My paper tole phase

In the mid 90s I attended a nightclass at the polytech and completed some papertole pictures - three or four have been given away and I don't have digital images of those, but the three that I kept for myself are here...

More cross-stitch catch-ups!

More from the 90s...plus a few from the 2000s - am gradually getting them onto digital!

1997? - we had cat called Tigger who spent a lot of time looking stressed out and we joked that he would just sleep if it all got too much for him - I adapted this from a pattern book, changing the colour of the brown cat into ginger to look like my cat.  I experimented with different stitching techniques to make the patchwork blanket.

Late 90s, this was from a pattern that my mum asked me to make for her.

This also was stitched for my mum from a kitset she had, to match the one done earlier of the cat under the blanket.

A trio set from 2008 - this is the view of the girl at the front...

...here is the side view of the "Girls on Bike" - was a kit set again...

...and the girl at the back!

I did this picture in the early 90s - Phoebe was our little Sydney Silkie dog;
I took a photo of her and sent it to a lady who turned it into a pattern for cross-stitch.
This was  a gift for my mum; she recently gave it back to me.

Tapestries

This fruit bowl was done in 99 - I bought it from a shop in Cromwell while there for New Year 98-99.

The spaniels were a xmas gift from my mum in about 2003 - I had a spaniel for 12 years so it means a lot to me.

These Jennifer Pudney designs are only postcard size and I did them in about 1999 or 2000.

Porcelain doll - French reproduction - Bru doll

I love antique dolls and loved making this Bru - she stands about 30 cm high and is still waiting on the dress as I have the fabric (pink velvet) but haven't got round to making the dress (can't remember if I have a pattern for her yet or not) but envision it being a type of old-fashioned late 1800s sailor-style dress that young girls would have worn.

Her glass eyes have also turned cloudy -the dollmakers had obviously
bought a big batch of the cheap glass eyes that the other dolls also have.

Porcelain doll - Googly #2

This is a taller doll, about 40cm; again with a composite body - the eyes don't seem to be affected like the other googly.

Porcelain dolls - Googly reproduction #1

This is another of my dolls, made in 1998-99, she is a Googly (the shape of the eyes and mouth give it away) and is called Alice (after my granny). This one only stands about 20cm high - she is a wee sweetie! Has a cotton body and was also hand-painted. I made her outfit, which includes layered petticoats and the pinafore.

Unfortunately that year there was a company that manufactured glass dolls' eyes which had a problem with the coloured pupils going cloudy a few months after being used and you can see that has happened here with Alice.

Porcelain dolls - French jumeau reproduction 1998

My first porcelain doll was made in about 1997 at a weekend class at Gore Polytech - I made a modern doll called Shea (she was so big I put the seatbelt on her to take her home in the car!) - I dressed her in a velvet dress (child size 2!) and she sat on an old school chair in the corner of the room.
I do have a photo of her somewhere but will have to track it down; I sold Shea at our garage sale about four years ago to a doll collector who lives in Mataura.

In the late 90's a small cottage on the main road of Mataura became a 'Doll Hospital' where the couple who lived there ran doll-making classes and repaired dolls.  I joined the classes with my dear friend Sandra Black and she made a modern doll while I made a reproduction French doll.

view of undergarments, including the boned corset!

She has been hand-painted and has a full 'porcelain' (composite) body.

I got the authentic old-fashioned style dress pattern from a Canadian doll-pattern company - she has a 'whalebone' corset and a bustle too! I made all her clothes on the sewing machine and by hand.

She is about 40 cm tall.

I was then hooked as have always been a doll girl so returned for the weekly night classes and created three more reproduction dolls.

the bustle!

The 90's - needlework

Here are a few of my cross-stitches or tapestries from that decade - the ones that I've taken digital photos of.  I have many others but need to get their photos transferred to digital, so I will add more as I get them.

1993 - for my Swedish friend Anna

1993 - Granny chose this and asked me to do this one for her to give as a gift to my cousin Jan

1994 - for my mum Lorena (yes, all these pictures came from a cat pattern book that I'd bought)

1994 - for my friend Rachael

1997 - for my mum, from a kitset that she'd started and asked me to finish

1998 - for myself, from a kitset "Portrait of Elegance"

a tapestry - completed in 1999?

1998 - a kitset cross-stitch by either Bessie Pease Gutsman or Maud Tousey Fangel

1997 - Kitty Cats - adapted from a magazine pattern

1999 - a kitset

2000 - wedding present for my husband Brian