March and Much More

BIG SORRY to leave the blog for this long. I did not have much chance to blog on my holidays; going back home means catching up with the loved ones every minute at my disposal. We got back safely and then the horrid tummy bug hit our house...So this post is a real mixed bag. In the first picture my March calendar. You might ask: "What about February"? Well, officially it did not happen in our house, so no calendar. In truth I did not get round to it and had to force myself to do something for March. The end result was far better than my uninspired mood predicted.

I made a doll for my niece whom I met for the first time despite her being 18 months old. She was stinking cute (the niece, not the doll) and sligthly confused about who I might be tropping up with the Grandparents. Initially she wanted to call me grandma as well.

I just LOVE this doll and the colours. I have never before tried this type of combo. The doll is made of cotton, so is the hair. I am always torn between being really "natural" and use natural materials only or make it washable. So this time I went for the washable option as the doll was for a toddler. The filling is polyester and the doll is weighted with plastic beads. (Both parts secondhand, so at least that was a bonus). Obviously the face was embroided instead of painted for the washability. I quite liked the end result myself.

















I think this was the first time I used knits for doll clothes and it was SO good. The whole question of how to get the doll into the clothes was solved as they stretch, no zigzaging needed as the material doesn't fray. And the best of all, my old long t-shirt sleeves were the perfect size for the body part of the shirt and the trousers. So I had ready made hems!

I also made a playmat for a friend's little son. Unfortunately they were travelling while we were visiting, so it had to be posted. The playmat was made of hand dyed African cotton for the front and the binding and thrifted soft cotton for the back. I made different "sensory" things for the upper edge of the quilt for baby to play with. It is playmat size and can alternatively be used in a pushchair where the baby will still have access to his toys. The pockets were hand embroided as well as the robot's face. I hand quilted it with an irregular squiggly pattern, which went well with it's modern bright colours and toy theme. Everything it is washable and if the mother gets tired with the toys dangling from it, they can be snipped away.

 The weather up North was wintery. At times it was -22 C with stiff wind. That meant not going out other than getting from point A to point B. My sister claimed that her frontal lobes were deep frozen during our walk from the Zoological Museum to a department store. The picture of the elf son was taken on a day of lesser severity; only around -14 C and no noticeable wind. He is on the frozen sea ice, making confusing trails.

I promise not to leave the blog for another month. There are more things to blog from the travels and new fresh things to show, so see you soon.