Moira, Sunflowers, Birds, and Sunshine
It seems forever since I posted, even though it has only been the weekend. I’ve been busy, busy, busy working on the mirror fairy, who has been christened Moira. She’s just about done. I have to give her a manicure, make-up, accessories and a stand - but she’s together and dressed.
I spent my weekend very restfully. I got up, pretty much when I wanted to, especially since the fireworks were going off until the wee hours of the morning every night. I fed the cats and administered medication.
I fed the birds, who were greedy, glutinous pigs. I fed myself. I harvested from the garden. I took pictures of my sunflowers which are opening a bit more each day. The changes are pretty cool. Tomorrow or the next day, I’ll post my progression of pictures of the sunflowers opening and developing.
I worked on the doll until lunch. I took a lunch break outside on the patio under my umbrella and watched the birds. I worked on the doll again until dinner, which I ate under the umbrella with the birds for company again. Then I worked until bed time. I had 4 different hummingbirds visit my garden this weekend.
Here’s Moira with her top on. I sewed and stuffed her legs, then attached them to her body and added her trousers. She also got slippers.
I got her arms sewn and stuffed last night. Arms are always the hardest part of the doll, especially when I use the remnants of a fat-quarter I hand-dyed and have JUST enough to do two arms. That’s a high-pressure situation, cause I’m prone to poking holes through fingers while attempting to turn them. Having successfully taken care of the arms, I decided to call it a day last night and start again this morning.
This morning, I attached her hair, then made her wings. With that done, I made her sleeves and attached her arms. Next, she got her head attached. Last, but not least, I gave her a haircut.
July 3rd, 2008
I discovered something interesting today. Fireants eat aphids. At least they are on my sunflowers. I have a regular insect colony in my garden. The lovely bug in the upper left is one of a large population. They are on all of my plants, but so far don’t appear to be eating the plants or the veggies so I’ve left them alone. The spider is good, of course. I have the fireants, which are enamored of my black eyed peas, and the weirdest looking grasshoppers. They are very small and are colored as if they should be in a Manga comic book.
I bought a couple of books on blogs today, so expect some changes coming to the blog in the future, as soon as I figure out how to do what I want. Of course, I have to finish the dolls first.
Today’s progress on the Mirror Fairy includes her eye balls, mostly done, her eye shadow and eyebrows and the first layer of color on her lips.
I have decided that the Mirror Fairy has a great story to go with her. She hangs out, invisibly, around mirrors. Occasionally, for a particularly worthy individual, she appears to grant you one wish. Of course, as anyone knows (particularly Mercedes Lackey fans), wishing in front of a fairy is a dangerous thing. To loosely quote a Naiad from Mercedes Lackey’s The Fairy Godmother, the Mirror Fairy is a weak Fae, so she often takes the path of least resistance and grants the wish literally, instead of making mischief. But, woe to you if you inadvertently offend her, say by not knowing who she is or by not believing in the Fae. Then she’s inclined to twist your wish around in a way that you’ll most certainly regret!
I had another hummingbird show up at the feeder this evening. Unfortunately for him, my regular visitor took offense at the newcomer’s presence and buzzed him anytime he came inside the perimeter of the fence. I’ll fill up one of the other feeders tomorrow and see if he comes back.
Other Side of the Mirror Fairy
I started on my challenge doll, which is going to be a mirror Fairy. Below are a series of pictures showing how I got from my 3-piece stuffed head to my needle-sculpted head.
I am in the middle of painting on her features now. To start with, I gessoed her eyes, top eyelids, brows and lips. This allows me to add the color and details without it getting lost in the background fabric.
I got her body stuffed this evening. She has a length of wire from her chest up through her neck that will go into her head to provide support.
The hummingbirds are visiting every day. I came home today to find 3 sparrows playing in the scant water in the birdbath. I filled it up for them, along with the feeders. The white wings, the cardinals and the squirrel have been dropping sunflower seeds in my garden and I now have 6 or 7 sunflowers which have grown and are in the process of blooming. I got the great picture up top this evening from the first open flower.
Speaking of my garden, I picked my first cantaloupe Sunday along with a bunch of tomatoes. The Roma plants are really producing right now and we had about 1/2 an inch of rain Sunday night which really perked the garden up.
Dragonfly Finished!
I spent most of the day working on the Dragonfly and got here finished up - mostly - about an hour and a half ago. I may do a base for her and might still do a hat - but she’s pretty well complete as is.
The wings attach to her back with buttons to allow easier shipment. I like her so much I might bid for her myself.
I also discovered yesterday or the day before that one of my hummingbird visitors is actually a black-chinned hummingbird, not a ruby-throated hummingbird. The female might also be a black-chinned. According to my bird book, they closely resemble each other.
Tomorrow, I have to start on my other doll. I needed to do it this evening, but just couldn’t handle doing any more. I needed a break. I still have to do my dishes and mop the laundry room floor!
Long, Long Day
It’s been a long couple of days - 5 hours of sleep night before last; 5 hours of sleep last night, a conference call starting at 6am this morning; with my day ending with another conference call from 7-8 this evening. Needless to say, I didn’t get any work on the dragonfly done this evening.
Since I was up before dawn this morning, I had a chance to watch my back yard bird spot come to life. The first visitor was one of the two blue jays that frequent the striped sunflower feeder. Soon after his arrival, the sparrows and finches and white wing doves flew in. I had two hummingbirds this morning - a female ruby-throated and a male. I also had a pair of house finches that visited the hummingbird feeder. I’m not sure why they were going for the sugar water, but they chased off the hummer. A pair of cardinals also visited the sunflower feeder. I watched through my binoculars from my breakfast nook table as they fed each other. It was really a sweet thing to watch as the male picked seeds out of the hole in the feeder and put them in the female’s beak. It is so hot and dry here (we’ve already exceeded 15 days above 100 degrees) that I’m filling the bird bath twice a day. The grackles come for a bath and graze at the mixed seed feeder for a while.
I’ve made some good progress on the dragonfly. I figured out my first wing dilemma. Now I just have to come up with the method to attach the wings to the body. That will happen tomorrow. I have also decided that I’m going to paint some veining on the wings with one of the Lumiere metallic blue pigments. I painted the chiffon with Dyna-flow from Jacquard Sunday night, late and spent Monday and Tuesday satin stitching it over the wire armature. In the pictures here, the wings are just pinned on with no support so they are not lined up correctly. I’m taking the pictures on the bar which is a wreck. I’ll get better pictures this weekend.
My original idea was to wrap the wire armature with yarn to hide it, but that didn’t work out. The edge ended up way to bulky after I basted the wing fabric on to see how it would look.
3 weeks to go and so much left to do! Hopefully I can get enough done the rest of this week so I can get the second doll started. I’m thinking of a caterpillar looking into a “mirror” that is really a quilt showing her idea of herself after metamorphosis.