What is going on when I'm not busy sewing

Sun room cabinets

We just bought my MIL a trailer, in the 55+ park,

down the hill from us. As she has expressed a desire to nEver live through another Chicago winter!
Its a basic trailer nicely laid out with a sun room in the front, moving into the kitchen to the living room down a hall with, 2 bedrooms and a bath. A nice little cozy nest, for an 87+ year old lady, to putter in.
Close to shops/doctors and transit to get around or us to drive her and it puts her a mere mile away instead of the 2010, in case she needs us.

The trailer park is snuggled into a nice wooded space, with manicured walks between trailers and a waterfall! Very pretty and very clean. I've even met a few of the neighbors, in the process of cleaning up.  I think Mom will like it here.

*WARNING!* 

*RANT IN PROGRESS!*

Kitchen cleaning in progress

My youngest DD and I have spent the better part of 5 days cleaning the sucker out.

Bless her fuzzy little soul, for helping out with her step-grannies new place.

The husband/wife we bought the trailer from, seem to have never heard of the concept of cleaning under/around/behind things, or in fact to have ever moved anything TO clean.

DD#2 washing walls and a wood stove!

Not that they left much behind except a few things scattered in random drawers, which you would expect, the dirt on the walls, shelves and that old "cooked chicken" smell, in the fridge, which I didn't.
Owing to the assiduousness with which the wife sprayed fabreez EVERYWHERE.

I now understand why. *deep sigh*

How does one get rid of thAt smell?
That smelly, smell. That smells,.........smelly.

ugh. 

View from the hall

Though It took most of the day the Fridge is now clean and free of the crusted on dry "stuff" that was under/between the holders for the glass shelves. Yeccchhh!

Then there was the christmas wrapping paper and in one case, part of an old pick-nick cloth, with the fuzzy side elmers glued to the shelves!

The stovehood has been HOT GLUED o0! in places,
there is that expanding foamy stuff under both the kitchen and bathroom sinks

Oh! your taking the picture now? Really?

and the "new" shower surround has been repaired with caulk. o.0!

I expected a degree of deep cleaning was gong to be in order and a bit of things that need to be fixed, It is a 45 year old trailer after all.

But not having to scrub down the walls/ceiling of the cruft of years!

You know your in trouble, when the walls change color as you clean.
When the pine-sol your using makes runnels that are a different shade of grey from the one you are currently working on,  Eeeeew!

Did I mention they had 2 yappy dogs and a parakeet? No? Well they left us Something too in the way of a few feathers and enough dog hair,  dug so deep into the carpet and the rugs they left behind, to make another dog.

ThAnk goodness for the rug cleaner we got, years ago, to tackle the 20 year old carpeting in our own house!

Bedroom #1 small

I used 2 bottles of carpet cleaner on what amounts to 4 rooms of carpeting.
And I still have to vacuum one more time, to get rid of the dog balls left behind by the carpet cleaner.


This all amounts to what my Ex-hubbs used to call "Turkey-bird" engineering and has me muttering dire things under my breath.

All that being said, It's still a very nice trailer.

I would live in it.

Having had to clean a myriad of apartments in Chicago before moving into them this one was a 3. On a scale of, 1 being very clean to 5 being, OMG! fuck you people!

So all in al not too bad.

Sorry for the rant but I needed to vent,

Bedroom #2

or I'd explode all over someone who, probably won't deserve it.

This is when you start sizing up all the things you don't "get around to"at home and just how much does it bother you that you've never cleaned behind/around/under that?
I have come to the conclusion that other peoples dirt bothers me way more than mine

and Id rather sew.

How I made the Suffragette doll

First special tools you will be needing to make your job easier,

 a light iron on fusible web for lining the body parts. 

It helps to keep the parts from looking lumpy after you stuff it.  

Its also handy for drawing out the pattern pieces on It also helps to keep your stitching hold firm.

A pair of hemostats for turning the arms and legs I can't stress this enough, You need a pair! 

The turning tool is nice but I only use it for the bigger body part.

First thing you are going to do is draw and cut out the body parts from fusible webbing, I like to have 2 coordination fabrics for the body and sleeves and one for the "pants" then  there is the "skin" fabric.

leaving a 1/4" seam allowance so there is a line to follow when sewing.

you will need 4 arms, 4 legs and 2 bodies. The pattern comes from Tilda's seasonal by Tone Finnanger.

