Patter from Patti

Free pattern

As soon as I get a response from TypePad I'll let everyone know.  The "free" pattern I posted didn't work.  I did everything the way I was suppose to, but when you try to download the pattern it doesn't come up.  And, someone has hacked into my blog and is asking for your social security number, etc.  Please do not respond to that message.  It is not from me, nor TypePad.

As soon as all is fixed, I'll be posting here.  It should be within the next few days.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my recent visit to Wisconsin and Illinois.  I met our daughter, Heidi, in Chicago and we spent a week visiting relatives.  Heidi lives in Brussels, Belgium and flew home for a visit.

This picture is Heidi with our god-children Andrew and Katie.  We are at Allerton Park in central Illinois near my hometown of Bement.  The Sun Singer is a statue Mr. Allerton purchased for his estate grounds in the mid-twenties.  It is a bronze statue that has recently been restored.  He faces the rising sun. 

The photo on the right is the Dying Centaur bronze sculpture.  He's not been restored and we hope they keep him as is.  Allerton Park was created by Mr. Allerton as his home in a wooded area.  He cleared paths to various pieces of art.  He collected art from all over the world, including Rodin's Adam.  It is a favorite place for those of us who grew up in the area.

One of the favorite "Medaris" pastimes is putting together jigsaw puzzles.  Heidi helped my Dad and Uncle Duane put together a Thomas Kinkaid puzzle.  His puzzles are beautiful, but difficult.  The two brothers were very happy Heidi came to help finish this one.

In Wisconsin we visited our cousins in Mequon.  Shelly took us to Milwaukee to their art museum.  If you ever get to Milwaukee don't miss this amazing place.

The architecture is breathtaking and created by the same designer who designed the Sydney Opera House.  Inside are works of art from all over the world.  The roof is designed like a sail boat and the "sails" open and close. 

We hated to leave both Wisconsin and Illinois.   Visiting family is the best.  This photo is Heidi with Jim, Shelly and JD Culea in front of their home the day we were leaving Wisconsin.

The upside of flying on to San Diego is Heidi's fiance, Raphael, was soon to arrive from Brussels.  Those pictures will be posted here soon.

Upcoming wedding and cruise

We are having more fun getting ready for Heidi and Raphael's wedding.  Raphael is flying to San Diego in July and we're planning a Banns of Marriage Reception.

I found a great place to create all kinds of fun favors to scatter around.  And, they are a terrific place to have business cards made:
http://www.vistaprint.com

For those who don't know, our daughter, Heidi, lives and works in Brussels, Belgium  Raphael is a Belgian, so we've lost her to Europe.  Which gives us an excuse to go there more often.

Soon I'll be in Albuquerque at the Enchanted Doll Artists Conference.  My class, Deowyn (shown below), isn't going to make it, but I will be there on Thursday, July 17 for our Queens and her Closet day.

What is the Queen and her Closet Day?    elinor peace bailey,
Barbara Willis, Betts Vidal, Sally Lampi, Gloria McKinnon and I created this day several years ago while teaching in Sydney, Australia.  We each create a flat doll and during this special day we show how we went about creating the doll.  Each participant receives the pattern from each of us, and the afternoon is spent playing with stuff and creating a flat doll of your choice.  In Albuquerque it will be elinor, Sally, Betts, Barbara and I.  I'll post a picture here soon.  Each year we create a new "flat doll"  The Queen and her Closet will debut in Albuquerque and be repeated at the Long Beach Quilt Festival July 24-26, 2008.  http://www.quilts.com

The cruise is almost filled.  I think we have 9 cabins left.  I've been working on the pattern Gail Wilson created and here she is with some of the beadwork I'll be teaching.  Really simple beading techniques, but I am creating some beaded flowers for those who want more of a challenge.  Most of the supplies are included in the price of the cruise.

The doll pattern is wonderful to work with.  After I get the mermaid costume finished I'll be creating a deck outfit for Chrissy.  I want my doll to be a traveling doll.  She'll have a wardrobe to change into as she travels about the world.  And, part of my pattern will include a travel journal so those making her will be able to document their dolls travels.   Contact  Barbara Ann Roby, CTC for details:  barbara@brtravelservices.com

Cosmic Queens Day

What an incredible week this has been.  It started with elinor peace bailey arriving last Sunday, then spending a delightful few hours with Barbara Chapman on Monday.  Monday night Li Hertzi, Barbara Willis, Sally Lampi and Betts Vidal arrived at our house.  Tuesday we had our Cosmic Queens do Faces day and what a fabulous time that was.
So, what is this all about?  It's a special time with close friends, then a day of sharing our love of doll making with whomever will come.
This year I hosted the event and talked Allan and Suzanne Ream of Bits & Pieces in Escondido into letting us use their large classroom.  As you can see, we pretty much filled it up with fun women.

