Lee Prairie Designs

As a child growing up I loved playing with dolls, paper dolls and my doll house--- ( made out of card board created by me) you can imagine what it looked like! We didn't have glue guns, Elmer's glue or scotch tape in those days. I probably used cement glue and worked for hours trying to hold it together! It certainly wasn't precise--- but the little dollies inside didn't mind at all! I still have 2 of the celluloid dolls from the 50's. I would make little dresses for them, out of scraps of fabric and then store them in pretend dresser  which were my grandmother's small empty pill boxes! Today--- I still play with the dolls in a more "grown-up" way by making primitive and prairie dolls, then arranging them on a doll quilt which I made  for their doll bed.  I love to create vignettes---- as if the dolls would be playing among themselves or having a tea party! I have them displayed inside a pie safe...

A little while back I made two little quilts with a dear friend-- using a pattern from the "Little Quilts All Throughout The House"--- quilting book. Written by, Alice Berg, Mary Ellen Von Holt and Sylvia Johnson. Carol and I fell in love with these "little cuties"---- and one cottage lead to the other and this is what we created. For the door knobs we placed little buttons on the doors and used novelty caricature fabrics for the windows and some of the cottages doors. This was one of my most favorite projects that I have made and I hope you might like to create some cottages also, sometime---I know you will have as much fun creating them as we did. We also made a memory that day of laughter, creating and playing! (Don't forget to click on the picture for a close up view). Hugs, Carolyn :)

I'm finished! I burned the midnight oil last night completing this little "Scrappy" quilt. I hand quilted it too! What do you think? My little doll bed is from a garage sale---it has a few worn places and a little nick or two--but, I polished it up and I think it looks pretty good. I found a scrap of cotton eyelet and made a puffy bed skirt. Snappy huh? I'm going to take a little nap-- ( in my new bed) I am a little tuckered out---but, I sure had fun! Thank you for all your "sweet" comments you left me the last few days. You are the BEST! Doll hugs, Lucinda Don't forget to click on the picture for a close-up view!

I just finished a new pattern design and I named it "Little Cottages". I wanted to share the story and what prompted me as to developing this fun new design. When I was a young girl growing up in a small town in Iowa, my friends in our neighborhood and I would dress up in our mothers' clothes, wear high-heeled shoes and jewelry. We would have weddings, tea parties and play school. Of course, we would also play with our dolls and paper dolls! We would build our houses out of chopped wood from wood piles that were in our back yards. With many trips, we filled our wagons and moved pieces of wood to an empty lot close by and proceeded to build our log homes. To us, they were beautiful "cozy" little cottages. Today, I still love little cottages and, out of this memory, I designed this pattern for a applique table topper and kitchen towel. Above is a picture taken in 1946 with my two friends Casey and Cindy. We were 6 years old. Cindy and I still keep in touch. She is...