Biscuit's House

Amigurumi resource

Last week, I received this book by the famed Elisabeth D., which I had ordered from Amazon. I highly recommend it - a really in-depth book, great value for $14.95 - even though a couple of sentences in the introduction made me pause. I dare day it's second degree, but remarks such as "doll making , which is, let's face it, a borderline activity" and "doll making is sort of spooky" make me react. A lot of people are ashamed of making or collecting dolls, and I have been there myself, but in later years I have fought against this mind-set. I believe there are many things daily seen in this world people (collectively) could be much more embarrassed about, than having dolls as a hobby.

Anyway, the book is wonderful, it includes not only patterns but also a detailed presentation of a wide variety of materials used by the author for her creations, instructions for crochet stitches, basic and not so basic (including the invisible decrease which I had never heard of before), and many tips concerning amigurumi-making specifically. She even tells how to make her trade-mark individual toes and dimpled knees!

The patterns include a nice variety of foodstuffs as well as the critters pictured on the cover (and more). I'm very tempted to try and make the pink girl, though she is the very last and most advanced pattern in the book. I shouldn't, I have too many half-finished projects lying around already, but maybe I will visit the yarn shop this week-end!

 

Embroidery resource

Yesterday I received Aimee Ray's embroidery book. I ordered direct from Aimee, so not only did I get a signed copy, she also included wonderful goodies : a postcard of one of my favorite of her illustrations, an embroidered bookmark (one of the projects in the book) and a super cute pin.

The book is great visually and as regards the contents ; at $14 it's a steal. The stitch guide is very well done and I think I'll even be able to try long and short stitches without any qualms (until now I've been rather daunted by fill stitches).  I find Aimee's embroidery style very fresh and appealing and I'm sure this book will motivate me to embroider more. The projects are very varied, eyepillow, pincushion, apron, sneakers...

Hint : Aimee still has a few copies available in her Etsy shop, signed and with a free gift!

More inspiration

Yesterday the bedding I had ordered from Samantha's Etsy shop arrived (that was very fast, thanks Samantha!). I wasn't sure if it was going to be for me or for Puni or for both, but Puni pounced on it and so far it's hers (she sees lots of packages arriving for me and claims her share of the spoils). It's just the thing for her - well our - doll bed and is keeping her doll warm.

A couple of days ago arrived the book "How to recreate your own antique bears and dolls". It had been in my Amazon wish list for a long time but it was only available as an out of print book for a high price. The other day I exerted myself to find a cheaper copy and ordered from Alibris, it arrived quicker than I had expected.

Inside are instructions to make 17 dolls inspired by antique and vintage dolls (to me antique is pre-WWI, so I wouldn't call a doll from the '30s an antique, but I guess one has to move with the times). I feel they are quite unequal - the Lenci replica in particular is disappointing but some others such as the Dean's Rag Book dolls below could be fun to make.

Anyway, I have 1000 other things to finish or make first so it won't be for a while. These past few days I haven't had energy in the evenings for much else than watching I dream of Jeannie DVDs and crocheting ripples (I have resigned myself to the fact that work = permanent crisis. Either we have too much product and get slapped because working capital is too high, or we don't have enough product and get slapped because orders aren't delivered on time. The up side is you don't get bored, the down side is the stress). I have now finished season 3 but if I'm not mistaken I think season 5 of Bewitched is coming up in July. And I still have most of season 4 of Little house on the prairie to watch. When that's done I think I'll let myself be tempted by Charlie's Angels.

Last week-end I started on a Hitty and she's still very much in progress, and my work table a big mess. I don't remember much about making my first Hitty in 2003 except that it was a struggle ; I think I had the most terrible time turning the arms and legs. This time I didn't have any trouble at all so I guess I'm getting  bit wiser with age.

Not so wise though that I can help buying more stuff. I went to see the sale and the new stuff on Gail Wilson's site a couple of days ago and bought a wooden doll kit. Lots of sanding involved and even drilling. Not to mention painting the face. Well that will certainly be a challenge. I hope it won't turn out to be one of those sickening failures as well.

Rag doll

It's getting tropical. Way too hot for April and too hot for me, as soon as the temperature exceeds 25 degrees Celsius I get all hot and bothered. The garden has grown into a jungle and the lilacs just inside the gate are giving off a strong scent.