Barbara Chapman was one of the people who came to our day.  She teaches primarily at The Black Sheep in Encinitas and showed us one of her wonderful wrapped fairies.  Barbara and her husband, Wayne, host an open house twice a year in their amazing home. 

At our event, after morning lectures, Show & Tell and lunch we break up in small groups and have a round-robin.  This allows each participant time to spend with each of we designers and have a hands-on experience learning our various techniques.  This is elinor sharing with one of the groups.

This all started 4 years ago in Australia.  Five of us were near Sydney teaching at a quilt & craft show.  We were sharing an apartment with Gloria McKinnon, who brought us there.   Six women in a two bedroom apartment could be interesting.  To us, it was like heaven on earth.  We decided we needed to do this more often. 

elinor came up with the idea of a Flat Doll Day and our Cosmic Queens were formed. 

The original six are, from top left,  Gloria McKinnon, Sally Lampi, Barbara Willis
Bottom from left,  Betts Vidal, me (standing), and elinor peace bailey.

We've been able to travel to Portland, Oregon;  Costa Mesa & San Diego, CA; and Cincinnati, OH.  Next we'll be at the Enchanted Doll Art Conference in Albuquerque, NM July 17-20, and Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA July 24-26.
http://www.enchanteddollartconference.com
http://www.quilts.com

At each venue we add a local designer.  In San Diego/Escondido it was Li Hertzi.  Li is known for her wonderful use of paints and working with the southwest figure.  Her website is a work in progress right now, but you can see her work, and her new book  "Art Doll Adventures".
http://www/lihertzidesigns.com

Last post for 2007

Another year has absolutely flown by.  I've been busy working on sample dolls and my new book and have ignored my blog, and website.  Shall correct that before the year ends.

I want to show you the mermaid that Dorice Larkin has created for our  upcoming cruise.

The mermaid is pin sized and is all beaded.  A focal bead creates the face.  She's beautiful and I know those going on the cruise are going to love making her.  You can see details on the cruise on that page.
We'll have 4 full days at sea.  That means we'll get a lot of beading done.  We are all looking forward to seeing the destinations, too. 

Colon, Panama is a new destination and our ship will be one of the first to go there.  Shall be great fun.

Recently, I was in a wonderful group of artists from the UK where we created postcards and mailed to each other.  We all got busy, and had to stop for awhile.  Deena Beverly was the fearless leader and would come up with a theme each month. 

One of the themes was "A Tender Regard".  I used my favorite photo created by my friend Sandy Anderson in Photoshop.  This photo is the logo on my blog.  Because I like working in fabric, I painted Pelmet Vilene with Stewart Gill's Byzantium paint.  The photo was transfered onto fabric using my HP printer and Jacquards photo prepared cotton.  I machine sewed a design on water soluble stabilizer with synthetic organza in layers under.  When the stabilizer was removed, I used a soldering iron to burn away sections of the organza exposing the painted surface underneath.  This was then sewn onto the Vilene, along with the photo.

Another postcard was "Things my Mother Taught Me".  This time I drew a figure on white cotton fabric, colored it with Copic markers and detailed it with colored pencils and Copic's Multiliners.  I hand-dyed a piece of lace and machine sewed it to the body, which was sewn onto painted Pelmet Vilene.  Angelina film and fibers created the glitz.  Charms were used representing cooking, gardening, and traveling.  All things my Mom taught me to love.  There were many others things she taught me, but this was all I could squeeze in.

After the New Year, I'll put up a tutorial on how I go about creating small images on postcards and ATC's.  And, other bits.  In the meantime, have a terrific New Year celebration!

Illinois & Bernina

This past week was quite interesting.  I flew to Chicago for the Bernina Teacher's Reunion.  I flew in two days early so I could go visit my Dad.  He and my uncle had decorated the house for Christmas.  Both are doing well and enjoying each others company.
The picture behind Uncle Duane is of the house they live in.  Uncle Duane had it built over 30 years ago.  It is surrounded by fields and is extremely quiet and lovely.  It is always a nice retreat for me when I visit.

The only dicey thing about flying to Illinois at this time of year is the weather.  I should have taken a picture when I was stuck on the I-55 for 90 minutes.  An ice storm hit and the roads were nothing but ice.  I saw dozens of accidents and one was so bad that both the north bound and south bound lanes of the interstate were closed for over an hour.  The normal 2 1/2 hour drive from my home town to Chicago took 8 hours.  But, I finally made it to Aurora.

Bernina is my favorite sewing machine.  I actually have owned 5 of their machines.  I presently have 3 that I use every day when I'm home.  Bernina hosts a teachers retreat once a year teaching us software, how to use various presser feet, and general knowledge of their product.

