Connie, Rhoda and Milly

I just thought I would like to share with you a little about Connie, Rhoda and Milly.  They are the three young ladies you see sat together, my new doll style which is getting some welcome attention and I thank you all for that.  But Connie, Rhoda and Milly were my great aunts, the older sisters of my grandfather.  I have been lucky enough to be surrounded all my life by strong women.  I lived with my Mum, her sister my Aunty Irene and my grandma, Ida and my grandad, Jim.  We lived in a great house in about 35 acres surrounded by woodlands and fields, with my uncle next door, my great grandma and her daughters, Milly, Connie and Rhoda  next to my Uncle James (my mother's brother James, who went on to have a son called James and a grandson called James, just to add to the confusion).  And next door to my great grandma lived her youngest son and his wife and family. We all lived in close proximity and tended to socialise with one another and as a child there was always to possibility of a fresh cake or the opportunity to play with some one because until I was six there were no more children within miles of us, so my great aunts became very important and very close.  

 Aunty Connie, on the left, never married, she was very deaf and very shy, she was always open to playing with boats in the bath and I would return down the lane wet through and wearing her cardigan because my clothes were sodden.  She was the gardener of the household and had the most beautiful camelias and azaleas planted in beds around the house.  Although shy, she was a woman of strong opinions and bold ideas and I remember her fondly.  Aunty Rhoda, in the middle, was the youngest of the three sisters, she was the social butterfly who loved her clothes and loved to dance.  She made amazing ballroom dancing costumes and had the biggest collection of costume jewellery I have ever seen, most of it from the 1920's and 30's so heavily influenced by art decco.  She was the only one of the sisters to marry, she married my Uncle Geoff when she was in her mid fifties and  they had a house in the next village but she returned every day to Harley House to spend her days with my aunts and her mother.  Aunty Milly was the middle sister, she never married and lived in Harley House until she was well into her eighties.  She was the cook and cake baker, her speciality were Conversatione Cakes made only on special occasions.  The most forceful of the sisters, she travelled extensively when young women didn't go off on adventures and was probably the one most in touch with the outside world.  I remember them only from when they had retired and settled in a house my grandfather built for them and his mother in the 1950's, Harley House.  By the time I came along in 1966 they were homebirds settled in their routine and living quiet gentille lives, with the odd cruise up the Rhine or on to the Fjords.  They had all been born in the house I shared with my family, Higher Kingsley Farm, but they had made the bold move to run a business together in the 1930's and ran a hotel for twenty years on the sea front at Blackpool called The Shirley.  It was very successful and at Christmas they got so many cards from people who remembered the elegant tea dances and Aunty Milly's glorious afternoon teas.  They seemed like very happy times and they had so many stories and memories to share.  I played with them, gardened with them, baked with them and was generally spoiled rotten by them and have very fond memories of these strong ladies living their lives to their own beat.

Milly and Connie, New Doll Pattern

 Gosh, I have been so busy and I am sorry it has taken over a month for a new post.  I have had a lot of wedding work, which is very unusual for this time of year and I have been working on a new doll pattern.This is Milly and her sister Connie, I have wanted to try for a more up to date girl for a while and I felt that she needed a slimmer profile and longer length.  She has a very slim waist, (not like me) but a very large bottom, (just like me).  I liked the idea of a simple face with all embroidered detail, rather than a painted face as I usually do.  She has french knot and straight stitched eyes, embroidered eye lashes and brows and a very pert little felt mouth held by two co- ordinating straight stitches.  I like Jess Brown's girls but after several attempts I find sadly I just cannot work that loose and so she is still quite tight, with finely finished details. I greatly admire Jess Brown's style, they are so relaxed.  Her hair is still wool tops as I cannot find anything better to fit my style, I have given her a shorter neater bob and I have ideas for dolls with plaits and with differing hair.  I have only made two and they are still a work in progress but they are fun to make and offer endless variety in dress and styling.  I hope you like them.

