I never tire of Brown and Blue

I used these favorite colors to tie together a small doll bed quilt and a little antique chest of drawers given to the doll family several years ago by Jack. He found it at the Boerne Antique show and surprised me with it. Friend Elaine made and dressed the small Izannah type doll, a precious gift to me, and her mother Martha made the small braided rug in the mix of browns and blues. Both of these women are superb fiber artists.

To make the little quilt, I sewed extra brown strips around an early Log Cabin square, added a frame of soft blue, and bound and backed it with a deeper blue green. Whether hooking, quilting or dressing a doll, the play of several fabrics well chosen is always greater than the sum of them individually. A quilter's play of fabric bit against bit is a never ending game, like endless hands of solitaire to a card player. The results are ever changing, ever intriguing. My friend for 40 some odd years, Linda B. and I used to sit on the floor and play with fabrics like two little girls playing a game of jacks. Edyth in Sunny Texas

Lion hooked with Brown and Blue

Here is my pattern called Weaver's Lion, which I hooked for a pillow top a year or so back. A sweet friend Martha carried it home and added the braid she made, and then worked the whole thing into a great pillow. It does not really stay on the porch as shown in these pictures, it stays on a little sofa in my bed room, covered in a coverlet print of indigo and ecru. Thank you Martha! Edyth

Doll Party On Thursday the 8th

I had some women friends in to play dolls and paint doll hair. Just a fabulous day I will never forget. We staged a doll show in the dining room with the two themes. One of the ladies, from our Maida group, Elaine has darling triplet youngsters which she home schools and is doing such a grand job with. They were here, but stayed put in the living room to let us old gals play. The subject of the painting was my rope like curls.

REMEMBER to click on all photos to make them a little larger.

Doll Quilts and Doll Making

The stars of the show on one table were some thirty odd doll size quilts made by Elaine's mother and a few old ones Penny and I had, and on the other table a few examples of dolls from Penny and me, plus an amazing doll family made by Elaine!

Marcy's fox in NH

Photos of the little fox thanks to Marcy G.

Hi Marcy, Chale forwarded the darling pictures of the little fox in your yard. Thank you for sharing them! My daughter Cheryl in Co has a fox family that frequents her yard , grown members and the year's babies each year. She says it is a poor idea to feed them as it makes them quite tame and therefore more vulnerable to harm. However she feeds them and the squirrels and the raccoons and birds and all comers. Your little fox would enjoy kitten, then cat food, dried purina or the like little shapes and pellets. His teeth are tiny and incredibly sharp!

I had a pair in the house for 3 months once when I lived in west Texas in the early 1960's. They were the only survivors from a den of 6 kits, dug out by a rancher loosing lambs. The little vixen would eat from my fingers, (oatmeal cookie dough) but the little dog fox her brother would bite the fire out of me! I caged them in the kitchen by day, lest a child inadvertently let them out a door, but I turned them loose at night to run and play in the house. I can still hear them in my mind's memory, yapping and churring and making a variety of calls to each other as they ran under the furniture and played. They smell quite gamey and bad confined unless the newspaper in the cage is changed several times a day. (Ours was!) The little vixen would let me cuddle her and I remember the sweet wild smell when I buried my face in her fur.

When they were old enough to turn loose in the wild, about 5 months old we judged, we took them to the edge of woods along a dirt road near Glenrose, and opened the cage door. the little dog fox shot away and I thought "Oh no he will leave her!!" The little female eased out and went a few steps then looked back at me, and then her brother peeked out from some brush and barked to her and she ran away with him to live her little fox life. I am sure they learned to hunt catching grasshoppers and small things in the woods that spring.

Cheryl is my daughter that paints, and here is a pastel she did of one of her yard fox. Best, Edyth

It's twins!

At Round Top when I saw these adorable cotton wrappers or dressing gowns for infant twins, I was unsure just how to use them but I wanted them much!

A few months later the same dealer had them at a show in Boerne Texas. The price held me off. After leaving the show they were still on my mind and I asked Jack to turn around and let me go back and buy the treasures.

The dresses are both in splendid condition, fully lined in two different brown cotton prints. I date them about 1870, could be a bit later or earlier. At the time I had one 36 inch M and S superior doll, and began watching for another. By a marvelous stroke of luck, a second one arrived in the mail as a gift from a doll collecting friend! So now the two of them wear the wonderful dresses and sit side by side on top of a highboy in my bed room. The age of the dolls matches well with the garments.

Again the shoes tell a similar story, I bought one pair at the Comfort Antique show 2 weeks back and friend Jean saw what I was doing and mailed me a matching pair for the other twin! Little by little, with the help of an understanding and indulgent husband and the generosity of friends, a lovely family of dolls in appropriate clothing is coming to be mine again. Blessings.. Edyth

Hill country party Remember to click pictures to make big!

I like the coverlet border used as a cornice board , and don't miss the great Shaker hat and cloak. The whole house is a lovely tribute to a life time collector.