The truffle was sacrificed last night. Hubby sliced it and cooked it with pasta. I must say to me it didn't have a really noticeable flavor ; rather a waste of money as fas as I'm concerned (it cost 30 euros, and the price per kilo was 2200 euros), but at least one of hubby's cooking fantasies has been realized.

This week I was going to start another bag, or maybe make the rabbit's outfit, or finish Taffy, but I've been sidetracked (again). There is a Fnac (bookstore) just across the hotel where I stayed in Paris, and I just nipped in for a quick check of the new craft books.

    

I told myself, I have tons of cloth doll patterns already that I have yet to use, enough for 10 years at least, but I was pressed for time as I needed to go to the station to catch my train, and in the end I grabbed the book.

There is something particularly appealing about these dolls, and I think a lot of it comes from the fabric used. I had wondered sometimes what kind of fabric was used for dolls I had seen pictures of, and whose skin has this same sort of nostalgic quality (which makes the difference beween a rag doll and a cloth doll). The book says to use a tea-dyed old bedsheet, and it makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately I don't have any old sheet (maybe I'll find one at my parents' next WE) so for now I'm making one using tea-dyed cotton cashmere.

The pattern is more complicated and has more pieces than usual for dolls of this type, the torso front and back are in 2 pieces each, and the feet top and sole are separate from the leg. For now I'm making one in the size pictured but when I find an old sheet I'd like to make a smaller one.

   

I think I'm going to call her Loveday (the name of a character in a book I just finished) and hopefully I'll make her several outfits and share her with Puni for gentle play ; if she is a very good doll she may even have her own bed. Now let's just hope I don't make a mess out of it. My first attempt to dye the cotton cashmere was No Good, too dark, very irregular and with many noticeable stains. For my second attempt I used better quality teabags with less dust and left the fabric less long (when tea has sat for a while it develops some "scales" on the surface and unfortunately these tend to stain the fabric). Now the skin is OK but I don't have enough cotton cashmere left to make a nightshirt...will have to order some more from sistersanddaughters.com.

So far I haven't done much...cutting the pattern pieces has taken me a lot of time as this is the kind of pattern I don't much like, where you have to add seam allowances yourself...maybe there are some people who can cut an even 1/4" or 1/2" seam allowance around a pattern piece without any aid, but for myself I need to mark dots all around the piece with a ruler and connect them...quite a bore.

Make my life happy every day

Yes, I've been bad, I've bought more books.

I received this one the other day as well as the first volume. If I could make such pretty things my life would certainly be happier every day.

These are just a visual treat for the time being. The projects in these books look really professional and a lot of them involve the use of zippers. I've never sewn a zipper nor quilted anything and I'm not ready to try yet.

I also caved in and bought the Nina book though I already have numerous unused cloth doll patterns in my drawers.

Is there anything cuter than doll clothes neatly folded on little shelves?

If I make this doll I may try to draw or paint the head instead of embroidering it.

Stuffed animals

This week-end we went to my parents' to fetch Puni back. On Saturday we were sent to the park.

On the way to the merry-go-rounds we looked at the animals,

and after several plane and car and bus rides visited the slides and swings,

and bought chocolate ice-cream.

I managed a quick visit to the Fnac where I got the Marie-Antoinette DVD and a spur-of-the-moment purchase because of a Bollywood DVD display : Kuch Kuch Hota Hai featuring my beloved Shahrukh Khan. And also this stuffed toy book.

Clever, the way the ducks' feet are tied to the sticks, no?

I'm not a fan of the "country" style for dolls and toys usually, but I rather like these animals and will definitely be making one.

And on the way back today, we spotted many cherry trees in full bloom.

New order

Hubby forgot to buy another soap and didn't find any resin plaster, so no crafting tonight, but I was too tired anyway. Last night after the casting fiasco I read for a while and then tossed and turned a bit in bed, and didn't sleep until 3. Which I bitterly regretted when the alarm clock rang this morning. This evening I did the white tornado in the bathrooms and dusted the guest room, and tomorrow evening only finishing touches will remain to be done as hubby said he would wash the floors himself. The house hasn't been this organized and clean for a long time, probably since we moved in, and I want it to stay this way. Like many people I feel better when the house is relatively tidy. Reading a book on the sofa with a mug of tea after work with the vista of a clean house around me, is much more satisfying mentally than reading the same book on the same sofa with the same mug of tea in the middle of chaos. So even though I'm not the housekeeping type at all, from now on I'll strive to tidy up each night before bed (and am training Puni to do the same). And now that the mess is out of the way and it's no longer necessary to clear a path with a machete, I will find and employ a cleaning person as we've been saying we should for the last 5 years.

