Last finish of the year...

This was probably the oldest UFO ever to be dug out and finished. This doll quilt was begun well over twenty years ago while I still had children playing with these dolls. Over the years it had been set aside and almost forgotten until Leia began playing with the dolls each visit.

I was reminded of my own childhood, playing with my mother's doll, Lily, each and every visit to my grandmother's house. Lily had a lovely wooden cradle and her own bedding where she could wait comfortably between visits.

With a twin brother, and another brother four years younger, I spent my hours with my dolls. They were my playmates and best friends. I sewed clothing for them and took them everywhere. My sisters were so much younger and though they may have played with dolls, certainly never to the degree that I did. We had adventures!

When I was no longer playing with my Lily, my grandmother had a visit from someone looking for antiques to buy, and talked my grandmother into selling her Lily and the bed. My mother was very upset when she found out. She had three dolls (I was named for her doll, Carol, as my middle name but never allowed to even touch that doll). Somewhere, she found a reproduction doll similar to Lily.

I was recruited to make a dress for the new Lily.

Here she sits on the new quilt. I have removed the dress and petticoats now because I see they are badly in need of a wash.

After my mother died, my father brought the three dolls to a family reunion for us three girls to pick one. My sisters got first choice and the Lily stand-in was all that was left. I have never seen or held the other two and I don't know which sister has Carol. Of course my sisters don't know either because they were not as obsessed as I was with dolls. They only know they got a real antique and I got the stand-in.

The two dolls Leia plays with, I made many years ago when my own girls were small. The head is made of paper mache. Once, one of the children bit the nose off of the girl doll, and I had to re-build her face.

When the dolls were made, their bodies were sewed of deerskin. About seven or eight years ago, the leather began to fall apart so I bought some cotton to replace the leather.

The arms and legs are carved out of wood. That wood came from old wooden sliding doors from our house as they were being repaired. The size of the pieces limited the size of the doll's feet.

I note that the ceramic feet on Lily are also small in size so I rather guess someone not knowing their history might think they are vintage too.

When I was growing up, if you wanted something, you figured out how to make it. I began sewing clothing for my dolls at age four, as they came with only what they were wearing when purchased, and needed changes for other occasions. These dolls also have many changes.

Now Annabelle and Bert will finally have their own bed cover when Leia comes to play.

I noticed they were changed into night clothing and then back into different clothing while Leia was last here.

I'm sure Bert was glad to get out of his tuxedo into something more relaxing to face the new year.

As for the "quilt", I do not recall where the fabric came from. It is just a print that was quilted along the lines in the design. The batting was very primitive, bought before the days that quilting became popular in Japan.

As the new year nears, everyone is in preparation mode. Spring cleaning cannot wait until spring. One must go into the new year with great preparation. I saw my neighbor out scrubbing his window screens today. My windows could use a bit of attention too ... but maybe I had better begin on a quilted gift for the Women's Conference speaker ... just a month away ... and unlike the doll quilt, there is a deadline.

Side-tracked!

You may think that when a quilt group meets, they quilt. Well, we eat too and when we were sitting at the table, attention went to these dolls sitting on the shelf. I had taken them out for my granddaughter to play with and found they were falling apart. I don't remember how long ago I made them or how old they are now. Maybe one of my daughters will look and comment. (I do know some were still babys because one of the kids bit the nose off the girl doll and it had to be fixed.)The lower arms and legs are carved out of wood and the heads are made of paper mache. The girl doll was made first and her body was made from pigskin. The boy's body was made from deerskin and was first to deteriorate. Neither could take the rigors of play and needed new bodys. Long ago I had bought a piece of peach muslin for that purpose but had not gotten around to making repairs.

I had made my own pattern to make the dolls in the first place and had not saved it. I decided the time had come to get these fixed while we had granddaughters to enjoy them. I began with the boy doll because he had completely fallen apart. You can see beside him the body section. Taking out the stuffing, I traced them to make patterns. I was hoping to get the size about the same so the clothing would still fit.
I dressed him from time to time as I went along to make sure of the length if legs and arms was OK.

After fixing the boy, I was feeling better about taking the girl apart. Now they are both in good repair and waiting for a little girl to play with.

All the clothing was made without patterns and stored in a basket with a button lid. A lot of it needs to be washed. The girl doll is wearing a dress made from fabric I used to make a dress for my eldest daughter so they would match. The night gown for the girl is smocked and the tan striped nightshirt for the boy has a night cap too. There were a number of knit pieces too. The boy's sweater is still in good shape but the vest has moth holes as do many other pieces. The boy has a dress kilt and a tuxedo too. His grey corduroy suit has slit pockets and huge cuffs. Hmmm, when were those cuffs fashionable? The girl has more dresses as she was made first.

These days you can buy Barbie dolls and find a whole selection of clothing on toy store shelves but when I was growing up, your dolls came with only what they were wearing when purchased. I got my first doll on Christmas when I was three. Her name is Alice. She came with a black wig which I didn't like so I played with her very little.

On my fourth birthday she came to my party with a blond wig and can be seen in my arms in frequent pictures from then on. I do not recognize the dress she is wearing in the picture. Probably it is the one she was wearing when she was purchased. It was from this year I began to sew, begging scraps from my mom so that my doll had clothing for every occasion. An interesting note is that the teddy bear my twin brother is holding was intended for me on my first Christmas. There were two and I got the brown one which I still have, dressed in clothing to hide the bare places where his fuzz was loved off.

In those days there were no patterns that I know of for doll clothing. There was the depression and then a war and luxuries were in short supply. If a kid wanted something, you had to figure out how to make it! In many ways I think that was a good life for children. My own children, too, had lots of fun making things and even as adults have kept the creative spirit alive. It is not unusual that during some visit we spend a little time looking over some project one of them is working on and figuring out how to solve some challenge they might be facing.

You have seen the owls. Here is one corner of the doll shelf where Alice sits today. Beside her to the right is "Little Love", my second doll. Both are wearing homemade clothing as are the others. (there are four more shelves ... just like the owls, they tend to gather)

Well, this is a quilting bolg, not a collections blog, and if you look behind the dolls on the sofa, that bit of blue is a quilt I started to make many many years ago for those two dolls. I found it in my fabric box when I was hunting up that peach muslin for fixing the dolls. That was before the days of UFOs. I guess now that the dolls are fixed I'd better finish it up... or maybe get off this computer and get busy on other waiting projects. Strange it is, the things that side-track us!

It's in the mail

From my earliest years I loved dolls. I got a teddy bear for my first Christmas and from then on, almost every photo of me includes one doll or another. I learned to sew at a very early age because my dolls needed changes of clothes, coats, hats, sweaters, bedding, you name it - I made it. My dolls were my world.

Now I have dear granddaughters that love dolls even from an early age. When I was told Naomi could use a doll quilt for her birthday, what more could I do? I think this quilt even has fabric from her own baby quilt. I see also bits from Uncle and Aunt's quilts. There was a bit of pink left from the Hawaiian Wedding quilt to even make a pillow. It will be happier in a doll bed than on the ironing board. So...Happy Birthday Sweetheart. I wish I could have put myself into that envelope!