Julie McCullough Workshop

Our doll club hosted Julie McCullough this past Thurs. and Fri.

Each doll that was being made in class had it's own unique expression, so cute. Even though Julie's pattern looked fairly basic it was quite interesting how each one grew into it's own theme and Julie encouraged us to do that. Her idea with her designs, is to make them as basic as possible, the doll makers can then treat them like a blank canvas to embellish to our hearts desire. 

It was a lively class to say the least. She came to teach her newest design, The Bird of Paradise and Elf Rider, but at the same time she also worked with us on the Crone (The Secret Keeper pattern) and the Crow Crone (Stick Figure). So she had 3 different classes going on at once, but it went well. Everyone in the class is very good at working along without to much trouble, so it wasn't a stressful event for the teacher.

The ladies in this club are lots of fun and there's high energy at all times. What I really enjoy is the sharing of information but also we try each others trims and things on each others dolls to help get the best look for everyone's dolls. Julie was enjoying herself and I think quite surprized at how we all worked along and still managed to gab our heads off the whole time.

This is how far I am with my Crone. She's quite the youngster just now, so I am calling her a Crone in training as she's not really old enough or wise enough to be a Crone yet and all the wisdom and experience the title comes with. She has a fair bit to be done on her, but I don't have to have her completed until the doll club meeting in August, so yay....more time to give her special attention. She will have some embellishments befitting her training to become the Crone of the Forest. She will have a robe to keep warm because a forest can be chilly if you're not prepared. I will have her ready to go soon so stay tuned...

 

It's Fairy Day

Welcome to Fairy Day, a day that began with  Jessica Galbreth, fairy artist, founder of Fairy Day.  It's a day to celebrate all things Fairy like and Magical. Follow the links below the image to the main fairy site  and below that a link to a free cross stitch design for this special day.

Fairy Day

Heaven and Earth Free Design for Fairy Day

Cedar Waxwings

The other day we were out for a walk after dinner. It was a nice evening, not to hot, perfect for a walk. I tend to look down a lot when I walk, perhaps in hopes of finding a fortune. This time it wasn't a fortune but a good thing I was. I was a step ahead of hubby and saw something on the ground and yelled "STOP". He stopped short of putting his next step down, phew....

There sitting on the ground was a bird that I hadn't  noticed around here before. It wasn't moving and was so still I didn't know if it was real or a floral display kind of bird. I bent down to take a look, it didn't move, so I picked it up. I wanted to see if it was hurt, but it appeared to be okay. It let me move it around, spread out it's wings to check for feather damage, nothing.

I set about looking him over for his markings. What a beautiful bird and so calm. The tips of his feathers were bright red and looked like they had been dipped in dimensional paint because the spots were raised, not blended into the wings. I didn't know if it was a pet or not, so I checked with a nearby house, but no it wasn't. After being christened a couple of times by him, I realized it was a wild bird due to the berry stains... No big deal.

I saw the area he must have come from, so I took a little walk and tried to release him. I took my hand away and he just sat there, not moving. I tried to lift him off my finger but he seemed to want to be held so I held him close to me. Then he moved onto my shoulder where I finally took him from and placed him in a safe place to recuperate. When we got home out came the wild bird book to see if we could identify him.  We did and discovered from reading the information, that the poor thing was drunk. They gorge themselves on berries and when they've had enough they are so drunk they just sit around until they pretty much sober up... To funny. Was so glad I decided to leave him where he was but out of harms way until he regained his senses.... Here's what he looks like. Didn't have my camera with us, but this is a wonderful picture I found online, and here is a site to read more about him incase he's one that might visit your area. Isn't he gorgeous.

Art Doll Challenge

The sign ups have begun for the ADO 4 Elements Challenge. Click on the picture for the details. There's no right or wrong in a challenge, it's all about the challenge, so why not give it a try.

Wordless Wednesday - "Come on, I dare you"

Jean Bernard Wings Class - Free

Look at what Jean Bernard is offering. Aren't they gorgeous.  This is a free class for making these beautiful wings. Follow this link to join her class.

Jean Bernard Free Wings Class

African Themed Doll

We had our doll club meeting last night, and those who made them, brought in their dolls for the African Theme challenge. There were some amazing dolls and such a lot of variety. This was my entry. She is a Julie McCullough design, entitled, "The Muse".   Description follows below.

