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Book, bag, dolls and doodles

 I do love a list.  It's not only the start of a fresh, brand spanking new month, but it's a Monday, so time to write down what I want to accomplish this week.  A lot of my list's the home admin type thing - check home insurance renewal date, move savings around from one account to another, contact the gutter cleaning company.  The sort of stuff that's dull, but necessary.  Especially the gutter cleaning company.  It's like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon have suddenly sprouted up there on the roof.  Anyway, I've also got several craft-based tasks on my list and - yay!!! - I've already got some of 'em done.  Like this needlebook.  

I lined this piece of scrappy slow stitching with felt, then made felt pages to insert inside.  Today I finally sewed those pages in, and added a button & ribbon fastening.  
It's a simple construction, but these kind of needle books are very handy.  Much better than pushing your needles into an already crowded pincushion.  
That's ticked off my list.  Next up, attach the strap on this bag.
The strap's the perfect length, entirely by chance.  
The metal rectangles - I don't know what to call these - but they came off a denim dress I was cutting up.  I'd kept them because, as us crafty types know, everything comes in useful sooner or later!  When I needed to construct a strap for this bag I knew they'd be the perfect size.  
Right, that's ticked off my list too.  Next up, a trio of art dolls.  
I added a ribbon loop to this one.  The colouring's a little insipid for my taste, but it was enjoyable to embroider, adding my stitching to that already on this vintage cloth.  
This doll is looking very springlike with all the greenery.  There's a background of handpainted material, embroidered over and with added seed beads.  The hanging loop is made of a trimming originally intended for florists.  I intended this doll to be one of my Moon Dolls, but actually I feel like she's a female version of the folklore Green Man.  
This was made as a Moon Doll (see earlier blog posts), but whereas the other Moon Dolls were made of gell printed fabric, this was plain calico and has been hand embroidered so the calico's completely covered in thread.  There's a circle of white felt for the face, and I've added beading to the base.  I think if I was making another version of this, I'd have less pink background on show and much more greenery.  Possibly even a few insects - moths maybe? - among the leaves.  
These are the doll backs.  Painted material with my embroidery.  A piece of vintage embroidery.  Plain dusty pink felt.  
Here are the three gals lined up, none of them really cracking a smile!  (Not sure what the smidgen of black on the pink doll is.  Possibly a wee bit of black felt.  It's been brushed off now.) 
I'll finish this blog post with a couple of pictures of the embroidered doodling I was messing with the other day.  These are from my on-going project of a fabric doodle book.  No fancy stitches, just random patterns on the page.      
Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave a comment, tell me what you think.  

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