Generations - Lizabeth

 Hi there and thanks for dropping by. This month we are debuying our beautiful Lizabeth, the next figure in our Generations Paper Dolls. Lizabeth stems from the 20th century wearing a slightly shorter dress and socks with her shoes. In her basket you will find her daily purchase from the fresh market. She also has beautiful highlights showcasing her lovely hairstyle.

As with all of the figures from the Generations series, you can mix and match the head, body and dress of all figures to create new ones or customize your favorite components.

Thanks for dropping by. Don't forget to check back on December 31, 2021 for the new Fairy 2022.

Generations - Clara

Hi there and thanks for joining us today. I would like to present the newest figure in the Generations Paper Dolls series featuring 6" x 12" historical foundation paper pieced figures spanning centuries of inspirational female heritage. 

Clara is the newest figure in our series. She is one of my favorite figures with her wrapped and belted shawl. Her delicate hands are folded in front waiting as if she is reflecting on life and its tiny little challenges. She wears a full sized bonnet. This figure resemebles a 18th century figure, don't you agree?

Includes Two Versions of FPP

All of the figures in this series are at an intermediate sewing level (beginner, intermediate, advanced). The hardest part of this figure is the shawl collar and the shawl front. Other than that, the figure is rather easy. There is an additional, simpler foundation pattern included for the shawl. It allows an offset of matching seams. I found the above version a little tricky and wanted you to have an option for an easier, forgiving version.

You could also imagine she is a pilgrim helping out with a large village Thanksgiving celebration. She and grace would make lovely friends for a festive fall wallhanging or table runner. The two together would make up a 12" block.

18" Pillow Idea

If you would like to sew the figures in this series, you can find the patterns on Etsy. Here is a design idea for a pillow. Simply add borders to the outside to get the size pillow you desire. This one measures about 18" when finished. It has two additional borders - the first at 1" finished and the second at 2" finished. Don't forget to add additional measurements for seam allowance. The fabrics used in the illustration below come from the Tilda Collection.

Thanks for dropping by. Another Generations Paper Doll will be introduced on December 15, 2021. Please check back for more information and bi-weekly blog posts.

Generations of Friendship Quilt Layout

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by today and checking out the Generations of Friendship Quilt Layout featuring our new historical paper dolls series of figures. A couple of weeks ago, we showed our new quilt layout with six 6" x 12" quilt blocks in a circular layout set into a rectangle. The finished size is about 45" x 45" roughly.

 

Fabric Selection

As with most quilts, the desigsn are created with a simple, solid color scheme on the computer and later translated into fabric after many hours of fabric research. Our FPP paper dolls look best when using tone-on-tone or calico prints with small patterns. These prints should read as a solid when standing back from the finished design. Since the background and border fabrics take up a large portion of the canvas, those were to be picked first. My stash of fabrics is limited mostly to fat quarters but no background and larger pieces of fabric. So, I visited my local quilt shop here in Nersingen, Quilt Oase. 

I really wanted to find a fabric palette like the one above with yellow, green and coral above, but wasn't finding what I wanted. Then I spotted the lovely confetti on olive green print below which is fantastic to pull other fabrics from. Then chose the additional olive green and pink fabrics that sort of fell into place. Finding the last color fabric below was a little harder. All of the fabrics were turning into tonals without any real change in print. The red below is also in the green confetti print. I felt comfortable walking out of the fabric store with my perfectly matching stash.

Upon coming home, I started to doubt myself. The fabrics match perfectly, but for me, they lack luster. The red is a little too dominant and the green seems to pull the fabrics into a more traditional direction. Yes, it is supposed to be a little more traditional, but this palette would be a challenge for me to work with.

Rethinking the Color Scheme

I discovered a small collection of Lazy Days from Tilda that I bought at a quilt convention in 2019! I was saving it for a special "pure joy" project. Why not use it now! The prints from Tilda are so feminine, traditional and elegant. Even though this collection is a bit older, the three front florals below, they offer a nice variety to tone-on-tone prints. Prints add so much more intersest than all tone-on-tones, don't you think?

This color palette resembles more of the design featured on the previous post with a red, gray and blue palette. This is how I designed it on the computer using EQ8 program. The blue, solid fabric above is slightly lighter than the one used inthe computer generated version below. I might even skip the light pink and purchase a solid blue and coral to fit better. Tilda has matching solids for this collection which is always a plus in my book. Since this is supposed to be a spring version to contrast the month-by-month blocks sewn in blues and greens, I am happier to sew in friendlier colors and prints.

