Friday, December 22, 2023
We pray for Peace and Good Will.
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Magdalena Briner Rugs for my Greiner Dolls
Greiner dolls were made in Philadelphia about the same time period as Pennsylvania rug hooker Magdalena Briner Eby was making her very folky rugs, now highly valued and treasured by collectors. I decided to make some inspired by her rugs for my Greiner dolls. For the shapes I am using old tin Cookie cutters, also typical of Pennsylvania. I am attempting to copy her style but not her exact rugs.
My sister sent me the dear chair, from a Houston estate.
Making accessories for the antique doll family has always been something Jack and I have done. See the sweet little horn book he made long ago.
One of my full size chairs also has a hooked mat I made showing a horse.
I am having a good time at this, as I have loved Pennsylvania folk art for over 50 years. I hooked part of the horse rug with yarn but it was too solid so I switched back to regular wool fabric strips. Yarn is so much easier on hands! I can't do much rug hooking now, but the small pieces are marginally doable.
Soon it will be time to write "30" here. There have been more than 500 posts in this journal. e
Sunday, April 2, 2023
playing with rag dolls still
Cloth dolls like Izannah Walker's dolls made in a cottage industry to sell, have as cousins one of a kind dolls made by and for family members. Both are very popular at present. I watch for another Izannah I might be able to add to my doll family, meanwhile enjoying other hand made cloth dolls.
These three are thought to date 1885 to 1900. Their faces are oil painted cloth, flat without shaping.
Friday, February 3, 2023
My 92nd birthday came in like a bear.
My birthday month, January, was full of challenges, among them the end of my old computer system. I am working now to set up one a little differently and have found my way back to my blog today. Texas is emerging from a dramatic three-day ice storm which has left many without power or heat still. My own home was touched only lightly because I had only light rain to freeze, but most of central Texas looked like this:
Angel has her name from the circle on the top of her head, the unusual seaming reminds me of a halo.
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
looking back at where we were years ago, and on into that new year.
Fall 2005 Remembered
After fire took our beloved red cape these were two of my posts to readers here. I will be 92 in January and my sweetheart Jackie has been gone ten years today. Life changes for us all, but I am fortunate to have a different but good living situation at present and much to look forward to still in 23.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
September's doll
Two nice Izannah Walker dolls in worn but original condition are the favorites of my doll collection. I will add another if I have the means and the opportunity. Meanwhile a very rough little waif showed up on Ebay and then came to me. I set about to try to bring the much patched and poorly overpainted doll to a better state, here is her story. A huge box arrived! The packing would have befitted a princess! Layers and layers under was the doll, in what I believe to be her original dress and three pieces of unders. The perfectly fitted red dress is entirely hand sewn, the unders some and some. Beyond mending, the dress is melting as is the petticoat, both will be kept in a protected plastic sleeve. Pictures tell the story. I am lucky enough to have an old dress that fits Evangeline, also completely hand sewn. I am happy to have a third old Izannah Walker doll, patches and paint not withstanding. She danced away her original feet long ago. Even the replacements have given way, showing she had a long life as a play doll. Her dark little hands show a life of much work. What stories she could tell!
New lower legs to make and paint.