     

The instructions called for FME (free motion embroidery) on the robe, but I just dug into my beads and just starting beaded with abandon. I followed the patterns in the fabric in a free form way.

  

The head dress takes in the three fabrics I used, the robe, the lining made with silk and the cotton headdress, and finished off with some beading.  The beads around her neck are a variety of big and small, ceramic and bone. I found some tooth shaped beads on eBay. The medallion in the center I found at Michaels and thought it went so well with her theme.

The base is made of 2 wooden coasters, a small wooden door knob and a small wooden mini plate. Then I trimmed it with gold soutache and wrapped the gold soutache around the post and finished it with a vintage button and some metal beads. The only thing I didn't do well was her nose. For some reason her nose insisted on being crooked and thankfully when you see her in real life, it's not so obvious. Had I continued to take it out and restitch it yet again I would have developed holes in the fabric, so I left well enough alone.

 

Wordless Wednesday "What a Feast"

Sooke in pictures - part 3 and final

Search as I may, I cannot find a blog or web site to show more of A.J. (Allen Wesley Johnson's) artwork. Maybe someone reading this will have more luck than me.  His murals are truly amazing and I hope, like me, you have developed a better appreciation of the air brush artist. They definitely have a place in the art world contrary to what others might think....

Here is the last installment of his artwork......

   

Sooke in pictures - Part 2

The name Sooke comes from our First Nations people and in their language is spelled T'Sou-ke.  I must go to the Sooke Museum and learn more about how Sooke developed. I grew up on the south island, but not in this area. I lived in Victoria and Sooke was a place we went in the summer to camp, go the potholes to swim and just enjoy the solitude of the forest. More information can be found here:

Sooke Museum          Sooke Potholes   

and now on to the pictures for today.

    

Sooke in Pictures - Part 1

We went on a farm tour today out in Sooke, which is on the west side of the island from us. It remains a very rural area and still retains much of the charm of days gone by. I will post a few pictures later in the week of the farm areas, I didn't take a lot, I spent more time looking instead of snapping. I did however take a set of pictures that I will spread out over 3 posts of something else.

After going to two of the farms, we decided to take a lunch break and go to Mom's Cafe. I haven't been there since I was about 17 and didn't even know until last week that it's still there. It definitely is not a victim of the recession, busy as busy can be,  just as I remember it. A small place with a huge following. Food that has that wonderful home made taste. I restrained myself and did not indulge myself in lemon meringue pie and good thing. The people across from us had it and the meringue was easily 6" tall. I overheard the waitress say that they use a dozen eggs making the meringue...YIKES !!!! no wonder it's so big.... ;o)))

When we came out I looked across the street and was stopped in my tracks by the most amazing artwork. I had to decide if what I was seeing was posters attached to the walls or were they murals. They are absolutely brilliant. You have to imagine the walls being a normal height of perhaps 12' or so. They tell the story of the history of how Sooke developed and the families that settled in the area, dating back to the 1860's.

I'm sorry the pictures of all the little boxes of information that were painted beside each picture aren't clear enough to read, but I'm sure you can appreciate and follow along in your minds eye how things were. The murals have been created from vintage pictures. The artist, those that assisted him and the source of the photo's are as follows. I've had discussions in the past with others who paint as to whether air brushing is art or not. I am a listener in that debate having no experience with it what so ever, but after seeing these I have to say I would side with those who feel air brushing is as much an art form as any other.

Here are the first images for today including the painting above which is also air brushed and appears on the wall. The way the murals are done are just so creative. It's like looking at an old photo album and I had to actually touch the borders to convince myself it's all painted, and not 3 dimensional.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, I will post another group of photos.

First Bouquet

The first of my flowers for cutting are ready now. This is my first bouquet of the season. It has white peonies, a taffy coloured rose, a violet/purple iris and purple wild geraniums... The perfume from the peonies is lovely, but not overpowering to bring the flowers indoors. The lilacs wouldn't have lasted in the house, the fragrance was just to strong. I was smelling lilacs all over the yard and people passing by were stopping to sniff.....

 And here is a closeup of the white peony. There is a delicate trim of burgundy on the edges, in place and just a stroke of that here and there toward the center.. And below is a close up of the wild geranium, the rose and the iris...

