A year ago today, my paternal Grandmother passed away. She was 104.
She was born the year after the Wright Brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk.
When she was 9, in 1913, her hometown of Fairmount, IN experienced the equivalent of four months of rain in three days, a Midwest flooding that destroyed a large part of Dayton, Ohio. In the picture above she is standing with her nephew, the floodwaters lapping at the steps of her home.
She was 14 when The War to End All Wars ended, in November, 1918.
She was a young mother of two girls and two boys during the depression years; she and my Grandfather traveled to Knoxville, TN looking for work during these years. Grandmother was 37 years old when America entered the Second World War.
She was a careful and frugal housewife, as the times required, and with her husband raised four children that embodied integrity and honesty, just like their parents.
She was an accomplished seamstress and needlewoman; she was also an artist, quilter, a great cook, Mother, Wife, Sister. One woman, many roles.
My Mother with Grandmother in the mid 60's. Such elegant women.
Her sewing machine, circa 1960; at the time a state-of-the-art Singer 401. I think you needed a college degree to figure out how to use all the cams that create the decorative stitches. The needlepoint stool was her work. Her needlepoint is breathtakingly beautiful.
In later years her creative passion turned to French beading, and she made the most exquisite beaded flower arrangements. These are two of my favorites.
In 1996, when she was 92. A picture from my parents 40th wedding anniversary celebration. Growing old takes a lot of courage, to know that you are the last living member of your generation. A lonely place to be; my Grandmother had courage in spades.
In 2005, at Grandmother's 101st birthday celebration. In the last few years I enjoyed giving Grandmother a doll for her birthday. Her short term memory was being hijacked, but she never lost her sense of humor, and she always knew each of us.
From the Wright Brother's first flight, to Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon. Terrible wars and a devastating economic depression, but also Women's Suffrage, the end of Polio as a childhood killer, and the Civil Rights Act. Cars, planes, computers, cell phones. A shrinking globe and a population that grew from 80 million to over 305 million in the US alone. What a century my Grandmother witnessed.
We miss you, Grandmother.
The wonderfully talented doll designer and doll maker, Kate Erbach, created this charming little Prairie Flower named Soozi-Q :-) I love her sweet smile and curly hair; what great yarn.
A year ago today, my paternal Grandmother passed away. She was 104.
She was 14 when The War to End All Wars ended, in November, 1918.
She was a young mother of two girls and two boys during the depression years; she and my Grandfather traveled to Knoxville, TN looking for work during these years. Grandmother was 37 years old when America entered the Second World War.
My Mother with Grandmother in the mid 60's. Such elegant women.
Her sewing machine, circa 1960; at the time a state-of-the-art Singer 401. I think you needed a college degree to figure out how to use all the cams that create the decorative stitches. The needlepoint stool was her work. Her needlepoint is breathtakingly beautiful.
In later years her creative passion turned to French beading, and she made the most exquisite beaded flower arrangements. These are two of my favorites.
In 1996, when she was 92. A picture from my parents 40th wedding anniversary celebration. Growing old takes a lot of courage, to know that you are the last living member of your generation. A lonely place to be; my Grandmother had courage in spades.
In 2005, at Grandmother's 101st birthday celebration. In the last few years I enjoyed giving Grandmother a doll for her birthday. Her short term memory was being hijacked, but she never lost her sense of humor, and she always knew each of us.
Rosey Anne, the first of five new Prairie Flower girls is finished. With their bodies all nicely stuffed, they are a blank canvas; they have the potential to be anything, just like a young child.
The Bleu Door pattern site ( www.thebleudoor.com ) continues to be a gold mine of patterns to adapt for the Prairie Flowers. Here are a few new patterns, all of which (with the exception of the crochet sweater above) have been adapted from these patterns.
Next is a simple shirt and jumper combination. The shirt has 3/4 length sleeves that are not set in; the neck and sleeve edges finished with either purchased or self bias trim. The pattern is here:
I strolled around the house yesterday with my camera, and took some pictures of what is blooming. 13 peony bushes, a shrub rose on steroids, and several volunteer pinks from last year, to name a few. 
I'm not a very good pattern drafter when it comes to sewing doll clothing, so I asked Janie Hile at www.thebleudoor.com for permission to adapt some of the wonderful original Bleuette patterns for the Prairie Flowers, and she kindly said yes.
Here are the two basic A-line dresses:
Last spring I designed a cloth doll I called Prairie Flowers. She is a simple cloth doll, 11 1/2 inches tall, made from 100% woven cotton material. Above is Lillian, one of the dolls I made a year ago.
The pattern for the doll is a 'template' that is traced onto freezer paper (available here: http://www.dollmakersjourney.com/supplies.html, near the bottom of the page). Trace the pattern to the non-shiny side of the freezer paper, cut out, and iron the pattern to the fabric. The edge of the template is the sewing line, so make sure to leave plenty of space between pattern pieces for the seam allowance.
After the pattern pieces have been sewn and turned, stuff the pieces with your favorite stuffing material. I've mentioned this before, but the best way to stuff a cloth doll is to lightly dampen the pieces with a mist of water. Work the material in your hands after it is dampened, and stuff the body firmly. Dampening the material will help to eliminate wrinkles when you stuff.
It is also VERY important to pay attention to the stretch of your fabric, and how you lay the pattern pieces on the material. These two bodies were made from the same pattern piece; but one was laid on the fabric with the stretch along the length of the body, and the other with the stretch running from side to side. The pattern pieces are marked how they should be placed. Before ironing them on, stretch your material along the grain and across it to determine which way the maximum stretch runs. 
After all the parts are nicely stuffed, it is time to make the face, and perhaps add a touch of embroidery to the neckline of the doll. The tutorial shows a way to make the faces you see here; they are a combination of paint (for the iris and pupil of the eye), embroidery (mouth, nose, eyebrows, and iris), and crayon, to blush the cheeks. It is easier to do this and the embroidery before the limbs are attached to the doll.
Two new Prairie Flowers :-) I called them this because of the flowers embroidered around the neckline. 
