The past returns

Sometimes it's amazing how the past comes back into your life when you least expect it.  That very thing happened to me recently and I thought (since I've been busy aimlessly sewing new possible patterns and don't have anything exciting to show you) that you might like to see stuff that I used to do before I was a quilter.  

Our church has a fund raiser once a year showcasing the wares of it's members and using the money gotten from the sale of the donated goods for the kitchen renovation fund.  In the summer of 2008, I decided to make dolls for it.  Needless to say, I didn't know how many to make, or how they'd go over so I started with a few.

I made them as cute as I could and dressed them in all sorts of different patterned fabrics and gave them various hairstyles, etc.  The first ones didn't have much of a smile, but I changed that as time went on.

Here are a few from the beginning months:

As time went on, it seemed as though I couldn't stop.  I was making some that looked like Chinese babies, African American babies, and everything else.  (I do tend to get carried away!!!)  Here's a picture of 18 of the 60 I eventually ended up making.  When I dragged them all outside to the front porch to take this picture, my neighbors thought I was nuts!!!  They said it looked like a kindergarten photo.  LOL

Well anyway, onto the story.  So, you ask, what has this got to do with NOW??  Needless to say, my church NEVER sold them all so I got lots back.  I sold a few at my LQS, and saved my favorites for gifts, but I still had some left.  I thought I might give them to our local police department for help with children problems, but was afraid that I couldn't provide them with enough, and I surely didn't want to start THAT doll making marathon again.

I live in a white community, so no one wanted the cute little African American dolls until I talked to an old online friend one day and she was telling me that her daughter teaches special education at a school in the poorest county of Alabama and they hardly have any toys for the kids to play with.   Well, let me tell you, I knew right then where those babies were going to live so I sent them right off to her.

A week or so later, I received this picture with a heartfelt thank you note telling me that the dolls are the favorites of the kids and even the boys play with them.

Happy ending for everyone!  Look at all those smiles!!  Even the dolls look delighted that they now have someone who loves them!  So, the moral of this story is "you just never know" and sometimes it just takes a few years to discover where something really belongs.  So now, I will just continue to piece my brains out until next time................



I'm almost done......really........!!!  Thanks for your patience!!  I'm just as anxious to make something fun as you might be to see it......but I have to finish this stuff first.  Two more patterns in the making!!