Though I will keep this blog open for a while, I will be combining my work blog with my personal blog from here on out! Hope you will come visit at my new location, The Voyagers Blog. 

Join my new blog and/or leave a comment there and you will be entered to win two 8.5 x 11 prints of your choice from my shop! Winner will be chosen on Friday.

Many thanks!

I need your help, people! Regarding limited edition tees. I'm about to order summer shirts, and since I came up short on a few requested sizes last year, let me ask you: What sizes do you most want?? I will have three or four designs for kids and a couple for women. So cast your votes and let me know what you need!

Many thanks!!!

 So, this morning I spent a couple of hours in the chilly warehouse that contains the screen printers where I have my shirts printed for the summer line. 

I love seeing the screens with my designs outlined on them. There is always a great sense of excitement and anticipation there. 

And I got to walk out with a small stack of sample shirts, still faintly warm from the conveyor belt of the drying machine.

 The best part, of course, is trying on the new samples.

 Q and I had a bit of fun before dinner, modeling our new shirts.

 There are many rituals involved in the preparation for spring, but this is among my new favorites.

 A lot of fun to be had.

Q loves the pink ink on her new shirts, and wore hers out to dinner tonight. 

Many more previews to come...

 Now in The Voyagers Shop...

 Bespoke rag dolls.

 Details: HERE.

 Hurrah!

Mini & Maximus spring collection, Rock, Paper, Scissors is up and online!

They artist collaboration series features my Crown Owl and Unicorns designs in various styles. 

Go check it out!

photos: Jessie Kenney, styled by Heather Rome for Babiekins Magazine

BABIEKINS ISSUE 8!!!!!!!

Online now. 

I always love a new issue of Babiekins to dive into. 

Oh, and go to page 69 to print out my exclusive coloring page with a little nautical adventure theme! You can print it out for the littles to color!

Announcing.......Some exciting new projects with the amazing Michele Brulé of Enchanted Enfant!


Michele's lush and dreamy designs have graced the covers and pages of VOGUE Bambini, Martha Stewart Weddings, and have appeared on the red carpet at film premiers and television events.


I am proud and excited to be working on these new projects for Enchanted Enfant. Because they are still under wraps, I can't show you any previews here, but right now you can see a beautiful preview slideshow on the Enchanted Enfant site here! Just click on the "Estelle: The Book" button in the menu. 

Go look, go look! It's so beautiful!

Check out Babiekins Magazine's fab interview with the über-cool Mini & Maximus. The owl tee in the left picture is my design for their upcoming collection.

 Fiona is ready for her first dance recital. She is 24" tall and entirely hand-stitched from 100% cotton muslin hand-dyed with walnut crystals. Her pattern was designed by my four-year-old daughter and I, and is entirely one-of-a-kind. Her features are hand-stitched from my collection of delicate vintage silk and cotton threads. Her clothes are handmade from scraps of old ballet skirts, cotton, tulle and grosgrain ribbon, and are not removeable. Her wonderful red hair is of 100% mohair. Scarlett's arms are poseable, jointed with buttons. She bends at the hip. She can certainly be played with, but may not be appropriate for smaller children.

Do you ever dream of sunshine on a January day?

 I am so thrilled at how the doll that Q helped to design turned out!

I really have to give her props for prompting me into dreaming her up. 

Even though, as my daughter keeps reminding me, she doesn't like dolls. 

"Oh, mommy, I really love the doll that you made...for someone," she said this morning, tactfully reminding me with her phrasing that while she has enjoyed having a hand in the design, she is not about to back down from her anti-doll stance anytime soon!

Here is the doll before I clothed her. I stitched a heart with vintage silk thread under her dress, even though it is covered by her clothing in the finished product.

 Isn't she sweet?

 I love how drowsy and dreamy she is, the way she flops.

Her clothing was made with scraps of cotton homespun, satin ribbon, bits of vintage t-shirt, and repurposed parts from a ballet tutu.

I have to admit I never really understood rag dolls until now.

In fact, I was terrified by the raggedy anne that some family friend gave as a gift when I was very small, and which my mother propped (all unknowing) at the end of my bed until I was old enough to firmly object.

Maybe it was my fear of raggedy anne and andy that resulted in my inability to appreciate rag dolls all these years. Although, oddly enough, I have always admired (and often illustrated) redheads. In fact I would like to be one in my next life!

 

 So let this mark the start of my new appreciation for rag dolls as an art form. 

Good thing I just happened to have a yard or two of homespun left over in my project box!

And good thing that I have a daughter with a rampant imagination, ready to inspire with new ideas at every turn!

 I hope to be trying my hand at some more rag dolls in the future, if I can find the time between jobs (or during movie nights, as I did with this one!).

 I'll just have to order a few more yards of homespun, and break out the rest of my vintage thread collection (I love the wooden spools!) and the basket of vintage fabric scraps that my mother sent from Woodstock!

 Q standing proud with the design she helped to create. 

It's our first real collaboration...

but most likely not our last!

Welcome, 2012!!!!

 For the new year...a new doll in progress, made at the request of my daughter! 

...my daughter who does not like dolls.

She doesn't want to keep it, I think she just wanted to see me make it. 

So this doll will be in the shop as soon as I decide how to dress her.

 She is by far the largest doll I've ever made - about 24" tall. 

She is made from 100% homespun cotton, and entirely stitched by hand (yes, every stitch!) 

Her features are embroidered with thread from my vintage thread collection, and her hair is of mohair yarn. Q picked out the hair color, thread color and dimensions.

 I am quite fond of her, and can't wait to find the time to make her clothes!

 

...from Maia, Mike and Flynn Q !!!

 I just got in some Japanese paper clay - a wonderful medium! And there is a new doll in the shop, Isabelle!

 She is just 6" tall and light as a feather, jointed with wire. Her hair is hand-sewn from mohair, her dress from vintage lace (her polka dot leotard peeks out from underneath) and she wears an aged bronze necklace with a tiny, vintage bell from India.

OOPS...already SOLD!

Dream Journal is live today! I'm delighted to be a contributor and cover artist for this issue. I also had the opportunity to do a little interview on the blog, so check it out!!

WEBSITE/BLOG: www.dreamerjournal.com

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dreamer-A-Creative-Sketchbook/154138761351438

TWITTER: www.twitter.com/dreamerjournal

Marie, creator of the lovely blog Croix de Provence and designer of the Paris-based children's clothing line Le Carrousel (Q and I are big fans!) currently has a gift selection up on the French site kidZcorner, and she has been sweet enough to include my Audrey paper doll among her selections!

Check out her kidZcorner selection here!!!

And while you're at it, check out one of MY personal favorites from this holiday season, the Voute Céleste skirt from Le Carrousel. Yes, Q will be wearing it this holiday season!!

 There's a new mouse in the house...Innes, the smallest Christmas mouse!

 Find Innes here.

New in the shop today, "The Hatter",  the first in a new series I've started depicting children playing at an Alice in Wonderland tea party.

This series was inspired by a family I grew up with in upstate New York, a family whose children staged the most wonderful and elaborately-costumed plays. 

 

 

Many thanks to Barbara for providing the photos that help inspire my Tea Party series!