Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

"As the sun sets" - charcoal,ink and watercolour sketch . Copyright Wilma Simmons   The "woodland" creature  as a trend in  fashion and home decor and  bespoke design was (and in many places, still is) very popular. Dashing deer antlers, awesome owls, and then fantastic foxes.... I know I am often behind the times with trends, but I was surprised to hear that foxes have been "in" for well over 3 years! Perhaps a year I thought, but it seems that foxes have been on the rise as a popular design motif for some time. At the well known  international Renegade Craft Fairs  there were reports of items with "fox" images to be the best sellers as early as 2011 and then followed the predictions...  " Trendspotters  called it   back in February. (2012) More and more, foxes are popping up on the radar as stylish elements in design, outfoxing the omnipresent owl as the  It  thing in woodland animals. Could foxes be the new owls in hip...

Here is a blast from the past .... While cleaning up the spare bedroom, I found a photo of  some of the first dolls I made - cloth dolls  from 1980-1981. Dating them has been fairly easy  from the photo below.  I am sure the location is Bombala ( heavy blue curtains)  and my daughter, pictured below with the dolls  had lost her front teeth. ( Naomi was born in February, 1975) The doll on the left was from a Simplicity pattern, the next one is an attempt at a sock doll, and the other two were made from a Style pattern. In those days, Bombala was  a small, fairly isolated town (no sewing shops) and there was no internet  or online shopping, so the patterns were mail ordered, or perhaps I had brought them with me from Tenterfield where I would have ordered them from the local haberdashery shop. I do remember at least making a few of the large "Simplicity " doll while living in Tenterfield, and I am sure my niece, Melanie owned one of those. ...