Needle-craft Picture From A Decade Ago - Or So!

I know that I've told you a million times that not only do I LOVE doll making, but I also LOVE floral crafts. Well, you can add needle crafts to my obsessions as well.

Now you might think that the needle crafts is a new interest as I've posted about my cross-stitch and punch needle crafts and shadowbox gifts during the last two years until, I'm sure, I've bored you to tears. Well, you'd be wrong about that.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some needlework frames to use for some of the Christmas gifts I'm currently working on for this year and ran across some really, really old needlepoint kits that are still WIP after 35 years in storage.

Thirty five years and they're still not done! YIKES!

And, to be honest, I know they're are many, many more around the house. Hiding in the corners - lurking there until I finally get a chance to finish them. That is, if they're lucky enough to get finished and not thrown away. Nah - thrown away - that would never happen! Part of my problem is that I just can't seem to throw anything away. But, that would fill up a whole blog or two and really, really bore you to tears.

In any event looking at the kits I decided that at the time I had to have been into historic scenes and buildings and must have thought it would be fun to do some needlepoint kits of Boston landscape scenes - like Trinity Church in Copley Square and Boston Gardens. The kits looked nice, but I must have gotten bored really quickly with them as one is 1/4 of the way done and the other I never started.  You can tell how old these kits are as yarn was used as the thread back then versus embroidery threads.

Thinking about these kits reminded me of another needlepoint kit I had done almost a decade ago and which currently resides in my dining room.

My mother and I had been craft shopping and I had seen this kit and she had spotted a Thomas Kinkade stamped cross-stitch scene she liked. The reason that I remember this shopping trip was I had found the Thomas Kinkade cross-stitch kit unfinished and unopened when I was packing away my Mother's things this past winter.

The kit I bought was a "Ribbons & Roses Wreath" Dimensions Gold Collection kit. I can recall that at the time I was doing the "Ribbons & Roses Wreath" kit that I thought I'd never finish it. It just seemed to get bigger and bigger with more to do each time I worked on it. I'd finish one section and think I'd made progress until I looked at what was still left to do. Then I'd groan!  If you've ever done needlepoint you know what I mean! LOL LOL Well, I finally did finish it and it is shown in the picture above.

Instead of framing it in a picture frame with a mat my husband and I decided to finish it with a wood shadowbox frame that he made and which I painted. What I really liked about the kit was it combined needlepoint with ribbon crafts. Once I had finished the needlepoint part of it I had to outline some of the flowers for affect and create ribbon flowers that were to be added for a three dimensional affect.  Once it was finished it really was stunning.  In fact, the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Sometimes I think my husband and I are so in sync that at times it's spooky.  Just as I was thinking of this needlepoint out of the blue he happened to mention to me that he really liked the wreath needlepoint we had hanging in the dining room and that maybe we should move it to a spot that had more visibility as it really was quite beautiful.  Unfortunately, there really isn't any other place to more it to so it will have to stay in the dining room.

In any event (I know, I say that A LOT) it was nice of him to mention it and thinking about it brought back wonderful memories of one of my many craft shopping trips with my Mom.  I'm thankful for that and thankful that I finally finished it - albeit almost a decade ago.

They say that time flies when you're having fun.  Well, that may be true but I'm not sure it does when you're working on a needlepoint project.  At least not for me.

More Punchneedle Kits Made And Reviewed In 2009

Like everything I do I never do anything in moderation. Instead of just creating a couple of punchneedle and cross-stitch kits to give as Christmas presents I created 30 or more. As a result I had more than I needed to give as presents. Was this intentional? Maybe!

Then again, maybe not! Maybe I'm so highly organized that I knew I would need some in the future. Anticipating the future? Maybe! Then again, maybe not!

In any event I ended up with more shadowboxes than I needed. The punch needle pine tree shown above was created based upon a "Pine Tree" pattern kit by Rachael T. Pellam of Rachael's of Greenfield that I added a dark green, burgundy and white sponge painted wood shadowbox frame to. This pattern included detailed instructions and tips for punchneedle as well as an iron-on transfer sheet that you had to iron on to the foundation cloth which was included in the kit.  It also included a piece of paper with the DMC floss numbers printed on it and each of the floss strands grouped by color tied to a punched out square next to it's respective DMC floss number.  It did not include a diagram with the detailed numbers on it but included a listing on the back of the pattern indicating which DMC floss numbers were to be used and where.

I also found a wonderful punch needle pattern by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Folksy Sheep" that I liked.  As with my other punchneedle projects I decided to add a sponged painted wood shadowbox frame.  I wanted the frame to appear like the sky so I sponge painted it royal blue, light blue, and white.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.    The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.

Cross-Stitch and Punchneedle Kits That I Made As Gifts For Family - Christmas 2009

I just love surprising family members with handmade gifts for Christmas and did so again this year.  And, of course, almost all of the gifts were some of my cross-stitch and punchneedle shadow boxes that I've blogged about previously. I just had such a wonderful time finishing all the punchneedle  and cross-stitch kits that I had bought in the Spring. 

Several of my family members love birds and gardening and several are into primitive crafts and primitive decor. Luckily I was able to find some punchneedle kits and cross-stitch kits that fit the bill. And, of course, I enlisted the help of my younger brother and his astonishing workshop to help me build my shadowboxes.

In a previous post on my Linda's Blog I had mentioned that I had a lot of problems with the first cross-stitch I attempted to do and named it the "cross-stitch from hell!"  My sister loves cardinals and the Adirondacks and I had found the cross-stitch kit shown above which was "Christmas In The Adirondacks" from Dimensions The Gold Collection and thought she might love it.

It was the first cross-stitch I had tried in at least twenty years and probably should have started with something a little less difficult.  I have to admit I found it difficult to keep track of where I was stitching on the the blank fabric versus the chart.  The pattern includes a chart that has color coded symbols that refer back to the respective keys.

"Santa Ornaments" Mary Engelbreit #85310 Plaid From Bucilla

Besides all the punchneedle and cross-stitch shadowbox presents I created for Christmas 2009 I decided to create some wool felt ornaments and bought several wool felt kits to do so.

One of the wool felt ornaments kits I bought was Mary Engelbreit Santa Ornaments Felt Appliqué Kit (6-1/4" x 5") - Set Of 6. The "Santa Ornaments kit contained pre-printed felt, cotton floss, needles, beads abd embellishments,  and instructions to make six hand felted Santa ornaments.

What I loved about the pre-printed felt pieces was that each was sequentially numbered and this number was stamped on the felt pieces where it was to be sewn. So you could easily follow from the sequentially numbered pattern piece to the stamped felt piece it was to be sewn to and to the instructions.

The instructions were multi-lingual and were easy to follow. They also contained pictorial diagrams for creating the various stitched that were to be used to create the ornaments. The ornaments were completely handsewn.

Here's my results:

I Really Wanted To Try Needle Felting and Penny Rug Felting - I Loved It!

I decided last year that I wanted to try needle felting and penny rug felting  with wool felt as it seemed like everyone was having so much fun with it this year. I don't mean wet needle felting where you are actually creating a needle felted object from the wet felt. I'm just not that adventuresome!

Penny rug felting involves using pieces of wool felt hand-sewn in a decorative pattern using a blanket stitch or other embroidered stitch to create a miniature rug that is hung as a decoration or used as a tablecloth.

Needle felting is similar to penny rug felting only it also includes using roving that is punched into the wool felt to create part of the decoration. Decorative pieces created of this nature are usually primitive in design and created for a primitive decor.

Here you take a piece of wool felt and place it over a needle felt mat. Then you take a bunch of the roving and using the needle felt tool you keep punching the roving into the wool felt piece until you get the desired effect that you want.

Wool penny rugs started out as coin shaped decorations stitched together from scraps of fabric.  According to Wikipedia.com: In the 1800s, starting around the time of the Civil War, thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool or felted wool from old clothing, blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs. Using coins as templates, they created circles and each piece was then stitched in blanket stitch fashion. (Thus, the name "penny" rug). Sometimes, the mats or rugs were backed with old burlap bags or feed sacks. Sometimes a penny was stitched inside the mat to make it lie flat.

Penny rugs and needle felted wool decorations are very popular with the "primitive" home decorating community.  They are no longer rugs for the floors but have developed into all sorts of decorations for ones home. 

I started with three wool felt kits where one was a penny rug type decoration that needed to have some sheep and tree decorations needle felted. The other two kits were more like wool felt embroidery kits to create primitive wool decorations which could be hung on a wall or placed on a table top.

Punchneedle Fun With Dimensions Holiday Friends Ornaments Kit #73244 and Dimensions Santa's Presents Kit #73410

I just love BRIGHT, COLORFUL creations like the punchneedle cubes that I made in the picture above. I made them this spring and summer with the hopes of giving them away as Christmas presents this year.

However, as with everything I make, I fell in love with them and my selfish side took over and decided not to give all of them away. Maybe I'll hold on to them for a little while and them give them away next year. Who knows?

I didn't keep all of them.  I did give the blue Santa in the left top cube and the turquoise blue Santa in the middle cube on the bottom row away.   My twin grandsons will get to enjoy them now.  Actually, it's my daughter-in-law who will really enjoy them.  She just loves handmade crafts.

Last Year's Punchneedle Kits and Subsequent Gifts

I just love trying all sorts of different crafts and decided that I wanted to try punchneedle last year. So, when I was shopping at a colonial store in Sturbridge I decided to buy a few punchneedle kits.

If you don't know what punchneedle is it is basically the weaving of DMC embroidery floss onto a reverse pre-printed even-weave type fabric to create a specific picture. You are basically punching the reverse pre-printed side of the fabric to follow the design and are creating the punch-needle effect on the wrong side of the fabric (i.e. the non pre-printed side).

At first punchneedle seems a little intimidating, but once you understand how to thread the needle, how to position the needle tip, how to set the depth to set the needle, and how to continuously punch in a straight line using very tiny spacing it's easy to do.  Plus, if you don't like how the stitching turns out you can just rip it out and start again.  What tends to be more irritating and annoying is separating the long floss threads and trying to keep the long floss threads from knotting. 

Well, I have to tell you that I absolutely love punchneedle. You can complete most of the punchneedle kits in a day or so and I was easily able to take my kit and embroidery hoop with me where ever I went so I could work on it in my spare time. Like I have any of that! LOL

My Victorian Village Created From The Dimensions The Gold Collection Kit #8785 Christmas Village Ornaments Kit

During the last few months I have been happily creating some of the items from punch-needle, cross-stitch, and needle felting kits I had purchased during the spring. All of the kits were purchased with the thought of giving the finished projects as Christmas gifts this year or next.

Of course, like everything I create I tend to fall in love with the finished products. Some more so than others. Some so much so that I selfishly decide to keep them for myself and my home decor.

Well, I have to tell you that I absolutely fell in love with my Dimensions Needlecrafts Counted Cross Stitch, Christmas Village Ornaments. Now I know that wasn't the intent, but I couldn't help myself with my Victorian houses. If it's Victorian it's right up my alley. Ya think!!!! LOL LOL

My Victorian house village was created based upon a Dimensions Needlecrafts Counted Cross Stitch, Christmas Village Ornaments kit. It was supposed to be a series of Victorian house ornaments with a cross-stitch front and felt cloth back outlined with a braided gold band.

However, I didn't make my Victorian village as cloth ornaments. Instead, I enlisted the help of my younger brother to create wood shadowboxes that I painted with a blue/white/green sponge affect.

My Victorian village includes the following:


A fabulous blue house....


A traditional Victorian pink lady......

Cross Stitch Gold Collection Cubes For Christmas 2009

If you're a reader of my Linda's Blog you know that I love to craft and my interests are not just limited to one type of craft. Or two types of crafts. Even three types of craft. Oh, no! Not me.

I have to be interested in just about every kind of craft there is. That's thousands of different crafts. Never anything in moderation as far as I'm concerned. Oh, no! Not me!

Have I mentioned I'm little obsessive! Ya think?

Well, while creating some of the punch-needle shadowbox kits this spring and summer I found some cross-stitch kits that I wanted to try. I hadn't done any cross-stitching in the last 20 years or so and thought I might enjoy it once again. If I remembered correctly (which these days might not be the case given that menopause plays tricks with your memory - or so I keep telling myself) I thought I had really enjoyed doing cross-stitch years ago. So, I decided to buy a few kits.

Well, one of the kits that I bought which was going to be a present for my sister turned out to be the cross-stitch kit from hell! I had a difficult time following the instructions and trying to convert them to my blank cross stitch fabric. I finally managed to get the knack of it after practically going blind and my piece actually turned out rather well - at least I thought so. It was the largest cross-stitch kit I had bought and in retrospect I should have started with something a little smaller like the cross-stitch kits which created the shadowboxes above and below.

The cross-stitch patterns below were from a "Dimensions Gold Collection - Kit #8704 - Beaded Elegance Ornaments" pattern and were supposed to be stuffed ornaments finished with a felt backing. I made them into sponge finished wood shadowboxes that can be displayed various ways.

