some more Bluebell

Last Friday I received a lovely set of things for my Bluebell cottage from the UK, from this firm:
As I have decided the cottage will be situated loosely in the thirties of the 20th century, these are perfect !

And yes, I know, that bed should still be made....

wire flowers

Here is a kind of tutorial I photographed years ago.
I used 26 gauge wire ( 34 is the best you can do), but it does make the principle clear.

Here goes:you need 34 gauge wire
a dowel or toothpick , depending on how big your petals/ leaves are going to be
tweezers
scissors or such
nailpolish or Aleenes.

Lay the wire in front of your dowel, then take it backward, turn against the clock and make a loop. Do several ( I used 5 )loops and then twist the stem, cut off.
Now spread the petals flat. If you like, you can shape them with tweezers.
Now fill them with either nail polish or Aleenes or Sobo glue, mixed with paint , and fill the loops; or if you like, fill the loops with glue and paint over later.Don't forget : the glue will dry clear.

Here is also a short tutorial.

Once you get the basics, with the right wire, it becomes fun to try out several petal and leave shapes and to try and make different kinds of flowers. It is kind of addictive !!!

Wire flowers

I learnt basically how to make those from an article by Pat Snyder in Dolls in Miniature. When I had first seen the article, I was not really impressed. BUT when I saw color pics of them, first on the web somewhere, and then on Shelly Norris's site , I became an enthusiast ! I first tried to make some basic flowers by myself with the wire I could buy here, and then took a lot of internet classes from ShellyN.

Last month Dienke from P&M , a Dutch miniature mag, was here and she got quite interested and maybe I could write an article on them ? So I contacted Shelly and she was agreeable.
Today I finished the photographed and written tutorial.Here are the test-products. Now let's just hope they are good enough and the instructions clear enough!

And for the first time in my life

I won something....
A purse contest at the Yahoogroup Msatminidolls , big group ; the list owner is Dana Burton, she is assisted by a very dedicated bunch of gals, like Lesa, Marilyn P and lots of others. If anyone wants to learn whatever about dressing/ making/wigging dolls , there is where you need to be !

This specific purse was stitched to fit a clasp made by Jens Torp from the UK , who is a great silversmith and a very nice man , too. The design was by Nicola Mascall; I bagged it from one of the pillows I had stitched before.
It was stitched on 64 hpi silk gauze with YLI100, a very thin silk thread.
The ruler you see does centimeters , not inches :-). The width is 13 mm.

but first finishing something else :

A pug cushion , designed by Shelly Hawley-Yan ( she is a great designer and a great animal lover, too).
When a friend of ine asked me to stitch a pug for her granddaughter , who has a fancy for all things pug, I did not have a design, since I can only design from RL portraits. Fortunately I remembered Shelly having published this particular one in American miniaturist. The colors are a glowing , somehow, like jewels, and I really like it.Thank you Shelly !!

The pillow will be mailed this week.

finally stitching full steam ahead

again !

I FI-NAL-LY collected all my courage and started an Undertaking !
I am going to stitch the Joseph Boria carpet ( Victorian Craftsman ) no.1029. It has,as it encouragingly tells me , 242,653 stitches when it will be done ( I suppose the odd number will be the central stitch?). Holy moly , that is near to a quarter of a million......Two of my friend of the Petitpointersgroup stitched this dinosaurus already, now it is my turn :-).
I am stitching on 40 hpi gauze.
Believe it or not , this is the feeble result of several hours stitching. I think I will play truant from time to time to stitch some smaller projects in between , just to keep my spirits up. Otherwise depression could loom on the horizon........Bwahhaaahaaa!!!

Karins critters

I stitched some portraits of Karin Fosters animals and last Friday they arrived at her house.( she describes the pets in her blog here)

Here they are ,all four of them :

I did not want to post the foursome earlier , as Yuki , the small black kitten , was meant as a surprise. I think I succeeded !