Slow down...I wanna get off!!

a cheerful pot of flowers!

My life has been like a runaway train lately!

The entire month of August and September were almost entirely given over to the wedding. With my daughter in school, working and interning she didn't have much time for wedding preparations! And on top of that we had to be all crafty and make everything ourselves...um a little like re-inventing the wheel.

THEN...

the minute the wedding was over I got sick! 

And started suffering from insomnia!!

WOW!

A double whammy!

Yesterday was the firsy day I began to feel like a human again!

LOL!

While I was sick I picked up my cross stitch, for the first time in 

OVER A YEAR!

Which is completely and totally inexcusable, since I have a serial sampler design that is not even finished. :(

I'm so ashamed! Bad! Bad designer!

But I DID pick it up again with renewed vigor for getting it finished!

It is the very last installment of the 

Quilty Newighborhood Sampler

Here is the sampler so far:

See!  Almost done! Last chart for this series. So, its coming! Its on its way. It just took a 2 week bout of the nastiest virus I have had in a long time to get me back to it!

:)

xx

~Annie

Louisa and the wedding!

 

New folk doll Louisa is on TDIPT Mercantil right now!

This one is very special! She is oil painted and wears a regency gown, little blue slippers and a beautiful bonnet hand embroidered with sprays of silk ribbon flowers!

Please click over to TDIPT to see all of the details!  

In other news, the wedding went off wonderfully last Friday! We only had a few bumps in the road, but nothing major. The happy couple are settling into their new home(apartment) together and are absolutely blissful!

That was literally the hardest thing I have ever done! It feels like a wonderful accomplishment! We did all of the decorations, favors, bouquets, flowers, alterations, and even the veil ourselves! Whew! But it was totally beautiful and so worth it!

Do you like all of her shades of blue?

Let me just bore you with a few more!

 Here are my two beauties, the bride Chelsea and her sister and maid of honor Isabel!

Some work from Color drop flowers online workshop

Pretty picture of Ruby

Ruby is sold, but before she went we had another photo session, so I could get a good cover photo for her pattern cover! Yes, finally a new doll pattern coming out!

Here are 2 of the nicer shots that I got:

Meanwhile, the wedding preperations continue. 

I spent all of last week doing alterations and creating the veil, which is chapel length with hand beaded pearl clusters around the entire edge! 

It really turned out beautiful, if I do say so myself!

 It is now 2 1/2 weeks until the wedding!

I ended up altering the bridal gown, 

2 bridesmaid dresses, 

and my own mother of the bride dress.

 So whew! Glad that is done!

I spent all day today dollmaking, 

which was nice since its been very hard to get the time this entire summer!

Off to work on Ruby's instructions!

xx

~Annie

Ruby going "live" on TDIPT tonight!

Ruby and her favorite setting hen will be up for sale on TDIPT Mercantile tonight at 10PM.

Don't miss it, for details

click here!

Bad hair day

 

Here is Alice. She is a small cabinet sized doll, about 15 inches. That is small for me, I usually make dolls in the 20 to 30 inch range. I painted her in oils, which I love. I hope to do a lot more oil painted dolls this winter.

The problem with Alice is I used tibetan lambswool for her hair. Now it is huge and unruly, and I don't know what to do with it, It looks like she stuck her finger in a light socket!

This photo shows the fabric I will be using for her dress. She will be the classic Alice in Wonderland, but what to do about 

THAT HAIR!

Here she is full size. But do you see that hair? I have tried tying it back like the classic Alice, but it just pops out all over! Maybe once I have her dressed something will come to me. Or maybe she will just be 

Alice of the Unruly Hair!

Here is the blue vase with a glaze over it. 

It looks better, right?

Due to my daughters upcoming wedding, I haven't had a chance to get back to oils since I did this one. When she moves out I will have my own studio! Yay! And then I will be able to really delve into the oils!

So back to the watercolors.

Here is a landscape where I tried different colors over a wash of manganese blue.

And here I was just playing with made-up flowers, trying to get a good mix. This is raw sienna and indigo blue. I used a little bit of windsor yellow over indigo for the leaves.

Here is some more fruit. I started this one in June and just finished it the other day. It pretty much sat idle most of the summer until I finally came back to it. I like the lettering. I just bought a new script liner brush so I want to try the lettering again using a proper brush this time.