Doll Making

My sister has given me the opportunity to make a doll for her again. It is interesting that most of the doll making just comes naturally from doing it so much. Even the creating of the pattern to use. I did have to tweak the hands as I forgot one step. Make sure you needle sculpt the doll face on the right side for the way the hands curl. This doll set will come with a cat and it was fun to design a new cat to go with her. Will post a photo when I am finished.

This doll set was given to my sisters friend in Austria.

Jack O Lanterns Halloween Creations

 Jack O Lanterns

Thought I would also do a blast from the past photo.

This is one of my headless pumpkin doll sets.

Patterns What do you want me to create

There are a few things I have been thinking about making into patterns for this Halloween Season 2016

I would love feedback if you are interested in me making these into patterns for you to use for your own use or to make for sale. 

My Witches boots. These are fun needle punch boots that you can display. They can hang any where and have a pocket inside. I put pip berries in mine.

These are my Jack-O-Lanterns that can be used year after year. 

The top one is my gothic Jack-O-Lantern below that are many others that I have created.

Finished Mom's Pillow

Just in time for Mother's day. 

This was supposed to be a Christmas present. 

Shhh I won't tell if you won't.

 

Now I can make a special order doll set for my sister.

I am looking forward to playing with making dolls again it has been a while since I have made one.

Easter with Family

My sister calls me up and says do you want to get together for Easter. Yes I do. This was the first time in many years we were able to share Easter with each other. And one of the greatest blessings of all is my parents were able to be there too. The day was gorgeous. Evidence of spring all around. Gold finches have joined the other birds at our feeder. The lilac bush out front has purple buds all over it. Spring green leaves are popping out every where and the grass and alfalfa are all greened up. Mom says her tulips are in bloom and I will need to go over and see them before they go away til next year. I was inspired to look into another topic that is most dear to my heart. The risen Lord. I have been gleaning information on the historical evidence of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. What an interesting study. It is good to be back in Colorado and share special occasions with family. 

God bless you

Special Order Cat Purse

Linda has given me the opportunity to create a unique cat purse just for her. I will post new photos of Linda's purse when I complete it.
Here is the promised finish photos of this special order cat purse.

Pay it forward

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/7fk7/help-save-thursday-/updates/110935

My grand kitty Thursday has went over the rainbow bridge and will be greatly missed. There was more going on then the discovery of diabetes. You could buy a car for what it cost to try to save his life. We love our pets so much and Angela's heart is broken. I know Angela does not regret the cost but will be paying this off for many years with out the help of generous people. Any amount will help. 

 https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/7fk7/help-save-thursday-/updates/110935

Finishing my Rug

I am going to be finishing this rug finally. I had been waiting to know where I was going to put it. It will be going on a wall so the binding and the hanging method can be done. I am getting motivated to start decorating the house. I painted the main bath yesterday a beautiful lilac color. Will touch up the paint today and be done with that. We are also going to plan our garden and fruit trees to be planted this spring. It is good to have our feet on none mobile ground again.

A Work In Process

A home is a work in progress. A tapestry being woven with each screw, every push of a shovel and stroke of a brush. Ideas every changing. A old house that wants to look young again and be loved. Well that is our new home. A work in progress. We are on week three of upgrading our new home. This will be a several year process. But we see the potential in this little house we call home. We are still living in our fifth wheel which we have called home for twelve years. As it is easier to work inside the house while not living in it. Having said that we hope to live in part of the house by next week.

Things we are doing right now. 

