Friday, January 2, 2009

Hannah and her heart!



This is Hannah. She is my newest doll creation. I have been just obsessed with embroidery in all its forms lately,(well not just lately, actually for years!) but I HAVE to continue to make dolls, because that it the majority of my business and I don't want to loose everything I have worked so hard for, for the past 10 years. SO, I have decided the solution is to work my embroidery into my dollmaking in a more obvious fashion.

So here is my first attempt to that end. Hannah has actually been sitting on my work table for almost 2 months while I was stumped as to what to actually do with her. I didn't really have a vision for her for a long time. But then I began reading Sharon B.'s blog and decided to do the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge on my own. I began a little sampler and I am working through all of the stitches, and eventually I will have a great long sampler of stitches to refer to-such a cool idea! Thank you Sharon B.!

Anyhow I began looking around Sharon' site, which is called Pyn Tangle, but used to be called In a Minute Ago, and I became really inspired by all of the crazy quilt stuff! And I realized that even though it is only Jan.2, dollmakers are already doing St.Valentine's Day, so there I finally had my theme for Hannah. I had GREAT fun embroidering her little heart pillow, and I will certainly be doing more of these. I can think of all kinds of ways to incorporate crazy quilting into dollmaking, and I will be trying them all in the near future. Yay! Its great to have a new direction!

Hannah is going on Ebay tonight in a 3 day only auction. So if she steals your heart don't hesitate, she'll be gone in a flash!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

$5.00 Pattern Sale on Etsy!



Get ready to plan your projects for the brand new year!! All patterns are on sale for just $5.00 each while supplies last!
Click here to go to Etsy!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Toccata 1


This is my start for 2009! I have it on order at Elegant Stitch and it should be arriving one day this week! I ordered the chart and all of the materials for it,so it will be good to go. I hope to start it on Jan.1st. I am very excited about it, because of all the different stiches. I love working interesting stitches, so it will be fun. I know this is an old piece, but I have always loved it so I decided this is the year I will stitch it.

Monday, December 8, 2008

December Goals and 2009 plans

I am a little late to be posting December goals, as it is already the 8th, but I am going to do it anyway as an attempt to get myself more organized. I am in full stitching mode again and I have several goals in that regard for next year. I also have joined a WIP elimination group on Legacy, so I am going to "fess" up and post that here as well.


December Goals:


1.Marriage of the Minds:do a daily strand
2. Pinkes Sampler:dividing band 2 and 3, rows 2 and 3
3.Mary Tavish(model stitching):focus project, complete 5 hours before working on anything else.
4.Biscornu, design for my guild and send to model stitcher
5.Golden Age sampler: frog out mistakes.

Here is my WIP elimination list for 2009. These are my top 10 WIPS.(yes I have more than 10, but we won't talk about that right now!)

1)Marriage of the Minds, Drawn Thread~I am about 80% of the way finished. Really want to finish this in 2009 for my 25th anniversary. I started it for my 20th!

2)Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, CHS~a little less than 30% done, as I am on the last house in the top row. I would truly love to see a finish on this one as I have been working on it for about 3 years, 2009 will be 4!

3)Golden Age Sampler, Sharon Cohen~I am stuck and need a little help/practice with the detached buttonhole. I hope to get some help with this one at the sampler guild next spring. I truly love this sampler and have been in love with it since 1995!

4)Her Majesty's Glove, Sharon Cohen~50% done and I love this one, I really want to complete it! This is a smaller project, and I feel I can start one of Sharon's sweet bags if I finish this one.

5)The Unicorn Sampler, Scarlet Letter~about 20% complete.

6)And They Sinned, Dames of the Needle~barely begun, but I love this one and I already know where I want to hang it!

7)Days of Advent,Mary Beale~only the first block is done. I am really uninspired to finish this, but feel I must because it cost me a small fortune as I bought all of the silks for it.

8)The Pinkes Sampler Project, Darlene Osteen~about 10% complete. I just started this one and I'm really into it, so it will probably be my first finish.

9)Song of the Sea, Ruth Ann Russell~a very old WIP, about 90% completed, I've GOT to finish this one!

10)Angel of Spring, Lavender and Lace~this is for my mom and really needs to go to the top of the list!

Aside from all of this, I also plan to get at least one doll completed for sale a month. I am focusing right now on the embroidered and colored pencil enhanced, old fashioned girl dolls for the moment. They are the ones I most enjoy making.