School Auction, 2013 Edition

 A few years ago, I knitted a Holy Family for our school auction, and thought I would try something like that again.  I love the look of Waldorf dolls (and the idea of the Waldorf Schools), so I tried to copy that look (I have a Waldorf doll pinterest board, if you are interested in learning how to make these).  You can get kits, fabrics, etc. from various vendors on the internet, and there are all kinds of tutorials, but I sort of winged it, and used fabrics, stuffing and whatnot from my collection -- the only thing I purchased new for these was the  roving for the hair.

 Waldorf dolls, which are designed for imaginative play (therefore, the expressionless faces) are generally jointed with poseable arms and legs.  Since this nativity is basically for sitting around and not playing, I just made the bodies out of  cones of felt (Mary) and an old sweater (Joseph).  Their heads are tightly wrapped balls of Warm and Natural quilt batting, covered with an old sock.  Then, I did a little of the face sculpting with heavy-duty thread and a nice long needle.  The traditional skin covering is a cotton knit tube -- I don't know if I should tell this or not, but I made my tube out an old pair of Spanx.  Then I added a little embroidery for the faces and stitched/glued on the roving for their hair.  The hands are Spanxified, too, and I cut a circle of extra heavy cardboard and slipped in the bottom of each body so that they would stand up nice and straight.



Baby Jesus, done in the same manner, and wrapped with strips of Warm and Natural batting:

Mary's cape is a cashmere sweater I bought at Goodwill -- it didn't felt down, which was just fine, because that left it nice and soft.  I embroidered little leaves and french knots around the border:

  The stable has been in our garage for a couple of years -- seems pretty perfect for Mary and Joe.

Hope they go to a nice home.

And here is this year's quilt.  It's baby/little kid sized, about 40'x40", made with a bundle of fabric from Fabricworm, plus some of the Heather Bailey fabric I had left from Olivia's car seat cover.  You might notice that there is one block in each color that has a strip of different fabric.  Not exactly a design feature -- I measured poorly.  But I think it came out cute, anyway.

 My machine quilting still needs some work.

 The back and border are fabrics from Sharyn's Quilt Box in North Vernon.

 And the label:

And finally, sugar cream pie for the dessert auction.  I had been thinking all week about what to make, but then last night while we were at supper at the K of C, discussion turned to sugar cream pie, and so, that's what I made.  One for the auction, the other for friends.  If it gets that far.

Peace.