It Started With Wings...
Quilting Arts magazine had issued a challenge to make a fantasy guardian angel. Well, I live in northeastern Illinois (Chicagoland) and I hate half the year. It's cold...snowy...grey...gloomy. I spend half my life pining for summer.
One day I was playing in my sewing area (can I call it a studio?!) where I have been experimenting with curves. I had some tropical flavored fabrics...pieced them together...and began quilting the hell out of them. When I was done, I thought, "these would make great wings."
And the journey began! I've posted the pictures in my picturetrail account because I can't figure out how to embed them in posts! Here's the link http://tinyurl.com/6j4gm.
I started with FrankenDoll. My own creation. Misaligned limbs. Lumpy body. Too fat. Too thin. She now lives on my sewing machine when the cover is on---and gets a lot of attention from my sons.
Then I made the doll that ultimately became the Goddess of Will It Ever Be Summer. This is a doll made from my own pattern. I learned a lot. Necks cannot be too thin. Makes it really hard to turn and stuff. In general, all areas where stuffing is to go through need to be just a little thicker.
I beaded the hair. I had a bead soup I've been adding to for months. I got tired of all the individual packets of beads and dumped them into a mason jar. There are delicas, seed beads, bugle beads, bigger beads. All colors: brown, silver, clear, several shades of blue, green and pink. The beading was the best part and I had a blast!
Alas! The beaded hair made the head wobble because the neck was to flimsy. I tried making a beaded choker--I remember seeing a tribe in Africa where the women lengthened their necks with beaded choker type things. I thought I could get it to work here. I tried tacking the head to the torso. Still no luck!
So the head is tacked to the wings. And the wobble-factor has been reduced.
The clothing of the doll was the hardest part. As I beaded away I kept thinking about this great organza I had been collecting in my stash. All the gorgeous tropical colors. Except when I went to my stash it didn't exist. Sure, I had the gorgeous colors--in satin. So improvised and this is what I came up with. An organza bodice made out of two criss-crossed colors. And a quilting cotton skirt.
She's not perfect. But she's all mine! I cannot wait to make more. I'm thinking a Goddess of a Good Poker Hand next...
One day I was playing in my sewing area (can I call it a studio?!) where I have been experimenting with curves. I had some tropical flavored fabrics...pieced them together...and began quilting the hell out of them. When I was done, I thought, "these would make great wings."
And the journey began! I've posted the pictures in my picturetrail account because I can't figure out how to embed them in posts! Here's the link http://tinyurl.com/6j4gm.
I started with FrankenDoll. My own creation. Misaligned limbs. Lumpy body. Too fat. Too thin. She now lives on my sewing machine when the cover is on---and gets a lot of attention from my sons.
Then I made the doll that ultimately became the Goddess of Will It Ever Be Summer. This is a doll made from my own pattern. I learned a lot. Necks cannot be too thin. Makes it really hard to turn and stuff. In general, all areas where stuffing is to go through need to be just a little thicker.
I beaded the hair. I had a bead soup I've been adding to for months. I got tired of all the individual packets of beads and dumped them into a mason jar. There are delicas, seed beads, bugle beads, bigger beads. All colors: brown, silver, clear, several shades of blue, green and pink. The beading was the best part and I had a blast!
Alas! The beaded hair made the head wobble because the neck was to flimsy. I tried making a beaded choker--I remember seeing a tribe in Africa where the women lengthened their necks with beaded choker type things. I thought I could get it to work here. I tried tacking the head to the torso. Still no luck!
So the head is tacked to the wings. And the wobble-factor has been reduced.
The clothing of the doll was the hardest part. As I beaded away I kept thinking about this great organza I had been collecting in my stash. All the gorgeous tropical colors. Except when I went to my stash it didn't exist. Sure, I had the gorgeous colors--in satin. So improvised and this is what I came up with. An organza bodice made out of two criss-crossed colors. And a quilting cotton skirt.
She's not perfect. But she's all mine! I cannot wait to make more. I'm thinking a Goddess of a Good Poker Hand next...
posted by susie kline @ 2/24/2005
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