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:

Autumn Views

Two days of warm, sunny weather must have been "Indian Summer" but now the rains have come. Several years ago I took pictures of the lovely foliage in this area. Many of them I worked into chapter headers in my book of poems. This is my favorite time of year. Sometimes the glowing hues take my breath away...

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Autumn's colors proudly blaze,

then drift to earth on silent sighs.

copyright 1985

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Along the back treeline across a field behind one country place I lived and never should have left, many animals made their homes. Here's my sign-out thought:

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Sundown In The Country

(Slab City memories...)

The scream of the red-tail, the hoot of an owl,

and whimpers of wild creatures settling to night...

1980's copyright

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Summer's End Postcards

"Green Sparkle" was another fabric collage with fusible-web backed cut out leaves. The overlay of netting adds little points of reflectivity to the postcards; ribbon, trim and beads were the final addition. I also made QTC's with the same fabric.

The postcard series "Melancholy Nets" seemed to need wedges of different colored netting to match the melon slices. I even worked the sparkly green into all of them. Then I topstitched whenever possible to accentuate the grainlines of the fruit. Looks almost good enough to eat, yes?

Shake a stick?

Once upon a time I was a teacher. By choice, not by profession or training. I designed a twelve-week beginning quilting course with original materials, sketches and samples. My first run-through was in my home. The local co-operative extension office agreed to host my next series of classes, so I had a nice bright facility to use for several years. Then I put together an advanced quilting course which was held elsewhere.

Most of my students were eager learners. A few were hesitant, and their joyful realization that "I CAN do this!" pleased me as well.

One student, however, was not a beginner and she made it quite clear that she had a lot to add to my curriculum. When I tried to be encouraging, it only gave her the floor, which meant I lost it. I was perplexed about how to keep the class on track without hurting her feelings, until one day in a streak of creativity I thought up the "Magic Quiet Stick."

My idea was to walk around the room during my presentation. If someone was talking incessantly out of turn, I would touch her on the shoulder and "BLING!" she would instantly become silent and attentive.

Doubting the effectiveness of my invention, I decided to abandon the plan. I won't relate the sad conclusion of the matter, but I do have good memories of the first three out of four teaching sessions given at that facility. And I still have the "Magic Quiet Stick." It has never been tried. maybe it should have been...

Sooooo Blue Postcards

These postcards were a delight to make for several reasons, first- blue is my most favorite color, and second- the print of this fabric is so diverse and versatile. Gold cording and butterflies were a quick accent for a pleasing end product. Wheeeeeeee!!!

I also made some blue QTC's (Quilters' Trading Cards) but will wait to post them with the red, orange, yellow, and green QTC's I've already made and the purple, pink, white, black, silver, gold QTC's yet to be made. Stay tuned...