Guardian Angel Ida

This little doll was entered in the Quilting Arts Magazine call for "Guardian Angels" a few years ago.  Her name is Ida.


  The story behind of Ida goes like this:  I was going over to my mother in law's house one very snowy evening.  Enough snow had fallen on the ground making it difficult to drive on the streets. It was slow going, I was being very careful though.  Going down a steep hill I could feel that my brakes were working yet I was still sliding down hill as the wheel were not turning  I  could see to my left that there was a car coming down the road and that I would be intersecting it.  It had four young boys in their late teens inside.  They saw me coming. Fortunately the driver had enough sense to realize that I was not able to stop my vehicle and swerved out of harms way just as I was able to do the same.  They ended up in a snow bank as did I on opposite sides of the road.  I quickly ran out to make sure that everyone was safe.  I was very nervous but quickly my fears were dispelled as the four young kids got out of their car laughing and carrying on and grateful that no one was hurt.  I would have hated to have been the cause of grief for someone's parents.  It was a close call.  Smart thinking on their part and a little guardian angel on my shoulder kept everyone out of harms way.

  My mother in law passed away on Christmas Day that year, two days before her birthday.  It was that same week that this near miss happened.  I was very grateful she was watching over all of us.  She still watches over us.  I hope those four boys are happy and safe young men in life today.  I hope they remember the day that their lives could have been much different had things turned out badly.

   So when Quilting Arts Magazine presented this call to entry I wanted to make a doll but could not come up with an idea. . . until that day when we all walked away laughing about this almost accident. 

   Ida is made of 100% cotton body.  The legs are painted with regular household acrylic paint, with dots of white.  Hair is feathery yarn, you know the kind that was in everyone's scarves a few years ago.  Her top is habatoi silk with an arashi pattern that I dyed.  Skirt is just a nylon gauze ribbon with a beaded trim for the waistband. The wings were sewn on my sewing machine using a wash out stabilizer and I just kept sewing until I got it right!  There are two sets of wings, a primary set (larger) and a secondary set (smaller).  Her face and arms are painted in flesh tone, with a green eyed angelic face painted on.

Recent Dyeing Activity

No, I did not fall off the planet, but I have been at the studio dyeing.  I thought I would post one of my projects while in the beginning stages.  So here is an image or two of what I have been up to.

This is a cotton/bamboo blend that has been wrapped and placed in a pretty saturated dye bath of orange.  I love orange as it reminds me (along with a whole bunch of others) of autumn when the leaves begin to change.  I am fortunate enough to live in the north where I can witness this change every year.  I am always in awe of this change like I am seeing it for the first time every time.  Great inspiration.

Anyhow I will be unwrapping this fabric and re-wrapping it so that I can over dye it.  I am hoping to achieve a fall like appearance to the color scheme.  It would appear that I am on the right track from the looks of it at this point. 

Enough blathering, I will post soon again.  Smiles

Thought that I would share a picture or two of "The Gardener's Hand" with you.  This piece was an experiment of sorts.  It is accented lightly with beadwork and  a multiple of wax resist methods was used to achieve the designs.  You can see this and a few other quilts and things by clicking on the Fiberarts/Mixed media logo to the right.