You get to know other like-minded individuals and here I am with Ellen Anne Eddy, Li Hertzi and Melinda Bowman.    Ellen is world famous for her incredible stitched quilts and wearables.  Her book "Stitch Magic" is a favorite of mine.

Last year I had met Ellen in Oklahoma City at my first Bernina Teacher's Retreat.  This next photo is of Ami Sims and Terri Chilko. 
We each, Ellen, Ami and others, were to bring someone we wanted to introduce to the Bernina machines.  I brought Li Hertzi, Ellen brought Melinda and Ami brought Terri.  Watch for these women in the future.  Li already has a book published "Art Doll Adventures".
There were 59 of us at the retreat this year.  We learned so much that my head will be spinning for days.

Yvonne Porcella showed us many of her wonderful painted and dyed pieces.  She even let us come up and play with some of her stuff.  Linda Lee had a wonderful trunk show, so it wasn't all learning software and presser feet. 

Now it is time to unpack and repack.  Kieran turns 4 this Sunday and we're going to fly to Orlando to help her celebrate!

Adelaide and Victor Harbor

My Australian adventure continued from Perth to Adelaide. I was met at the airport in Adelaide by my friend, Penny Crompton. We arrived at our hosts home, Kate Perkins, mid afternoon. I had no idea what fun awaited me. As soon as we arrived I was totally smitten with Kate and her surroundings. But, I had a class to get ready for.
There's a fantastic quilt shop in Adelaide called Hettie's. They have an amazing classroom and this is where the first of the workshops was held. Five women traveled from Broken Hill for the class, along with nine from Adelaide and one from Victor Harbor. It was terrific catching up with those I'd not seen in 8 years.

After the first 2-day workshop Kate took me on a mini-tour of Adelaide and some of its charming scenery and shops. We stopped at Eastern Silks where I met the owner and he commissioned me to make one of my purses. It was fun seeing all their wonderful silks from India, along with amazing trims at fraction of the cost I'd paid in the U.S.
The 2nd of the 2-day workshops started on Friday and, again, it was terrific catching up with people I'd not seen in a long time. Joy Martin had arranged for me to come to Adelaide, but she and Russell were in India. Christine Howard was there with Joy's wonderful "stuff" so we could buy what we needed for the class.

On Sunday we had arranged for me to do a Flat Doll Daze. Over 40 hearty souls came out to play with Tyvek, Dyes, Paints, Pearl EX powders, organza, Shiva Paintstiks, rubber stamps, colored pencils, Copic markers, etc. I was simply blown away at the talent this group has. It was a day of fun, friendship and sharing.

After my six days in Adelaide Penny Crompton took me to her magical farm in Victor Harbor. For two blissful days I basked in the quiet of a working dairy and horse farm.

Penny and John also have amazing peacocks. I loved the way they'd hang around in front of the house and jump up on the roof and stomp around.

My time in Australia is coming to an end. I'll hate leaving, as usual. But, I'll be eager to get home to see my John, too. First, though, I flew from Adelaide back to Melbourne and one of my dearest friends, Jenny Campbell, was at the airport to greet me. Jenny and I go back a long way. She and her mum, Gwen, have had me come to Bendigo for many years. Today, Jenny and I had a delightful lunch along the waterfront of Melbourne then we went to see her son, Ben, and darling grandson, Jack.

Friday, I'll head to Peter and Kay's home then spend the weekend at Textile Artistry. So, stay tuned for the last segment of my grand trip to Australia.

Geelong

Geelong was my next stop. I love spending time with the Trolly Dolly's. My hosts, Ray and Kerri, took me to see the surf beaches one morning. It is almost Spring here, but still chilly. I love colder weather.

After the workshop on Sunday, Ray and Kerri took me on a delightful walk along the boardwalk in Geelong to see the Bollards Jan Mitchel has made.

Along the boardwalk we looked into the bay and saw many jellyfish. Sea horses live there, too, but we didn't see any.

Did you know that the Trolly Dolly's have Dessert Police? Here's Debbie and Fay making sure we all get just one Jelly Cake.

It was hard leaving this fun group.

Hunter Valley & dolls

After my workshops in Hamilton, Gloria took me to the Hunter Valley. This is the wine country of New South Wales. It is beautiful. We went to a wonderful garden, then had afternoon tea in a delightful setting. The perfect ending to a truly perfect week.

As I travel, I love seeing the dolls and other wonderful art people are making. Here are a few samples:

Wilma's doll. Do check out the stump the doll is sitting on.

The Trolly Dolly's shared dolls made from my last workshop there, plus some from Pam Grose's workshop. Fabulous dolls.

Aren't they magnificent?

