allsorts

Pretty Maids prints ~ a giveaway!

Welcome to my first ever giveaway!  I've been working up colorized versions of my Pretty Maids, and sometime next year I hope to have prints of all the dolls available in my etsy shop.  For my giveaway, I've printed six of the color versions onto heavy watercolor paper, popped them onto dotty little yellow and blue mats and into red Ikea frames.

I'm giving away six framed doll prints: Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands.

The dolls are 4" x 6" and are printed using archival inks, and the frames measure 6.5" x 8.5".  All six can be yours free, I'll even pay shipping!  Just leave a comment on this post about your favorite way to de-stress during the holidays, because as I explained before, I am coping with a wee bit of stress right now.  Comments will close Saturday, December 18 at midnight CST, and Sunday I'll use the random number generator to choose the winner!  Easy peasy!

Good luck!

Jenny

the giveaway has ended... thanks for playing along!

Ears to your 'elfies

Guess who's come out to play again? It's the Christmas Elfies embroidery pattern, now available in my etsy shop. And I've added some extra treats, like a candy cane and a little prezzie!

And something else is new, this time the pdf includes a black and white version along with the color one, and one in reverse in case you prefer to use an iron-on marker to transfer the pattern. I still use the window/tracing technique, but I'm tempted to try the other, it sounds like it might work pretty well. Anyone have any experience with it?

Tomorrow we have tickets to see A Midsummer's Night Dream at the new Wyly Theater, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the new venue. And the production! It's one of my all time favorites by the Bard.

Hope you have a jolly weekend!

Cheers,

Jenny

More maids have arrived from the Far East!

Deciding that I wanted to make some dolls for the Craft Hope project gave me just the kick in the pants I needed to finish set three of the Pretty Maids embroidery patterns. They're available in the shop right now!

So here they are... Qiao, from China, Padma from India, Giang from Vietnam, Lelei from Polynesia, and Keiko from Japan. Just like the first sets, they're delivered in the form of a printable PDF booklet which is sent via email. For the moment, I am only offering the patterns in sets, but maybe at some point I'll offer them individually again. We'll see. I'm still trying to sort out the whole listing thing on etsy. Confusing.

It was a challenge to limit the group to five, as there are so many incredible costumes from around the Pacific Rim. Sets one and two were both from European countries, so I might just linger in the east for the next set.. or maybe venture on to South America, or maybe Africa... I hope you're not getting sick of them, but I just can't stop!

Now its time for some doll-making... ;o)

Jenny

Pretty Maids from the Pacific Rim

I'm obsessed, I know. I find it impossible to resist making more of these little ladies. There might even be enough to fill up a proper quilt now!

The third set of pretty maids embroidery patterns are from Japan, India, China, Polynesia and Vietnam. So many gorgeous styles of dress from that part of the world, it was really difficult to narrow it down to five. When will they be ready? I always think a set will take just a few days, but history has shown that it takes me a week or more, considering how much work it takes to create each single pattern book. And history has also shown that very few of you are interested in purchasing single patterns, so it makes sense to only offer full sets from now on. There are still a few individual maid patterns left in the shop, but after they are gone I won't be re-listing them.

Can you believe how much time zipped by since my last post? So bad. I'm not sure what I've been doing (besides spending way too much time researching dolls in international costumes) but I sure have been neglecting the old blog. Sorry about that. It may be seasonal, since I recall pledging to write a post a day in May around this time last year. Little chance that will happen this year, since I've got family coming to visit as well as Katy's graduation coming up later in the month. But maybe I can at least increase the post flow a teensy bit...

So...  later gators!

Cheers,

Jenny

Here comes the bride... and the groom!

The Wedding Embroidery Set is in the shop! You probably can tell, it is kind of a variation of my Pretty Maids dolls... just with arms that bend... and with guys.  ;o)

This one has so many elements, I had to put it into two pdf's. One is the general scoop, ideas for various combinations and so forth, and the other one is all of the patterns to be used for tracing.

My favorite part is the extra bits - floral garland, bells, doves, etc. They can be combined to make lots of different designs. I really hope you get as much enjoyment out of stitching up this set as I did designing it!

Now I'm off to do a quick tidy up... my dad and stepmom are arriving any minute! Yikes!

Cheers,

Jenny

On the drawing board

Ah, this lovely Spring weather and flowers abloom make me think of weddings...

So I started sketching up a new embroidery pattern.  Coming soon!

Cheers,

Jenny

Lula... the fashionable paper bunny

So, you have probably been wondered if I'd fallen off the planet. Nope, I've been playing with paper dolls!  I'm very pleased to introduce my first paper doll, Miss Lula Bunny.She was inspired by the dress-up activity on my web site, and has evolved from digital to a fabric design, to paper, to magnetic and back again to paper. I suppose you'd say I've been working on this one way or the other for years. So I am pretty excited to put this out there.

Miss Lula is four years old, four inches high, and has a very full schedule of social activities. She comes with four outfits that you can mix and match for a multitude of looks: party princess, play date, dance recital and swim time.

I used 60 lb. premium glossy photo paper, and archival inks, which gives a very colorful and vivid result. Also, I wanted to solve the issue paper dolls typically have with being floppy and not standing up properly. So I put on my engineering hat and designed a nifty card stock brace that allows her to stand up straight and not droop. Here is the complete set...

... which is now available in my etsy shop!  I really hope you like it, because I loved creating this and wouldn't mind designing a few more!

Cheers,

Jenny

More pretty maids have joined the row!

Here they are! Set Two of the Pretty Maids ~ All in a Row embroidery patterns are now available in my etsy shop!

This group consists of Lucia from Spain, Eleni from Greece, Ines from Portugal, Paola from Italy, and Mollie from Ireland. I seem to have lingered on the European continent, haven't I? I suppose I will bravely venture further afield for subsequent sets.

Just like the first set, they're delivered in the form of a printable PDF booklet which I will email you after purchase. You can purchase them individually or the full set of five designs. Click here to visit the Loopsies shop.

Oh, and I realized I was way behind on leaving feedback on your orders, I'm catching up as soon as I get this posted! Sorry about that.

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - this new typepad interface is going to take some getting used to! I hope I did everything right...

Productive day

Can you guess what I've been working on today?

Cheers,

Jenny

Tada! Pretty maids ~ all in a row

Once upon a time I created this set of embroidery patterns based on traditional European folk costumes, with the idea of offering them in my etsy shop. Well... life got in the way before I could list them, and the plan got sidetracked. Let's see if we can do something about that, okay? For a limited time, the pretty maids will be available in the shop for your embroidering pleasure. They're delivered in the form of a printable PDF booklet which I will email you after purchase. You can purchase them individually or the full set of five designs. Click here to visit the Loopsies shop.

This collection includes Griet, a Dutch doll, Leonie from Bavaria, Nadya from Russia, Aniela from Poland and Cerise from France:

I am so in love with the idea of "international" dolls, and have plans to create lots more sets. I would love to hear any suggestions for countries you would like to see in future collections!

Cheers,

Jenny