THEY DON'T CALL IT DOLLWORKS FOR NOTHING!

--- and WORK is the operative word.  I can't keep up!  I have no husband or children to care for, very little cooking or cleaning to do (except sweeping up after the dogs!), so one would assume I have TONS of free time.   But being unsure of my skills with computer and sewing machine, requires hours of fumbling around, making the wrong choices and generally doing everything at least twice.  Very time consuming.

So the fabric wizards at DollWorks are light years ahead of me and I'm frantically trying to get my December project off the ground.  It seemed simple enough until they added a doll.  Now we will make a stocking with a doll on it.   MY doll is going to be an elf - and that's all I'm going to tell about it. The stocking is made and I'm adjusting the doll pattern  to fit.  I may use the head from last month's project since I've decided to get a better "doll fabric" for her.  After all, she's to be a very classy 20's flapper.

NOW I REMEMBER

--  why I made only one cloth doll before switching to clay.
I finally received the October project pattern and discovered that what I'd thought was a tightly woven fabric - was not, that the dolls hips and bust looked disproportionally large (so I narrowed the hips a bit),  and that no matter how fat I made the fingers, I still couldn't turn them.  So far, I've made a second pair of arms - that I can't turn past the wrist - and three heads.  I haven't tried stuffing head number three yet.  I'm glad I bought a half yard of the fabric.

But my very first discovery before ever cutting the first piece of fabric, was that the pattern itself seemed to be hand drawn without the use of a straight edge or curve.  Having been a drafter for so many years, I notice immediately when a thing, a pattern piece, isn't a mirror image when it's supposed to be.  I'm tempted to draw a Revision A of this pattern for my own use.  I couldn't sell Rev A because the (lopsided) original is copyrighted - and she's selling it for eight bucks a pop!

With so many other demands on my time, I doubt I'll have this project done for show and tell.  I'm thinking of just ditching the doll and making a dress for my unpainted manequin - and of course, it's not the pattern dress.  I didn't like it either, so did some research and came up with a dress I DID like.  A funny thought; not only do I think outside the box, I create my own box.

PAPER DOLLS -- FOR GROWN-UPS

The idea is floating around Doll Works members.  I think it would be a fun project, especially if we sewed the dolls costume instead of making paper clothes with tabs to hold them in place.  Of course, a sewn costume would require a sturdier doll - perhaps the paper doll mounted on luaun - perhaps show both front and back.  After all if the costume is to be sewn, why not make it complete?

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to receive the pattern for next month's project - my first fabric doll since my poor Christmas doll made of cast off body parts.  I'll start the new doll right away - that is if I can find a good flesh color fabric.  I think my theme will be the 1920's, via some glamorous draped gown with all the beads and feathers.  I need to find the nearest Hobby Lobby.

. . . AND THE BUBBLE BURST

. . . but life goes on.  Our dream of a farm has been canceled by my son's worsening health.  The farm is now for sale and the proceeds will go to rehab our current city house.  I will get a new bathroom and a studio room (HOORAY!)  and we will still have a small aquaponics setup and a garden as well as a splash pool.  Of course, living in a planned community means dealing with the home owners association (HOA) who can put the kabosh on your most well meaning idea or project.  I guess the idea is to either make it pretty or hide it. Meanwhile, I'll keep on making dolls and things.

DollWorks

Only four members showed up for the meeting, and the pattern making demo got moved aside for  an urgent discussion on collecting member dolls to grace the opening reception of our annual Quilt Fest.  The dolls display had to be set up then taken down that same evening.

I wish our quilt show would include cloth dolls as a regular part of the show.  So many quilters make more than just quilts especially if there are grandchildren about.

I think some times that I'd like to design a quilt, even select the fabrics for it - but I'd never want to actually make it.  I simply don't have the sewing skill or patience!

MISSING THE MESS

That sounds awful, I'm sure, but I miss not having an entire room - okay, house - to spread out numerous projects in.  My creative process is probably short circuited some how, because unless I have a deadline looming over me (too many years in publishing?)  I tend to hop from project to project on the slightest excuse, ergo: I ran out of a required color of paint, the glue dried up, I cut a pattern piece on the wrong side of the fabric, or most annoying, finally admitting her head is too big/small and requires  replacing.

Joining the DollWorks group is keeping me involved and scrambling to keep up with these very talented ladies.  But, my room is quickly filling up not only with finished pieces but with leftovers from making those pieces.  I can see me eventually taking a load of "stuff" to the storage unit so I can find my bed.  I'll have a proper work space again eventually.

Meanwhile, my sister will be down here from the mountains of N Carolina the last two weeks of September to do a house search.  I'm going to do my best to influence her choice to include a generous "craft/sewing room."   I'm sure she'd let me share it once in a while.

Her son is urging a duplex so that they may be close but not together.  I like the idea because HE is also very artsy crafty and we think very much alike.  I've learned that working with other creative people multiplies the creative output exponentially.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.                                                  

STELLA DIDN'T MAKE IT

Finally received my fall edition of Art Doll Quarterly yesterday and Stella Skelly didn't make the cut - or rather, she WAS cut from the "Glamour Ghoul" contestants.  This would have been the perfect venue for Stella, had I sent better photos.  My photographer tried his best to give me what I wanted but what I wanted was photographically unrealistic - and bless him, he seemed unwilling to tell me "NO".  So, perhaps I'll enter her next year if I don't sell her before then.

                            "TRICK? OR TREAT?"
                                          WITH
                              STELLA SKELLY