Daryl & Edward

Thought I'd go ahead and show both of the boys together. You can really see how both though made at the same time look so totally different.

Met Edward & Mick

While I was making Daryl & Mike, I also cut out & sewed up a companion piece Edward with his bunny Mick. Though I made them both at the same time, Edward's face turned out a whole lot different than Daryl. Needle sculpting really puts character into a dolls face. You can sit there and do them one after the other & no two will be quite the same.
Mall shopping was iffy yesterday. I walked through a couple of stores before my jaw started to hurt so I called it all off. Found a couple things for Chris, but nothing I really wanted. I was going to try on a jacket at Sears, but thought "why?". I already have too many jackets as it is.

Today we are going to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Gotta run. Fiona is barking to come in.

Daryl & Mike

I love making new trolls from Ute's Oggie pattern. I can't stop! It is an addiction, but a very fun addiction. I sew up the pieces, then go through all my stash of socks and fabric to dress each up differently. These are my two new dolls. The first is Daryl and his bunny Mike. Daryl is wearing a pair of monkey socks that my niece gave to me. The bunny slippers were bought at Joann's. I made Mike out of left overs from Arwen's crate fabric. The hair is from a feather boa I had hanging around.

I'm feeling better now. Tried to eat a Wendy's hamburger last night but it was so cold and greasy that I gave up & just had an orange instead. Probably was better for me. Today is is warm outside, but gray & gloomy. I can't let that stand in my way as I need to get out to buy some Christmas presents. I really hate going to the Mall but since it is only 5 minutes from the house at least I don't have to drive for hours. Usually I find a close place to park in the back so no problem there. Now I just hope that the crowds are in a better mood than last time I was over there. Keeping my fingers crossed.

December going fast

I just can't believe that here we are half way done with December. I've been missing in action here because I had some oral surgery last week. I need to have three gum grafts, and I'm so happy that I had it all done at once as I would never have gone back if I had had them done one at a time. I basically have four holes in my mouth right now. I haven't been able to eat anything solid for this whole week, and I'm so missing out on all this holiday foods. Which maybe isn't too bad of a thing as I really don't need to gain any of that predicted holiday pounds. Haven't gone out much except to buy more soup or dog food, so I've had plenty of time down in the ArtCave experimenting with Hal (my Janome sewing machine) and all the beads I've accumulated. The dogs have been happy that I've been home. Arwen has made herself my nurse. The first night I was home, she slept outside my bedroom not letting Chris near. Then when I finally got up, she sat next to me licking my hand. She wanted to lick my jaw, but I had to say no there. She also has been sleeping with me at night, and I must say that I've been enjoying having a furry warm bed partner with these cold frosty mornings.



I've missed out on several things here in Columbus. Didn't make it to the Guilded Lily Christmas party nor did I make it to a retirement party for a coworker. One good thing with all this is that WOW our cable provider finally gave us HBOgo. I'm so thrilled as now I can watch all the HBO shows while I'm downstairs working on projects. What am I watching...True Blood. I watched the first year from NetFlix and was waiting to get the other seasons, but now with HBOgo, I don't have to wait at all. They are ALL there! So lap top is downstairs with me. Sorry TCM, but HBOgo has hooked me.


This Sunday I am going up to Akron for the Time for Dolls Christmas party. I'm sure I'll be ready to drive up there by then. Probably still won't be able to eat any of the delicious holiday party food, but I'll get to be with my fellow doll makers enjoying food, laughs, displaying our holiday challenge dolls and the exchange. This year we are exchanging pincushions. I had no idea how in the world to make pincushions, so I went to my file & pulled out some patterns I've bought over the years. So I came up with these two pincushions. Not sure which one I'll exchange. The Elvis one actually has the head off of the Inca Prince by Barbara Schonoeff as it was just sitting there wanting me to use it for something. I think it kinda looks like a post peanut butter and banana sandwich Elvis who just got out of bed. The other is from Marcia Acker-Missel's pattern. I spent hours playing around embellishing it. Don't know if there is room for actual pins!



And just a reminder that you have two more days to enter the big Lark book give away. Over 30 books can be yours if you leave a comment at this link.

More later. I have been a sewing maniac.

Button necklaces

Are you like me & can resist that jar of buttons whenever you head out to a flea market? I just can't help myself. I found this big jar of metal buttons for only $12 at a local market. It has been sitting on the shelf over my work desk for month now just taunting me. So when I started to experiment with doing RAW I looked up and an idea popped into my head. Why not use these as cabochons for necklaces. As in the top picture, you can use them in a piece that incorporated more than one cab as they are all uniform in size so you don't have to figure out the count with each individual cab and can just whip these puppies out.



Or you can just find one big button with a nice design that is all right being the main focal. And did I say that I've been using up all the seed beads I've been hoarding from the destash over at Byzantium when they closed. Have no fear that I'll run out...the wall of seeds is still very well stocked! Plus, now that I work at 1 Stop, I get the teachers discount so I'll never ever fear of running out ever again.

And now for something different

My brain has been on fire since I came back from Bead & Button in Milwaukee in June. I learned to design with Right Angle Weave with both Marcia De Coster and Carol Wilcox Wells. I knew how to do RAW and had no trouble with my tension, but I was just doing flat pieces that did not excite my imagination at all. So after 4 days and classes with two great Masters, I want to do RAW all the time. I even find myself dreaming of the bead weaving patterns. I have been working up simple chains and bracelets using beads I have on hand including the large amount of cabochons I've picked up over the years. The rest of this week, I'm going to share some of my experiments.



Today is a piece I call Fandango. It is basically a RAW chain embellished with Magatamas. The actual fans are stone cabochons captured in RAW and then attached to the chain using RAW. The tricky part is in the actual attachment. You have to really keep your brain wrapped around the concept of three dimension to get it right. About the only thing I don't like about this necklace is that after wearing it for an hour, the fans seem to no want to remain spread out. I think to make me "happy" with this piece, I'm going to have to take off at least one of the fans and reattach it in a different spot. I wanted these to lay overlapping each other. The drawing board needs to be brought out and more experimenting to make sure this turns out the way that will make me pleased with it.

Another Troll Girl

Please Welcome Arline to the Lewallen household. She's going to be joining the family of Trolls residing in Dot's upstairs studio. Arline is from Ute's Oggie pattern. This time i just wanted to try to make a smaller nose, but as you can see Trolls just want big honkers. Arline is wearing a lovely sweater made from one of Shannon's monkey socks. I love the hair. I went crazy using some old yarn I had sitting in a box with other UFO projects. Arline does need some prop for her to have in her hands. I think I might have some miniature water cans and gardening implements somewhere.