2012 Gypsy Challenge Doll

This year's Gypsy Challenge Doll is finally on the way to Houston. This year I made a dragon for the first time and my gypsy, Lady Cascadia is riding the dragon. The dragon, Myrrlyn is charmed with a special necklace that Lady Cascadia was able to get on him somehow.
This was a hard project with several setbacks. We've been out of town so I only had a few weeks to finish. The first doll I made was too large to ride the dragon. So I made a smaller doll which was harder to style. At first I made the dragon with a green lamé stomach/contrast but even with a medium iron-on interfacing the lamé came apart at some of the seams when I stuffed it. So I took the dragon apart and remade it with a knit contrast fabric. If I use lamé again I will use one-inch seams instead of 1/4 inch.

The doll and her dragon turned out well. I really enjoyed making the dragon. I think I will make a few more since I bought fabric for dragons last year and never did that project.  (And, yes, that is a run in the fabric under his ear.)

Here are my granddaughters, Emily and Josie, holding the dolls so you can see the size of the dolls...

My Evergreen State Fair dolls

The past week is a blur to me. I cut out two dolls on Monday and turned them in to the fair at noon today. (I thought I had another week since the fair doesn't start until August 23rd.) I'm slow (in lots of ways) but the dolls came into being in less than a week... I didn't take pictures since I was still finishing the dolls on the way but the fair people let me come back and take a picture of the dolls in the display cases before the judging.
This is "DeWinna Takes Home the Blue". She is for a special fair theme category... 

And this is my doll for the cloth doll contest at the fair:
She is "Marshane of Mars". Marshane is greeting the Mars Rover, Curiosity. 

2012 Hoffman Challenge doll

I finally finished this year's Hoffman Challenge doll and she is on her way to Colorado. The fabric this year was difficult because of the 4 inch flowers which don't scale well with dolls that have to be under 20 inches tall. I was planning to make a bridesmaid in a purple flowered dress trying to catch the bouquet. But the doll decided that she was a beauty queen... So here is Miss Lavender USA - 2012.

I don't know if I used enough of the challenge fabric. I made three different sized tubes of the fabric then used the tubes to make ribbon roses.

I used the large roses for her bouquet, the medium around the base of the doll and the tiny ones above her bustle.

I mostly used Arley Berryhill's "Gwendolyn the Glamour Witch" pattern but also used Patti Medaris Culea's "Penny Cassandrea" pattern with my own modifications. I thought making a stump doll would be easier but it was hard to stuff smoothly and get the lumps out. I'm glad a had a stash of Buffalo Snow stuffing in the attic because she needed a lot.
I bought some HoloShimmer Sulky thread at the Sew Expo in Puyallup this year that matched the challenge fabric but I used it for her jewelry instead of embellishments.

Miss Lavender USA is now on her way to Colorado. Here is a photo of Michael holding her outside the UPS store:

2012 Cloth Baby Doll Challenge

This year for the baby doll challenge I made four little babies from Judi Ward's "Tiny Baby Doll" pattern found here: http://judisdolls.com/wendy/littlebaby.pdf. I was planning to make Judi's "Dionne" quints dolls because my mother had a Dionne doll when she was a child but mislaid the pattern. When I realized I had very little time to finish I made the little dolls thinking they'd be quicker and although it didn't take as long to sew and stuff them after needle-sculpting the faces, hands, toes, knees and elbows of four dolls I'm not sure I saved any time. Their toes are really cute. And I needle-felted their hair with little tufts of angora from Travis's pygora goats.
I knew I had very little chance of votes but I had fun and wrote a little story about them...

The Rhubarb Kids - 

Rubee, Ruthee, Rudee and Rufus

This year I have had the busiest spring ever!! A month ago I went out to the greenhouse and what do you think I found? Four Rhubarb Babies!!! Right in the middle of our not-so-pretty rhubarb plant. I'm sure that you are like me and have always wanted to find garden babies but I'll bet no one has ever told you what a lot of work they are. They are so tiny and cute and adorable, but... I have been changing diapers, making teeny clothes, juicing rhubarb (that was a surprise), watching for cats, and so much more. So far the babies have stayed in the rhubarb but I had to make Rudee a hat the other day because he'd sunburned his face somehow. I'm sure this summer will be full of even more work and surprises. (Look up garden babies on the internet and you'll see just what I am going through). LOL

And, no we didn't place in the challenge but I had a lot of fun and have some really cute little dolls that are now living among the thread on the spool holder in the my sewing room.

It's Doll Season (but cookies first)

It's "Doll Season" at my house. I need to make 5 dolls in the next few months for contests that I enter each year.
But first I'm going to post a cookie recipe. When we are in St. George we always try to buy some cookies at the Pizza Factory. Dani said she had found a copycat Pizza Factory cookie recipe online, so I did a search and found it too. I made the cookies this weekend and they were a big hit. I don't know if this is the exact PF cookie recipe but it's very close and very good.

-These are the leftover cookies -
 The big ones are made with a large  ice cream scoop.
 The  normal-sized ones are made with the smaller scoop.

Here is the recipe:

PIZZA FACTORY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES  (CopyCat)
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2 cups butter ( 1 pound)
4 eggs
1½ cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract
Cream together the five ingredients listed above until well-mixed.

In a separate bowl mix together the following four dry ingredients:
5 to 5½ cups flour (1½  pounds)
1 large package vanilla pudding mix
2 tsp salt
2 tsp soda

Slowly add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.
(My KitchenAid mixer struggled with the large amount of dough -
so I had to do some stirring by hand.)

When all is mixed together well - carefully add:
3 cups milk chocolate chips

Scoop dough onto cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes - longer for larger cookies.
Do not overbake. 
Makes 75 cookies.

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