Since the legs are bigger at one end then taper to a thin point, I like to cut out a piece of fabric for the pants and one of "skin"for the bottom then sew them together at the knees,

iron on the webbing on the wrong side of the fabric (ask me how I know!) do this for 4 legs pin them all right sides together and follow your seem line.

repeat this for the arms, giving yourself "sleeves"of the body fabric

Try turning the legs first as they are a little bigger and will give you some practice before trying the smaller arms.

put the hemostats into the leg all the way to the toe, you will be crinkling up the fabric quite a bit here. dont worry it will all come out in the stuffing.

now with one finger in between the points of the hemostats push the fabric into the jaws as far as you can and clamp them closed tight.

now give the end a bit of a sideways twist and pull towards yourself pushing up on the outside as you go.

this part is difficult to get going so you may have to restart it a few times.

once the tip is turned the rest of comes out pretty quickly. Do this to all 4 limbs and the body.

I stuff the arms first, mostly to get them over with, I wrap some thin strips of leftover batting around the end of the hemostats and shove them all the way down to the tips. Then just keep stuffing until it's full.

Repeat for the other arm.

The legs you only stuff to the knees where you will stop and sew a line 2-3 times across so they bend. 

continue stuffing until they are mostly full, do this for the body also. You want to leave a little room at the end of each leg and the body for sewing it all together.

I will pin the legs onto one side of the body, sew them down. Then flip the body over and pin the other side down, folding over the seam allowance, prior to making a straight seam to attach the legs.

Now You will need a long needle, I have used a basting needle, to attach the arms.

I will position the arm till it looks right then pin ti on in 2-3 places and sew around it until it's on good and tight. 

don't worry if you leave big gaps I go around 2-4 times until I get them all and the arm is on and not wobbly.

Now on to the hair! This is the fun part.
I use Home spun by Lion brand,
for my dolls hair because it is versatility. if I want it to look like straight hair or curly hair this stuff works great.








you will need about 12-16 strands of however long you want it, make it a little longer as you will be trimming it later.

I give you a few links1, Link2, Link3, for sewing on hair as frankly, they do a better job than I could

 I hope this was helpful.
Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Sugar plum Girl

THis is brilliant

"I love fairy tales, but I think that the idea of "beautiful = good" is one of the most insidiously damaging messages in fairy tales, even worse than "if you dress your rodents in cute little outfits and believe they sing in lisping English for your amusement, you'll marry a prince instead of being hauled off to the loony bin."

Writer Sarah Beth Durst

 That being said I am having too much fun making Tilda's and coming up with dresses for them.

Girls goota have the right hair

They remind me of boudoir dolls from the 20s-50's that would sit on grandma's  dresser. Or the Dollies my Auntie had on her guest bed. 

Her pantaloons

It all started with the Witchy-poo doll and is currently extended to 2 others

A frock must be coordinated

Sugar Plum has come home from her Christmas display and Spring Flowers has replaced her

The right hat to top it off

I want to make another

and another

They really are addictive


And so easy to make. I should do a tutorial 

I don't know, You tell me.

The Vaca

 So We went to Kona on the Big Island in Hawaii for a couple of weeks again this year, Yayas! 

Kona Bay

  It's awesome to go in the first place,

Kona sunset

 made even more so by my wonderful husband, who spoils me rotten!

Banyan tree

This year we planned it around not only BI's shop-hop,

which goes for the full month of February, if any one is interested.

A lovely walk along Ali'i st

But for Quilt passions (QP) Quilting on the beach event, where they sponsor 20 or so classes for a week at the King Kamehameha hotel.



They have been doing them for about 10 years and If you can there is another quilting on the beach in june, I highly recommend going.

My filthy lucker from QP

 + the packet for quilting on the beach

The fabric Oh the fabric! Every shop has some of the most wonderful balli prints I have ever seen in every color imaginable!







I went a little nutz,

to be fair I had encouragement!





Hubs was egging me on, go ahead we can mail it all home!

RxR in progress for 2015 picked up at QP

whee!

The first pattern that I finished was th shop-hop row by row from 2015 QP has a back log of them for the years between.
Not that I'm trying to tempt you or anything!

Shop-Hop pattern for the 5 BI shops!

when it all arrived at home the first pattern I started was the whale Row by row

Whales

More patterns from other shops

So much fun and so quick!

the whales came in the package already to iron on

so as soon as you sewed up the background you slapped them on and voila!


Then there was the finishing of my own shops Row by row

Pineapple pattern #1

and the completion of the first shop-hop kit.

as it's the corner 

there are only 3 parts to it

this one went together quickly also

all my row x rows compleate

I can see Ima be busy for the foreseeable future!




There are also the charity quilts I didn't finish before we left

Husband who spoils me rotten!

and all the life stuff you need do when you get home.

Vaca may be over but I have a lot of lovely reminders to keep me going back as I sew!