Author Archives: Cindy Rice

About Cindy Rice

My wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, and I live in northeastern Illinois with our two sweet chihuahua boys. For as long as I can remember I have loved dolls and making things. I got my first Barbie when I was only three years old! My mom sewed for my Barbie dolls and taught me how to use her sewing machine when I was only seven. I cannot believe she let me near that needle, but she did. Not having enough money for my clothes habit in high school and college led me to start sewing all of my own clothes. There were so many fabric stores around back then and fabric was so inexpensive. I would wait for the 99 cent pattern sale and go crazy. Sewing for myself continued well into my 30’s. (I even made my wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses.) Shortly after I got married I left my full time graphic design position and started designing cross stitch patterns. I called my company “The Lilac Studio” and sold my botanical patterns at trade shows, through distributors which sold to retail shops, and mail order. My most popular pattern, “A Bouquet of Pansies” sold 5000 copies and won a J&P Coats Golden Needle Award! I was also featured in various cross stitch magazines and designed special projects for the magazines. When my daughter was born I didn’t have the time needed to cross stitch and design patterns all day long so I let my pattern design business slip away. And then I started discovering dolls again and I now had an excuse to start buying them. The only problem was that they were for my daughter and not for me. I soon discovered all of the adult collectors out there and decided I would be one of them. I started small at first, collecting Mattel Kelly dolls. Soon I collected over 100 Kelly dolls! After Kelly, I discovered Helen Kish’s Riley and Tonner’s Ann Estelle. I have since learned to knit doll sweaters and love an excuse to knit so most of my doll outfits include a sweater and/or hat. I love creating miniature outfits for dolls and enjoy sharing them with others. Currently I create doll ensembles for Ruby Red Fashion Friends, Kish Bethany, Dianna Effner's Little Darlings, Wilde Imagination's teeny tiny Amelia, Kaye Wiggs BJD, Boneka 10", Linda Macario's Penny.

Does Anyone Feel Like a Little Bit of Snow?

10 Replies

Fuzzy white mohair yarn that look like snow, that is. I’ve used this yarn for little cardigan sweaters a LOT. I was wondering how much, so I gathered up my photos and made a little collection here. They are not all winter sweaters, but even in the middle of summer they’ve always reminded me of fluffy snow.

Rosy Sweet 2014

Softly Spring 2014

Now here’s some REAL snow… from earlier this year, thank goodness!

I’m not quite ready for all this yet, are you? I’d much rather look at fluffy white snow-like sweaters.

Thanks for reading along today. Have a fabulous Friday!

Fabric, Fabric, and More Fabric

9 Replies

Within the past few weeks I have gotten (I don’t know how many) multiple deliveries of fabric. (I don’t even remember all of the sites that I have ordered from as I keep finding more and more online stores with cute fabric.) Anyway, I’ve been looking at this ever increasing pile of yummy colors and cute prints knowing that it will be a while until I am able to start using them, but I wanted to show them to you now anyway because they are too pretty not to share.

As always, there are a few here that I am not sure about, a few that I am super excited about, and the in betweens that will work just fine and perhaps even surprise me with the end result.

It can be hard buying fabric online because it is a guessing game as to if it will work for doll clothes or not. Luckily, 1/2 yard of fabric isn’t too expensive, so if it doesn’t work for doll sewing it might work for a quilt or other project in the future.

Here are a couple of things that I do when shopping for fabric online. To assess the scale of a particular fabric, I enlarge the swatch on my screen to actual size. On my Macbook I hold down the command key and use two fingers to swipe up on the track pad until I reach the desired size. (If I go too far I simply swipe my fingers downward.) Usually there is a ruler laying alongside the swatch, the swatch size is noted, or a size is given for one of the motifs. Having a little ruler handy helps here. Sometimes I will hold the doll up to the screen to get an even better feel for the scale of the fabric. If I am unsure of the color or would like to see more photos of the print I will go to the manufacturer’s website, Facebook page, or look up the designer. Most designers have their own social media sites these days (blogs, Facebook, Instagram, website) and you can see alternate photos of their fabric collection.

Here are a few photos from some of my new fabrics.

Can you tell that I LOVE fabric? My motto (and this is why I have too much) is that if you fall in love with a certain fabric don’t hesitate because it will all be gone in no time. And, probably the biggest reason of all as to why I have too much fabric is that I always try to get free shipping. Who wants to pay for shipping when that cost could go for more fabric, right? LOL

Hope you enjoyed the newest additions to my ever expanding fabric stash.

If you have any online fabric shopping tips that you’d like to share, please do, I’d love to hear them.

Bye for today!

A Happy Fall & Memories for a Special Person’s Birthday

13 Replies

Happy Fall to everyone! Yes, it’s here even though it still feels like summer here in northern Illinois. I wonder does it look like fall anywhere? Here it is still very lush and green due to all of the rain we’ve gotten recently. With the exception of a few leaves here and there, I cannot find any golden, reddish, or orange hued trees yet.

My Grandma was one of the most special people in my life. It would have been her 103rd birthday today. She’s been gone 8 years and I still miss her as much as ever. She was only 48 years old when I was born and we always lived close by, so we spent lots and lots of time with her and my grandpa; I have tons of wonderful memories of her.

I looked for photos of her and I together and sadly there are very few. I think it was because she was always preparing meals and taking care of everyone; she hardly ever sat down. Here’s one of her helping me eat soup. She was always making soup and to this day I love soup and make it more than anything else.

She had a little garden in the back of their two flat in a Chicago suburb where they lived in the 1960s. When I got older she would send me out to her lettuce patch to pick leaf lettuce for dinner. I still use her vinegar and oil dressing recipe for my salads. This is her recipe from so long ago. I keep it in the refrigerator and use as needed. The olive oil gets solidified in the frig, but 30 seconds in the microwave makes it pourable again.

Vinegar and Oil Salad Dressing

2 oz. apple cider vinegar

2 oz. olive oil

4 oz. water

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. salt

a sweetener, my Grandma used Sweet and Low, but I use 15 drops of Stevia.

Shake up everything in a salad dressing shaker or jar and pour on salad as desired.

Oh, I just thought of this story she told me a few years before she passed. She NEVER ever had a doll! Do you believe it? Well, I couldn’t believe it, so for her next birthday I hand painted a round wooden box to look like a cake and placed some Kelly dolls inside dressed in the types of outfits I was making at the time. She was so happy and displayed the little dolls on a shelf in her apartment. She always supported my creative passions.

Happy Birthday Grandma and I miss you SO MUCH!

Love you, Grandma! ❤ ❤ ❤

Thanks so much for reading along and sharing a few of my memories of my Grandma. Who do you have from your childhood who was extra special in your life?