Tina

You all remember little "Doodle Face"...

Well, my sweet friend Marie said this in her comment...

I love your doodle face, she is really cute. I can see her as painted quilted hanging for a little girls room. On a dowel with balls on the end and painted with colors to match with lines and dots on the dowel and ribbons of complimentary colors hanging from each side. With a banner under her face that says "wonder"...

Well, I certainly liked this idea and started to put my spin on it. I cut out the face shapes and then I drew her facial features directly onto the fabric with inktense pencils. Then I appliquéd them onto the background fabric with black stitching. Ohhh, this made her look spooky (but in a good way) so I didn't know where she was going to take me next. I made a small opening on the back of her eye lids and stuffed them trapunto style. I also gave her some glitzy beaded eyeliner.

I even machine embroidered eyebrows for her. You may notice her colorful tresses, they are from the last package from my sister, which included several balls of raw silk strips, somewhat like selvages. I thought they would be perfect for hair and everything just sorta snowballed from then on. I added strips of brightly colored fabric to the edges of the piece and I then stretched her over a previously used 16" x 20" canvas, with some batting underneath. I had originally been going to sew through the canvas and make some definition in that way, but the canvas had been painted and would not allow me to do this. Hmmm, now what? I was able to stitch some ceramic butterfly beads above her head, but...

She is still missing something and I knew I wanted wording below her face. (Thanks, Marie for that, too). In fact, I felt that she needed her name there, but since she was already attached and I couldn't stitch her name, I did the next best thing...I faux stitched her name with a paint pen and some glitter gel "stitching". I decided to name her Tina after the youngest girl on Still Standing.

So she ended up looking like this...

...click on pictures for more detail...

Since it's sometimes difficult to figure out what size a piece of art really is, I'm also showing you a picture of Tina lounging on the deck.

Well, I think that is going to be my last fabric work for a while. I'm tidying up the studio tomorrow and moving the sewing machine out of sight. Maybe that way I can get some polymer clay work done.

I have several projects in mind and need to start on Christmas presents and such.

In the mean time, I am going to be getting rid of my assemblage supplies, such as papers, metal pieces, junk drawer stuff and the like. If you are interested in a big box of surprise supplies and will pay for the shipping, I'll send them to you. Let me know and I can show you some pictures.

Well, that's all for now. Enjoy what's left of your weekend and get ready for Monday.