A Stuffed-up Rag Doll Scrap Book

 

 

October, 2013

 

Continuing the scrappy how to books featuring my original doll designs.

 

This one has a hard cover … one of my parents family albums which is now empty of photos and the pages which held them.

 

I stopped making dolls about 10 years ago, and at that time I was selling these for less than $10.

 

 

These were my favourite small dolls, and Moonshadow is my favourite design ever!

 

The one I managed to keep has a very dark moon!

 

These designs never became pattern subjects, so these pages are as near to a pattern you can get … including those very rough, and very basic hand written instructions.

 

 

Moonshadow was actually a small Cousin swinging on a fabric moon.

 

The body has got to be one of the least likely shapes to become a doll.

 

The trick with these dolls was to always cover the back of the head … the join between body and head is not pretty at best, and less pretty when I knew it was going to be out of sight. Always made sure it was strong, though!

 

 

 

 

 

The Dimplings were not pretty, but were quite lovable, and very easy to make.

 

The End

 

 

Virtual Quilter Archives

I have started printing a copy of each post I have added to

Virtual Quilter.

It’s going to be a big folder when it is finished, but would like to complete all this years posts before mid July.

September to end of December have been printed, but 2009 will have to wait a while.

On Monday June 7th I will add virtual quilt number one thousand to the blog.

All original designs too.

The one included here is just one of them.

Scrap(py) Book

This is a very ordinary spiral bound excercise book which originally was used as a note book when I was secretary of a group. Those pages were removed, and the remaining pages are being used to hold together a heap of notes, pictures which keep falling out of drawers, shelves and boxes in the sewing room, including the one scribble I created on a scrap of paper about an hour after finishing the cover on this book!

Add a new cover, and I am cheeky enough to call it a journal, because in addition to the scraps from magazines  am using it beside the computer to scribble quilt layouts, block diagrams, and write down quotes, ideas, techniques, and a few phone numbers. Most of the time I use a pencil for all of this, and it is difficult to photograph those pages, so here are just some of the scrap pages.

 

Scrap Book Journalling

I have always kept notes on scraps of paper, bits saved from magazines, catalogues and newspapers, basically anything which I thought might come under the heading of ‘useful information’ one day! A lot of the bits have been stuck into children’s scrap books over the years to keep them in some sort of order.

Since joining the big wide world on the world wide web I have found that other people have much more attractive scrap books which they called journals. I have also been skirting around the other sort of scrapbooking which has replaced family photo albums.

There has been a growing collection of attractive (to me, anyway) pages which didn’t quite fit the scrappy scrap books, so I decided that they had to go in a special scrap book. I removed some of the pages from a blank book made of handmade looking paper, stitched it back together again, and started scrapping, or journalling.

I have added quotes which had been scribbled onto scraps of paper, and a coaster was given to me by a friend years ago and was far too nice too use.

Monet’s Garden, a potted plant and a gift bag from a friend to a friend and from a friend. (I think the same bag came and went, but came back again!)

The picture of cats is just too interesting to just chuck out, the yarns in the picture look great, and so I added a few strands from the stash.

A quote, picture from a magazine, another from an unused diary, stickers and some lace.

These are just a selection of the pages.

I have already scribbled a few notes about how some of the images could be used in a quilt!

A Guide to Bear Making

A Guide to Making Bears

or

Who needs help from a Friend?

I printed the story of

making my first bear as an arty Farty book just for fun while I had the flu.

(I was way too sick to clean the bathroom or vacuum the floor!)

Then I told why I wanted to make that first bear.

The printed pages were glued to heavy cardboard.

The heavy cardboard pages are painted with brown acrylic paint.

I added the story of how Monty came to live with us when I had it nearly ready to put together with rings made from heavy jewellery wire, and I trimmed it with a few bear buttons.