I received this book today, I ordered it after seeing it in Debby's blog, and amazingly it was in stock at Amazon, as Where women create had been (the sign of a rising tide of anglophone crafters in this country?). As Debby said several of the studios featured in Where women create are pictured in this book as well - a pity really as one woud think there are enough crafters in the US for variety.

This book is more like a practical how-to book than Where women create (which was mostly visual inspiration and essays about the crafters featured, and read kind of like a novel).  Some of it is too thorough, directing and detailed for me (I don't need graph paper and furniture cutouts to organize a quarter of a small room) and the personality tests don't hold any interest for me, but I like the pages that show ideas for organizing supplies classified by type, and then the studio examples shown by craft category. It gave me an idea that I would like to use one day, to stack cake tins (the muffin tin type) in a drawer and use them to store beads, fabric roses and such small objects.

And of course, before/after images like the ones above are vastly uplifting.

Speaking of studios, Heather just posted photos of hers. I'm sure that in such an environment, even my alginate would behave like an angel.

Chirimen

My new sewing machine is on its way! I'd have laughed if you had told me 10 years ago that I would find the impending arrival of a sewing machine to be an exciting event. It will take me days to explore. On the other hand, it's also a little scary - what if I can't use the foot pedal? (didn't find a machine with a start/stop switch on the main body after all). Ah well, I'll still have the old one to fall back on.

Today I was intending to post photos of a (supposedly) quick project that I started at midday and thought I would finish tonight, but I'm so slow, it's not totally finished yet. I'm beginning to flag and thought, no need to exhaust oneself for one's blog, I'll post something else and up to bed I'll go.

So here's one of my favorite books ever. I bought it during a trip to Matsue, the last Golden Week trip we took in Japan, because the next year, I had morning sickness, and the year after that, we had left the country. It was quite possibly the most pleasant trip I ever took and I have fond memories of it.

Chirimen is such a beautiful fabric ; I love its texture, delicate patterns, subtle colors ; but I find it difficult to sew, it flows and slips and slides and ripples. So while I have several pieces of beautiful chirimen bought especially to make some of the flowers and pouches in this book, I've never made one yet...and it will be seven years next May since I bought the book. One day...yes one day...

The NHK book below also has lovely suff, though I prefer the Ondori book.

Space

  Workspace must be in the air. There was a post on Whipup on the subject recently, and yesterday I received the book "Where women create" which I had ordered after seeing it in Joyce's blog.

I'd kill to have chests like these (and the space for them) :

What a lovely space to create : (it's just as messy as my corner but with vintage furniture the effect is charming) :

I was very surprised and gratified to see one of my favorite dollmakers featured in the book (Nancy Wiley) :

It must be the effect of the book combined with the news that in 3 weeks my parents, sister, BIL, nephew and niece will come and stay for a few days; but I was seized with the urge to tidy up my corner a little.

It's still not the bee's knees, but much better than before. Basically I have these shelves, plastic drawers, two photo setups, a table for sewing/crafting (my sewing-machine resides below the table), and my computer desk next to it. It's a small room and it also contains my husband's computer desk and his bookshelves. Nonetheless we spend lots of time in this room, Puni sitting on the floor and drawing or watching DVDs on my computer.

I took a leaf from the Crafter's Companion book and glued jam containers where I keep buttons and beads to the bottom of my Ikea shelves (I was amused to see the exact same ones in the Where women create book). I need more so I ordered two jars of tea jelly from Mariage Frères (solely in the interest of tidying up of course).

Cartonnage

I must say, Mr Clean's magic sponge is really something. I used it on my favorite mug that was so coated with tannin my husband said it was impossible to clean anymore, and now it's pale blue again.

Anyway, this post on Crafty Beats the other day reminded me that I have a book on cartonnage that I bought in a kind of folk museum in Brittany two summers ago. It's actually about the combination of cartonnage and embroidery. There are several lovely projects in the book but I don't know if/when I'll have the time and energy to make one ; meanwhile I can look at the pretty photos and dream.