1000 Dolls Project

My harmless armless monster

I love my city and I am a sucker for community art projects so I have been in love with the 1000 Dolls Project since the first I heard of it back in January. The project was organized by Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde, both professors at Transy, and is loosely based on Ed Franklin's doll scavenger hunts. The idea is to make 1000 dolls in all different mediums and scatter them along Limestone Street between the University of Kentucky and New Circle Rd to be kept by the finders. I have been following the dates for the doll making events, but they always happened on evenings I worked or had class (which these days is pretty much every evening.) Luckily, I found out last week that they still needed dolls and so I was able to whip up two dolls and get them to the organizers in time for the celebration and distribution. If you live in or around Lexington you should try and make it to the 1000 Dolls Community Celebration at the Kentucky Theater Wednesday evening where the dolls will be on display before they are scattered along Limestone. I personally can't wail to see all of the dolls together in one place.

My great purple whale

A Sewing Sunday

Since Sarah's class schedule is a bit hectic this month, I have been working extra hours during the week and she has been taking every Sunday. Philip was working this Sunday so I was left to my own devices. I pulled out the sewing machine, for the first time since we moved last summer, on Friday to help Philip with a creature-making project. After we finished the sewing for his project, I left the machine out so on Sunday it was sitting there, calling to me. I decided to turn the curtains Ed gave Sarah and I last summer into the skirt that they were destined to be.


I went with a basic a-line skirt with a flat front and a bit of elastic in the back to avoid the need of a zipper. I like a-lines because they are super simple (no pattern and little planning needed) and they look good on almost every body type. I am really happy with the way it came out and after looking through my fabric stash, there might be a few more recycled skirts in my immediate future. Sorry about the wrinkles, I have been sitting all morning and I couldn't wait for them to fall out to take the picture.

My cherry bag

Sarah volunteered us to donate an item for the Take Back the Night raffle. We decided on some yarn, needles and free knitting classes, but we wanted to put them in a cute bag that would appeal to the non-crafty types. I volunteered to make this bag since Sarah is making another bag for a Gatewood Galbraith fund raiser next month. I have a ton of denim fabric that I got from Philip's grandmother and since I never use denim I used this as an opportunity to get rid of some of it. Here is the bag I whipped up.

The cherries were just a quick sketch I drew on the bag and went over using the satin stitch on my machine. I am really happy with the resulting bag and I think I might make another one for me.