Three Adventures: Three "Never Say Nevers" !

Lily's back: I padded thie wings with some white fleece fabric and
free-motioned quilted them and attached them to the body with simple cross-stitches

Here are several new projects that I have been working on. Two of them - the doll & the cable knitting - I never thought I would try - or care to try for that matter! Now that I have, though, I think that there will be more of both things in my future. I have always been fond of saying that everything is easy when you know how - and I have, once again, proven that adage to myself.

Lily's face is hand painted with acrylics

So - let me introduce Lily. My first angel doll. Years ago - when I was still in the job that stultified my mind every day - I bought a pattern from Gail Wilson Designs hoping that someday I would enjoy making the angel doll. I have a fondness for primitive folk art & for angels - so this was a perfect combination. Somehow I managed to unearth the pattern & decided I would finally give it a go. I enjoyed making her - so will be making more angle dolls in a series I think. I tea dyed the fabric for her body & filled her with beautiful ,fluffy, clean wool...what a nice base this is! The face is painted with acrylics & her hair is wool that I braided into a bun (my grandmother wore her hair like this - and her aunt's name was Lily). I wasn't overly fond of the directions for the clothing - and I think that if a person had no knowledge of how to make a dress they might find the directions just a bit difficult to follow - I mean rather reading them was a bit difficult to follow. Then again - I am not the best at reading directions anyway- so it could quite easily just be me ! In general though I love this pattern and am happy that I found Gail's fine website ! She offers some really wonderful dolls and doll making supplies - and her custom made dolls are amazing.

Such a demure over dress required some rockin' stockings
and a fanciful petticoat - with just a touch of required lace trim!

Next on the "never say Never" list is cable knitting. I had always shied away from knitting cables but always knew that I might,one day, be forced to try it. I found a pattern for a hooded scarf online ( I would add the address here but I keep getting malware warnings when I try to open the site "d-made" - so I thought that I better not add the link here). It's a hood - old fashioned style - with an attached scarf - that has a cable. So here it is in it's infancy. I LOVE doing cables now and want to learn more about them. They are totally fun to do - why was I ever wary of them ??!!

Here is the beginning of one side of the scarf.....glorious simple cable and all !

Beautiful wool from Knit Picks.
What great wools they offer! What great prices too !

Last, but not least of my recent adventures is a pen roll. I had wanted one for some time - and had actually thought of making them to sell ... another odd, stray thought. I used a piece of silk with a thin layer of batting between the silk & a cotton batik. The "the pen holder piece" is silk backed with wool felt. A simple rat tail tie with a heart bead completes this happy home for 6-7 pens. I had fun making this - and will make them if any of my cyber pen friends wants one!

Silk piece from Ah!Kimono -
my favorite place for vintage kimono silk!