What has Sarah been up to lately?

Has it really been so long since I last posted?
Oh, well...I'll begin where I am. I've found time recently to get back to some much loved hobbies.

This weekend I will be in NH with several of my doll artist friends learning how to create and cast a mold. We will work from our own sculpted piece and learn how we can make a mold of this piece to produce cast pieces from the original. I am going in with a "blank" doll head I have sculpted that I can use as a base when creating my original dolls. It will be great not to have to start from scratch each time when creating a head. Having my own original to work from as a blank, then sculpting the detailed adding features and reshaping, then covering with fabric and painting a face....I'll keep you posted!

(Yes, the pun is intentional!)

View of my workroom bulletin board...

I haven't worked with my doll art for several years and am happy to be getting time to spend with this craft again. I am finding the drawing and painting classes I have taken in the interim are helping me sculpt the heads.

Sculpted Head blanks to use for mold making class

This doll is further along in the process. Her head has been molded from clay, then covered in fabric, painted etc. This unique doll "opens" in the middle to an egg shaped cavity. From a Joanne Pinto class.

I'm also learning to use my new Pfaff 2170 sewing machine and my Pfaff 4874 Serger. Love the sewing machine...coming to love the serger! That thing has been a challenge to learn.

The machines are quite advanced and computer driven so I'm spending time learning the software capabilities as well as the hardware. Here is a test stitch out of some quilt motifs. The one on the left, I used the software to precisely position 2 separate motifs to interlock in the middle. Too cool for those of us who have strugged in the past to line up the next motif in a row and have it placed correctly on the fabric!

I made this little table runner with my new serger. This machine stitches and finishes edges and overlocks seams. What a treat! The center of this runner is woven from fabric strips that I serged with a beautiful stitch before weaving them into the center patch. Ends were added and the whole thing is reversible. Took me about 3 hours start to finish. If I knew how to work the machine..it would probably take me half that time!

Table Runner Front /Table Runner Back

Started this wall hanging applique project last Saturday. I have all the pieces together, will the machine applique with invisible thread, then quilt and bind.