allsorts

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

Making happy

Elizabeth of Creative Breathing has the most generous soul. She embroidered this fantastic apron with my pretty maids designs for her granddaughter, and lately she's been holding a "block party" ~ a fun swap of squares embellished with vintage paper goodies. I haven't had the chance to even start to make mine for her yet, but she sent me this bit of adorableness recently and I had to share.

She certainly has that making people happy thing down pretty well. Thanks again, Elizabeth!

Just finished up a couple of time-intensive publishing projects, so I hope to get myself into a more frequent blogging schedule now. Lots of ideas bubbling!

Cheers,

Jenny

Two little dolls

When Jade sent me this photo a couple of days ago, I have to admit that I was overcome with emotion. This is Xolchi, pronounced Sol-chee, a little girl at the Casa Bernanke orphanage in Nicaragua posing with her new doll, the little doll I stitched and sent in to Craft Hope. The expression on her face is worth everything to me.

I feel so blessed to have been a part of this project. Three cheers to everyone who contributed, many many thanks to Jade for organizing the whole thing, and especially thank you to Erin for taking the dolls down to Nicaragua. You guys are my heroes. See many more heart-warming photos here.

Cheers,

Jenny

Woof woof

What happened to June? Apparently I spent most of it either sick or in stitches. This "pupkin" is for a fun secret project. So don't tell, okay?

Oops! There she goes!

Cheers,

Jenny

Happy face

Thanks for the suggestions (and encouragement) about how to do my doll's face.  I ended up painting a very simple smiling face, and it was so much easier than I expected.  Easier than embroidery for me, because I have lots more experience painting than I do embroidering. I also added some pigtails, a skirt, some ribbon trim and hair bows.  And little felt shoes...

I was really surprised at how much personality adding all these things gave her.  And I love how she has lots more of a rag doll vibe going on now.

Once I find I proper box, off she'll go to Eren, who is taking all the dolls made for the Craft Hope Project down to Nicaragua. And hopefully then she will bring a smile to a little girl's face!

Cheers,

Jenny

Hello doll face

Today I made some headway on my doll for the Craft Hope project. After some hmmm-ing around with my own pattern ideas, I got nervous and decided to first try out this pattern Emily of the black apple shared on the Martha Stewart Show. Its my first attempt at a proper machine-stitched cloth doll. I've made felt dolls, but those were hand-sewn, whip stitched around the outside edge. This is new territory for me. So far so good, but now I'm at the part where the instructions read: paint face. Nothing more, just paint face. Help! Anyone familiar with painting on fabric? I know what I want to paint, I just don't know what kind of paints, how to sketch it on there, or how to go about it at all. Any tips or hints would be very much appreciated.

Feeling pitifully clueless,

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

Seeds of hope, one stitch at a time

Just read on Loobylu about Craft Hope, which has begun its second project, collecting handmade dolls to send to the children at the Casa Bernabe Orphanage in Nicaragua. What a worthwhile and wonderful endeavor!

I've got a pile of new books with adorable doll patterns in them, and this is just the impetus I need to stitch one up! Maybe I could use one of the many free online patterns gathered at One Crafty Place just for this project. OR.... I could design my own pattern! I've made some dolls from scratch with no pattern, but never actually created a proper reusable doll pattern. That sounds kind of fun!

There's a Craft Hope flickr pool where you can see the dolls that have already been completed as well as previous projects, or you can even join the Craft Hope group on facebook if you like. If you're interested in participating you can sign up at Craft Hope. They will need the dolls by June 13th, so I'd better start stitching!

Cheers,

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