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.