Little Turtle - My entry for the Cloth Baby and Child Doll Challenge 2014

I am a year behind with my cloth doll blog. So there will be several posts today...

This is my doll for the 2014 Cloth Baby & Child Doll Challenges!

I made her for the Child category.

This is Little Turtle.

She is a Pacific Northwest Native American doll.

Little Turtle is practicing the girls' shawl dance for the next local pow wow.

She loves to dance and is happy she has her own wool shawl like her mother's for the dance.

Little Turtle is made of suede cloth from Judi Ward's Bluette Manikin pattern. Her hair is a re-purposed Halloween wig. Her jeans are made of an old pair of mine, her tee shirt is cut from a larger white tee. She also has new wool dance slippers and a new wool shawl with salmon and sun appliques.

Little Turtle is based on the wonderful little girls I've seen dance with their mothers and the older girls in LaPush WA. at the Quilleute community hall.

Misty Dawn - doll for Flat Stanley Round Robin

I'm still playing catch-up on this blog. Two weeks ago I sent my flat doll Misty Dawn to Arizona to begin a year long journey. I am doing this with other members of Doll Street Dreamers, an online doll club. Each month she will be sent on to a different doll-maker who will add to the doll and journal her experience at that place. I'm looking forward to getting her back next year after her adventure.

Pretty plain doll and journal.

Here are the pages from her journal as she left home:

And I included a map with LaPush and Snohomish marked on it to begin her travels.

Misty Dawn is happy to be traveling for this year and looking forward to the adventure.

Evergreen State Fair 2013 - part 2

I did two demos at the fair this year. This involves setting up a display for 4 hours, demonstrating and answering questions. You receive three free tickets and on free parking pass for doing this.
I did a did a cloth doll demo on Monday, August 26 from 6 to 10 PM..

My demo table

I brought some of my dolls and equipment

And dolls that I was working on

This is my gypsy doll before stuffing.

On Tuesday, August 24th I did a demo in the basketry/spinning/weaving department. I decided to demo my paper baskets made from watercolor paper so I didn't have to bring water to soak reed.

Several years ago I tried to paint some flowers for a charity project. I failed miserably but still had them and since they are on watercolor paper which is perfect for weaving I decided to use them. I painted gold all over the paper and green on the back of the paper and let it dry.

 Next I ran it through an old paper shredder (not the crosscut kind) and got even strips to weave. If the paper isn't dry you don't get as clean of a cut, instead you get more of a deckle cut which is okay also.

Here is the beginning of a small basket and two older baskets in the background. You can weave any basket pattern that uses flat (1/4 inch or so) reed.

Above are the two baskets I made at the fair. The while one was plain watercolor paper that I'd painted with white and lavender pearled watercolor paint.

Evergreen State Fair

Evergreen State Fair in Monroe WA

I'm late posting this but our dolls did well at the fair this year. Both Josie and Chiana got blue ribbons and Josie also got a "Best of Class" ribbon.

Josie's Katniss doll and Chiana's Kaitlyn doll

My Oz doll, the Soldier with Green Whiskers also won a blue ribbon and best of class and my Dewinna doll which I entered in the Fair Theme contest won first prize!

My Oz doll and Dewinna doll

Our family really gets involved at the fair. Our granddaughters, Alex and Emily showed dairy calves with the high school FFA. They both earned blue ribbons and after a week at the fair from 6:30 AM to 10 PM they were happy it was over.

Alex and her cow

Emily and her cow

Their dad even got involved showing a cow for the kids to get judged on judging.

Travis and cow

My husband and I entered in photography and so did our granddaughter, Tiara.

Mike's Photos

My photos

Tiara's photos

and we also entered scarecrows.

My scarecrow

Mike's scarecrow

I did well in the food preservation and baking divisions and also got a couple of awards that include my name being added to trophies that stay at the fair.

Pearl Hall award for most blue ribbons in
baking and canning

Meryl DuPuis Award for most blue ribbons
in jams, jellie

I did okay but since I entered 70 things in food preservation I'm bound to do okay on some...

Food preservation awards

My First Mermaid Doll

I finished my first mermaid doll yesterday for the DollStreet Mermaid Challenge.  I like how she looks and will probably make another mermaid doll. I named her Dianna for no reason, she just seems like a Dianna. I didn't know there was a mermaid named Dianna in a movie until after I named her. This was the 2003 movie called "Mermaids".

Mike got a used aquarium at a thrift store for Diana to live in. It looks like it needs a few more mermaids in it.

I used a pattern by  Caroline Erbsland called Crystal.

Her wig is made from Tibetan lamb. It looked too straight so I curled it using cut-up pieces of a drinking straw and mousse.

Doll Camp/Evergreen State Fair Dolls

This past week my two youngest  granddaughters and I have been making cloth dolls for the fair. It was a fun project and both girls learned new things. They used the same pattern but did their dolls in their own way. Josie hadn't sewn before and Chiana had only sewed on a toy machine.

We used the free doll pattern called the Napkin or Sisters Doll designed by Judi Ward. It is an easy but cute pattern and because there are only two pieces it is perfect for a first doll. Here is a link to the pattern: http://judisdolls.com/napkindoll/napkindoll.html
note: The designer, Judi Ward first called the pattern "Napkin doll" because it was based on a design she saw on a paper napkin  in Germany. She later changed the name to "Sisters doll" so it is now known by both names.

Josie's two sisters are showing cows at the fair and she wanted to do something for the fair and Chiana has always wanted to make a doll. So last week we had doll camp. Josie lives next door, Chiana came and stayed for several days and we sewed and designed. And we made some really cute dolls.

We got finished just in time to check them in at the fairgrounds to get judged. We'll see how they did when the fair opens in ten days...

Katniss in the Games doll:


Josie is 11 years old but will be 12 next week. She loves archery and the movie "Hunger Games" so she chose to make her version of a Katniss doll.  She sewed the doll and her clothes she also made the bow, arrows and quiver. And her doll's hair is a wig we made from Josie's own hair



Kaitlyn at the Prom doll

Chiana just turned 10 years old a few weeks ago. She decided to design her doll after her older sister, Kaitlyn going to the prom. Chiana sewed the doll and her dress. She also crocheted the skirt ruffles and we glued them onto the dress.

Our fair dolls

I didn't get the fairy doll finished that I was making for the fair  because we were having so much fun at doll camp but I entered my Oz doll since he hadn't been in a contest -- just a display. And I entered a doll in the Fair theme contest. The theme is "...For the Kid in All of Us!"