Years ago i made dolls and sold them at craft markets, but after designing a bunch of them it became tedious. I'm not good at tedious and repetitive. The dolls I'm working with at this moment are the 18" pretend American girl dolls, especially the boys, who are so hard to find. I make the clothes and since I have a following of four little girls i keep busy, when i want. I'm starting to make halloween costumes, developed from patterns and then adding my own twist. Yes, it's true! I'm twisted, lol !!!! I need the patterns to be sure i have the right sizes and proportions. Since the girls are all pretty young there will be a lot of princesses. For my girls there will be at least one fairy, and I can see some pirates for the boys, maybe even Captain Hook , who knows! I bought some fabric perfect for mermaids, so that will have to be there too. So many ideas, so little action!

Love that. I'm so with you there!

I signed up for the Peggy Martin class at Craftsy "Strip-pieced Paper Piecing" and love it. I already checked my stash for suitable contrast pieces big enough to do one of her quilt patterns. Can't wait to get started.

Madquilter- be sure and post pics of your progress with the Craftsy class. I am curious as to how it goes. Thanks.

Madquilter: Looks like a lot of fun. I have one of her other books that I really enjoy. Please let us see as you go along. Have fun.

Fell off the wagon, yet again. My cousin came over with 5 5yard bolts of raw silk. Her brother got them in Bankok in the 60s. Did I want them? Hmmm, let me think. One bolt, a brilliant red, had some white spots, maybe mildew? threw it in the washer, air dried, and it came out great!

Wow! PaperPrincess...what a score. But...what to do with them. Sounds like they would be wonderful in a quilt but would you have to put some kind of stabilizer on the back first. I have never even seen raw silk let along 5 bolts of it. Can you share a picture please? Anyone want to enlighten me as to how one would use these. :-) And red...oooh...my favorite color!

Long story. I was making quilts out of recycled shirts. In the Detroit area, the Salvation Army has 5 for $5 on Fridays so I was going on Fridays & getting 5 (0r 10, or 15) cotton shirts. While looking for the cottons, I saw lots of washable silk shirts, also a buck, so I decided to make a silk quilt. The shirts are just amazing, mostly pastels, many are jacquards or aloha floral prints. The design I'm planning on using is a controlled scrappy, and was thinking of getting some neutral color dupioni to tie everything together. My cousin knew I was planning this quilt, but forgot she had this stashed away. She came across the bolts of fabric when cleaning. The fabric from the shirts will need to have iron on stabilizer, but I don't think I will need to stabilize the raw silk, I'll need to experiment a bit before I make the final decision however. Raw silk is a rough fabric, sort of like homespun, and the texture is a lot different from the shirts which are more, well, silky. I think the 2 textures will add a lot of interest. I was putting off starting the quilt because when my BFF heard that I was getting these shirts for a buck, she told me I couldn't cut them until her husband looked them over first. He picked out 5 for his last BD, so I guess I'm free to start. Won't be until after the holidays.

Paper Princess: That silk project really sounds exciting. You know we definitly need pictures.

By the way I keep wondering, why your Paper Princess and not Fabric Princess?

Oh dear, time to enter the confessional: I had to pick up my last installment for the wall hanging yesterday and they had already pulled the border and backing fabric. So I had to get that of course. Then I stopped at Joann's - not a smart idea particularly as I had not had breakfast yet. No good - shopping hungry. I now have 2 more Halloween prints, white premium cotton (I was totally out), and a lovely blue with swirls that I had also used up entirely. Did I NEED them - - - weeeeellll, not really.