Dotee Fun Has Begun

Salt & Pepper Sally was my first Dotee doll. I had fun ironing on the star decals, and putting black and beige hair on top of her body, shaped like those wooden spoons for the ice cream Dixie cups we had as children. She's so cute, even a bad-hair day is a good day. When she left for Northampton, England I hated to let her go, but she must be happy there because I haven't heard much except that she arrived safely.

My second Dotee doll actually has pink and orange hair which started out as a closely cropped frizz, but soon required a weave. She flew to Puerto Rico right before Thanksgiving and hasn't returned.

Rainbow QTC's, Summer Glitz QTC's

I enjoyed working on this series of Quilter's Trading Cards, like half-size postcards (2+1/2" x 3+1/2") made of fabrics and embellishments. I made anywhere from 6 to 11 of each color. For the backs, I designed a label with lines for name, date, to whom it was going, etc. with Print Shop program. Next are the Landscape QTC's, and possibly a private 1:1 swap using only white, and one using only black. After that, it may be time to move on to something else!

Blue Autumn

The sky has been vivid, bright blue for two days now. Not hot, but the sun on my shoulders feels intense. I have been riding my favorite biking path, drinking in the colors of the foliage: golden yellows, coppery oranges, fiery reds. Just before dusk the sunshine makes the tree tops glow and I am just stunned by the beauty. I gathered still-green leaves to preserve with glycerine water for freezing; in winter I will be able to make leaf prints with paint. I also gathered peach, burgundy, and tangerine-colored leaves to pound as I have with flower heads. The previous time I tried this technique I promised myself I would never do it again. It takes tremendous effort to force the pigment from the petals and leaves into the white muslin. Hammering with such intensity hurts my thumb. I guess it's not worth it, but I just had to do it one more time. Soon I hope to post more autumn pictures of my favorite riverside trail.

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The picture above was autumn leaves I picked, scanned in, saved as a bitmap, opened in Paint program... then I selected "invert colors" under the Image menu at the top of the screen. Since blue is my favorite color... And now, what they really looked like: