I Love Dolls

Isn’t she just Soooo ME? ‘I Love Dolls’ – one of those little Blossom Bucket resin ‘dust collectors’!!
I ‘won’ it recently on ebay (now there’s a Wendyism if ever I heard one LOL) .... sorry Wendy! How could I leave her there floating around the internet – I couldn’t could I? She had a long trip mind – All the way from America – she’s worth it though and now I have to find a special place for her, so she can watch over me while I make rag dolls ...... yeh, sad, I know!!!!

Another little ebay ‘win’ a couple of weeks ago was some Primitive Gatherings fabric.
I’d been with a friend to just a small quilt exhibition held in a local church, which was lovely and very inspiring, but of course there were also a few traders – only 4 stalls in the church hall, but I still managed to spend a few pennies. When I spotted the Primitive Gatherings ‘Seasonal Little Gatherings’ charm pack, I made a ‘beeline’ for it – there was only one, so I wasn’t going to let anyone else get their hands on it and bought it on the spot! Then of course when I got it home, I decided I really needed a bit more of the fabric to make the charm pack useful, so hence the two half metres ‘ebay’ wins ....... isn’t it scrummy? Can’t quite decide what to do with it now of course!! I’m thinking of perhaps a small stitchery for the middle, then make it up with the squares with a border – oh choices, choices ...... what I actually need is the time to do anything at all with it though ........

A weekend in Wales, stitching, a rag doll and ANDY!!

And my latest offering is ..... yes you’ve guessed it, another rag doll. To be fair to myself though, I should have had a small cross-stitch pocket to show you too (just to prove I do make other things too sometimes), but, flippin’ heck, I seem to have forgotten to take any photos of it – what a plonker!! And as it was a gift, it has already been despatched! The doll and the cross-stitch pocket were both for my lovely cousin, Gwyneth who lives in South Wales, which is where I went last weekend for a 3-day visit .......... and what a lovely relaxing weekend it was too. Breakfast on the decking, in the sunshine and a view, blah, blah, blah – jealous? yup!!

Anyway, back to the rag doll for now. Doll doesn’t have a name yet, as that’s for Gwyneth to do, but I made her a Gardening Angel owing to the fact Gwyneth is a bit (or a lot of) a gardener – loves her garden she does! So here goes with a few piccies (taken in my back garden for better effect):-

Isn’t she cute and quirky!?

I bought a little wooden birdhouse and added a label, but this is my favourite part – a garden basket containing packets of seeds and a ball of twine!

Apart from a hoarder of fabric, I also hoard (on my computer) all sorts of images that take my fancy ....... lots of crafty/quilting pics, art, cottages, shabby chic stuff and vintage and these are vintage images of old seed packets which I nicked from somewhere or other ages ago. So I reduced them down to size, printed them out and cut an area around them, which I then folded up into little envelopes! And then, just for added reality, before sealing them down, I put a few grains of rice into each seed packet, so when you give them a little shake, they sound like seeds .......... “how old” I hear you say LOL - don’t care though:0)

I do hope you like her – I was very pleased with how she turned out.

A lovely part of our weekend however, was realising that I have been a bit of an inspiration to my cousin in that she has started to take quite an interest in sewing. Up to now, Gwyneth has done quite a lot of card and jewellery making, but no sewing – sew much sew (get it LOL), she is all but giving up the card making. And to really throw her in at the deep end, we went along to a gorgeous fabric shop only 30 minutes or so from her house (wish it was so close to mine!!) called Cross Patch. There’s actually two shops together – Cross-Patch is for patchwork/quilting supplies and the other shop is called Polstitches, which is all cross-stitching/embroidery supplies – both tucked away on farmland in the depths of South Wales ....... lovely!! WELL, Gwyneth was like a child in a sweet shop!! She wanted to buy just about everything – we all understand that though don’t we? And I nearly had to call the paramedics when the nice lady totted up her ‘few’ purchases – her face was a picture ....... perhaps that’s what they call a baptism of fire!!! Te he he.

Of course, I made a few purchases too (couldn’t not could I?). One of them being a ‘Hatched and Patched’ stitchery, particularly as Gwyneth was buying one. So on Saturday evening we sat (outside again on the decking with a view!) having a little workshop of our own – thankfully my cousin is a quick learner and she soon started to produce some lovely stitches – must keep tabs on her though to make sure she finishes it. Must finish mine too of course, then I can show something other than a rag doll ................ oh go on, you know you love them LOL

The whole weekend was then topped off when I got back home (more than topped off really) ...... completely made my day, week, month etc ........... and that was our Andy winning Wimbledon on Sunday. Oh boy did I shout, scream, dance and weep – thankfully I had forewarned my new neighbours that they may hear what sounds like a crazy woman later on, otherwise they’d have moved right out again! I am just a little bit of a tennis fan you see:0)

Anyway ladies, that’s the lot for now

A stitchery next time – promise!