Sunday, December 5, 2010

What did you do before you started Quilting?



I have to tell you that I'm copying the title
of this post from Faye at Mimi's Passions
Faye says that her items are from 1993
or 1994 and if I remember correctly that
time period was "hot" for hand made items.


I thought that it was such an interesting and
fun thing to blog about!

I'm sure that most of us Quilters were doing
some kind of hobby before Quilting took over
all of our spare time.

I'm hoping that more of you bloggers
will also write about this topic!
If you do please let me know.

I started to make a doll after I saw a pattern
in one of the Craft magazines. After making
one; I was hooked. I had recently lost my job
thanks to "computers" my job was fazed out.

My husband suggested that I not look for another
job right away and just "play" a little. And so I did.


One of the first dolls that I made was something
like this:



All of the dolls had faces; I just never got around
to give her hers.


Some had themes:


Like this one who had spools and pins.

And this one:


"Sunflower Sadie" who had all farm themed items
in her arms and dress.

I also made quite of few "one of a kind" types.
I wish I had taken photos of those.

And then some were


Angels! The picture is of poor quality because
some of the photos were taken with a Polaroid
camera.

Behind the Angel you will see a calendar and
the year 1997. I was doing these for about
two or three years before this.



I also did some

Victorian Rabbits

I had several orders for these; they were quite
tall.

A shop had opened just a couple of blocks away
from my house and so I started to sell my dolls
in that shop. I have to say that I did quite well.

A Country type Restaurant had opened in
the area as well and they bought several pieces
to display throughout the restaurant.

Then I found another pattern in a craft
book that I just had to have:



A Unicorn!

I just loved it! (another Polaroid pic) This was
a little difficult to make at first until I got the
hang of it.

Another "hot" item back then was Cows!

I still have this one!

I could not find Cow fabric on Long Island and
so I had to come to Lancaster (where my sister had
moved - lucky for me) just to buy lots and lots of
Cow fabric.
Only one shop carried it!

Cow dolls, Cow planters everywhere a moomoo (-:
The cow planter - I designed myself. I loved it!
I also made myself a "business" called it "Create -
a - scene". And Oh I forgot


Cow Coasters!

I saved a set for myself! Going through these
I noted that I have some hand painting on the
coasters and they are also quilted. A sign
of the future perhaps....

I also saved for myself


A little stuffed mouse. You can use him for a pin
cushion but I don't. (if you see any dust - just ignore it)

And just one more thing



I designed these little hanging Christmas
Trees. I just drew a triangle and cut out
the fabric and added batting. I either
added some little ornaments or buttons.

I saved most of my "bought" patterns and
have over 70 of them. I had so much fun
making all of this stuff!
Now I feel like making one! hmm maybe
a little teddy bear. (-:

Thank you Faye!


2 comments:

  1. You are welcomed. I wish I had pictures of all my tole painting projects. Well, actually I do have pictures, but they are hard copy pictures. I don't think I was using a computer at home at the time of my tole painting. Actually, if I had a computer, I probably wouldn't have gotten as much painting done as I did. Your selling your dolls reminds me about my painting for a "Naked Furniture" store an hour away from home. It all came about when the owner saw a Santa pin that I was wearing that I had painted and he in turn handed me a case of wood clocks to paint any way that I wanted. From there I was painting designs on some of his furniture that he sold, too. I even did flowers/tendrils on his personal bedroom set (with his wife's permission...LOL). That was a fun time. Making me think back on those times brings back a whole lot of memories.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Faye, if you have photos of your tole paintings - you can probably scan them - that's how I did mine (above)
    Sounds like your tole paintings were beautiful!

    ReplyDelete

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