Pink and Orange Make Peach

Crazy subject line right.... Yeah I know. But it'll make sense when I show you what I mean. My poppies have been blooming for a couple of weeks now and of course, snap snap snap with the camera. This one is the first to bloom. These are  the usual size poppy which are about 4" across and are the most familiar of the poppies.... I will show larger ones in another post later on as I'm waiting for another one to bloom. They don't bloom on command, darn it anyway...

So that's the Orange part of the subject line. Now this is the Pink part... This is my favourite one...sorry Orange poppy, but it's true, I love my Pink one..You can click on the pictures to see them bigger and more beautiful.

And now the Peach part. I planted the Orange and Pink poppies together and that's all I planted together a few years ago. Mother Nature in her infinite wisdom created a third colour combination for me. I went out yesterday morning and this greeted me. It's the offspring of these two. Please say hello to Peach...Isn't she pretty. Some serious cross pollinating has been going on in that raised bed.

To finish, I do tend to see the world in a comical way. I took this picture of a Pink poppy as it was halfway to showing it's beauty and the first thing that came to mind was, "all I need is my sharpie to draw a smile on there and my paper clay to make a nose, and maybe some white paint to make the sparkle dots for the eyes". The things that I think of scare me sometimes, or I'm sleep deprived from the mini heat wave we just had....;o)))

The 5 P's of Creativity

I have no idea who the author of this is, and attempts by the person I received it from to find the author, have also failed. Should these be your comments, email me and I will be happy to give you the credit. (I found the image online, it wasn't part of the 5 P's)

I thought this was such a great set of P's, I had to share it with you all. Enjoy...

The 5 P's for creative people

1. Passion. Love what you do; have enthusiasm and excitement for every part of the process. Equalize the unpleasant by giving it the same attention as the pleasant.

2. Play. Be open to approaching the usual, customary, or repetitive tasks you face in a new way. Kids do this with ease: just watch them use an empty cardboard box.

3. Practice. It is important to master your craft through repetition. Once you've done something many times, you'll have the confidence to do it well every time you do it.

4. Patience. Trust yourself to go through a series of tasks in the amount of time each task requires. Sometimes, it is better to finish well than to finish fast.

5. Perseverance. Don't stop when you hit a bump in the road. Commit to finding a way to solve a problem in your own timeframe, and don't abandon it entirely.

The Lilac Robe

This is just a quickie post to show you the robe is done. It's so soft and cuddly. Right now we're having a mini heat wave here on the west coast of Canada, so not good for wearing soft and cuddly robes, but I'll be ready for that next rainy morning.. !!! 

Now I have to get the pattern ready for my Hoffman entry. Onward and upward to the next project.

Wordless Wednesday "Come Sit A While"

Open Toed Feet

I have always had a Janome sewing machine and I love them. My last one I had for I think almost 20 years. When I started making dolls I didn't know that I needed an open toed foot. Who knew. I am a solitary doll maker, so I learn as I go by trial and error. I don't have a lot of opportunities to share something I learn, but I do share when I can. When I finally figured out that my life would be dramatically improved by using an open toed foot, off I went to get one and came home duly satisfied with myself for being so smart. This is what I got.

Okay so what's the big deal ??? I'll tell you what. I have been using this foot for ages and each time I use it, I have to go through this agonizing exercise of unscrewing the whole unit for the other feet, and then screw this one on. Pain in the butt, but that's the way I thought it was to be. This is what I have to remove to use this foot.

That whole piece has to come off and the other put on. Normally on my machine I can just push that red button on the back, release the foot I'm using and just put the other one there and drop the presser foot to lock it in. So why can't I do that with the open toed foot. Off I went a few weeks ago to a class at a fabric store and while there I asked the question. I took this foot off the display and asked the clerk if they have this regular open toed foot without the center part. I told her my sad tale about how I spend a lot of time taking the whole unit off and screwing on the metal foot. Doesn't Janome make the opened toed foot that I can just lock in place and remove with a simple push of that precious red button.

Of course she says... I got excited...But we don't have any in stock, they're coming soon... Oh crap. But she says, we can cut the center part out, we do that all the time. I stood looking at her like I had just won a prize. Oh please do that for me...and off she went.

She came back with this regular foot, missing the center part. See how nice that little area is now, no center part. Now, to my complete and utter relief, I can change presser feet in a blink and keep on sewing without that break in momentum. I am a happy girl..... So, if you are in the same boat I was, there is hope. Look for these lovely little presser feet that can be dropped off and popped on in no time. Thank you Sawyers Sewing Center.