Pincushion Swap

I made two pincushions for a pincushion swap for Doll Street Dreamers which is an online doll club of which I'm a member. I found after I'd made them that one was to be a doll and the other an animal but because the sewing machine was complete they let me send it.
These are the pincushions that I sent:

I received a dog and little Matryeshka doll pincushion in return.

Dolls for Houston Quilt Show 2015

Here are my dolls for the Houston Quilt Show this year.

The theme for the Gypsy Challenge doll this year was "Witches, Angels, and Demons". I chose to make a witch doll. This is Owleena Dawn...

And this is my original entry for the invitational part of the show. She is the "Life Gardener"

They returned successfully from Houston only a little worse for the trip. We straightened them out:

Hoffman Challenge doll 2015 - Elf Star Taegg

This year's Hoffman Challenge doll is most likely also my last. Hoffman has discontinued the cloth doll part of their yearly challenge and have added Home Decor. So unless they change their minds this is my last entry and he did make the traveling team!!

This is Elf Star Taegg:

He does have a story:
My doll is Elf Star - Taegg. He is an idol in the Elf World. All he really wanted was to be was a minstrel like his father and grandfather before him. But the Elf public love and adore him - he shouldn't have put up the videos on YouTube. He is now famous and followed by fans and the Elf paparazzi everywhere he goes- who knew they had these problems in their world also! His fans like to emulate Taegg by wearing green contact lenses and Hoffman capes lined in gold lamé are now all the rage...
--
I made his guitar you can see it at the bottom of this image:

Taegg is now traveling throughout the US for a year so we won't see him again until September 2016.

I really like him the pictures don't do him justice..

The Travelers

I made dolls for the Doll Street Dreamers online doll group's display at Artistic Figures In Cloth & Clay (AFICC). This art doll convention is held every two years in Ohio.
The Doll Street Dreamers display them is "Traveling Dolls" with a 2" to 1' scale. It could be travelers at any time in any era.
I've collected nativity sets for years and always wanted to make my own so I finally did!

 "The Travelers"

This is my depiction of how I imagine the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem may have been. I think they needed to take some supplies and hopefully they did since it was several years before they returned to Nazareth.

Views from all sides...

Here are some close up shots:

Mary's face was difficult. I made several heads. I like this one best
of the ones I made but it's still not what I imagined...

I like Joseph's face. We don't know the fashion back then but I like this.

I made this little donkey first
but he was too small to carry Mary..

This is the larger donkey.
She was more difficult for some reason.
I wish I'd gotten a good shot of her face.

I adapted Arlene Original Designs "Ruby" pattern for Mary. I adapted the 2 3/4" donkey pattern "Thistle" by JoAnn Repchuk. I designed Joseph..

I had a mishap today when drilling holes in the base. I have a new Fiskars manual drill and decided to drill the holes myself instead of having my husband do so. I put a magazine under the board but drilled too long and put a hole in my dining room table.

In progress...

Dyna and Sadee go to Mardi Gras... 2014 Gypsy Challenge.

The 2014 Treasure of the Gypsy Challenge at the Houston International Quilt Show does not have a gypsy theme this year.
The theme is Mardi Gras.
There are a couple of ways to go with this theme. I chose to go with Fun...

Here are Dyna and Sadee. They are proof that you can have fun at any age:

Green and Purple look great on them and they have wonderful hats...

Dyna

Sadee

Here they are at all angles:

They can stand on their own although Dyna is a little top heavy but since they have to travel so far we added some stability

 Earlier I made and stuffed their bodies and sewed their pants and shirts but put them away and decided to concentrate on the Native American doll. Then the night before the deadline they decided they wanted to go to Houston too - they didn't have hair, faces or accessories. I stayed up all night and several hours the next day but got them mailed on time. My husband was shocked and pleased the next morning to meet them and their personalities.

They are on their way to Houston...

Celebration of the Doll Exhibit - Skye

I was pleased to be invited to show a doll in the Celebration of the Doll exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Show this year.
I thought about it for several months and I decided to make a large Native American doll in full pow wow regalia. I considered the fancy scarf dance but decided I wanted to make a Jingle Dress. I enjoyed researching and making the doll and regalia.

Here is Skye:

Skye is named for our angel granddaughter, Teagan Skye Walker.

Her feather fan is made from molted feathers from my sweet departed parrot, Nick.

The medallion on her dress, leggings, purse and hair is inspired by this necklace my husband gave his mother 45 years ago. 

The dress took a long time to make. All 200 cones had to be ties onto the little ribbons then glued and sewn onto the wider ribbon then onto the dress. My husband tied most of the cones to the ribbon. I really appreciate his help.

Here is a picture of Skye as I am sewing on her hair before her dress is even made:

And here is a close-up shot of her:

2014 Evergreen State Fair

This year's Evergreen State Fair went well. I thought I wouldn't have as many entries in the Food Preservation category because I hadn't done as much canning because I am serving a Family History mission for my church (LDS/Mormon) which takes a lot of time. But I was wrong...

All of my entries in the Baking Department did well:

I didn't make a new doll this year for the fair but entered my mermaid doll in a fish bowl with a story:

This is Arianna...I'm sure you've always thought it would be fun to have your own mermaid - especially a green mermaid like Arianna. But it isn't actually as fun as you might think. She doesn't seem pleased with anything we do for her. She has a lovely aquarium at home (this is her travel fish bowl) and we've filled it with seashells from the Atlantic to remind her of her home. And we even buy expensive frozen Mermaid food for her. She does sing for us but all of the songs are sad songs about lost love and faraway places. Lately she's been moping more than ever and she never even braids her hair anymore...

This year's theme was Animal Magnetism so I added some large farm animals that I ordered from Amazon.com to my dragon doll.

I took an online class through Doll Street Dreamers taught by Dawn M Schiller. This Pocket Fae is my first attempt to sculpt anything.

We entered photos, scarecrows, produce, and more:

And my name is engraved on the Pearl Hall trophy from last year: