Good Little Girls

It is a nice sunny morning.. I won't even need a coat. I'll just stand here for a while and see if this flower will open up.

The sun is getting even brighter. Surely it won't be much longer. I can wait.

Well maybe not. I'll just take a little walk around the house to see what else there is..

*********************

Nothing much. That chicken doesn't even play. But look at this.. is it the flower?

Why yes! It is so pretty. I think I will pick it for Mother.

Oh but wait. Is this the kind I am allowed to pick? Now I can't remember. I better go ask her..

**************

Mean while.. I am in the house packing things up for Hitty club and making cookies. First a layer of tulips.. (wish mine really looked like this!)

Then another layer.. and some umbrellas just in case we need them.

Now I better go find that Betsy.. she is not allowed to pick the crocus. Later on I will plant some pansies here. I remember when I was a little girl my mom always let me pick those, because that encouraged them to grow even more.

The dolls are all ready to go.

Is this not the cutest bag for them to ride in?? I won it from Loft Creations! Last fall on Stephanie's birthday she had a give-away.. and my name was drawn. I was so lucky! It is cleverly crafted from a vintage tablecoth and finished with the cutest little bunny rabbit button. I have been so looking forward to using it this spring. Stephanie makes beautiful bags, quilts, pillowcases and all sorts of amazing things.. and sells them in her Etsy shop.

Hitty club was much fun yesterday! I don't have the pictures out of my camera yet.. so will have to show them tomorrow. Can't wait!

Tuesday Afternoon

I had a little fabric charm swap with Sarah, and my delightful package came today. We traded some vintage scraps.. and while mine are nice.. I do get tired of seeing the same things over and over.. so it was fun to get this envelope from Sarah. She did such a wonderful job choosing so many fun fabrics that I love. Thank you Sarah!
Look at this cute green piece with Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch...
and a very lovely vintage feedsack charm. I don't have this print..

Here are some more.. lovely as can be.. and a few little hexagons..

Pretty pretty florals and dots. There are pieces here ranging from the 30's to the 60's.. and maybe one or two from our era as well..

Sarah should be getting my envelope any day if she hasn't already.

This chicken already lived here. I picked him up at the Good Will store a while back. He just called to me with his vintage mother-of-pearl button eyes and cotton stuffing peeking out from his tired worn head. I couldn't leave him behind. He is a pot holder of some type. And hand quilted with heavy red thread. ☺

I paid a visit to Tony this morning. Tony is my Sewing Machine Man. I have known him my whole life.. my mother took her things up to him to fix and clean. He does just about anything from vacuum cleaners to irons.. and is wonderful with all my sewing machines. I took my Singer 301 to him for some cleaning and oiling. Can't wait to get her back. I wanted to take some photos of his little shop that he runs.. it is next to his garage. But I kinda hated to ask. Maybe when I go to pick up my machine.

In the meanwhile I'm making Betsy McCall a new dress to wear to Hitty Club this weekend.

I ordered the blue fabric with the little pink bunnies last year from a Japanese place. This is such sweet material. I like how the puffed sleeves are turning out. She will need new socks too.

And there is green sage in my herb bed. I think it lasted all through the winter. But there were some really fresh new little leaves..

So I picked some and threw them into the pot of chicken and dumplings I'm starting for dinner..

And since this is not a cooking blog.. and I don't really like to cook.. I'll end with this adorable vintage pattern I came across the other day while looking for something else..

Darling or what? It is from 1956. I love the cats, owls and rabbits. And I'm quite sure the poodles were used for some little girl's skirts. Wouldn't it be a lot of fun to do something with this? ☺

Hope you are having a lovely day.

Tea Swap on it's Way...

The gifts for Stephanie's Tea Swap are finally finished.. wrapped.. and on their way..

I have seriously been engulfed in this project mostly non-stop for the past couple of weeks. I had so much fun working on it.. and I hope my partner gets it safe and sound.

The last time I posted here, I was getting ready for Hitty club. Cookies mixed up and decorated like little teapots and ready to go...

I had made some little dresses using the wonderful vintage organdy fabric that Ulla sent me as a Christmas gift..
The girls at club loved the tiny details of the little dancing mice, flying birds, and playing children. A reminder..these dolls are just over six inches high.

And Betsy McCall wore her skating outfit that I crocheted for her last year.

I felt bad that I didn't get anything new made for her this time, but she seemed happy to stand on our work table anyways.

Then the day after Hitty Club we worked at church on some projects for charity.. I took the double four patch quilt top to knot and it was well received. They asked if I could make up a couple more tops so we could have them for our church auction in the fall. I told them the fabrics were not high quality, and I hesitated to put it up for sale.. but they all said "who cares?.. it is lovely and people will buy it anyways!". So I said ok. I have tons. And tons.. of fabric scraps and stuff I can use up for this. Besides.. it is SO much fun. So I started cutting out some more strips..

..and I'm piecing a Roman Stripe.. always wanted to do one of these. ☺

I'm also cutting out some charms for a private swap.. always fun to have a chance to visit my vintage fabrics.

..and I am finally getting to this..

So that's where I am right now. The sun is shining and there is a hint of spring. I heard a Robin singing the other day. And the sun will come up again tomorrow. ☺

On to those Ornaments ...hoot hoot.

Last week I worked on these little ornaments constantly it seemed. This is what happened to all those wool teardrop shapes and that pile of colorful flowered fabric..

(right now my workbench is just about empty! I will be putting my elf suit on again next week.)