The "Dimensions Gold Collection - Kit #8704 - Beaded Elegance Ornaments" pattern  was easy to understand for the most part.  I loved the three dimensional aspect of the designs where thread was layered on top of the cross stitch to outline and emphasize and the inclusion of gold beads.

The only negative to the kit was that they should have included more of the fabric as I found when the fabric was cut into six squares that there wasn't enough slack for it to easily fit into my small embroidery hoop.  The original design called for the leaves to be on the outside of the gold frame.  I did not make the ornaments according to their original design because their wasn't enough fabric to do so.   

I also decided to sponge paint the shadowboxes all the same cream color with a splash of gold, silver, and white. Here's the results starting with a pretty wreath with gold beads:




An evergreen basket with yellow french knotted berries.



A snowman with presents.




A teddy bear with green plaid scarf.



A heart which I altered to have the top bows included within the square.



And, two birds in Christmas stockings. 



I used self stick hard press board to attach the cross stitch designs to. I thought I had been very careful when it came to doing this and getting them straight. Unfortunately, the squaring of the shadowboxes proved that not all my press boards were evenly square. As a result I had to do some fudging by adding lace trim here or there.

I guess I was in a bit of the rush this holiday season. Next time I'll spend more time and make sure all the press boards are square.

Happy Holidays To All!

To all the readers of my "The Book Review Corner " blog I would like to say:

Have a Wonderful Holiday Season!
Happy Holidays To All!

Linda's Review of "My Favorite Felt Sweets" by Joie, Inc.

I have been eying some needle felting and felt craft books for a few months now and have taken a particular interest in the little felt cupcakes that a lot of crafter's have been making as centerpieces for their children's birthday parties.

They just looked so real and yet so inviting. I decided I wanted to learn how to make some. In fact, I wanted to make a whole 3-tier level centerpiece of nothing but felt cupcakes.

Well, low and behold, last week I got an email from Tomoe Sumi of Kodansha America, LLC asking me if I'd like to review "My Favorite Felt Sweets" by Joie, Inc. translated by Yoko Ishiguro.

Well, we talking about a Japanese felt crafting book containing pictures and instructions for making 106 of the cutest felt food items around. And, we are not just talking about cupcakes. We're talking about all sorts of sweets.

My imagination was getting the better of me. Either that or I was really hungry when I decided to answer Tomoe Sumi and tell him I'd be delighted to review "My Favorite Felt Sweets" book.

The book came the other day and I have to tell you that I've been hungry ever since. You just have to see the pictures of these 106 sweet, delectable treats to understand why my mouth is watering.

Forget the real food. Give me the mouth watering non-caloric felt desserts any day.

I keep envisioning a whole table filled with nothing but 3-tier china plates containing felt petit fours, cakes, donuts, and even chocolates. Oh, my! How beautiful and colorful would that picture be!

Couldn't you just imagine giving a friend the perfect diet gift. A box of chocolates filled with nothing but tiny felt chocolates. How marvelous would that be. Not caloric and a gift to last a lifetime.

My Favorite Felt Sweetsis 97 pages long. The first 32 pages are filled with the most mouth watering pictures of 106 different felt edibles you'd ever want to see. The remaining 65 pages are filled with drawn pictorial instructions for making the edibles plus FULL size pattern piece sheets.

They also provide instructions for transferring the patterns, cutting the felt, preparing embroidery floss, how-to's for the various sewing & embroidery stitches, and hints for stuffing and/or cutting foam.

Both the drawn pictorial instructions and the pattern sheets are very easy to follow. My only complaint with the book would be that I think some of the drawn pictorial instructions and pattern piece sheets would have been better suited had they been spaced out a little more and away from the binding of the book. This would have made them easier to read and made photo coping of some of the pattern piece sheets a lot easier. I just hate to destroy the binding of a book just to photocopy some of the pages.

However, the beautiful photographs, the inclusion of 106 marvelous felt sweet projects, and clear instructions more than offset any negatives I may have.

I'm sitting here thinking of all the delectable sweets I'm going to make. Definitely the sponge cake, all the petit fours, the heart shaped tart, mixed beery pie, chocolate vanilla cookies, pinwheels, pancake sandwiches, chocolate gift basket cake, and Christmas cookies.

Plus, the box of chocolates! Oh, my!

I'm having visions of the most colorful holiday dessert table filled with nothing but mouth watering felt desserts and envisioning every one's face upon seeing them.

Oh, my! This is going to be FUN!

I can hardly wait!

