January Dog: Afghan

I've decided to challenge myself to needle felt a different breed of dog each month this year. So here is January's finished product. I've never made a long hair animal before so that was a new experience.

Shoes

During the last meeting of the Textile Tarts, a member demonstrated how to make shoes using Paper Clay. These are the ones that I completed. They are quite small, only about one inch high. They are made of air dry clay, embroidery floss laces, and thin black ribbon. Now I need to determine the "person" that is wearing these shoes! Fun!

  

Seagull

Made this seagull just for fun.

March 19: Although I liked this seagull, I always though something was missing. He just seemed a little plain to me. So today I went back to him and added a bit of embellishment. He now has lace on his webbed feet with a tiny white pearl on the top edge. He also has a piece of deep blue lace on his tail feathers embellished with small black beads. And I also embellished his wings with small white pearl beads. I like him better now....is he finished??

Penny

I finished my 10th wall doll- Penny.  She holds a lucky penny!

Swap Finished

We had our December meeting of the Textile Tarts which included the Tilda Swap so I am now able to post the doll that I made for this swap.

I especially like her blue suede fur topped boots. She has a new home now and my desire to make Tilda style dolls is done- at least for the near future. They are a lot of fun to make though, so there's no telling what the future could bring.

Tilda Swap

Last month I pitched the idea of doing a Tilda theme for our Textile Tarts December swap. People were receptive, and there were no other ideas on the table, so a Tilda swap it will be!
The internet is full of Tilda's- every style imaginable.  It was decided that each member could choose any size and style Tilda that they wanted to make- the sky's the limit! It should be fun to see all the Tilda dolls.

Last May I joined my town's garden club. They also have a swap at their December meeting so I decided to make two Tilda's- one for each swap! That way I get the fun of making two, but don't end up with two after all is said and done. Actually, I will end up with a new one created by someone in the Tarts.

                                               

This is the one I am going to use for the garden club swap. I picked the dress fabric first- it's very sheer so I doubled it creating a puffy skirt. I thought all the flowers said "Garden Party".  After that it was just a matter of pulling colors out of the skirt to make the rest of her outfit. She is a very simple doll to sew so it really is all about the costuming.   

 After I finished the doll, I realized I had the perfect chair! She is only 13 inches seated or 17 inches standing. The Tilda doll patterns from the books are much larger, but I do like this size.

 I know I am taking a chance bringing her to the garden club swap as they are not necessarily fabric doll people, but I'm going to do it anyway. She is holding flowers so there is a connection. Once I see what people bring this year, I will know what is expected for next year.

Dragon

I put all my plants outside during the summer months which leaves lots of "empty" places inside. I noticed an empty pedestal not long ago and decided it needed a dragon. So I made this one.

The head, neck and tail are wired for flexibility and allow posing. The teeth and nails are made using Paper Clay that I varnish once dried. And the eyes are glass.

Here he is at home.