Thanksgiving in my house began with a gift of bittersweet from friends in Connecticut. Gus in his favorite spot at Daughter Beth's and her husband Gary's house where we gathered for Thanksgiving. Ten at the table for Thanksgiving.  Christmas already in the cupboard behind us. My Granddaughter Sarah At my house only the small tree this year, I could not manage the 9 ft one. Next year I will line up more help! Under the tree are two books of Arabian Nights that belonged to my father when he was a young boy, over a hundred years back now.  My sister has kept them s ..read more

 Greiner dolls were made in Philadelphia about the same time period as Pennsylvania rug hooker Magdalena Briner Eby was making her very folky rugs, now highly valued and treasured by collectors. I decided to make some inspired by her rugs for my Greiner dolls. For the shapes I am using old tin Cookie cutters, also typical of Pennsylvania. I am attempting to copy her style but not her exact rugs.  Horse rug above at top, hooked all with yarn, too solid to be pretty to me.  A better collection of yarn would solve this. My sister sent me the dear chair, from a Houston es ..read more

 Two nice Izannah Walker dolls in worn but original condition are the favorites of my doll collection. I will add another if I have the means and the opportunity. Meanwhile a very rough little waif showed up on Ebay and then came to me. I set about to try to bring the much patched and poorly overpainted doll to a better state, here is her story.  A huge box arrived! The packing would have befitted a princess! Layers and layers under was the doll, in what I believe to be her original dress and three pieces of unders. The perfectly fitted red dress is entirely hand sewn, the unders som ..read more

There are hundreds of ways to carry a cell phone, I have not been good about keeping mine with me in the past. Now I have an IPhone I enjoy.  Looking on line at the dozens of hard leather bags there, both for over the neck or over the shoulder,  I did not see one that seemed to be for me.   Having studied ladies' antique pockets and sewing  rolls and little bags to keep embroidery scissors at hand, a variety of pretty little keeps filled my head right away!  A pretty phone bag could be made of crewel embroiderd upholstery fabric.  Or one of the little orienta ..read more

Fall decorating will be with us before I can blink,  a painting takes me a while to work out and execute and dry and make little changes .. so I have wanted to do some fall still lifes for years and never manage it!  Christmas overtakes me while I am still just thinking about pumpkins.  So yesterday I began to imagine what I might paint,  I love the blue corn of Taos, actually have some seeds from Robert Mirabal but never planted them. The fun of corn husks is unbounded, it can be whatever one imagines!  I have a Taos flute, and a wonderful small drum made about 40 yea ..read more

  I bought an antique chair at the Withington's auction (left).  In 2010 I also bought a chair at the Withington auction (right). I saw many dolls I liked. I bid on a couple of cloth dolls, but am saving up my money for a wonderful antique cloth doll (or two?) to sit in these chairs. In the meantime, some dolls made with my own hands will sit in these chairs by late summer.  And yes, that's a blue play ball. My old doggie still likes to nose it into the air during play time.  ..read more

  A rug hooking friend, Barb Carroll passed away last week, she is the one to whom I sold my rug designs. She had long since sold them on to Katie Hartner,  A Nimble Thimble in Tyler Texas.   Barb Carroll was a pillar of the rug hooking community. Her enthsiastic use of color was unbounded by convention and her work was marked by exuberant color.  She was also a warm wonderful human being beloved by so many of us.   I remember the day we met, my friend  Virginia Munroe told me of a class she was taking, and said I must drive to San Antonio to meet that teache ..read more

 Hope was wearing a borrowed dress from another doll I'd made, and Aunt Edyth meant that needed to be rectified. She hand-sewed this beautiful dress out of antique fabric for my antique Izannah Walker doll. What a lovely gift, and Hope is augmented by the beauty of Edyth's skills.  ..read more

 Friends Dixie Redmond and Elaine McNally were here for a wonderful visit, Dixie has written about it and taken a stack of pictures. So instead of trying to write it all for readers here, I invite you to see her post:   Northdixie Designs      Within that post are several other links, also follow those for background. Antique Izannah Walker dolls are the inspiration for much of our doll making for all three of us. Here are three old ones we studied closely, comparing construction and painting.   ..   Because of Covid, I try to avoid having peo ..read more

So, I have cleared away my sewing clutter to enjoy this beautiful table runner, copy of an antique one. This was the last large piece I tried to hook and when it became apparent my hands were not going to finish it, a sweet friend, Debbie, took it home for a few months and brought it back as a splendid echo of an early American folk art treasure.     Thank you Debbie, love it!  Friend Trisha Travis worked one of the ships.  Jack made our eight foot table from two wide boards than once were part of the buttry in our 1768 cape from Connecticut.  I am ..read more