Yep, I have been AWOL....

I was hijacked.... by dolls! I suspect I needed a break from fiber but would not admit to it. The respite has been good for me and I hope in a bit I will get back to my fiber art but in the meantime I have been having a blast.
I discovered that there are Fashion dolls out there... not the usual Barbie dolls. These are 12" and 16" dolls with the most wonderful facial expressions and outfits to die for. I also found out there is a huge community of adult doll collectors out there as well... who knew! I am sorry I did not discover this years ago.
So, for your Christmas day enjoyment I am posting some pictures. Hope they bring a smile to your faces.


The first batch of pictures are of my 16" doll who I find mesmerizing: All these dolls are fully articulated.

 Lucy decided to help me out here and I decided not to crop her out.

This next batch are of the 12" dolls. The first scene happened by accident.. It is titled "A Bordello Christmas". I got a bit carried away :-).

 This next scene is waiting for their families to arrive... they had to clean up their act.. they look bored out of their minds.... no one opened the bubbly yet. One of my friends suggested an "after " picture but I haven't gotten there yet... maybe an after New Years Party picture!

Wishing you all a Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, and anything else you celebrate this season. Hoping the new year brings health, joy, and wonderful experiences.

Sherryl, Lucy, Gigi, Freya, Larisa, Dania, Carmen, and Natalia.

And we are off again!

This time to San Francisco for a family wedding. In the meantime, Fiona decided she wanted a large family so we have adopted Freya. Phoebe seems to be pleased as well. We are hoping to check out Britex tomorrow so we can pick out some fabrics...we are going to have to sew some outfits as the family seems to be growing.

All good things must come to an end

Today is the last chance to pick up what I need and see the quilts I missed.

Please click on each photo for a larger picture..Blogsy does some funky stuff with them.

Annie Smith wanted her photo taken with Fiona and Phoebe by the SAQA desk where I did a lot of hanging out and working.

Here are some of the other quilts I liked very much:

This is Megan Farkas with her award winning quilt Sakura I: Hanaogi Views the Cherry Blossoms.

Susie Johnson, Preserve Nature,Preserve Self

Ellen Anne Eddy, Butterfly Garden

Here is a photo of my photo in the special exhibit

Fiona and Phoebe agree it is time to go home. They had a great time and met lots of wonderful people. Hope you enjoyed the trip with them.

Thursday at international quilt festival

Yikes, a cold front moved in overnight and it was cold and windy this morning. Good thing we didn't have to be outside long. We spent the first part of the morning looking at the gorgeous quilts. Here are both some winners and some I just liked.

TO SEE THE FULL PICTURE, CLICK ON IT.

This one is called Exposed by Jeanne Pfister

Tired by Teri McHale

Life in the city by Sheila Frampton-Cooper

Three Wee Figs by Daphne Greig

Maynard by David Taylor

Sharon Schamber with Phoebe in front of her prize winning quilt Crimson Promises. Sharon is sort of a neighbor of mine from Payson, AZ. She said it took her over 2000 hours to make this quilt.

Really "Wild" Flowers, Second Season by Sharon L Schlotzhauer

Refracted Lily by Gloria Hansen

Fiona, Phoebe, and me at the SAQA booth working.

At the end of the day there was a meet and greet at the SAQA booth and I got to meet some of the people I hear about and some of my friends from Facebook. It really was fun putting names to faces and making new friends. I think tomorrow Fiona and Phoebe will get to meet Jaime Fingal's girls.

Arrived in Houston

.....after about an hour delay..could have been worse. We checked into our hotel and had some lunch....we were starving! We then took the shuttle over to the convention center and got our passes for the show. I had forgotten how overwhelming it all is. Half the space is devoted to the quilt exhibits, the other half to vendors. I was already tired so I split my time between the two. I find I can only absorb just so many quilts at one time before they start to swim before me. For some reason I saw the ones which could not be photographed..I will do better next time. They are all stunning. Most of the ones I saw were very heavily stitched. ...something I still hate to do. I ran into several people I knew and also stopped off at the 12 x 12 booth and the SAQA booth where I will be volunteering for 2 hours Thursday and Friday. I really was pooped by then and decided to go back to the hotel before closing time . I also figured I would beat the mad dash to the bus. Even though it was early, the bus was full. Norma Schlager and her sister Ruth were on the bus and we decided to have a drink at the bar before going up to our rooms. I also ran into Marianne Williamson and she joined us. Fiona and Phoebe made their debut in the bar and garnered a bit of attention.

I promise to take pictures my next visit.

Houston, here we come!

We had to get up at the crack of dawn but it will be worth it...we are on our way to Houston for the international quilt festival. Fiona and Phoebe are looking forward to making new friends too. At the moment the flight is on time.
I will blog as I can.

