Grass is growing and looking fresh and green.
My peach trees are beautiful with their pink blossoms.
I've had the pleasure of being woke up to the joyful sound of birds singing. I've lingered in bed a few mornings to listen and interpret what the sing song chirps and trills are saying.

I found myself humming this this song this morning.
Spring, Spring, Spring from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.



We have raked and raked the yard. Burned and hauled off leaves. The garden is plowed. There are 50lbs of seed potatoes, 2lbs of onions, spinach, pea etc waiting for the rain to go away and the garden to dry out, for planting.

I've been working on a few new dolls. The birds and their singing have inspired me.

Blogging Hiatus

I haven't really meant to not blog. I've had blog ideas rolling in my head.

Lately though, there are so many other things that seem more important than dolls and doll clothes.

Posting on my blog about dolls seems insignificant.

There are children to love, feed, wash and scrap mud off of. Heavy on the love, feed, wash and scrap mud off of. Somewhere in there the 3 r's should be observed and taugh.

There is church and all that goes with loving a church family, which sometimes means just showing up.

People are hurting, having financial troubles, sick and having babies.

I have a lot to say but I'm not so good at saying it. I write it out and then it seems too personal.

I hope all my blogging friends are doing well.

Love to you all.

Dana

I made a new doll....

A really new doll.
 I got out my freezer paper and worked out a new design for my dolls. Some of the pattern is based on the critique, some on a doll buyers input and some on myself and changes I've wanted to incorporate into my design.


I took my time with this dolly. I could see her in my head and she just kept coming together, and when finished...she really looked nothing like the picture in my head but she very much fits the impressions and feelings I had in my head while I was dreaming about her. She has been over 3 weeks in the making. There for awhile I thought about not making dolls any more, but I say that this doll has revived me. I think that is why I named her Ember.

One change I had been wanting to make on my doll pattern is longer, huggy (read curved) arms. I also wanted the arms to be more "floppy." It seems to me that a doll with more floppy arms and dangly legs, make for a more playful doll. I also lengthened my dolls legs just a bit and slimmed out her shoulders.
When I started to put Ember together, on a whim, I decided to try my hand at making a nose. I've always been mildly resistant to putting a nose on my dolls because I REALLY like the simple faces of Waldorf style dolls. It seemed right to give her a nose...new pattern, new thoughts on doll making...new face :)

Her hair is made out of a thick boucle yarn with a bit of a twist...haha, I wound the boucle on knitting needles, wet it down and put it in the oven at a low temp to let the heat set the curl. Boucle alone gives a curly look to a dolly's hair but wrapping it gave it just the right touch. I can't really take credit for the idea though. I've been helping a friend from church make a doll. She has some of this thick boucle too and was trying to figure out a way to make the ends of her dolls hair with a softer look instead of a blunt cut. She wondered about wrapping the hair the way I do and my mind went into overdrive fast. It had never occurred to me to wrap boucle...but what a lovely look it gave her hair.



It was then just a matter of making her clothes. Love Love Love making these little cardigans.

Some of my favorite people

Patrick is getting to such a fun age. He is smiling and cooing. He is a sweet baby.

My husband sure is brown compared to Patrick's soft, white skin.

Patrick and Grandpa. Talkin', talkin'.

Piper, Pearl and Patterns

I've been working on patterns lately. There are so many 15-16 inch dolls out there, I've been wanting to make doll clothes to fit them. I'm hoping to have a few 15-16" dresses in my shop on Friday.

I've gotten two new dolls together.

Meet Piper.

She is showing off her bloomers. They are super cute and comfy to wear.

I took my time with these two dolls. They've been in the works for almost 3 weeks. Sometimes it takes me awhile to dress a doll and it took me awhile with these dolls. I've knit several items but none seemed to suit. Usually, I sit the doll in my knitting basket and decide colors. This time I took them down to my sewing studio and set them in one of my many fabric baskets. A couple of days later, in the mail came the pretty pink and blue fabrics that make up Pipers dress and pinafore.

Pearl is a sweetie. This is one of my favorite doll outfits to make. I like the little smock with a pocket on it.

Her black curls are the "shake and go" type of curls. I like an easy hair style. :)
These dolls will be in my shop on Friday, October 7 at 5 PM. I'll be sewing all afternoon tomorrow on doll clothes.