Got the blues, fine feathered friend

We battle the endless line of blue jays, and on any given day our house will have between 8 to 12 of the screeching flashes of blue flying around.

This year we decided we'd be smart and put up only tube feeders for the birds. Being tired of the swing feeders getting cleaned out within a day by the blue jays....something had to be done. One determined blue jay adapted to eating from a small spot......or at least he tried.

After a few grosbeak attempted to eat, we relented and hung a swing feeder again, a small one. Our truly smart blue jay feeds from it and seems to always chase away the smaller birds. Even when this jay spins and spins he manages to empty the feeder with in three days.

We resorted to doing what he does best....chasing him off. It worked...somewhat.... he began getting a mouthful of seed and setting the seed on a branch that can be seen behind the feeder, returning to the feeder for more. We found the other jays pilfering his seed when he went back was turned! Poor guy.

This is what we found tonight when we returned from a ball game and I'm beginning to believe this jay is being flogged for his intelligence! This lovely, vibrant blue feather was found under the "Jay" tree and I'm convinced it came from our feeder fiend. I'll have to keep a closer look for this guy and perhaps put a house up for him/her.

Who can't help but go for the underbird. C & G Design.

Composition Toddler-Finale

I'm done!!!!! Another project to check off the list. It's been a joy and a good experience. I have learned a couple of things:

Careful with the water,

Use fresh flesh paint,

Apply several coats of flesh even if it looks good the clear coat can produce uneven color,

Clear coat darkens,

Paint all at once and use something like a ace bandage to cover the areas that need to be protected, rather than a shopping bag. Wet paint on limbs are too loose.

I think the last one is the most important one! It was cumbersome to spray both sides of the arm and legs without flipping and moving the limbs, sometimes into the bag!I'm trying to think of a older name and have come up with two, Louise and Sadie......What do you think?
I'll let it my new doll play out in the pictures.

12 layers of paint, total.....


Rosy toeies????!!!!

Pretty pinkies,

Rounded.....

Brownded????!!!!

Funky flesh!

Cool color!

EWWWWW!!!
Before........ And after........


Ta-da!


Wa-La!!!!

Her permanent spot with the Steiff bear. C & G Design.

More Art

I like Madam P's art, I like Babe's also...but a lot of it doesn't make it home from school. I've promised Madam P. I would frame some of her work and hang it up. Here is some pictures from her portfolio of this year.

Positive and negative,

Bubble dimension.....

Landscape......

And my favorite....planets.

Her craypas are the best!!! C & G Design.

Great Grandmothers Quilt

I never knew my great grandmother, but I figure she was a accomplished stitcher, she left myself and my 3 sisters a quilt each. She hand made all of them.



My older sisterhttp://tinaramsey.blogspot.com/ got the bow tie pattern, which is really recognizable....But I don't know now.....mine might be a toss up. Can you guess which one it is?


I'm thinking...my hubby being "Jack of All Trades" and my sister's hubby being "Mr Fix-It", might have something to do with it.

My great grandmother used white on white, this is the mixed wrench pattern. It is a old, traditional, method of quilting, using super scraps.

Each square pattern measured 6'' x 6'' and the overall size of the quilt is 60'' x 70''.


She back lined it with white and hand quilted the log cabin pattern.

Lottsa work. C & G Design.

Composition Toddler-dress, part 7

I really did not know what kind of dress to put on my doll. I looked at several period pictures, none with composition though. Most photographs dating to 1915-1930 have french Bebe's and the attire is far to lacy. I didn't want that for this doll, she is rather plain and I felt a play dress would look better. I took the basic structure of a early 1900 dress and went from there.

Mostly what I saw was a bibbed dress, or sometimes referred to as a yoke. I added pleats and a peter pan collar because they seem somewhat dressy but not too over the top.


Puffy sleeves and a A shaped skirting with a large pleat in the front.

More decorative pleating and the tiny, tiny lace. Although the final dress would be considered infant size.....everything for dolls are considered on a small scale, almost miniature. You can see the vintage doll button in the next picture, I removed it from the other clothes she was wearing, the others are to stained to save.
The complete outfit......

No bonnet, she's too old! C &G Design.

How Raggedy Andy came

It's raggedy Wednesday, I have a pleasant surprise about the brother and sister duo! While finishing packing some of my stuff left in the trailer, I found one of my old books!

Bigger than a little golden book and full of Ann and Andy stories, but better, it introduces Andy. Little did I realize when I bought this rare find, it would include the first stories of Andy. The book opens with two letters written to Johnny by his mother She explains in one of the letters, she remembers a neighbor friend, (Bessie) of the same age, playing with Andy, and she with Ann. Both mothers made each doll a day apart from one another. Bessie moved when they were eight, if Johnny's mother could find him she would send him.

I'm not going to do the story justice but for the sake of posting, I've shorten the explanation of How Raggedy Andy came.

Daddy took Raggedy Ann down to his office, daddy wished to catch a whole lot of Raggedy Ann's cheeriness and happiness and put all this down on paper. Raggedy Ann stayed at the studio for three or four days. She was missed very, very much at home and Marcella longed for her. Neither Ann or Marcella complained.

One evening, just when Daddy was finishing his day's work, a messenger boy came with a package and a letter. Gran'ma told Daddy about her little playmate and the boy doll, Raggedy Andy. After reading the letter, Daddy opened the other package which had been inside the nice, soft, lumpy package and found---Raggedy Andy.

Raggedy Andy had been carefully folded up. His soft loppy arms were folded up in front of him and his soft, loppy legs were folded over his soft, loppy arms, and they were held this way with a rubber band. Raggedy Andy must of wondered why he was being "done up" this way, but it could not of caused him any worry, for in between his feet came over his face Daddy saw his cheery smile. After slipping off the rubber band, Daddy smoothed out the wrinkles in Raggedy Andy's arms and legs. Daddy propped Raggedy Ann and Andy up against the books on his desk, they sat facing each other.

Daddy took the rubber band and placed it around Raggedy Ann's right hand, and around Raggedy Andy's right hand, so that when he had it fixed properly they sat and held each others hands. "I will go away and let you have your visits to yourselves, although it is good to sit and share your happiness by watching you." Daddy said and wondered what happened to them since they had parted more than fifty years before.

The next morning, when Daddy unlocked his door and looked at his desk, he saw that Raggedy Andy had fallen over so that he lay with his head in the bend of Raggedy Ann's arm.

.....How Raggedy Andy came....Published under Bobbs-Merrill., Inc in 1960.

The book is written & illustrated by Johnny Gruelle and dedicated to Marcella's mama.

C & G Design.

A Special Find

I really did not need another sewing machine but, check out the one I picked up at a second hand shop for $12.00.

It has a drop in bobbin and definitely, it needs to be threaded the right way. Everything works and works well, and it came withe the button attachment.

Many extra thread holds, and a little confusing about how to wind the bobbin.....hubby had to tell me how.

My sewing machine has a serial number, is a Singer in a free arm table. I researched the number on the Internet, my machine dates to 1957 and was someones prize, obvious by the way it was taken care of.

I suspect I'll do the same. C & G Design.