Flower Girl Nancy Ann Doll

Flower Girl Nancy Ann Doll, originally uploaded by confections.

This sweet little flower girl doll is from the Nancy Ann series and belongs to my friend Marie Rose. She and my sister and I met up last weekend with our Blythes and Nancy Anns.

The miniature houses in the background were handmade by my sister. She painted them with watercolors and put mylar in the windows. They are a perfect complement to the dolls.

My new twelve-inch Blythe (Prima Dolly Aubrena) arrived on Tuesday. I have taken a few photos and will post them shortly--I'm still pondering her new name....

"Norwegian Wood", My Sister's New Antique Spinning Wheel (Collage 1)

"Norwegian Wood", My Sister's New Antique Spinning Wheel (Collage 1), originally uploaded by confections.

...a gift from a good friend to my sister. This antique Saxony-style spinning wheel is probably Norwegian; she needs a new flyer, bobbins, and a drive band, but then she's good to go.

Happy Russian Christmas!

Vintage Czechoslovakian Handcrafted Doll, originally uploaded by confections.

Today, January 7th, is Russian Christmas. I don't officially celebrate it, but my tree is still up and I definitely kick up my heels on Twelfth Night (January 5th) and Epiphany. I love honoring all twelve days of Christmas.

This vintage Czechoslovakian doll is the unofficial Goddess of my sister's kitchen. This year my sister handmade pierogi for our New Year's festivities, and the doll cast an approving eye over the meal. So here's to celebrating into the New Year!

Musical interlude:

One of my favorite carols is "In the Bleak Mid-Winter".

Another is "To Drive the Cold Winter Away", which you can hear at Cantaria.

Loreena McKennitt has a spellbinding CD by the same name which includes many traditional Christmas carols.

"May you have sweetness and many good things in life and in the new year!" (from the Russian Christmas Eve Blessing)

Fat Quarters of Quilting Fabric

Fat Quarters of Quilting Fabric, originally uploaded by confections.

The San Diego Quilt Show happened over a month ago, but I had a whirlwind September with family visiting, so I'm just getting around to showing a bit of the stash I accumulated at the vendors' booths.

My sister and a friend joined me for our annual jaunt to ooh and aah over the quilts and to power-shop to build up our stashes--not that they need building up (just sayin'), but quilting fabrics are a form of ephemera, I think, and one has to scoop them up as they fly by! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

About mid-afternoon, following a long-standing tradition, we leave the exhibit hall, retreat to the conveniently located Starbucks in the convention center, and compare yams--uh, fat quarters. This is one of our favorite rituals. Out come the treasures from our bags--patterns, tools, books, gadgets of all kinds.

We are spurred on by the beauty of the quorum of quilts we have just soaked up. All that creativity manifested has an hypnotic effect on us every year: must.make.quilts.

Winter's comin' on.

Tiered Apron

Tiered Apron, originally uploaded by confections.

My sister gave me this handmade-by-her three-tiered apron for my birthday last year. The bottom tier is made of the same material as the ties. It's my favorite apron to sport over one of my percale dresses this summer.

My Mother says she never wore an apron outside of her home, but my sister and I have done that on several occasions. I bought two vintage ones in June from a fellow Etsy seller, snazzykc, and we wore them on our Saturday rounds. Aprons are not just for household chores anymore--aprons are a fashion statement!

Yellow Ware Bowl Full of Ragamuffin Yarn

Yellow Ware Bowl Full of Ragamuffin Yarn, originally uploaded by confections.

Here is a batch of my handspun cotton Ragamuffin yarn photographed before I sent it off to a customer. There is lots of potential in this bowl. I'll be thrilled to see what she does with the yarn. I plan on using some in my stash to weave a rag rug.

I have a lovely cherrywood counterbalance floor loom that my sister and I found through our weaving guild nearly four years ago. It is perfect for weaving rugs. I haven't warped it yet, but I think a rag rug project will be great for the fall.