 

Purchasing Fabric for an Outdated Fabric Collection

So, I went and purchased matching fabric solids from Tilda (2019 fabrics) to fit the new design from NinaKrea. Here is what is should look like after the alternations. I really love the blue background on the previous image, but it is no longer available domestically. The image below is with a fabric from Windy Days, Breeze Blue also from Tilda. The borders may be a challenge depending on the repeat of the design. It may have mitered corners or horizontal borders. I am really excited to get started with this new color palette of fabrics. It is friendlier to the eye and will be quite a joy to work with over winter.

If you would like to purchase this layout, it will be ready soon. You can purchase the first figure on Etsy here. Thanks for dropping by.

Lots of catching up . . . help is on the way

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by and reading the blog today. There is so much to catch up on since my last post in February 2020. I had big plans for the blog with new and exciting posts, but one thing led to another, and we were all plagued by COVID-19 and the ramifications. I will admit, it wasn't at all easy for us. We were thrown quickly into a lockdown in early March and lasted for a good six weeks. My teeangers were stuck in "home-office" as well as my husband, and I was, unfortunately, thrown into the traditional role of a happy housewife catering to my family.

The first couple of weeks during the lockdown, we had (what we thought were) really bad allergies. My husband and I both suffer from asthma. I had a routine checkup the beginning of March and was in better shape than ever, seriously. This is what I use as my baseline. Then, two weeks into the shutdown, my lungs starting closing up, I started coughing a lot with a really deep dry cough and sore throat. I felt warm but didn't show any signs of a fever. I would grab my emergency spray more often than usual and would lose my breath several times during the night. Now, these are common symptoms of COVID-19 but they are also known and manageable symptoms of asthma. I am used to dealing with them. We were uncertain if they were simply "normal" asthma flair ups or something else. We had no fevers which was the most common symptom of COVID-19. We chose not to get tested, because it if were just allergies, we didn't want it to become worse by catching the disease, and we were already in lockdown, self-quarantining.

After we recovered, I tried to get tested for antibodies at my house doctor, but they stated those tests weren't as accurate as you would think, and they didn't know how long antibodies would last if any. So, once again, we may just be one of those "uncounted cases."

For the most part, we have recovered. Then, a couple of weeks ago. I started having more lung problems again, feeling like a boulder is beging pressed against my lungs. It brings you down quickly stealing your energy too. Sprays don't help. It happens a couple of time a week which is manageable but still scary. Who knows what the long term complications for people of have contracted the disease will be?

We are still are taking all precautions`, though, just in case we were not infected. We wear our masks, wash our hands regularly and keep a safe distance from others. It really is a wild world out there. I crack up watching smokers pulling down their masks to smoke. I am a former smoker myself. My asthma finally got so bad, I couldn't smoke anymore. I am grateful for that. Yes, I am grateful. I quit smoking 18 years ago! I was able to quit but my parents weren't. My father contracted small cell lung cancer several years ago and died and my mother had COPD. Let me tell you, as soon as you go into a lung doctor's office  due to symptoms, you start to rethink everything! Please quit smoking! I read that more than one million people in England quit. You can too.

Enough of those stories. Please don't take pitty on me or worse, claim there is not COVID-19 out there. I am just recounting my experiences. Maybe you, too, went through the same thing?

On my good days, I started working on some really cool foundation patterns for medical occupations. I started out with a vintage candy striper that never made it to an actual pattern. Who knows, I might make her into a free 12" block pattern.

I worked on the figure with different dresses and styles throughout the decades until I decided on a vintage nurse from the 1950's. I named her Nurse Nancy. She has a lovely, California coppertone tan as my husband said. And with a vintage nurse from the 1950's, there had to be a strong doctor to support her. My daughter said he looked like former President Obama. I had a lot of fun designing both characters. They are a bit larger, measuring at a whopping 16". It is very hard to get a lot of detail in with the stethoscope at 12". I wanted to make both blocks relatively simple to make. The 16" size is perfect for pillows and gifts.

A good friend of mine was kind enough to test Nurse Nancy for me. She used FPP text from another designer and wrote "Danke" on the left side which means, "thank you," in Gemran. She gifted the pillow to a nurse who loved the idea and made one herself. That was so clever, kind and generous of her. You can see more images here from Ines @naehzimmerplaudereien.com.

