Christmas is just around the corner

Well it's been awhile since I last posted anything. Since then I've been pretty busy, although I had a couple of weeks doing nothing travelling up to Queensland to visit my son and his family, it was so lovely to catch up with them, I miss seeing my grandson growing up but they seem to have a better life up there so I suppose we have to let them go at some stage. The beaches up there are incredible, why would anyone want to travel anywhere else in the world when we have all of this on our doorstep.

For all of you that have been enquiring about the pattern for the Christmas fairy, I've finally finished writing it up so she is now available. Her name is 'Wishes do come true "
I haven't worked out how to put links on this thing yet but at the moment she is available from
www.homepatch.com.au  www.stitchingpost.com.au   www.marallycraft.com.au www.sewarmadillo.co.au

Continuing in the Christmas mood which I always get into about this time of year I've also designed a Santa and a Snowman. They are all designed on the same theme, they have a round body and head, which I think is sooo easy, no fiddly legs and arms or dresses and the pieces are easily put together.
The santa's name is "Dear Santa" and he has a fabric body and hat, the jacket is made out of felt. I used the new Christmas range of Lynette Anderson which I just love. I only used the snowflake print as I didn't want anything too busy. He holds a wooden staff which is just a piece of painted dowling with a wooden bead on top, it's wrapped around with some Ming Garland and has rusty bells hanging from the top. He has a little tag hanging off his wrist which says " And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight. The picture I have posted I used sheeps wool for his beard but you might find that a bit hard to get hold of. I did make another one with boucle knitting wool for a beard and he turned out really nice. I love his hooded eyes which is something different for me and the huge ric rac is great on his jacket.

The snowman who I have called "White Christmas " is made on the same theme, a rounded body and head. I made him out of plain old Osnaburg, get a nice quality one if you can as some of it can be a bit too open in the weave. Although I backed it with weaveline backing fabric to stabilise it as I find with Osnaburg that it pulls and the seams can pull open. He has a battered top hat which is fun and really messy to make but I love getting messy. He holds a Christmas tree which is made of a piece of dowling and branches of pine garland wrapped with sprays of pip berries. The branches hang with rusty bells,stars, little snowflakes and little labels with sentiments written on them. He also has a little tag with a poem on it

I built a snowman round and fat

and on his head I put a hat

he stood out in the sun all day

untill he'd melted all away

But I know just where he sat

because he didn't take his hat

I would just like to thank all of you lovely ladies that have posted such nice comments on my blog, I'm glad that you are all liking my designs, hope I can keep coming up with more that will appeal to you.

Hope not to take as long with my next post. 

Sunday 17th July

A bit late in catching up with my news I'm afraid, it's taking me a while to get used to this blogging, unfortunately I'm in the that age group where computers were'nt on the agenda at school so I'm a bit of a techno phobe where it comes to computers. The pictures below where of a class that I did way back in June, doll of the moment was Totti one of my new designs, it was a good day and hopefully all had fun!!!!!!!!

 Its hard not to want to dress the dolls before they're finished !!! I apologise for this boo boo I somehow have put this photo on twice and now I can't get rid of one of them !!!!! a total techno phobe.

 This lady was a lovely English lady who we had a few laughs with, maybe we've got the same sense of humour as I'm English too

 This is Wendy who travels all the way from Eugowra in N.S.W. to come to my class. I'm very honoured that she thinks it's worth while to travel so far, she comes to nearly all of my classes.

 These were two new ladies in the class, hope they had a good time, I think they did.

 And this is the famous Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched and owner of HomePatch, she came in to check out what we were up to, must get her in to a class one day.

This was also a can't wait to dress my dolly moment I think !!!!




I've also been really busy designing, a cute rabbit for next years Easter Homespun has given me a lot of new ideas.   The first one was this darling Christmas Fairy called wishes do come true. I used French General fabrics from Moda. I always love the French General range

The other project I've been working on was Kelli Wulsohn's Big Top Theatre for my grandson Archie. I made him a whole set of my puppet designs and when I saw the puppet theatre I thought it would go with my puppets so well. Not a project for the faint hearted I must admit but I haven;t done a lot of raw edge applique up till now but I'm keen to do some more now. Don't you just love Kellie's designs 

Hi my name is Annie Smith, I design and create dolls to sell as sewing patterns.
I will endeavour to keep you posted on anything new or interesting  that I am working on.
here are some of the  designs I have been working on lately.

 These are in a set of puppet patterns that I created initially for my grandson and now are making into patterns. The pair above are Klanky and Spanners two really cute robots.

 And to frighten any child is Viktor and Frankie

 So cute is Princess Fiona and Pirate Jack, I think she's just longing to be rescued by the handsome pirate.

 Just for Christmas is Holly, she's quite tiny but a doll to cherish for the holiday season. She's made of  felt with a blue and red floral bodice.Her hat is decorated with handmade holly and berries also made of felt

 Butterfly Dreams, I had so much fun making these, I've lost count of how many I've made but I never get sick of making them. Everyone turns out differently, there are so many beautiful bright fabrics out there thet the design possibilities are endless. Perfect for that new baby as agift or any cute little girl that you know.

This is Totti, such a diminutive little girl, she has a round head which is sooooooo easy to make and I think gives the doll a lot more character. She has fabric striped legs and painted shoes. Her body is weighted with sand which givees her a nice feel, you won't want to put her down.