All hail Reader’s Digest (and the yard sales I found them at)! I just love these books. They have fantastic information illustrated in a very clear, straight forward manner. You should try to find one. Like I said before, I am no great shakes at sewing, but I learned how to hand ruffle and make bias strips from this book. All in one night, too. The “Complete Needlework” is great as well. It has fantastic quick fixes for hand knit sweaters that don’t fit right, inserting elastic into socks, all sorts of great stuff. Next up for Cleo? Corduroy pants 
Cleo is all finished. Here she is in her undies. Now comes the hard part, making her clothes. In the past I crocheted the clothes as part of the dolls’ bodies. But I want to branch out, learn new things, so I am going to give sewing a try. If all goes well she will have a tunic top, pants, socks, shoes and a sweater.
Oh, and I am planning on making paper dolls in the near future. Cleo will be my first model. I am going to do a drawing of her posing like this waiting to be dressed up and draw all sorts of fun clothes and accessories for her. Today is one of those day that I wish I could stay in my studio and never leave!
Cleo (she has a name now) is not getting ready to rob a bank and she is not being suffocated either. Oftentimes I find that by the time I finish crocheting the doll’s body and legs her head and wig have gotten a little banged up and her arms get in the way. Putting a nylon over the head an arms solves both problems. 
I am really happy with how Cleo is turning out. I haven’t made a girl amigurumi is awhile and I am excited about dressing her. Yesterday I bought yarn to make a sweater for her; I might try the February Lady sweater. Here is the ravelry page: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/february-lady-sweater It is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sweater formula so I can size it for her ans I go along. I am think I might try knitting her some socks, too. Should be fun.
I just spent about an hour stuffing, sewing up and attaching the fabric applique to the bottom of the blue bunny’s foot. I spent almost as long getting the applique ready to be sewn on. I used a slightly modified version on the freezer paper technique, which you can view here:
www.geocities.com/athens/sparta/6604/quilt_lesson_index.htm
The only thing I changed was ironing the pattern peice to the right side of the fabric and used it as a guideline for turning under the edges. I did this because I was afraid that my peice was too small the remove the pattern safely from the wrong side without damaging. But I don’t have much sewing experince yet, so maybe next time I will try making the applique according to the directions…
Hello from the studio. I was a good girl today; I worked on the
blue bunny even though I am not thrilled with the looks of him. See how disciplined I am
As often happens some ideas occurred to me as I was doing the dull work of crocheting his legs and torso.
He is going to have a small body with jointed arms and legs and I thought that he would lo
ok amusing wearing a pair of boxing gloves. He is so puny and kind of disgusted looking, I thought it would be funny to make him look like he was trying
to be really tough. I think I will cut gloves shapes out of red felt and embroider the details.
And I picked out fabric for the blue girl’s dress or shirt (I am not sure which she will be wearing yet). I still have very little sewing experience let alone pattern making so I am being a wimp about making her clothes. Well at least I chose a fabric that I have lots of, so it won’t be a tragedy if the first few attempts don’t work out. Wish me luck.
Hello Cute-Lovers, and welcome to my artwork’s new home. I hope you will bear with me as I learn the basics of site building and management. I am not very computer savvy, there was a reason I majored in painting
Many of you have sent sweet note welcoming me back to the online crafting community. Thank you all so much, it really means a lot. This last year was a difficult one. I spend a lot of time at my neurologist’s office dealing with my migraines and in April I was diagnosed with epilepsy as well. Thanks to a bunch of meds these things are getting sorted out.
So it is back to the studio for me, finally! I feel, in a way, that the long break I took from crafting has benefited my work. Without intending it, the hiatus gave me some perspective on what I have done so far and where I want to go in the future. A few months ago, with a royalty check in hand, I was a kid in a candy store ordering new goodies for my studio. I bought glass eyes, bunches of wool felt, yards of calico, sequins, cotton chenille stems, a few new reference books and tons of yarn. I have made the decision to use natural fibers when possible. In the past my amigurumis were made with acrylic yarn. But tastes change and wool just started feeling “right.” Plus, I am a color addict and I love what I can do with dyeing my own yarn. There have been a few weekends recently went my house has smelled like a combination beauty salon/wet dog from all of the yarn boiling away in its dye bath on the stove.
Making ‘gurumis again is great, but I have other plans as well. I am drawing some “Amigurumi Portraits” which will be available as prints around the beginning of the new year as well as, >gasp, she finally has gotten around to it<,
writing down amigurumi patterns which will be ready at around the same time.
I am going to try my best to be a good blogger and update often, but for more of my postings please visit my flickr account (p.s. the pic is a link over to my photostream).
