This is the little girl’s dress that I just finished on a child’s mannequin from McQueenie Miniatures. The idea had been floating around in my head for a while and it was fun to put it altogether. Next I want to try some embroidery on a baby quilt and am looking forward to having the stores open once again so that I can actually look at fabric rather than look at a picture of the fabric!

I took some time out from miniatures to sew seventeen face masks for family and friends, got those mailed off and then made some little girl dresses with embroidered bodices, an idea that I had floating around. It really was quite fun and, as always, was a learning experience. Some fabrics work better than others, some designs work better and some lace works better. Whenever and wherever my next show is, I am ready!

These are my finished shadow boxes. The pictures are of my children when they were younger and the items come from all over – Hantel from Scotland, painted pewter street figures from Germany, dolls that I made in a workshop in South Africa, a teddy bear that I made and other items that I have collected over the years.

Now that the governor of the state of Washington has extended the “Stay Home Stay Healthy” order for another four weeks I am continuing to stockpile new items for my next show – whenever that will be – and experimenting on some things that I have always wanted to try. Next on my agenda are two shadow boxes with toys and miniaturized pictures of my children. I made a brick wall of polymer clay for the background and am working on some cherry shelving. Will post that next.

Because the state of Washington is under the Stay Home! Stay Safe order I have been able to continue to work my way through a variety of projects.  I had collected an assortment of things with the idea of putting together a safari scene. The small trunk below was a kit from McQueenie Miniatures which I customized for my safari. The pictures were some that I had taken in South Africa and had miniaturized. Some items were purchased in South Africa, some were purchased at the Kensington Show in London and some were made by me. As usual I ended up with far more things than I had room for so had to set the rest aside for another time/another project.

After the Kensington Dollshouse Show in London last May I headed down to South Africa in August. It is just such a lovely country and has a wonderful miniature convention in Betty’s Bay the first week of September. The scope of miniature knowledge there is absolutely amazing and I came home greatly inspired. My plan had been to start off 2020 with the NAME Houseparty in Portland but, as the saying goes, God laughs when you tell Him your plans.  I searched around only to find that the spring shows were falling like dominoes, victims of the corona virus.

Now is a good time, I have decided, to get done some of those projects that have been lurking around – the clothesline that keeps falling off the wall in my laundry roombox, the bike in my Italian courtyard that needs to be scuffed up to look well used, the pieces in a Christmas room that keep falling off the mantel and all the various bits and pieces that need to be either finished, cleaned up or given away. Miniatures have always given me joy and now is the time to indulge in that.

I am packing my suitcase and trying to fit my clothes in with all my miniatures as the Kensington Show is 18 days away and we are planning to spend the 10 days prior to the show in Scotland. My new items for the show are walnut picture frames, kits for making jewelry, some lovely embroidered pictures, embroidered knitting bags and embroidered pillows and Christmas stockings. It should be a great show and lets hope for warm and sunny weather (makes standing in line a lot more pleasant!).

I am looking forward to the Seattle Show on March 2nd and 3rd. My embroidery needle and I have been quite busy and I have some new Christmas stockings, pillows and the crazy quilt. I also have some new kits for tiny Volker Arnold houses which make wonderful Christmas scenes in a dollhouse.

Going through security at the Guatemala Airport last week I was stopped by a young female security guard who wanted to go through my carry-on. I stood by while she plowed through my clean clothes, my dirty clothes, my bag of less-than-three-ounces of cosmetics and a few miscellany souvenirs. She pounced on my quart zip-lock bag containing twelve spools of silk thread, twelve threaded needles and some miniature stitcheries. She pulled aside the spools of thread and the needles and said “No!”  I said in my very best Spanish “Why? It’s just silk thread.”  I could not conceive how the thread and needles could possibly present a security risk. At most I might whip them out and embroider a flower on someone’s jacket. She ripped off several strands of thread, pulled them apart and consulted with a fellow employee. She finally acquiesced and allowed me to take the thread but kept the needles.  I am sure that there is a life lesson in there somewhere but am currently still looking.    🙂

In whatever spare moments I had this summer I worked on the squares for this crazy quilt.  I enjoyed it and I always learn something!