The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Needle and Thread

I’ve got little to no voice today.  A cold has moved from my head down to my chest and along the way has bound and gagged my vocal cords. 

I don’t mind, in a way.  Not entirely.  It’s nice to not talk sometimes.  And I find I can communicate enough with pointing and gesturing, with a bit of whispering when needed.

Yesterday and today I’ve been sewing.  I made a triceratops for my son (see previous post), and today I’m working on an elephant for Julia.  I’ve also sketched and cut out a pattern for another dinosaur.

I’m sewing by hand.  Every little bit.  I’ve got a machine.  It’s right here – to my right on this table.  But I’m not using it.  Not right now.

I think, somehow, my enforced muteness has made me want to work quietly as I play with fabric.  I don’t want any unnecessary noise.  Of course, there’s the hum of the dryer…and I have the tv on for background noise (and since I’m sick, I get to pick the channel.  I’m on the Create channel right now.  Love that stuff.  I need to add woodworking to my hobbies.)…but mainly it is quiet down here. 

Quiet and peaceful.

I like sewing by hand.  I used to do a lot more of it, once upon a time when I had an entirely different life.  Now, I’m trying to reclaim some of that old me.

I like the rhythm of the stitches, and I like the feel of fabric in my hands.  (The elephant is a soft, thin flannel.)  I like letting my mind drift around where it will while my fingers take care of the needle and pins and thread and fabric.  It’s meditative.  And productive. 

That’s about it for the moment.  Need to get back to Julia’s elephant.  I’m hoping to finish it today, and if I do, I’ll put the pictures up.  I think she’ll be a pretty little pachyderm. 

Triceratops

About a year and a half ago, or longer, Alex asked me to make him a Triceratops.  A stuffed animal version, not a real one.  I’d made Julia some dolls, and my son, understandably, wanting something less frou-frouey.  I sketched out parts, and got some of it pieced together, but I wasn’t really…feeling it.  I don’t know how to explain that, but for whatever reason, I just kept putting it off.  Lack of confidence?  Probably.  I’m sure I expected perfection from myself.  I wanted my soft sculpture to look real, at least from a distance.  Children would scream in fear:  “MOMMY!  LOOK!  A TRICERATOPS AT ALEX’S HOUSE!  RUN!  RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”

So I took the bits and pieces of it out every now and again and quietly put them back.

This morning I was up very early, and I decided to start over.  I just finished it a little while ago, and so here’s what it looks like…

Baby Quilt

Our friends across the street welcomed their third son into the world last month, and the kids and I decided to make a baby quilt for him.  I let the kids go digging through all my fabric and pick out colors and textures they thought would be appropriate for a baby boy.

Originally I was going to do this appliqued extravaganza, using about 50 different cookie cutter shapes the kids had selected. 

Then I snapped out of it and decided on something simpler and, ultimately, much more personal and special.

When Creative Outlets Collide

Several (or more - I've lost track) weeks ago I got it into my head that it would be fun to make braided rugs.  I've got all sorts of fabric stockpiled from when I used to quilt a lot, and I "inherited" fabric from my late maternal grandmother, who also quilted and sewed clothes for us when we were little and appreciated home-made clothing.  She also knitted and crocheted and drew and painted and played piano.  Oh - and she also made some rugs.  There was a great big braided rug under the kitchen table, for one...and I remember she also dabbled in rag rugs - the knotted kind that are shaggy on top and bumpy on the bottom. 

Anyway, I thought - hey!  I know how to braid!  I'll braid some rugs! 

Where The Doll Thing Originated

Over the past, I don't know, weeks, I guess, I showed you a few dolls I made. 

First was this one:

 

And then this one:

 

And, finally, this one:

 

And now I'm working on another one - well, two, actually.  No, thre-  no, I guess it's really four.  Plus a stuffed animal (for Alex - he's fed up with all the girl things and demanded something for himself.)  But I can't show you these yet.  YET.  I will.  Later.  Soon.  At least soon for two of them.

Anyway.  I never had any urge or desire (that I remember) to make dolls.  But when I first started going through all my packed-away stuff, knowing that I wanted to make SOMETHING...I came across this little one:

 

She's about 7 inches in length.  Yellow yarn hair.  Bright red sweater.  And, that's right, no pants.  Or undergarments.  But hey, she's a doll.  She doesn't have to follow any rules.

My grandmother made her.  My mom's mom.  Her name was Emma Jane, and I am named after her, in a diagonal sort of way - Jayne instead of Jane, and no Emma in sight.  I'm also named after my paternal grandmother, kind of.  Her maiden name is my middle name.  If I'd been a firstborn son, I'd have been named after the grandfathers.  But I wasn't, so I'm not.  And this doll conversation probably wouldn't be taking place if I'd been a boy. 

But anyway.

My grandmother made this simple little doll, and knitted or crocheted the sweater, too.  (And Lynne - look, she's got a face!)

 

That's right.  My grandmother wasn't Amish.  She put faces on her dolls.  And look at the neck.  No wonder the doll looks a bit cranky.  There's thread wrapped around her throat, choking a neck into place.  You WILL have a neck, missy.  Don't GIVE me that look!