Linda's Review of Rainbow Sheep by Kim Chatel

I received an email a couple of weeks ago from Kim Chatel telling me that she's an author of children's books and that she had a new book called Rainbow Sheep that was released in May. It was a children's story illustrated with needle-felted fiber art and also contained 2 simple felt crafts for kids.

Kim asked if I would be interested in reviewing it. A children's story with needle felt crafts for kids!

Hmmm.... It didn't take me long to consider Kim's request. Of course I would review it. I was intrigued by the needle felt illustrations and the projects for the kids.

Kim not only send me the book, but sent me one of her wonderful needle felted sheep. It's the cutest blue needle felted sheep and is currently sitting on the top of my computer monitor.

Well, I have to tell you that I just loved Kim's "Rainbow Sheep" book. It is a wonderful story that is warm, enchanting, and lovingly illustrated with the fiber art.

It's the story of a shepherdess named Genevieve who has a very vivid imagination. She encounters a sad rainbow cloud and does everything she can to make him happy. Finally, she does make the cloud happy and when he starts to cry happy tears his colors return. In the middle of this the sheep are caught in the colorful rain drops and forever transformed into rainbow colored sheep.

Kim's book contains 12 wonderful fiber art illustrations. My favorite by far is the mermaid and whale. It is just adorable. It is followed by the jousting seahorses.

In the back of Kim's book there is a short section explaining what needle felting is with a picture of a felting needle and two easy to do felted craft projects for kids: felted soap and needle felted sheep. The former requires no adult supervision. The latter requires adult supervision and is only recommended for children 8 years and older. Both sets of instructions are very easy to follow.

Kim is an accomplished photographer and fiber artist, as well as gifted writer of children's stories. Her website http://www.kimchatel.com is geared towards children and filled with an array of pages for kids to learn about her books, fiber art, her photographs, etc. It is well worth the visit.

Linda's Review of Artful Paper Dolls - New Ways To Play With Traditional Form by Terry Taylor

As a very young girl I can remember playing with my very first paper doll - Betsy McCall. I would cut Betsy and her clothes out of the magazine ever so carefully. Of course, being a young girl my first attempts at cutting every so carefully didn't go as smooth as I had planned and my mother or grandmother would try to correct for my errors.

I didn't like the paper doll tabs and didn't always utilize them. I quickly learned, however, that the clothes would not stay on the paper doll without them.

I must have a thing for tabs and markers as I also didn't like the triangle placement tabs in sewing patterns when I first started to sew. I would cut them off as well until I learned that for clothing they served a very useful purpose.

Since I had a passion for Victorian dolls from a very young age I loved playing with my Victorian paper dolls. I could sit for hours on end just putting this outfit on or that outfit. When I was finished playing with my paper dolls I would put them back in a cardboard cigar box that my grandfather had given to me for storing them.

Back them I would never have foreseen the enormous explosion in the paper industry that has occurred over the last decade. Nor could I have foreseen that paper dolls would become and art form in its' own right. Who would have know that altered art and mixed media creations would rule the art world in the 21st century.

One of the books I bought last year was Artful Paper Dolls: New Ways to Play with a Traditional Form. Even at first glance I was immediately taken by the visually stunning paper creations of some 22 well known designers.

On every page was yet another beautiful paper doll creation that I wanted to try. Of course, there isn't any kind of doll, paper included, that I haven't wanted to try and make. My problem is always one of time. There are just not enough hours in the day, nor days in the year for me to try everything.

Artful Paper Dolls is not just a compendium of project after project, it also includes a little bit of history on various paper dolls and paper doll artists. So, it's a perfect book for me as it offers a little bit of history as well as project after project after project.

It is divided into four chapters: Figuring It Out, Playing Dress Up, Playing House, and Learning From Books. Each chapter has a multitude of sections and a multitude of paper doll creations to try. I, of course, loved them all but was especially taken with the Disjointed Figure, Elisabeth's Doppelganger (which is a life-size paper doll), My Memory Doll, Secret Messenger Doll, the section on playing dress up, Old Woman In Purple, Stitched Paper Dolls, Sunday Best Dress, and Paper Doll Magnets.

I also enjoyed the chapter on "Who Is Betsy McCall" and "Tom Tierney's World Of Paper Dolls."

If you love paper dolls, mixed media art, and altered art images then you will love "Artful Paper Dolls." Several of the corners of the pages in my book have been turned over as a reminder to me that I want to try that project. I know that I shouldn't do that to the pages of my books, but sometimes childhood habits are hard to break. You could also say that sometimes childhood loves last forever. For me a love of paper dolls certainly has. Now where are my scissors?