Anna and Alina, First Dolls of the New Year

Can I wish everyone a very happy, peaceful and successful New Year.  We have just had a lovely family Christmas and I am getting ready for an exciting 2014.  Already had an enquiry for Valentine's Day!  These little girls are my first dolls of the New Year.  Anna is twelve inches tall and is stuffed firmly, she has a hand painted face, with hand embroidered eyelashes and eyebrows.  Her hair is hand styled and stitched in coordinating wool tops.  She is dressed in winter blues and greys and she wears ribbons and hand stitching.  She has a little hand stitched and embellished heart on her tummy.  Alina is eight inches tall and like her sister is dressed and embellished in winter blues, greys and ribbons.  They sit nicely together and will make lovely companions for a bed or a comfy chair.  Love the fabrics, they were a gift for Christmas and come form the Tilda range.  I've used them once before and would recommend them to all.  They are quite expensive but come in a great range of colours and coordinating patterns.

Winter Greys

Having had a very busy few weeks with Christmas orders, which is always great, I have spent a few days chilling out, reading and just sitting back.  I can only do that for so long so I started drawing the trees that look so imposing in the wood to the back of our little house.  The hues and changing tones of greys and blacks are just lovely this time of year.  I had all these pencil and charcoal drawings of overlapping and intertwining branches and I decided to change my perspective and got a metal rular and a scalpel and chopped the drawings into 5cm square mini drawings.  I then, with no reference to my original source selected one mini drawing and made a small hand and machine embroidery taken directly from the reduced image. I find the randomness of the finished embroidery and the small sample drawing rather endearing.  It relies on simply differing texture and strong line.  I painted gouache in greys and blacks onto some quaker cloth and then began to work randomly with the machine reflecting the texture in the drawing.  I made some 'machine made cord' for the strong vertical, I enjoy making them and they always add a sense of dimension when used in any work. I hand couched them on to the piece and then worked other hand stitches into the machine stitch, mainly fly stitch. I also used some wool thread I had dyed using alkanet.  This gives you a wonderful grey to black range nothing like any commercially bought thread. I really enjoyed making the embroidery, such a change from what I had done lately and I feel it really reflects some of the winter grey days we have been having here in Lancashire.  I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope that it is a peaceful and successful New Year for everyone.  Best wishes.

Ida, a doll in navy blue and rabbit

This is Ida, she is little girl, she stands twelve inches tall and is made from tea dyed calico to my own pattern.  Her face is hand painted with acrylic and pencil crayon and then embroidered eye brows and eye lashes are stitched.  Her hair is made of soft fawn wool tops which is hand stitched and styled.  She has a wistful face, with one eye brow slightly raised as if she has just remembered something sweet and funny.  Her checkered legs and the heart she holds are made from a lovely fabric by fairtradefabric.co.uk, always well worth a look for plains, stripes and checks.  All cotton and all fair trade sourced. I bought the fabric for her dress at the Quilting Show at the NEC from a Japanese lady, all her fabrics were japanese and were quite, quite different in weight, style and weave from regular cotton lawns you see in the UK.  I particularly like the rabbits.  Her knickers and underskirt were made from my Uncle Jim's recycled walking shirt.  It's a really robust fabric, wonderful to work with and brings a handsome texture to her undergarments, I would have liked another metre of the fabric or an extra shirt it was so good to work.  But hey ho, you work with what you've got.  I hope you like her, she has real character and would make a lovely companion.

 

 

 

Esther, a tubby little rag doll for grown ups

This is Esther, she is a lovely tubby lady who stands 14 inches tall and who uses the last of my V&A fabric and the last of Aunty Irene's blouse!  She has a hand painted face and hand embroidered details and I love her blue hair, which is hand stitched and styled wool tops.  I am finding these tubby ladies very popular and thoroughly enjoy making them, from their curly hair to their little leather shoes.  I think they offer something other than pencil slim  and that is welcome. A little round lady ousing hearth and home.  I hope that all my girls are warm and companiable and that they bring a smile to your face.

Maud, a rag doll for grown ups

Maud is a tall girl, she is 16 inches tall and is dressed in new fabric from the V&A collection and from a blouse belonging to my Aunty Irene!  She carries a little heart and as always has little leather shoes.  I tried something different with her hair, she has plaits and a little head scarf, it gives her a country girl look.  I like the idea of a rag doll for grown ups, I mean that is what they are, but I had never thought to put so succinctly. I very happily sold my first doll on Folksy and that is how the lady who bought her, described her.  So here is Maud, a rag doll for grown ups.