Sophie May

Another country doll.

Viola May

Viola May is now finished. She has crocheted edging around her bonnet, collar, sleeves and hem of her dress. Her apron is made from a vintage dresser scarf. Her hair is Lion Brand homespun yarn. I machine-felted the felt used for her shoes, using wool roving.

Country Dolls

I enjoy making these country dolls. I have made four and am working on a fifth. I give them away to friends and family; one of these days I'll keep one for myself!

I sew the dolls with muslin fabric and stuff them with polyfill. I use fabric for the dress and solid colored fabric to match for the bloomers, and vintage dresser scarfs to make the aprons, or else I crochet them. I crochet edging around the hem of the dress and sleeves, and sometimes at the dress collar. For their hair I use either ready-made doll hair or yarn. For these dolls, I painted on black shoes, but the one I'm making now will have felted booties.

I paint (or stitch) the faces on and I never know what personality will arise in the expression. It gives a certain kind of magic to the creative process.

"Twigs" the Garden Angel Kitty

This pattern is in the latest "Create & Decorate" magazine. She was so much fun to make! The pattern instructions said to use black buttons for the eyes, but I like the two different colored eyes better.

New Flap for my Mom's "As you like it" purse

Here is a new flap I made for the "as you like it" purse that I had made for mother. The pattern for the "as you like it" purse can be found at Creative Thimble. You can use your own creativity for the flaps. This flap is quilted and is also reversible. For this flap, I made a zoomed copy of the backing material and turned one of the roses into an applique. I cut the rose apart and used different fabrics for different parts of the rose. I copied the top fabric and used one zoomed panel as a template for a window on the front of the flap. I used fancy stitches around the edge of the window. Using my felting machine, I made my own felt for some of the petals of the rose - red/pink, red, and pink, and the green stem and small leaves. For the other petals I used various fabrics, including the backing fabric. I satin stitched around the rose parts and around the large leaves. I stipple quilted the flap.

Felted Bag

I knitted this bag, then washed it in the machine with hot water, which made it fuzzy (felted). I added a button (not specified in the pattern but I "felt" it needed one!) and handles, and a fabric lining. The pattern is from a book called "i love (heart) felt" by Kathleen Taylor. I purchased it and the yarn and handles from Knit Picks - www.knitpicks.com, and it was really a lot of fun to make!

Autumn Reflections

I made felt on my new embellishing machine by spreading wool roving across water soluble stabilizer, then felting it until it was a flat piece of felt. Then I made a leaf using the same process. I attached the leaf to the center of the flat felt, letting the edges of the leaf curl up like a fallen leaf tends to do (you can't see the curling in the picture). I then attached it to the center of a piece that I had quilted using the stippling technique, and attached corner pockets on the back to insert a stick or dowel to use as a wall hanging. I think of this as a leaf on a pond and the flat felt behind the leaf is the reflection of the autumn trees on the pond's surface.