Back in September 1980 I took a pattern from Woman’s Day magazine to make dolls for my kids. I made Jeremy for Simon and David for Trina.
An original doll (Trina’s David) looking a little worse for its 30 years.
Initially I thought, with that pattern, I could use a photo transfer of Volker’s face to make a grampa doll. That did not work well. Then, inspired by Alicia’s dolls (The Blind Stitch) it occurred to me how I might make a doll that would, with some imagination, look like Volker. Here are some pictures of my work in progress.
Next week I will post pictures of giving little Volker this doll for his first birthday.
I remember the year that my mother made clothes for my dolls as a Christmas present. We didn’t get a lot for Christmas; as small children we each got something, but even that stopped by the time we reached our teens.
But one Christmas, when I was four or five I knew my Mom, after we kids were in bed, was still up sewing. I don’t know if I knew it then, though I did later, my Mom did not like to sew, she sewed because she had to! So Christmas morning I awoke to a wardrobe for my doll — I don’t remember how many pieces, but I know along with the usual dresses there was a little coat — that impressed me!
As I have four older brothers and two younger I felt obliged to keep up with the boys and didn’t spend a lot of time playing with dolls, though Mom tried hard to encourage me. My brothers also had a doll each, but they were more inclined to other kinds of play; though they would sometimes play “house” with me.
Barb and friends
I enjoyed sewing much more than my Mom ever did. When my kids were little “Cabbage Patch Kids” were all the rage. I started making soft sculpture dolls for sale. For her 5th birthday I made Trina a large doll she named “Randy.” Not only does she still have that doll, but Mina loves to play with it.
Trina’s 5th birthday — with Randy, her new doll.Mina with Randy, March 2014
I am so very grateful to the women of Bloomingdale Mennonite Church for their willingness to do the actually quilting on my mother’s quilt. Work was started on it today at Kathleen’s home:
Helping today: Kathleen, Marie, Lorrie, Ailene, Sharon, Lois, Linda, Trish and me. By four o’clock this afternoon the quilt was a little better than half done! So grateful!
This morning, after a short visit with my mother in St Jacobs, I drove out to Len’s Mill Store in Hawkesville. This store was recommended for quilting supplies and I needed to get fabric to border and back my quilt squares.
The saleswoman in the store was so very helpful! I am a newbie at this and know very little about any of it. We pick a pale yellow for the borders and a matching yellow flannelette for the back. She figured out the quantities I’d be needing, something I had no clue how to do. I paid for my purchases and home I went to start constructing a quilt.
By 5:30 this afternoon I had my four columns made. Laying them out on the spare room floor it was apparent that one column was too short. My grandma made these quilt blocks, likely when she was quite old and her eyesight was not good; they are not very even. The blue square seemed to be the culprit, so I first tried taking it apart and re-sewing it — that wasn’t sufficient. I went looking for fabric to make a new square.
I wanted another blue but didn’t really have much. I did have a bit of fabric that we’d used for Trina’s flowergirls’ dresses — dark blue with silver spider webs. This really appealed to me — I want this quilt to be flower garden like because Mom’s greatest joy in life was her flowers. And it’s my opinion that gardens need spiders.After supper I cut and pieced my spider web block. Laying it down with the other I realized I’d pieced it wrong. Can you see my error?Taking it apart and re-assembling it will be a task for another day.
Only the second week of February but it feels like it has been a long winter. It certainly has been a cold one! I’m so glad to see the days getting longer; spring will come.
I seem to be better at starting projects than finishing them lately:
I’ve started another Owl phone cosy, hoping to make a tutorial. I really have a hard time writing down what I’m doing.
My mother’s room at the Long Term Care Home is not big enough for us to personalize it with any of her furniture. She has a crocheted afghan on her bed that I made many years ago, but her space still looks institutional. I hit upon an idea: When Grandma Roth died (1981) Mama gave me some quilt patches that she (Grandma) had pieced. Mom and Grandma had given me a single bed quilt they had made after I got married; I used it ‘to death.’ These patches are in the same pattern. There are 23 of them, not quite enough for a single bed. The piecing is certainly not professional, but some of the fabrics I recognize and that is kind of cool.At any rate, I hope to finish piecing this quilt for my mother’s bed. The women of First Mennonite Church gave me some advice on how to do it, and the women of Bloomingdale Mennonite Church have offered to quilt it for me. Thank you all!
And speaking of quilts – one more project that I started many years ago, and I really need to finish, is my daughter’s wall-hanging. When Trina first went to school for fashion design I took pieces of fabric from clothing I or she had made plus pictures of her wearing those articles and pieced a small quilt:
(click on the picture for a larger version)
I really need to get my act together and finish these items while I still want to stay cosy and warm inside!
