A Strawberry Shortcake Doll

 

Well I am back sooner than I thought, not up to speed yet but getting there. Thank you so much for all your kind messages and best wishes, it was very heartening.
This little green eyed sweetie is my Strawberry Shortcake. Dressed in a pretty berry print by Acufactum and with a strawberry embroidered apron with a little hoop with a strawberry flower. A new style of crocheted hat with a little strawberry flower too.
Dolls have always been my thing form being a small child. I think being autistic I found them calming and a better alternative to the confusing people around me, I still do!!
Strawberry Shortcake came out in the late seventies and early eighties and I longed for this strawberry scented doll but for some reason my Grandma decided that if they were scented they must be inherently bad for you and I was denied. So her is my own representation with dried strawberry leaves inside her stuffing and a piece of rose quartz to her heart. She was a joy to make.
Another interesting phenomena of autism is that I am truly ambidextrous and I have never lost this as I aged. Working exclusively with my left hand has made me realise how right handed everything is, especially my sewing machine. I normally switch from hand to hand as I work favouring left for some tasks and right for others but being without my right hand has given my great sympathy for those exlcusively left handed folk out there. xx

Away for a little while, see you soon xx

 

EEk! I have caught two cancellations for surgery in the next two weeks. Simple eye surgery tomorrow now with more complex operation on my hand on Monday.
So I will be away for a while and will probably be back in around two weeks to a month. No new work for a while!
Please bear with me and I will be back in February, see you then xx

Ida, A Snowdrop Fairy

 

Ida is a snowdrop fairy dressed in a beautfiul print by Acufactum simply called Snowdrops and she is Ida because snowdrops were my Gran's favourite flower, she planted them everywhere. I love the fact that my extensive collection of snowdrops came originally from my Grandma's garden and have spread everywhere.
For a winter spirit she has tiger's eye to her heart with rosemary in her stuffing.
She is a tall girl, one of my long legged Rhoda dolls from way back but with the altered pattern to give her a different head pattern that is more controlable and gives a neater result.
All in grey greens and white with subtle teal accents to her scarf and tattered wings, her hair is hand styled soft mint wool tops. Her facial features are simple and delicately hand embroidered. She is finished with tiny buttons, a rowan wool bob hat and a sampler pillow. I am really enjoying making them and exploring the fairy look.

Holde and the two hares

 

This is Holde, the last doll of 2025 and finished on the solstice. She is a winter doll and tells the story of Holde and the White Hares, a favourite of my Grandmother.
Holde was the granddaughter of winter but she loved the spring. One morning looking out at the bleak winter greyness she set out to find spring. First she went to the river but could not see spring in its reflection so then she went to the forest but could not see spring. After thinking a while she decided to see if she could see spring from the high hills, see spring in the distance. But on the high hills the snow came and she quickly got very lost. Cold and alone she was spotted by her grandmother's servants the two white hares of the high hills. Malin and Filou, the guardian hares. They quickly took her back to her grandma and she waited for spring in her grandmothers court with the two hares who turned brown again in the spring sunshine.
There was a lot more to their adventure but that is the ghist. She is dressed in a fabulous, now discontinued fabric by Acufactum called Winter Fairytale with Holde and a white hare on her dress. Teamed with a dot print cotton in taupe and white lace petticoats. Her fawn wool cape is heavily embroidered with two folk art hares and snow flakes with warm winter boots and a tawny bobble hat.
She has tigers eye to her heart with rosemary in her stuffing for winter.
The dolls I am working on at the moment are slowly taking winter into spring and I am enjoying the slow transition.