I'll gather some of my weaving friends and we'll have a warping party. I don't need too much provocation to plan a celebration of life's good things. The sun is in Leo, after all, and it's time to play!

Patchwork Quilt Sewn by My Sister for Our Niece

Patchwork Quilt Sewn by My Sister for Our Niece, originally uploaded by confections.

This lovely quilt was sewn by my sister Linda for our niece Eden, who turns Sweet Sixteen in June. It has been in the works (like any quilt worth its salt) for years. My niece hand-selected the pairs of fabrics for the 25-patch squares and my sister chose the complementary whole block squares from her ever-growing stash of quilting fabrics. I once joked to a friend that my sister's stash of fabrics would choke her, but mine would, in fact, kill her! I do confess I love my textiles....

We went to one of our favorite quilt shops ten days ago, The Country Loft, and my sister found the perfect backing fabric, a small-scale creamy plaid. She'll be having this special gift quilt professionally machine-quilted in the next few months, and I hope it makes a stop at our local quilt show before she bestows it upon our niece. I have a feeling a ribbon awaits it!

Kate Sessions, the Mother of Balboa Park, and My Mother and Grandmothers

Kate Sessions Statue, originally uploaded by confections.

Today I am featuring a photo of a statue of Kate Sessions, the “Mother of Balboa Park”, in San Diego, California. My sister and I visited the park this Saturday to photograph two of her quilts (more on those lovelies later this week) and we captured sweet Kate as well.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, I’m busy getting my Mom’s package of goodies ready to send. This particular statue of Kate Sessions reminds my Mother of her own mother, whom I never knew except through photos and my Mother’s recollections of her. I’ll include a series of photos of Kate-who-reminds-my-mother-of-her-mother in my Mom’s gift box.

In my genealogical research this month, I located my Mother’s grandmother’s birthplace in Germany, a tiny village called Thaleischweiler in the Rhineland-Palatinate area. The only clues I had to guide me were supposed roots in Aachen, but my Aunt Margaret remembered some of the old-timers in her youth speaking of Pirmasens.

Once I had a positive hit on my grandmother’s name and birthdate on the International Genealogical Index, and discovered that the town was in the Pirmasens region, I knew I had hit genealogical paydirt. I was able to go back two further generations as well. This is heady stuff for a budding genealogist, finding these links after many trials and tribulations. I will find a special way to honor these newly discovered grandmothers this Mother’s Day.

Vintage Effanbee Doll Collage (New Dress)

Vintage Effanbee Doll Collage (New Dress), originally uploaded by confections.

My vintage Effanbee doll (which I introduced in my April 19th blog entry) has been duly newly clad in a calico dress. She doesn't look nearly as forlorn as she did a few short weeks ago. Clothes make the doll!

I raided my stash of quilting calicoes to find the appropriate complement to my circa World War I era doll. I believe she is a prototype of the "Baby Dainty" Doll produced by Effanbee at that time. I found a reproduction Simplicity doll pattern for the bodice piece and gathered a rather long skirt to it, accented with a deep tuck. It's been donkey's years (oh, I miss Princess Diana!) since I have made any doll clothes.

My first major foray into sewing as a grade-schooler was cranking out Barbie doll clothes on my mother's vintage Singer treadle sewing machine. Barbie doll clothes are on such a tiny scale, they are quite tedious to sew, I think. Baby Dainty is about 14 inches tall and her chest is 10 inches in circumference, so sewing her dress was a breeze by comparison. She was all dressed up and I had promised to take her to a tea party, so off we went to meet up with my girlfriends and sister at Tea-Upon-Chatsworth for a delightful high tea and furrawn (per Anais Nin: soulful conversation that is deeply intimate).

My girlfriends each brought along a doll and a picture from their childhood. I shared one of me with my Ginny doll from the mid-1950's (shown below). Ah, sweet bird of youth!