Camp Mail

Camp mail to be delivered.

The girls and I have been inspired  for many years by the mail that was delivered in Tasha Tudor's household.

She called it the Sparrow Post and the letters were very, very small.

There is a picture of these wee letters in the book "Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts" on page 143.

Strange Nature

Isn't this a funky seed pod on this jack in the pulpit?

Indian Doll is Done!!

Here is the final doll.

I fiddled with the carpet thread hair and cut all those fringes.

I wet the fringe with water, twisted and pulled so it would dry all wonky.

I really liked working with the chamois leather which I picked up in the auto section at a big box store.

It is normally used to dry cars off when hand washing and drying.

WIP---Indian Doll

Here are the small moccasins that I've made. The beading is tricky...really small and wiggley.

I made pretend teeth out of Fimo clay to decorate the dress.

Here they are without the staining and glossy coating that I've since added.

They are a little creepy. (but that makes me smile)

Lovely Pie Cherries

Picking pie cherries....

Processing pie cherries with cherry pitter. I froze two bags of cherries for next winter. :-)

Cherry crisp! It turned out a bit tart but nothing that a little vanilla ice cream can't fix.

We went back to pick more and found that they had been all picked.

Maybe this next weekend they will have more ripe.

Update--Snow Peas

Yes folks, you see them here---our first few snow peas.

It has been so hot and stuffy here that I'm surprised they have produced blossoms and pods.

Knitting Bag

A cloth bag that I made for Meg for her birthday. I got the information on how to put the zipper in on a tutorial here but I then boxed off the bottom so it would sit nice. I left it soft, with no interfacing because I wanted the bag to squish up in a purse easily.

Stuffed

I got the Indian doll stuffed yesterday and her face, beaded.

Indian Toy Doll

The girls and I have started our annual summer camp activities. This years theme is Native Americans of Ohio. We hope to visit the mound builder's sites, such as Serpent Mound and a few others. Meg and I have started making Indian dolls of chamois and Em has made a beaded leather pouch.

The three books that I am using for the doll project are "Native American Indian Toy Dolls" by Katie Newton, "Dolls & Toys of Native America" by Don & Debra McQuiston, "Rag Dolls and How to Make Them" edited by Dorothea Hall. I mixed patterns for the doll from the Rag Doll book and there is plenty of inspiration in the two Indian doll books for faces, dress decoration and so forth.

Bloom and Grow

We finally have several blossoms on our snow peas. Aren't they a pretty pinky, purple.

Lots of lettuce for dinner. :-)

Lay Your Head

A pair of pillowcases that I just finished. Grand Revival "Kitchen Rose" was the fabric that I used and can be found on sale here, although I didn't get it there. I don't remember where I got it, but the tutorial I used for the pillowcases was found here. The internet is an everlasting joy, a buffet of ideas and I'm just loving the tutorials all over the place. Thank you everyone for sharing!

Blue Ribbon Pie

I got some rhubarb at our local farmer's market, Saturday and wanted to make a pie. I had made a rhubarb/strawberry pie earlier this month and wasn't quite happy with it. Perfectly good pie but I didn't like the strawberry in it as much as I thought I would.

So, I looked for recipes online and found a wonderful, super-dooper recipe. It is located here. It has a special secret, the sugar/flour part of the recipe is placed, half on the bottom crust and half on top of the rhubarb right before the crust goes on. This makes the bottom crust kind of sugary crisp. The juice from the rhubarb gets to the bottom a bit later in the cooking process so it doesn't get soggy.

The crust I use is oil-based and very easy to make and roll out. The recipe comes from my mom. :-)

Two-crust pie crust

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup salad oil

1/4 cup milk

Mix gently with a fork and roll out one half at a time between two sheets of wax paper. Peel one side of wax paper at a time, flipping gently to the second side before placing on the pie pan. 

Strawberry Runner

Strawberries and seersucker, what says summer-time better than this. I put the top together, added the backing--all seersucker and then sewed in the ditch along the tops pieced blocks. I can't decide what else to do with it. It looks kind of plain. What kind of stitching does it need?

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Our first trip out this year and it was glorious!

I had to try out my new water shoes--they match my boat don't cha know--I give them a mixed review--they stay wet for too long but are extremely comfortable.

Green, Green, Growing

Tented from the heat, we are trying to keep our snow peas cool. I hope it is not a losing battle as I am looking forward to some of this fresh, nice vege.

 

J is moving ferns into the woods. They have been growing along the side of the house in the sun and they don't like it very much. They like just a little sun, please. I am feeling that way, after a sunny week, a little shade is loverly.

