Christmas Greetings

Christmas Greetings and Best Wishes to all 

 

Small gifts

 The biggest change in my life at present has been giving up driving the car (this is on medical reasons) I stopped in October and yes the car has been sold, I am grateful to some friends who now provide transport for me, Mary takes me to guild and it is not putting here out of her way as she has to pass my door, my good friend Fiona comes to stitch with me every Wednesday and now after our time together takes me to get small items I need. Helen takes me up to Church office on Thursday when she goes out to volunteer with a group and again takes me to church on Sunday,  Jan is there for other times but as her school is out in the country it’s been a help to have friends there for me. I have stitched small thank you gifts for Christmas this year and will have fun planning and stitching something larger for each of them next year when there is more time. I have stitched small notebook covers and have a nice pen to go with the book.

I am still finishing the third one.

Photo fun

 The Facebook group Blythe doll Australia are having a photo a day for December. Some of the subjects set are proving to be quite challenging here’s some of mine.

  Day 8 this makes me merry ….. Rosie helping with the gnomes.

Day 9  Christmas tree …… 

Day 10 Something red.

Not sure how many more I will get done…..

Christmas Gnomes

 Jan has decided this year to have one of her Christmas trees with a gnome theme, I have had lots of fun this week creating a collection of gnomes for her in a variety of colours. These little Folk had minds of their own when I tried to get a group photo.....

So I had to settle for taking a photo of each one.

Have two to finish to send to Finn and Eve in Wellington for their Christmas tree, then I can get back to stitching my embroidery pieces.

The Mary Stuart Hussif

 I have stitched yet another Mary Stuart Hussif for a gift, I think it’s possibly the seventh one I have made over the years. Way back in the 198’s a visitor to the guild in Tokoroa  brought one to show us, then I  found the instructions and history in a ANZEG Threads Magazine. It’s history in New Zealand dates back to early 1960s before the Association of guilds ere formed in New Zealand. Lone packets were sent out from England  for embroiderers to mull over.  A packet featuring blackwork contained a small hussif and later Mary Sturt president at the time of the south Otago Guild set it as a small project for a year, with the result in the south it became known as the Mary Stuart Hussif. And it was introduced to us as the Mary Stuart Hussif and I still refer to it as that today, this one was stitched for my Christmas gift for the Guild Christmas party exchange of gifts this week. For this one I used 40 count permin linen and stitched harebells in cross stitch, the lining is a liberty fabric.

A little stitching

I have been stitching pieces on a gingerbread folk theme.

First is two Christmas decorations, these designs I have stitched before many years ago, again delighted how they  turned out, Stitched on 40 count Permin linen

I 

The small notebook cover has a Christmas gnome holding a gingerbread man, I would love to stitch more of these gnome designs but the list to do for Christmas keeps growing so I must move on. Jan has requested Christmas gnomes for a tree she plans on that theme , these I am making on polystyrene  balls in different colours, the fun part for me will be creating the hats,  these are well on the way and hopefully will be shown in my next post.

 Two other projects under way both quite different  for Ronan’s Christmas gift I am making a board game using the Paw Patrol as the theme,  Jan has put together ideas for the game that will help develop Ronan’s skills and so the game can have different parts added later. The fun part of creating the game is mine.

For herself for Christmas Jan has requested a felt board set of the Hungry Caterpillar, I made this for Finn in 2019 and had kept most of my patterns what a hungry chap that caterpillar was he ate  his way through 15 pieces of food.   I like to make all the pieces double felt and buttonhole stitch the edges to make them last longer, specially in this case where it will be a class room set and get a lot of handling. 

My computer is telling me to back up and replace the hard drive, so find myself doing more on the iPad and this time have had success in putting together this posting now to hit the publish button before I lose it all.

Happy Halloween

 Ready to go out to Trick or treat………both loving their new hats.

This is the last in the Coll of Halloween photos I took have now completed the story and this years book for Eve. Embroidery has taken over but no doubt I will find another project for the dolls to add more outfits for. Am now stitchings all gifts.

Hat no 5

 Hat no 5 did not get posted before I showed the hat shop so here is the hat now so you  can see the details.

The Witches Hat Shop.

 

Poppy is thinking about Halloween, she is making plans early what she wants is a witches hat like Rosie had last year so she went off to visit the Witches hat shop to see if she can find one she likes.

What fun hats she found on display,  How does anyone decide.?

This one went perfectly with her Halloween dress  and thats the one Poppy selected....

Hat No.4

 

 This time it’s a hat for a very modern witch, Poppy was happy to find a matching dress so she could model it for me . the last one is started and will also be a step away from the traditional black witches hat, all going well will have it ready to post next week 

Hat no 3

 

This is the third of the five hats 

I plan to make to set up the Witches Hat Shop for my Halloween photos.

Below is an update on what I have made so far, do you have a favourite?

A different hat

 Rosie is always a pleasure to make clothes for, Was pleased with how this fabric made up using a different dress style, a round yolk, rather than waste the scraps I decided to make a hat, to match.though there might be enough to line the brim however there was enough t make the hat reversible.