Sedona, AZ

Yesterday was another gorgeous day although the weather has turned a bit cooler after a storm blew through Wednesday night. It was a perfect day for a drive up to Sedona. Fiona did go along with us on the trip. I am just going to post photos... they say it all. The sky was really this blue. I have not touched up these photos... not a cloud in the sky.

Kissed by a frog?

A day at the Botanical Gardens

I had a very lovely call this past weekend from dear friends who decided that would spend some time in Arizona this week. The weather has been glorious so we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens. Phoenix has one of the largest cacti and succulent collections anywhere and it is exhibited in beautiful settings. We also visited the Butterfly house. This is the season the Monarch butterflies make their annual Migration down to Mexico. We saw a bunch while we were in Mobile, Alabama last week as well. The ones we are seeing here in the Phoenix area are actually migrating down from Oregon. It takes one generation to migrate south but 4 generations to migrate back up north.


Blogger isn't playing nicely. Try the link to see the pictures, sorry.

https://picasaweb.google.com/skbk2004/BotanicalGardensOctober2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL-xwO6plqSb2gE&feat=directlink

Tuesday in Mobile, Al

This mornings activity was play time. We were given large sheets of tar paper and paints and "hazmat" suits! We were to do some sea creature. I am not a painter but had some fun none the less. Fiona was trying to give me directions while I worked on my fish. After we were all through the piece was sealed with shellac for us. I wish I had used some lighter colors in the background. The finished piece (which I have not photographed) came out rather dark. There were extra suits so I brought some home to use in my dye studio.

Melinda Sapp and me

We all had fun. I am thinking of perhaps trying this technique out on heavier tar paper and sealing both front and back and using it for a runner or small mat on the floor. I think a nice geometric pattern would not be beyond my talents.

Across from the arts center was this wild and wacky house built by one of the local artists, Dean Mosher and his father in law, Craig Sheldon. It reminds me of a house that should be occupied by hobbits or some fantastical mythical creatures. The outside is really a hoot. Embedded in the outside cement is all manner of weird stuff... wine bottles, broken pottery, and anything that most of us would have thought to throw out. The inside is not quite so fantastical as the outside but has some wonderful woodwork and metal work. While it is fun to look at, it would not be a place I would be comfortable living. It has too much going on.

 Lunch was at a local private marina that was decimated in hurricane Katrina and completely rebuilt. After lunch we were let loose shopping. I found some wonderful artsy clothes at a local boutique including this colorful vest... It was very windy that evening... and no, I was not wearing a cat suit.

Dinner was a typical southern style barbeque with all sorts of fried seafood... deadly for my diet. ( I somehow managed not to gain any weight on this trip). The following morning was free before we headed home and I hit the gym and treadmill.

Fiona is playing catch up!

This is going to be the first of a series of catch up blogs today. Monday...
The Mardi Gras Museum was really mouth dropping. Some of the costumes were beyond the imagination. It takes almost a year to create the outfits for the King and Queen and the costs can be well over $100,000.00 for each. Each person who participates is a volunteer and pays their own way. The trains are about 18 feet long and can weigh upwards of 150 lbs! Can you imagine schlepping one of those on your back? Mardi Gras originated in Mobile, Alabama before New Orleans. The industry created by the festivities is the main financial support for the area. It brings in about 3 billion dollars a year. Our next stop was at the headquarters of the Order of Myths... one of the top secret societies that participates in Mardi Gras. This is a male only bastion but we were allowed inside. Most people don't even know where the building is it is so secret.

Our next stop was lunch at a place called Seven Gables. It is a large Greek Revival Seaside Cottage overlooking the Mobile Bay. Cottage is a rather large misnomer in this case. This is the lovely veranda as you enter the house. The house is decorated with traditional antiques and is owned by a rather eccentric older couple who while not the original owners, might as well have been. We were greeted by the lady of the house who we noticed had green hands. The story is that one of the members of the staff got over zealous with some weed killer and killed off much of the grass by the entry to the house upon which we were to tread. The mistress then used some green Rit dye to touch up the color on the grass!

This is the rear of the "cottage".  It sits on a rather high bluff overlooking the bay and is quite the piece of property.
Lunch was a boxed affair I could have easily lived without but Fiona did seem to enjoy her traditional sweet tea out on the back porch. The weather was lovely.

Our next stop was a Greek Orthodox family church which was built in the late 1960's. It has some lovely stained glass windows.

That pretty much took care of the days activities. Evening was a fancy dinner but Fiona was tuckered out so she didn't go. I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures of the lovely Southern Belles in traditional dress with the huge hoop skirts and bonnets and umbrella's.

We are at the Mardi Gras museum

Sunset over the bay

Fiona can get used to resort life

She got up early and took a stroll on the beach then indulged me as I hit the treadmill. We went for a walk after and saw a gorgeous blue heron. ... And then watched as another one caught its dinner.
There were lots of butterflies enjoying I the flowers. Lunch was a casual affair outside but Fiona was jealous of my raspberry chocolitini. Ned was hard at work.