WOOOHAAA ! Stacy 's dressed!

Finally ! After having several tries at dressing this beautiful little gal by Stacy Hofman, I finally clad her. My, that was an operation. First tries: dresses too stiff or too modern. Could not find fabrics or thik of decorations to go with her beautiful hair decorations, that Stacy had so painstakingly made.
Finally, I saw a pattern in DHMS last year, called Wisteria Bride by Sue Johnson. I do not need any bride, but reckoned it could double as a ball dress, as the fabric is a soft golden  color. Upon inquiring, Sue delivered the fabric pack needed for thsi dress,a LOT of silk and several laces that I would never have been able lo locate myself. Thank you Sue !
 The original decorations were roses and wisteria; would have liked it, but the flowersoft that I used on other projects is prone to bleach up in the strong light of my house and after a year it looks awful. So I settled for roses only , both wire (faux enamel and silk roses) and wire leaves,
Umm, remind me not to use Dupion silk again, unless I have to... draping is surely not my strong suit, sorry...

I also altered the bodice, since this doll is petite, and the original bodice of the pattern was a bit too modern, too.

After decorating the dress, I also added some rhinestones to the hair decorations, to make them  coordinate better with the dress. And now I have sent her to the ball. She will get a fan, promise, but not right now. Later.

working table

  A looooong time ago my lovely Canadese friend Cheryl made this working table for me. As you can see, it is designed to have a  bag underneath. Snag : I did not have the bag yet, of course.
The poor thing was sitting in my chest for a long time, but now that I am back in the swing of stitching, I decided to do something about this unsatisfactory state  of  things and last week I stitched the bag.
Clever people would have chosen crewelwork, I think.However, I am anything but, so I went for Petitpoint again, this time with a kind of "bargello"woven background ( with a big thank you to Susan Farnik, whose idea this combination was ,for a project of hers). The designs were nicked from Sue Hawkins's book and from Dolls House Nederland, I needed some small rose designs.

It was kind of nail-biting work whether it would work out or not, but I think it did and let nobody say otherwise, since I am really really proud of it ! There !

                                               And a BIG thank you to Cheryl !!!!

CUSHION !

You know how it is.... a person asks you what to do, you give your honest opinion, and next thing you know : person does what s/he wants, anyway :-)

So I made a cushion , with tassels even, something I had never done before. It was quite easy , actually, once I had figured out that my bow-maker was a nice tool to make tassels. It is a bold cushion. A Statement !

Sitting on a David Booth sofa right now, but we will find another place, this is definitely not the best combination for my taste; this elegant sofa needs something more feminine/ flowery, I think.

Firescreen or cushion?

I just finished stitching a Nicola Mascall kit. It was meant to be a firescreen, but it was a bit big , so I decided to downsize it by using 48 hpi gauze instead of 40 hpi, and make a big cushion out of it. It might do very well in a  Victorian parlour.
Still, now that I have finished stitching, I am hesitating . Cushion or firescreen ?? Anybody any idea ??

Tiffany has got her own webpage

:-) Today I made Tiffany a member of the kitten club , so she can become world famous now !!!
Here is her very own link....

And now I get famous ( well, moderately so)

Today I received the May issue of Dolls House Nederland, in which Rika van Nellesteijn features the critter house. She approached me last month about it and I sent her the full text and  de-reworked pictures that I used for the booklet .
She did a fantastic job on editing my text and pictures !

She graciously allows me to post it here, so that I can brag !!!!

So here goes:

Little Lazy Larry

Yesterday/today I finished  a kit by Nancy Cronin, little Lazy  Larry, a very lazy, very Irish pixie, happily asleep in a bed of marshmallows:-). he is going to live in Bluebell Cottage, a nice little cottage, in the attic.
Isn't he sweet?

                                                         (underneath : Nancy's picture ):