Building  a wood fence around the north and west sides of our property. For privacy, sound barrier and to, we hope, keep our dog in the 3/4 acre yard. Painting inside the house. Rebuilding a bit inside. Cleaning cleaning cleaning. Racking racking racking. As you can see there are a lot of trees. My brother in law Evert and sister Lynda helped us clean up the yard and my dad. Evert with his chain saw removed some to crowded shrubs and trees. It is true pay attention to the size the trees will grow to be when you plant them. They really do grow as wide and tall as they say. There is still much to do with the trees around the house.  The burn pile is huge. There is even an apple tree that has yummy green apples and a rose bush blooming small pretty red flowers.  All the landscape will need to be redone. The apple tree has to be trimmed much shorter. The roses need to be moved. So as you can see the tapestry of a home and the land we live on is ever determined by what colors we choose to weave. Much more has happened but I do not want to bore you to much with all the details.

Welcome Home

After many years, twelve to be exact, we are going to settle back down to living in a house that is not mobile. We will still travel in the future but have a more permanent base. We chose a fixer upper house as we enjoy the projects that this will give us in the future. I am pondering starting my creative art work again as I will have a studio. I can not even imagine having a sewing machine out where I can easily get to it. To see my wools in there gorgeous colors sounds very inspiring. We will be living close to my parents again. This is also exciting as they are not getting any younger and I want to share as much time with them as possible. This house will also put us closer to our two grown children. As they will only be two hours away. We will still have a property in the mountains to get away to and look forward to continuing to stay up here a lot. Also we can garden again. This house sits on a 3/4 acre lot plenty of room to plant plant plant. If all goes well we will close on the house early next month.

Good to be Home

It has been a long time since I posted. We worked all winter at a 24 hour gate guard position in Texas. It is good to be back home in Colorado at our Fawn Hollow Ranch. Watching the deer, the birds at the feeders, squirrels and rabbits. Been a tough week as my dad had chest pains and went to the hospital on Sunday. He is fine and they didn't find anything. Then my sister had her knee replaced on Monday. Evert my brother in law and I had been heading down every day to visit and help. Good that she is home now and lives just over the hill. She has a long road in front of her but is doing well. I am really tired and drained. Will relax for a few days.  I for the first time in a long time actually had a desire to create so maybe I will do some creating over the next month. I am still getting my vacation spirit back. I have had some special order requests but have not been able to do any as I have had no time. But I think it might be time to make something new or create the patterns that I have said I would create. For the witches boots and also the jack o lantern pattern.

Tips For Hooked Pumpkin

Thought I would repost these tips in my main blog in case some of my rug hooking friends are only a part of my Befruitful Blog. 

While hooking this special order pumpkin I realized that I wanted to share a few tips on the process of making the pumpkin. 

Since you must hook snug and close together it is easier to use a smaller hook. I was using my primitive hook and it was a real work out to use it for this project. I pulled out my first hook a simple hook with a sponge covered handle. It was so much easier to hook close with this.

When assembling the pumpkin I find this needle a must. 

Here is a link for, one place you can find, these Jumbo darning needles. I have found the metal ones are a must as I break the plastic ones. Clover also makes a case for these to go in which I use to store mine.

Click here for a link to the Jumbo darning needle. 

 The larger the thickness of the stick stem the easier it will be to close the monks cloth around it. 

 If you can find the colored monks cloth I would suggest using brown or rust for these pumpkins. 

Click here for a sight that has photos of the color options available  

If you have a photo of a pumpkin you have made from my pattern and want me to share it here in my blog add a commit saying so and we will work out how you can get me a photo.

Custom Order Pumpkin

Thank you Tim for the opportunity to make your pumpkin for you.
For those who are unfamiliar with rug hooking. This pumpkin was hand hooked with a special kind of hook using wool strips of fabric. This is a large dimensional rug hooked pumpkin.

Scissor Case

Scissor Case

This is a great look. I love it. I think I need to make one for my curved scissors I use to cut snippets off of my rug hooked projects.

Rachael Ann & Spunky

This is a custom order doll set that I made for Marti. Thank you for the opportunity to make this doll set for you Marti. 

