Starting an Art Doll

I was inspired to cut some leaves of felt.... they are supposed to look like geranium leaves.  

How it happened was, I got the idea for a bottle doll having a geranium inside of it  -- so I went outside to make a sketch of the leaves of my favorite plant, a Bevan's geranium.  I also studied how the leaves grow, out of the rhizome. 

So, after cutting out 

 the leaves, I feel I am getting somewhere with my art-doll concept.... in the very first stages, now with bits and pieces.... and some hair draped around.  

Rejeuvenating a Moss Basket?

This soft moss basket I made several years ago, which holds paperclay painted eggs for Easter, is now brown and dry. 

 I wanted to see if I could green-up the moss again. I took it outside and sprayed it with water.  There was maybe a bit of green still in the bottom of it.... 

Will the water make it green up again?  I hope so. 

Alabama Baby - Finished

 Well, after sewing on the hooks in the back of the dress, she or he is done.  Here are pictures of my completed Alabama Baby doll, made for the Maida Dolls Group challenge.

I used my own pattern for the doll's body.  

The doll is about 18" long, the face painted simply with acrylics.  The head is entirely hand-sculpted by me.  I started by doing a very different sculpt, but when I saw my error, sawed the sides off, and filled in the eyes.

 She is dressed in plain cotton ticking.   I liked doing a fancier dress in the ticking, though, with ruffles.  It was my first time putting stockinette on a head, too, and it wasn't too too hard, but I have to admit there are a few seams in back.  

I noticed about stockinette is that is does take antiquing well.  It's much more of a "surface."

Was fun doing this doll!  Maybe more are in the future.

The DOLL Dress That Could Have Been

Every time I look at this little sample I ordered a year ago from Mood Fabrics, I feel frustrated I didn't just go ahead and buy a yard.  Instead I have this tantalizing scrap, about four inches square.  It floats around my work area, getting stuck on a doll's bodice, or put on a head for a moment.  But then rejected, for some other yardage that I have more of.

 

 It has been tried on many doll outfits, but remains, alas, an unused scrap.  Isn't it pretty?  And the fabric store I bought it from, Mood Fabrics, hasn't carried it since I first saw it.  Sooo many people liked it.  Why can't they bring it back?  Oh, why?

The only lesson to be learned from this lil' scrap is to:  not to buy samples online.  If I like it, buy half a yard.  If you order a sample, by the time it gets to you, they will probably be out of the fabric.  That is what happened in this case. 

Signs of Spring

The backyard is coming awake again, not that it had much of a rest period.  Everything shut down in November, and there were a few cold weeks where I had to cover plants for frosts.  But now in early March.....

The lawn is surging and the grapevines by the posts are starting to leaf.

The pink 'redbud' tree is in bloom, 

The herbs are also coming back, oregano and spearmint, with some sage there in dinky pots I must re-pot.

 

Looks a little odd there, like positive and negative space. 

 Yes, the soil is warming up....