Smaller and Smaller

Well, my last quilt was pretty small, it's dimensions, roughly 17 x 20 inches, with blocks 1 1/4 x 2 1/2 and 1 3/4 x 4 1/2. This time I went even smaller and I love this size. It is a bitty doll quilt, only 12 x 14 inches, with all blocks 2 inches square. I told you I had been fooling around with the Hello Betty collection by Moda from last summer or thereabouts. As soon as my sewing machine came back one of the things I whipped up was this small project. I wanted something portable and it was elegantly so. I stuffed it into my purse with a bit of thread and needle and off I went. One good tip I read somewhere was to use the small cutter on a box of dental floss instead of scissors when those aren't allowed. We just got back from a trip and the dental floss thing worked great! I reverted to scissors when I could but the floss was a real saver.

Felted Black Wool Needle Case

Here is a small wool needle case I finished a week or so ago.

I will have to add to this post later to tell you the pattern producer for this case. OK, the company is All Through the Night Folk Art Designs. I bought the pattern as a kit with the wool included at a quilt shop that also had a bunch of felted wool on bolts.

The front cover (top picture) is my own design, however, originally it was supposed to be a picture of a spool of thread with flowers coming out of it. I changed it to make what you see.

I had not done some of the embroidery stitches inside (second picture) for a very long time. It was so much fun to pick it back up.

Yum!

Needles Galore

No words needed for this beauty!

Felt Mouse

I have not shared this gorgeous mouse that Meg made me. She got the pattern in the book "Hand-Stitched Felt" by Kata Golda. She made changes to the dress pattern and made the shoes by herself. Oh-and the little dolly is the pattern sized down with a wee crocheted basket by Meg. I made the blue felt dress with the ric-rac and used Meg's pattern for the shoes. I made a pattern for the pink-striped socks and used some jersey knit fabric from an old scrap.

Happy Mother's Day

Doll Quilt

Well I have finally finished the quilt I started all the way back in the fall.

I stitched together some squares of Hello Betty by Moda yesterday to make a small quilt--even smaller than this one. I bound it before quilting since it was so small and I finally tried the double-fold binding method with mitered corners. Yikes, it was a little fussy but it worked. It is small enough to tuck into a purse and not make me hot when I quilt it.

I switched to a new editor in blogger which allows more freedom with pictures and has this text centered--weird and I don't know what it will look like yet......

Have a great weekend!

"Laura"

One of my very favorite books of long ago, "Little House in the Big Woods", has come alive today. Em had a historical dress-up day today and I was able to finish this outfit last night----my sewing machine finally making it home yesterday afternoon. Phew!!

This dressing up and all makes me want to make homemade cookies.......or give mittens in a stocking at Christmas like Laura.

Happy May Day

A lovely frilly pink, pink for you! Oh, and the spicy, sweet aroma....it is to die for. I haven't put my pot of pinks in the ground yet because I love coming out the front door and catching a whiff of these beautiful pinks.

Here's to a wonderful beginning of May and more flowers to come. I love spring!

Itty-Bitty Owl

I made this little owl early in April. I used a pattern from an old McCall's book of softie patterns. I was planning to make more of these in different colors/fabric but got side-tracked as usual.

I fiddled around today with a jelly roll of Hello Betty by Moda with intentions of starting a new quilt but then again I must wait for my sewing machine. I have only hand-stitched one quilt in my life--an Ohio Star pattern and that was a while ago.

Nested Robin's Egg Blue

One of my very favorite colors, and such a smooth well made nest. Don't you just love those eggs?

I have been busy working on my new nest and enjoying a lovely spring surrounded by redbud and dogwood trees. I just got some fabric for our kitchen window---it is yet to be sewn....because...my sewing machine is being repaired. The presser foot broke in the midst of sewing a calico blouse for Em.

The beautiful photo above is thanks to the SC! Wonderful photo!

Holly Jolly Holidays!!

Happy Holidays!

I had planned to post so many more times this past month, it has just gotten away from me. We have been bubbling with excitement around here--I've been woken just after 5 these past two days by a sleepy 9 year old that "can't sleep". I can hardly wait to see what time "morning" comes on Christmas morning tomorrow. Eiy, yih, yih!
See you next year :-)
Take care all!!

Favorite Window

Do you have a favorite window? This is the view from mine today. It is so beautiful with the snow coming down. We can usually see deer from this window and birds fleeting around. What can you see from your favorite window?

Yeah for Christmas coming and yeah for Emmy's school break starting today. :-)

Seasonal Happy Spots

Happy Sunday!

Kit House

Em and I have happily worked on our little gingerbread kit house. Icing came in a bag and was a mess to work with, we used our fingers mostly. :-)