 

Here is another beautiful Nurse Nancy created by Ulrike @ulrikebrauns. These ladies really know how to doll Nancy up. She looks striking with brunette hair too. The cross is a little tricky but so worth it.

You can also take a look at the hashtag on Instagram to see more beautiful Nurse Nancy figures. We had a few testers on this pattern and they all turned out wonderful!

Physician Phil was a bit trickier. It was one of the first real men in the easypatchwork paper doll collections other than Santa and his elves. I learned that men have wider shoulders and are taller than females. 

This was my first attempt at sewing Phil. That THING on his head is a light reflector if you just didn't get it. : ) I added the medical bag to his free hanging arm to allow him to appear more vintage.

There is a lot of bonus material with Physician Phil. What gave me a lot of problems with this figure was his arm with a strip of background fabric showing through. It makes it harder to sew, but it gives more depth to the figure. It is okay to omit the sliver of background fabric between the arm and body to make it easier if you choose. 

He also comes with Pharmacist Freddie. You can change up the hairstyles on him for a more mature doctor (bald, balding, receeding hair) if you prefer. More hairstyles are included in the pattern.

There is one image that is not shared in the pattern that I would like to share with you here.

I proudly present Grocer George. He is slim, trim and ready to help you with your groceries, ladies (and gents.) These are the colors of my local grocery store - V-Markt. Feel free to use your own store colors. Our grocery clerks are heroes too, keeping our shelves stocked with all of the necessary goods to keep us happy.They greet you with a smile and yell at the shoppers if they aren't wearing their mask and keeping their distance.

If you want to surprise your favorite "seasoned" medicals with a couple of 16" vintage blocks, you can purchase and print these beautiful blocks directly from my Etsy shop. You should have the latest PDF viewer to print from home. Please check the scaling before sewing too.

Thanks again for dropping by. Let's applaud all of the brave, selfishless, and inspiring individuals that help us stay safe and healthy! We appreciate your kindness, your sacrifices and your determination to keep going. Thank you!!

Oh, and a little side note, I am having a lot of trouble with the new Blogger interface. Where in the hell did the spell check button go? And these new templates are giving me a headache. Anyone else having problems here?

enchanted sal - celeste

Hi again and thank you for joining us on our third week of the Enchanted Sew Along. If you are new to our sew along, let me give you a quick recap. Each week a new figure from the Enchanted Paper Dolls booklet will be introduced and highlighted. I will be giving a few tips along on how to sew it together. You can purchase the booklet here or purchase the individual PDF's of the figures here.

This week we will be introducing Celeste. She has more delicate and ornate Fairy Godmother wings that end right before her shoulder rather than at the center of her back. I think this wing style also changes the look of the entire figure. I added the accent of purple to the bottom of each wing as well to really bring out the wings.

One of the really fun things about these figures is that they are all designed to be mixed and matched with each other. Just take a look at Celeste's segments below. You can take any bodice and any dress and exchange them easily. The heads, arms and feet will take a little bit more planning when using different skin tones, wing styles and hand positions.

Here are some fun design ideas you can do to change up Celeste if you wish.

As with all of my designs and images, I used the computer software - EQ8 by the Electric Quilt Company. It allows me to design and see instantly what my quilt and quilt blocks will look like before I sew them together. You can add your own fabric to the fabric library to get the best impression possible.

Once again, it is very important to work with a good contrast to allow her beautiful, outstretched arms to stand out.

After sewing each of the enchanted figures a second time, I have realized that all of them have certain fine points that take more time to sew. There isn't one particular figure that is "easy - peasy." On Celeste, the crown is more time consuming. I find those wrist segments a bit challenging as well, but totally worth the effort. The y-seam on this figure gave me some trouble as well. I am not exactly sure why, either. 

When designing her dress, I could have designed the dress in three horizontal segments as shown below. I decided against it, because I wanted to be able to use one solid, fussy cut piece of fabric for the main dress segment. I liked the ruffles on the outer sides as well that give you the option of changing the ruffle color.

Are you sewing along too? We would love for you to link up your figures below. If the link isn't there yet, it will be there shortly. Link up any or all of your figures on the corresponding blog post.

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Take a look at previous posts and see the other figures. 

Agatha | Babette | Celeste | Daphne | Eva | Fiona | Gigi | Hailey | Isabella | Jael | Katharina | Lilly

Thanks again for stopping by. Please join us next week to see Daphne.

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