I don't remember how old I was when she made this, though "very young" comes to mind.  

And then I went digging through my pine and cedar chest, where I store some of my stuff from childhood, and I rescued this girl:

 

Her name is Emmy.  She's about oh.....18" long.  (I'm too lazy to go get a tape measure.)  And my grandmother made her, too.  You can see some similarities between her and the doll with the red sweater.  (That's her name:  The Doll With The Red Sweater.)  The blue eyes.  Shock of yellow yarn hair.   Slightly dingy look from too much love.

I love the fabric my grandmother used for the dress - a thin flannel with patterns of cherries on it.  I actually have some of this fabric somewhere.  I've used bits of it in various projects, but I can't use ALL of it up because I...well, I can't.  And that's that.

Emmy, as you can see, also has a face.  Here's a closer look:

 

My grandmother was very creative, very artistic.  She sketched in pencil, charcoal, colored pencil, and those cray-pas oily pastel crayons that I remember using in school.  She painted in watercolor, acrylic and oil.  She sewed, crocheted, knitted and made a few braided rugs.  I'm sure there was more.  She also played piano.

The doll's face is my grandmother's "face."  By that I mean that when she sketched - and when she was a little girl, she sketched whereEVER she could - usually, as they were poor, in the margins of the newspaper.  On scraps of paper.  And THIS is the style of face she drew.  There were, of course, differences in each, but still, there was a basic face style my grandmother had, and when I look at this doll's face, I see endless scraps of paper with similar faces.  You know.  Like you can recognize a Renoir face.  This is an Emma Jane face.

Sigh.

And that's it for my stroll down memory lane today. 

But I wanted to show you where I think this "doll thing" I've got going on right now probably originated. 

And now you know.

Princess Julia Doll

A few weeks ago I sketched this in one of Julia's diaries.  (Yes, she loves to scribble in her pink diaries.  With her pink pens.)

   

That, I believe, was the catalyst for my late-onset doll obsession.

I made a couple of trial run dolls, which I showed you before here and here.

I knew, though, that I would need to make this Princess Julia doll sooner or later.  I just wasn't sure how to.

But anyway, I figured that out, and here she is:

 

 

 

 

 

She doesn't look exactly the same as my original scribble, and she's not perfect, but I'm pretty damn pleased with her.  I did all the beading around the hem of her ball gown and across the top of the bodice, (which is made of a piece of velvety ribbon - so soft) and I made the tiny little bracelets and necklace and tiara she's wearing.

And I made Julia a bracelet to match the doll's ensemble.

 

Here's a closer look at the little tiara - wire and beads.

 

And that's what I've been up to when I'm not cooking things.

I should probably do laundry or wash a dish...but this is way more fun.

 

Another one

 

I finished her on Thursday last week. 

I love that fluffy yarn I'm using for hair, but it's a nightmare to work with.  But no matter.  I also made those tiny nine-patch pieces on her dress, and then appliqued them to the brown fabric.  (The brown's another former pair of Alex's pants.)  It's hard to see in the picture, but she's got a little kind of lacy collar and a red button at the neckline on her right. 

I've still got a lot to learn about constructing dolls and making their clothes, but it's a fun process.

Distractions

I've still got a bunch of cookie posts to put up here.  And other food posts.  I know.

But I just haven't felt like typing.  Or discussing cookies.  I'm a little, well, over the cookies for the time being.  And of course, we still have containers of them piled in the dining room.  Not as many, of course.  But a lot.  And some of those are cookies other people gave us, and those, actually, I don't mind.  I like getting cookies from other bakers - I like to try their versions of things.  Somehow they taste better than the ones I've been living and breathing for weeks.

So that's my excuse for not posting a lot so far since last week. 

Also, I find that when I need a break from one creative endeavor, I ricochet toward something completely OTHER.  And a few days or nights ago, I got an idea.  And so I hauled out huge RubberMaid totes and dug through them...and went to the store and picked up a few things...and went online to get a few technical tips...and here's the result:

 

No, she doesn't have a face.  I haven't decided if I'm going to leave her like that (probably) or sketch out several dozen eyes and noses and mouths to see if I can come up with the ones that are hers.  And she's not necessarily finished, either.  But she's kind of done.  And she's a test run.  Just to see if I could do it. 

Oh, and her dress?  It's the bottom of a leg from an old pair of Alex's jeans.  I'd made shorts out of them, but for some reason, I kept the rest of the leg fabric.  I guess this was the reason.

I've cut out and stitched the body for another one, too. 

Alex was watching me do that yesterday, and he asked if I'd make a boy doll, and I said sure, at some point.  And he asked if, instead, I could make him a stuffed animal.  And I said I probably could.  What did he want?

A triceratops.

Of course.

I suggested we begin with something easier.

We've compromised on a spider.  And Julia wants a pink (surprise, surprise) teddy bear.

So at some point, I'll move into the animal kingdom.  But right now, I'm playing with dolls.

I'll be back later.  I've got a body to stuff.