South Again

Well we had hoped to stay in Colorado this year but this is not going to happen. We will again be heading south. We are thankful that we have this beautiful fifth wheel to live in as we upgraded last year to a 2011 Big Country by Heartland. We know that God has a plan for us and we look forward to seeing His plan unfold before us. I am working on a special order doll right now and then will create a dimensional rug hooked pumpkin for another customer. I just ordered a K's kreations sit upon stand and an ball and socket adaptor for my Snapdragon rug hooking frame, so there will be some more rug hooking in my future. There is a waiting list for the Snapdragon adapter kit so not sure when I will get this. I am trying to decide what to bring south with me as far as my art supplies. Need to narrow it down. If you have been a follower of my artwork you know I like variety. I create soft sculpture dolls and things, needle punch creations, and rug hooking. I like dimensional rug hooking and needle punch. I would like to make another Windy Santa. I had so much fun with the creating of the Rug hooked Santa sculpture. I hope that God will give us a gate that I can have time to create art work and some patterns that I have had on my mind to do. Maybe I should take the night shift as I might get more creating done that way. For those who follow my blog I am sorry I have been kind of missing in action. I spent a lot of this summer trying to find a house for us to purchase. But that was not to come to reality this year. It is challenging having this one year old puppy. Skyler is a handful. She is a greyhound doberman mix or so we think. We decided to call her a Halloween puppy as we have to guess at her age. She has a lot more training to do. I hope I am up to this challenge. Skyler adopted us while we were in Texas last year. She showed up under our fifth wheel one night and we were unable to locate her owner. A fenced yard would have been better as she is a hunter and will take off when she is not on a leash. So I have to take her for two long walks a day. This just gets some of her energy out. It will be a challenge to do a gate guard job with her. But God put Skyler in our lives for a reason and heading south is His idea as the door did not open here in Colorado. So I know He will show us the way to do all.

Dimensional Rug Hooked Hooking Pumpkin Pattern

This is an awesome rug hooking pattern for you to make this huge 3 dimension pumpkin. The finished pumpkin will be about 27" around the whole pumpkin or about 9" across. This unique pumpkin is about 12" tall with the stem and without the stem part 6". The dimensions vary some depending on the assembling process which is fully described for you with photos included. This is for the pattern instruction packet only. Does not include linen or monks cloth. What an awesome accent piece, you can create, for any time of year. 

This Rug Hooked Pumpkin pattern can be purchased from my website you will find the link in the right margin. Or you can purchase from Etsy or Patternmart these links are also in the right margin at the top. 

 

Pondering

After being on the road traveling and working for the last ten years we are seriously considering moving back to colorado this fall. We are actually looking at houses to purchase.
Today found me really excited about artwork again. I have not had a desire all summer. So look back I might actually create something new soon. The thought of actually having a place to set up my sewing room and art supplies thrills me.

Home at Last

Last week we made it back to Westcliffe. It is so good to be back home for our spring and summer. It has taken us a little while to get used to the colder temps around here. We also have a new addition to the family. A dog adopted us while we were in Texas. After searching many avenues to locate her family, with no luck what so ever, we decided to bring her home with us.  This week we will take Skylar to the vet for shots and maybe find out for sure what mix of dogs she is.  We think she has doberman and greyhound in her. She is maybe 7 months old and a bundle of energy. We have a lot of training to do with her but she seems to be a quick learner. Stubborn at times but most children are. She is very interested in the deer but we are trying to teach her they are friends. Right now I am just enjoying some much needed R&R and taking long walks with Skylar. Doing some reading and enjoying time with God. I have so much enjoyed getting back to my quiet times with God. He is the greatest counselor and what He teaches me is so relevant to life. I again say it is great to be back home in our little ranch called Fawn Hallow.

Summer Vacation

It is almost that time. It has been a long 7 months with no break or time off. But next week we start our summer vacation. A well deserved break. 

This sweet pup showed up under our fifth wheel April 2 2012. She is maybe 7 months old. She was found north of Three Rivers Texas. We have not been able to find her family. But I am still looking.