Nancy

Nancy is 7 inches tall.

Nancy in the inland sea oats.

The red dress fabric was cut from a quilt top.  It is from the 1880's-1910's.  The dye to make this red color was called alizarin, which is the basis for a crimson paint color.  This is different than madder, which was used to dye red fabric in previous decades.  Alizarin reds are very bright.

This blue fabric used for Nancy's pocket and petticoat also came from a turn of the century quilt top.   I think it is cadet blue, as opposed to indigo, which is darker.  Indigo blues were still very popular between 1880 and 1910.

Gretel

Gretel and her little dog take a stroll through the bluebonnets.

Gretel gets lost in a sea of blue.

Indian Paintbrush is pretty too.

Gretel

Gretel's dress fabric is from the turn of the century.  (1880-1900)  The browns from this period are often faded because the brown dye used was fugitive.  The brown fabric from these decades is very fragile because of the brown dye.

Cosette takes a walk.

The name Cosette means "tiny thing."

Cosette holds my hand.

She is wearing a dress made from antique fabric with an amoeba design.

Cosette, leaning.

I made her bonnet using Peggy Flavin's instructions.

I believe that the purple blobs on Gretel's dress fabric suggest that it comes from the 1920's, when odd geometric designs were popular on fabric.

Turn of the century red on pink fabric, used for the trim on Gretel's dress.

Spring dolls

Pansies and a highly crackled doll.

Two tiny dolls in the pinks.

Purple contemplation.

Resting in the pinks.

Red hair and brown hair.

Vivid red flowers.

Three.

Smiling boy dolls.

Seven dolls made together.

Petunia dreams.

Oregano.

Daisies.

Duo.

Big dolls

Frederick McNally

My friend, Edyth, painted his face.  I love his expression.

Rebecca and Frederick are siblings.

Mary Elizabeth was made from the same pattern and face mold (both designed by Edyth) as Rebecca and Frederick.  I gave Mary her bobbed hairstyle.  Mary Elizabeth is a cousin to Rebecca and Frederick.

Freddy in the sun.

I started this blog about 9 years ago when I began making dolls.  I decided to revive it because my mother said that she has been checking it for 5 years, hoping for new posts...only to find that bunny doll staring at her from my last post in 2014.  So, this is for you, Mom!

Mary Elizabeth, made from a pattern designed by Edyth O'Neill, my bestest doll making friend.  Mary Elizabeth is wearing a baby bonnet that my mother brought back from Belgium for my daughter.  Mom also made the pink, smocked dress for Allie when she was a baby.

Mary Elizabeth loves the little chair that my great grandmother, Zelma Nancy, received as a gift in about 1886.  Zelma's daddy bought her the chair from a peddler's wagon in Long Lick, Scott County, Kentucky.  Long Lick is near Stamping Ground.  Not much goes on in Long Lick.  Stamping Ground has a Dollar General.  I bought a coke there a couple of summers ago.  That's how I know.

This little beauty is named Rebecca.  She is also made from Edyth's pattern.  Edyth made a face mold in 1990, from Sculpey.  I have been making cloth faces from Edyth's mold and attaching them to dolls made from Edyth's original pattern. Edyth painted her lovely face.  Rebecca and Mary Elizabeth are the results of this wonderful joint doll project Edyth and I have been doing.  Fun times!

This is a Kentucky sugar chest that belonged to my great grandmother's great grandmother.  It was made some time between 1820 and 1830.  It's walnut, a popular wood in that area.  We don't know which of Zelma's great grandmothers originally owned this sugar chest, but I know the names of all of them.  They were Mary Stafford Hiles, Catherine Coppege Coppage, Hannah Bell Vance, and Hannah Owens Devers.  They were all born in about 1800.

Here's the top of the sugar chest.  So many hot pans and dishes were laid on this chest.  I wonder what those pots and dishes contained.  Maybe some mashed potatoes.  Or pinto bean soup.  Or cornbread.  Mom loved her granny's oatmeal cookies.  Zelma Nancy was a sweet granny to my mom.  I think about all of the people who lived around this chest for so many years.  I wish that I could ask them questions.

The sugar chest has a lock.  Sugar was valuable.

I collect tiny bears - vintage, antique and new.

I also collect tiny, inexpensive china heads.  I have decided to not dress them.  I love their little bodies.