Changes happen.

It looks like I may have to move house. We are in a nice large two story
one, and husband’s bedroom is on the second floor. He is up a lot at night and
I snore terribly, so we keep separate sleeping rooms. Now the stairs are an
issue for us both. We do not want to move. A horrible prospect with all the
stuff we have packed in here! I don’t know just when, but I see it coming.
We have collections of collections.

Thanks to Debbie for buying most of the rug wool, and to a number of you
who are helping reduce the size of my doll family. The next house is 1000 sq feet smaller. Oh My!

Hooked rug, whaling runner

This one is a design from an old rug, printed by Barb Carroll as "Moby Dick" in her section of antique rugs. I would love to have it to use down the center of our dining table. Click on a picture to make it larger, you will see my color play using a great deal of variation, which is my main enjoyment in this great craft. Edyth

Quilting Bee 2012

A modern quilting bee is perhaps just as much fun as a traditional one held a century or more ago. Fredericksburg is a magnet for artists and crafters of all stripes. We have a world class fine art school here and many other less formal art classes and demos throughout the year. There is a growing film festival each spring. Weavers and wood workers and writers abound. Our town is also the site of many retreats and workshops for rug hookers and quilters.
This past week I enjoyed visiting with a group of quilters who set up their work in a large meeting room, and spread out an amazing display of quilts in progress, mostly quite modern in color and pattern as well as execution. The participants were not gathered about a frame quilting on their fingers, but rather sat at long work tables and had rows of sewing machines buzzing away. Half of the machines were our grandmother's beloved little Singer featherweights. The other half were high tech wonders capable of anything short of rocketry it seems. The popular little featherweights are still the darlings of many of us who make doll clothes or quilts. I have two Singers set up in my own sewing area.

As soon as they arrive in the hill country, many of the quilters make a bee line for "Creations" a fabulous fabric store in Kerrville. I visited some of the women in their motel rooms as they spread out their bounty from that expedition. So many beautiful textiles and patterns and projects!
Some of the women visited us for tea and brownies. We had such a great good time! E

Papier mache Pauline

Last week I sold an early 25 inch papier mache doll, the kind with a black painted pate wanting a wig. There are tiny nail or pin sized holes showing how the wig was originally held in place. The doll is happy in a fine collection with a new (old) dress and human hair wig. Some of you might like to see how she looks now, and as I sent her. Collectors consider it correct for this type of doll to be shown either with or without a wig, and they are seen both ways. Note the great wax doll standing along side. This one is a "Mad Alice type" E

An early doll's petticoat

Before modern central heating, many little children wore flannel petticoats in the winter, often with a crocheted wool edge at the hem. The dolls of that time coppied the garments of their little owners. This striped example is from one of my Greiner dolls, and I am sure it was made from a child's petticoat. As onother Greiner girl was in need of garments, I made a petticoat for her which captures much of the charm of an old one. It is still possible to find in yard sales and estate sales, old pillow cases with gorgeous hand knit lace. These circles of lace are perfect to trim a petticoat for a large doll. By making the petticoat to fit the lace I avoided cutting the lace which would have destroyed it. I used modern printed flannel in a great mustard color. I am happy with these results. Now to try my hand at making better shoes for her, as I do not care for the ones in the photo. Edyth

Antique dolls offered

I plan to gradually offer many of my project dolls and some complete dolls on my selling blog, see O'Neill's Antiques blog if you are interested. It has finally become time for some of the dolls to go out into the world to seek their fortune as the fairy tales used to put it. Yes some very nice ones a little at a time. Thanks for looking

Nautical Hooked Rugs

Several of my hooked rug designs are sailing ships, I can remember four at this time. One is pictured here. It is faded but I am glad to have it anyway. It include lines from a favorite poem, "Give me a tall ship and a star to steer her by..." This rug was in our house when it burned and was one of the things saved by the firemen as they worked four hours trying to save the house in vain. Very few textiles ever came out of the mess, but my daughters said bring those tapestries off the walls! This one went to a specialty cleaner the next week and I was so glad to have it back. I have pictured it on a table with a dear old Canada goose decoy, but it really lays beside my bed in its real life. The eagle rug usually lays in the dining room in front of a blue corner cupboard. I feel that worn oriental rugs and Hooked rugs can be compatible if both have a lot of the same reds and blues.

The Eagle rug shown in this post was hooked after our move into town, to replace one lost. This example shows the 1790 Eagle design worked without the noisy border of "lamb's tongues".

I have always wanted to make a rug or a sampler with the beautiful verse sometimes used as a sailors prayer by saying "Bless those that go ..."

Psalm 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, These see the works of the Lord and His wonders of the deep. e