A Soft spot out of harm's way

 

My new Dell tablet came today. Yes I know apples are better in many ways and we have several in the family. But this will be easily compatible with my other computers and I am thrilled at having a new toy. For a painter it offers so much!  I like to paint en plein air , but almost everything I do is really done from a photo carried home and painted here inside.  The cameras on the tablet let me see large what the photo will be and carry it right to a spot beside my easel where I can sit and paint in comfort.  How wonderful the blend of handicrafts and traditional arts with technology that amplifies our efforts!  Quilters use the latest technology certainly, and doll makers swap notes and designs almost in real time across continents and oceans. How great is it that we can visit this way!?

 

So as I looked for a safe place to charge it for the first time tonight, the new tablet landed in the lap of dolls in an old cradle. A fitting picture of how my life is now, loving the gentle old things and being on the edge of great new possibilities in the communication of ideas.   It is still about color and design and texture, no matter what means we use to say it. e

19th century Quilted baby bonnets

  Over time I have had a number of these quilted bonnets both for adults and children. Still have 3, one with the silk lining coming to pieces.   My dolls wear these smallest ones.

I believe they were worn indoors in extreme weather as well as out of doors. Keeping baby’s head warm was an important goal, and much needlework was spent on these bonnets. An easy way to replicate them is to use parts of an early quilt, not overly thick, and a binding at the edge. I enjoy the name of the skirting at the back of a bonnet, the word bavolet. is defined as “flounce sewed to back of bonnet, covering hair and neck".  In the case of bonnets for infants like this, the small flounce is not very significant.  

The brown and blue bonnet is modeled by an early Greiner doll with the stamped letters PaT Head on her shoulder plate. This stamp was used before the paper labels saying Greiner's Patent head. All of the Pat Heads have a rather different  squirrelly expression.  She does not like to cover up her great old curls.  This doll was dressed by Rachael Kinneson.  

Birdie is the name of this bright eyed Voit doll. She wears a lovely old dress that was a gift from friend Phyllis, and a dear quited bonnet.  E

 

A nice day with friends

Yesterday the antique study club I enjoy so much met in the big log home of my friend Penny.  It was a beautiful party in every way, but the part I want to share here is the little doll that lives in Penny's kitchen on the counter. Petite and business like, it is clear the doll is most  helpful there and never in the way.  She is Jan Conwell's little Cinderella, and elicited many cries of admiration from the guests.  The tiny mouse on the doll's head scarf, and the bird on the end of her broom, and the well executed clothing were all noted.  Beloved doll person Helen P. Took this picture of Ciderella, as I was without my camera.  E

Click on pictures to enlarge them.

Spring will come again

Last night we were blessed with a good rain.  My recently planted dooryard garden is just a tiny part of the grateful earth, but it is meanigful to me. I have there the twice transplanted white flowering quince and  paper whites that were around our dear red cape once.  I wrote a book on rugs for my red cape a few years ago, and the beginning and the ending spoke of the paper whites blooming again as a marker for the turning of a new year and a new begining. 

These will not bloom this year, being taken up and replanted in a new yard just as they would have flowered.  The long leaves laying flat but living and green, giving promise for the future are like an image of my heart now.  Though they cannot bloom now, I know that by and by there will be flowers again. e

John F. O'Neill II 1939-2012

My beloved Jackie has passed away December 28th about 2:15 pm...

At home here and in peace.  This of course is the hardest thing of my life. We had a long time to talk of it and he told me repeatedly he wanted me to survive and live forward..  I will be ok by and by, and wear Jack’s love like mink around my shoulders the rest of my life. e

Thank you for the comments here, I read each and every one more than once and thank you for the affection and support in them. 

Feather tree up

 

I am sure to thicken this grouping and change it in the coming days, but it is good to have a tree up.  In past years I have enjoyed serving goodies from the little sled and around it. I can do that with this arrangement by just moving the bears and putting in serving plates of cookies and pumpkin bread. 

The lovely little doll in a blue striped morning dress is a 20 inch Izanna take off made by Jan Conwell.  Hannah loves having her for a companion.  e

The doll's party

Dollmaker Jan Conwell and her husband came for a quick visit and lunch with friend JoAnne and me. Jan brought some of her creations at my request and I was lucky enough to purchase one of them to go with my new Christmas doll, as yet unnamed but I am leaning toward Hannah.  That's Hannah in the buggy.  Jan also brought back two dear old doll heads which she had replaced shoulders on for me.  These are huge shoulder heads about 9 inches tall.   note, the greiner type on the couch in a bonnet was made by JoAnne, from her own sculpt and mold with liquishay.  The Chase child is old, as is Hannah.