Cincinnati & Second Hand Lions

The Creative Festival is becoming one of our favorite places to catch up with friends. Barbara Willis, elinor peace bailey and myself continued our Flat Day on the Silly Side of the Sea. Betts Vidal and Sally Lampi couldn't join us in Cincinnati so we invited Karen Shifton and Judy Skeel to complete our fun group.

elinor is shown here sharing her quilt that is a memory of her life with Gary. Many of you know that Gary passed away last November.

Along with our presentation we each had a booth where we sold patterns, fabric, tools, etc. Most of the fabric you see in elinor's is Heather Bailey's new line. It is beautiful.

Barbara had fun sharing her love of all things vintage and fairyish.
My booth reflected my love of color, although I must make curtains to add more pizazz.

At each Creative Festival local doll clubs are invited to share their love of dolls. Here, the Doll Gatherer's exhibited dolls and sold patterns and doll pins.

After the show I drove to my home town and visited with my dad and uncle. One of their early evening pasttimes is picking off rabbits that wander near the garden. If you've seen the movie "Second Hand Lions" you'll appreciate this photo.

Correction to the June Happenings

One of the pictures didn't post. Of course, it was an "operator" error. In my excitement in sharing my trip to Connecticut and New Jersey I chose the wrong photo for the Garden State Artisans doll group. Here's the proper photo:

While I'm sharing, I'll show a couple dolls made from the class I taught at Carol Mitchell's in May. The Manhattan group chose Franalizia from my new book "Creative Cloth Doll Beading". Here are two beautiful dolls from that class:

June happenings

June was quite a busy month. I was able to go back to New York City and catch up with Carol Mitchell and see a couple more stores I missed in May. B&J Fabrics was magic! I fell in love with some of the most exquisite fabrics. Afraid all I could do was look. The ones I loved were over $600.00 a yard! I did find some interesting fabrics I bought. Nylon Web Organza was one I couldn't resist. That and some crinkle silk.

After shopping I went to Carols and Marilyn Halcomb, Lyn Huggins (from Australia) and Gloria Winer (from New Jersey) were there. We had a great evening talking dolls and fabrics.
The next day I was collected at the hotel and driven to Edison, NJ to a quilt show where I saw some fabulous dolls on display and met Beryl Taylor. More on that another time. Then it was off to Connecticut where I spent two terrific days with the Dolls with an Attitude doll club. We laughed, ate, sewed, stuffed, ate, drew, painted, ate....you get the picture. Dolls were almost finished.

Sunday evening I was whisked away and taken back to New Jersey. This time I was with the Garden State Artisans doll club. Another fun two days.

Both groups made me feel at home. I fell in love with everyone and every place. I can't wait to go back in January, although that time I'll be in New York City at The City Quilter. Hopefully, I'll get to see some of my friends.
Many people ask me if my dolls are hard to make. I tell them if they can sew, they can use most of my patterns. Here's a prime example of that. Doreen is with the first doll she ever made. She used my Dominique & Lesley pattern. I think her doll is perfect.
Until next time, keep making dolls, and quilts, and wearables, and journals, and.............

The quilt

The Quilt is moving along, finally. When I was blogging before I had a photo of the beginnings of my Sunny Side of Life quilt. I have a 2-inch border to put on then I can start embellishing. Here's what it looks like so far:

I will tell you one thing, it makes your head hurt trying to get the math figured out creating a quilt. I'll be more than ready to get back to simple doll designing.

One of the most exciting things has happened in my doll/fiber career! I've been featured in Stitch magazine. This is the premier publication in the UK. My postcard project made the cover! I'm thrilled beyond words.

If you don't subscribe you can pick up a copy at Barnes and Noble, or go to the website and order the magazine. I highly recommend subscribing. Each issue is full of exciting projects and ideas. It is enough different from Quilting Arts that it is well worth adding to your periodicals.
http://www.embroiderersguild.com/magazines/index.php

ArtGirlz and NYC

Earlier I shared a fun pin doll I made using ArtGirlz rubber stamps and charms. I simply can't quit making them. Here's 3 more I made today. When I should have been working on my quilt.

A little over a week ago I was in New York City. I was teaching workshops at The City Quilter and at the Manhattan Doll Guild. I stayed with Ben and Carol Mitchell and walked from their place in Greenwich Village to The City Quilter. Each day I could walk a different way. At Madison Square there's amazing sculptures. I fell in love with the metal trees.

New York City is such an inspiring city. I can't wait to go back next month. I may have to make a few more visits on a regular basis. Besides the art work everywhere Carol introduced me to their fabric district. Oh, my! One day simply was not enough. We went to Tinsel Trading, M&J Trimmings, New York Beads, York Beads, Phoenix Beads, B&J Fabrics and heaps of places in between. It is very easy to move around as most of the shops are between 36th and 38th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues. I'll be going back in June. I'm teaching workshops in New Jersey and Connecticut, but arriving a day early so I can go to the fabric district and to a quilt show. Life is good!