On the right some little jingle bells and some embroidery floss.. which will turn into little feet and little beaks.
On down some white circles and black buttons.. they will become eyes that can see in the dark..
(those tiny yo-yos are fun..)

ooops.. that one looks like it has a built-in eye and doesn't need a yo-yo, doesn't it? So funny! I wish I could have cut the fabric so it would have had two eyes like that, but I couldn't find any that were spaced the right distance apart.

And on down the row.. some more little tweet ornaments are taking shape...

The lovebirds are made of vintage feedsack. (editors notes added Dec 7, I found the pattern to make these at http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog) Some of these have already found their way into new homes. These are harder to make than the owls.. and the fabric more rare.. so they are fewer in number..

And don't these just crack you up? They are all in new homes too.

Sent some of them in the mail.. gave them to friends visiting over Thanksgiving..


..and took a little basket full of them with me yesterday to give to my Hitty Friends..

..along with some Christmas cookies that got baked Thursday afternoon..

..and Betsy got her new cape to wear. :-)

...the basket of Hitties ready to go.
We had a really fun time of course. Lots of laughing and eating and freindship. I took pictures of the food and craft time and stuff.. but this post is getting a little long!.. so I'll say bye for now, and hope you are staying comfy and finding time to create or decorate this weekend. Thank you all for stopping by.. I love your visits. And I'll return them all soon!

Christmas Lazy Daisies

Friday I go to Hitty Club and we will be having our Christmas party. I still have to get my little wooden dolls dressed and ready to go, but poor Betsy McCall did not have a new Christmas dress. I love my Betsy McCall doll. I think maybe it's because she reminds me of when I was a little girl. Mom used to bring home the McCall's magazines and I would sit for hours cutting out the paper Betsy and her clothes that were in that issue. Then when I'd have them all done, Mom would give me the wallpaper sample books and I would trace around all the little clothes and make all sorts of colorful outfits.

Anyway, this morning I stared on this:

Then I ran out to do a bit of shopping because the sun was shining and the weatherman said it was going to be the only nice day this week. I needed to get a few more things for the appetizers I'm going to make to take Friday, plus we were out of a list of things at home. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow.. so today sounded perfect. Guess everyone else had the same idea.. as the parking lots and store aisles were packed!

It was Holly&Jolly though.. lots of smiling faces. I like the little town of Salem where I do my shopping. The only thing missing is a fabric and a craft store. And I thought it very odd that they were building a new Auto Zone. Why do we need a parts store for cars? Maybe because no one is buying any new cars, and they are just buying parts to fix their old ones. I bet that's it. Anyways I did get two poinsettias.. they were only $2.19 each.

After I got home and put the groceries away I finished Betsy's dress..

It is really dark now so I had to use the flash.. but I didn't want to wait 'til tomorrow to show you. Now she just needs a cape. I hope I have time to make her one...

And thank you Ulla and Kathy and Melanie! for the badges. That Fabulous one is new for me :-) I don't know how I got so lucky to have met such wonderful friends here..

Tomorrow I'm baking cookies!

Hitty Doll Day ~Boo!~

If you are new here, you might not know about Hitty Day. About every four or six weeks, I like to get together with some other pretty eccentric girls and play with dolls. The main one is Hitty, a tiny little wooden doll that we like to make clothing for and set up in scenes. Out hostess really has an amazing collection. We meet at her house and spend the days.. about 7 of us girls plus once in a while we will entertain a guest. Lately my job has been bringing the cookies that we nibble with coffee while everyone is arriving in the morning...

Hitty is handmade. She stands just little over 6" tall, or not quite 16 cm. Here are two of mine. My battery camera died yesterday at club.. so I had to dodge the raindrops and take some pictures here at home today. We made this cute little pumpkin outfit yesterday, and one of the girls brought each of us this dress on the right. Isn't that pumpkin fabric adorable?

Two of the girls had birthdays in October, so I made each of them a little dress too. That's what I was working on this week. But I was in such a rush getting everything ready, I totally forgot to take pictures of them before wrapping. whaa! They turned out so cute too.

But some of the others remembered to charge their camera batteries.. and there are a lot of photos here of the day including the Lunch, narrated by the hostess Hitty. One of my other Hittys tied for third place in the costume contest. She dressed as Little Red Ridinghood.

Besides Hitty, some of my other dolls like to come along. I almost always bring Betsy McCall. She is pretty big compared to Hitty. I like her 14" size though.. nice to handle and sew for. This outfit was given to her by a friend though. It was made a long time ago, probably in the 1950's, by by somebody's mommy. I love the little owls on the smock..and the orange pockets. I made her felt hobo hat and mask to complete her outfit.

And this time one of my Bleuettes joined in the fun. She had a new autumn frock to wear and wanted someplace to show it off. All the little diamonds I appliquéd on the front.. they are tiny scraps of vintage fabrics. You can always find something to do, even with the tiniest of bits. And the ribbons that were tied around my jars of hot peppers made perfect hair ribbons.

And this is Edie. She always comes too.. and yesterday she was clever enough to claim the hand- knitted mittens and cap that were gifts for one of the Hittys. Edie is very tiny. You can see her next to the spool of thread. She was made for me as a gift by my very talented friend Helen. I absolutely adore her. Of course she is not the original Edie. The Real Edie lives with Helen.
She is sitting on the pile of fabrics we brought home. I thought I had another little piece of blue 30's repro cut too, but I must have laid it down and left it behind because I couldn't find it anywhere. But oh well. I think I have enough fabric!

So there you have it.. and now I have to spend a week catching up!