I made Poppy a hat too so I could see both styles, that meant a new dress as well. The hat is the same pattern as Rosie’s hat  worn bucket style with the floral fabric side showing.

Now it’s back to witches hats and no. 3 to make this week……. Hope to share next week

HAT No 2

  the next hat for the Witches Hat Shop is complete  and at present I am making bucket hats to go with summer outfits, need a better day to get photos the lighting is poor today.

Here’s Rosie’s witches hat from last year I wonder if she wants a new one this year.

 

Looking ahead

 I’m looking ahead to Halloween I have an idea for photos for the year book I am planning for the dolls.I didn’t want to make new Halloween dresses and decided on a story where Poppy wants a witches hat like Rosie had so a visit to the Witches Hat Shop is needed, of course there needs to be a selection of hats to choose  from, hence the early start I would like to have about five hats.

The first one is complete and it matches Poppy’s dress so will no doubt be the hat she chooses, 

Playing with backgrounds

This dress has been a while in the making, finally finished I am pleased with it, the very fine cotton fabrics make up well, for the size of the dolls.   Took several photos but think the pose is a bit stiff 

However transfered  one to a background and it changes the look completely

 

It’s raining

Poppy is so disappointed in the weather, she was planning a Teddy Bears  Picnic  but it is too wet to go outside

 Even Kaytu agrees  about the weather

All is well they still had a picnic but inside on the table......

 The month of May came and went so fast, and we are now fast approaching mid June, I certainly did not keep my good intentions of posting weekly, I only managed one post.!

I am continuing to take photos for the Year book I am making about the dolls, I will need to edit the photo story for May which is a Teddy bears picnic and will post them later, however I am up to date with June. Its just two years since Rosie arrived last year I did a birthday party photo story This year I decided just to do a special birthday photo.  having taken a photo of Rosie with Rabbits for the cover of the years book, this being the year of the rabbit

I continued the theme and borrowed a very special bunny from Jan, a little sleeping bunny we had given her many many years ago, I remember there were more animals in the set but I could only get one  and the bunny won my heart. 

and now the photos taken bunny is back sleeping in his leaf and ready to return to Jan

Belle in Tudor dress

A dear here we are half way through the month, I have been a very neglectful blogger, however I have been a very busy stitcher and also have done a lot of research. I wanted to stitch some period outfits for Belle. but rather than they just look like a certain period of fashion I wanted to be reasonable close to what had been worn in that time frame allowing for the facts that I was stitching in 1/6 scale and that Blythe dolls heads are so large and clothing had to have front or back openings not go on over the head.

I started with the linen shift that was worn as the undergarment. there were plenty of patterns available to make this and I  found some very fine linen . I was continuing to buils up the garments for a 17 century outfit when i lovely piece of material was given to me that suggested an earlier [period in time. So more research and lts of stitching and Belle now had a Tudor gown.

The underskirt has some embroidery touches that don't really show in the photo, the gown is heavy silk with black velvet on the sleeves, All that remain was her head dress I settled on a French hood and that s where the research became interesting. She now has a French hood of sorts and I am pleased with the look in the photo but really want to see if I can create a true French hood, so guess that's my challenge for the next outfit.

I hope you enjoy seeing Belle as a Tudor lady

 

ANZAC DAY 2023

 

The Rawhitiroa School Anzac wreath , poppies made by senior pupils at the school.  we needed to find something to make the poppies from that would be waterproof as one is never sure what the weather will be, Jan came up with the idea of using red laminated pouches of which the school had a surplus supply.  They worked really well,  wreath frame was donated by a friend from Church and I had the easy job of putting it all together.

OUR EASTER TREE

 The Easter tree is all decorated and I am looking forward to showing it the the grandchildren when they visit this weekend. another new set of Easter egg decorations have been made, larger size for  Finn and   Eve to decorate their own tree while they are here then take the Easter egg decorations home for another year.

EASTER BONNETS

 New outfits for the dolls for Easter and small eggs for their tree have kept me busy here are the bonnets I made for their Easter outfits.

Joan had given me a large piece of fuchsia silk so I had plenty of fabric to work with,  Rosie has a dress to match her bonnet.

For Poppy I made a bonnet that matched the blue trim of her birthday dress……

St Patrick's day

When suggested that Rosie and Poppy have new dresses for St Patrick's day, the idea would fit well in the Year Book theme but there was nothing suitable in my fabric stash. the next week Fiona came in with two green fabrics and the result was these two dresses.  Next up will be April and Easter and that stitching is well under way but now I must pick up my much neglected embroidery.

Happy St Patrick's day to all 

Back grounds

 I have been playing with backgrounds, having found an app that can remove the background from a photo I can then add my own to create the scene I want, there becomes a problem when I have too many ideas and can’t decide which one to use.

 Here is an example, please help me which one do you like best.......

 I also had fun creating this one I wanted to include in the latest photo book the story of Poppy looking for a leprechaun    the photo I used was one taken when the family were in Ireland last year and is in County Clare.  it had the perfect spot for the leprechaun  to stand.

St Patrick's day is not far away and the dolls will be back then to show off their new dresses... green ones of course