Linda's Review of Cloth Dolls From Ancient To Modern by Linda Edward

If you are a reader of my Linda's Blog then you know that I just love dolls and books about dolls, especially cloth dolls.

One of the books that I bought last year was Cloth Dolls: From Ancient to Modern : A Collector's Guide (A Schiffer Book for Collectors). It is a collectors guide of cloth dolls and their values and I was especially interested in it because it contained cloth dolls, which up to this point in time were often overlooked by the doll collecting society as a whole.

I never understood this as I always thought that the category of dolls would include dolls with cloth heads as well as dolls with wood, china, bisque, clay, or cernit heads. Fortunately cloth dolls are gaining in popularity amongst collectors and especially amongst the ever growing segment of people who love "primitives." Unfortunately, cloth doesn't always survive well over time so there are not a lot of examples of really ancient dolls made solely of cloth around.

Cloth Dolls: From Ancient to Modern : A Collector's Guide (A Schiffer Book for Collectors) starts with a small chapter about cloth dolls of long ago. Unfortunately, not a lot survived.

Chapter 2 contains homemade rag dolls of the 19Th and 20Th century and has several pages of wonderful pictures of dolls and a brief history of cloth dolls during that period along with mention of the 1st doll patterns. Looking at the pictures of the dolls I couldn't help but wonder who the creator was, who the recipient was, and why the doll was made.

Chapter 3 covers the cottage industry dolls of the 19Th and 20Th century. What captured my attention was a line from the 1st paragraph that stated, "In the world of cloth dolls it is very interesting to note that most of these companies were started and run by women." My guess would be that a LOT of these women were mothers who had started out just sewing dolls for their children.

In Chapter 3 you will find information and pictures of Izannah F. Walker who started making dolls around 1840, Roxanna E. Cole, Moravian Rag Dolls, Martha L. Wellington, Presbyterian Rag Dolls , Columbian Rag Dolls, Mother's Congress Dolls, The Alabama Indestructible Doll, Kathe Kruse, Martha Jenks Chase, Missionary Rag Babies, Philadelphia Rag Babies, Anne Maxwell, Gertrude F. Robinson, Wold War I Paris, Tynietoy, Kamkins, and Regional Dress Doll.

Chapter 4 covers big business rag dolls in the 19Th and 20Th century. These are large scale factories and whole sellers including: Montanari, George Hawkins, Carl Weigand, Worsted Dolls, Steiff Dolls, Babyland Rag Dolls, Bruckner Dolls, Dean's Rag Book Co., Krueger Dolls, Jane Gray Co., Farnell-Alpha Toys, American Art Dolls, and one of my favorite sections - Raggedy Ann and Andy.

It also includes Chad Valley Dolls, Bing Art Dolls, Lenci, Messina-Vat, Madame Alexander, Norah Wellings, Liberty of London, Nelke Dolls, Georgene Novelties/Madame Hendron, Averill Manufacturing Co., Mollye Goldman, Poupees Raynal, Venus, Gre-Poir, The Blossom Doll Co., Ideal Novelty and Toy Co., and Hallmark Dolls.

Chapter 5 is a lovely chapter devoted to dolls by the yard - cut and sew dolls. It includes E.S. Peck, Arnold Printworks, Cocheco Manufacturing Company, Gutsell Dolls, Art Fabric Mills, Horsman, Dean's Rag Book Co., Saalfield Publishing Co., and The Toy Works.

Chapter 6 is devoted to 20Th century advertising and personality dolls. These include The Chase Bag Co. whose 1st advertising doll was "The Jolly Green Giant", Miscellaneous Advertising Dolls, Personality Dolls, and Knickerbocker dolls like "The Campbell's Soup Kid."

Chapter 7 is devoted to doll artists of the 20Th century such as, Grace Dayton, Celia and Charoty Smith, Dorothy Heizer, Frances and Bernard Ravca, Dewees Cochran, Annalee Mobilitee Dolls, WPA Dolls, Dianne Dengel, R. John Wright, Xavier Roberts, and Current cloth Doll Artists - of which there are many pictures.

If you are a lover of cloth dolls in particular or "primitive dolls" then Cloth Dolls: From Ancient to Modern : A Collector's Guide (A Schiffer Book for Collectors) is a fascinating read and a must have for the serious cloth doll collector. I especially loved the section on Raggedy Ann and Andy as it contained several pages of information on the history of these dolls that I was not aware of before.