While She Naps

Stamp Swap

I signed up to participate in a little stamp swap Moki is organizing. You had to make an original stamp and use it to create 20 pieces of stationary and to stamp 20 of something else (I did gift tags). I was a little intimidated because I've never carved a stamp before. First I tried some potato stamp carving, which was okay, but I couldn't seem to get the accuracy I was looking for. I went to AC Moore to see what kind of stamp carving sets they carried, but it turns out they don't carry any! So, I bought an art gum eraser to carve. It was so easy to do!

Here is the bird stamp I created

And here is the fold over card. Each card has a different letter of the alphabet on it.

And here is the gift tag.

This was a fun and challenging swap. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else created. I love this artichoke stamp and I know when my package arrives I will be amazed.

We're back

We spent Thanksgiving in CT with my in-laws and came back on Saturday. I managed to get some thrifting and some shopping done in New London, of all places. I found this incredibly cute tape measure at a place called Agent.

These cards are from there, too. This one

is from Kamibashi a very cool business that brings Japanese imports to lots of stores all over the US. You can also get stuff on their website - check out these string dolls - a mummy and a ninja. So great.

And this card is from Yee Haw Industries, a company that makes letterpress stationary. I got the one on the far left, but I just love this whole birdie series.

At the Salvation Army I found these two great cloth napkins. They are almost like canvas and would make a nice tote

And this super soft mustard-colored scarf, shown here with some 1950's woven ribbon I just won on ebay.

Goes to show you that downtown New London actually does have some good shopping. I'm working now on a sock monkey for my friend Austin who just had her third boy last week. She named him Murphy so this is going to be a monkey for Murphy.

A girl!

We had our 18 week ultrasound today and we are going to have another girl! I'm so happy that Roxanne will have a sister - my sister, Rachel, is such a great person and we have always had a really close relationship. Roxy deserves the same. Our new little one was waving and rolling around while we were spying on her. As Lilly would say in Lily's Plastic Purse, "Wow, that's about all I can say, wow."

Make Piggie!

After the fish incident I felt that I should follow through on Roxanne's request that I "make piggie." I added a second pants fabric (salvaged from Charlie's pajamas) to make a "belt" for this rather portly pig. He has cherry woven ribbon suspenders with big red buttons (sewn with metallic thread) "holding them up" on the front

and little pink buttons on the back. I think his ears are pretty nifty - like little flaps. I always struggle with faces and recently every face I've made has been this sleepy look, which I'm actually happy with. It's easy and fail-safe and rather innocent looking.

Fish

I made this fish inspired by a picture in The Splendid Book of Soft Toys. The fish in the book, like most things in that book it seems, is meant to be an understuffed floor cushion. Mine is a firmly stuffed toy about 5" in diameter. He's grown on me - I really had problems getting his tail right and I still sorta think it looks like a cock's comb. If I make another one I'll make the tail bigger. I do like his bright colors, though.

It was all I could do to keep Roxy away from the fish. She has a really runny nose and she wanted to give him a hug. Lot's of tears, but fishy is still clean.

Lamb

I found a great craft book at the library on Sunday - The Splendid Soft Toy Book by Erna Rath (1973). All sorts of great dolls and animals to make. I started with this little lamb.

In the book he is supposed to be a floor cushion,

but I wanted to make a little one for a baby to hold. This guy is about 6 inches x 4 inches and is nice and furry and soft. I love the simple lines and his sweet expression.

While we were at the library we checked out a couple potty books for Roxanne to look at. I would describe her overall attitude toward the potty as indifferent so we thought we could ignite some interest with some story books. She seemed more interested in the books I checked out and when she saw this one she announced that I should "make piggie!"

Some other great patterns in here include this hen and her chicks (I love how the orange chick is ordering everyone around)

and the giraffe, hippo and elephant here.

A blog friend becomes a real live friend

On Saturday morning, while Charlie took Roxy to music class, I drove a few towns away to meet Mimi Kirchner in person! Over the last several months she has been cleaning out the attic of her mother's house and attempting to find new homes for her mother's abundant fabric and sewing supplies. Because much of it what her mother had was wool Mimi kindly thought I might like some it for softies and invited me over to her studio to come take a look.

Mimi is an incredible doll maker and artist. Not only did she let me sort through boxes and boxes of fabrics to take what I wanted,

but she also gave me this ATC

which I just love. Sometimes I feel just like this girl looks.

I brought my latest doll over because I wanted some advice on a better way to attach the arms. Mimi looked her over and gave me some awesome tips. I realized while I was there that I've never actually spoken in person to someone who also sews and makes dolls and softies and has a blog about it. How neat to talk shop with someone!

Mimi showed me how to attach a button on the inside of the doll to act as a hinge for the arms. I also wanted some advice on yarn hair and she showed me some wig-making and rug-making techniques to try.

It was so much fun. Thanks for inviting me over, Mimi. How cool is it when you get to meet your friends from blogland in person!

Plain Spoken

What started as my Tie One On apron is in the process of becoming a quilt for my yet to be born niece, Emerson Rose. This month the apron is to have a holiday theme. I thought of doing a Thanksgiving apron, even though I don't cook much for Thanksgiving now because we always go to Charlie's parents' house and his mom does all the cooking - except she doesn't make cranberry sauce!

Cranberry sauce is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. I make it from the recipe on the back of the bag of Ocean Spray cranberries which basicallly involves putting whole cranberries with slices of oranges (peel and all) and some sugar into the food processor. The resulting sauce is really tart and wonderful! So I make the cranberry sauce and I think I eat most of it, too, (how can a whole family not like cranberry sauce?).

Anyway, once I'd gathered all the cranberry fabrics (deep red being my favorite color), I was hunting around for a new patchwork pattern to try. Looking through The Modern Quilt Workshop, I picked Plain Spoken mostly because it has a nice abstract look to it and because it was rated as easy on their difficulty scale.

As I was cutting I realized that I would probably have enough squares to make what they label as a wall hanging but to me seems a good size for a baby quilt. I considered making it for Baby Glassenberg II, but it just seemed to look so Emerson Rose to me (my brother and his wife announced the name a while ago).

It is all pieced now and I'm so pleased with it. I think it will look really nice in a girl's nursery. Now I need to figure out how I'm going to quilt it. I'm tempted to just tie it because it is easy and I won't risk messing it up, but the authors of the book recommend against tying. Any suggestions on a relatively safe and easy alternative? Something that doesn't require dropping the feed dogs?

New doll and a little pumpkin patch

My newest doll has a kinda flapper look, I think. I was really inspired by this site, originally posted by Molly Chicken (thanks!), and I wanted to try my hand at making some patchwork in the style of Unfinished Business from The Modern Quilt Workshop. I used the patchwork for her dress and her hat. It was fun to try, but boy is it time consuming! Lot and lots of ironing. I made a matching cloth-covered button for the flower pin on her hat using the button maker my BackTack buddy sent me. And I made eight little Sculpey beads for her boots. She has her own messenger bag with a little white teddy to cuddle.

Here she is sitting up.

And because I think the process is just as interesting as the final piece, here is a shot of my sketch book.

On an entirely different note...last year around Halloween there were some very hungry squirrels in our neighborhood who ate, yep ate!, all the pumpkins. In late August this year I noticed a little baby pumpkin growing in my neighbor's garden. She said she didn't plant it there - a seed must have been buried last fall by a squirrel. Needless to say, I am so envious of her pumpkin patch that after carving our jack-o-lanterns this year I set aside a few seeds when the rest went on the roasting pan and planted them in a little pot. And wouldn't you know...

But now I'm worried that if I put them out in the garden they'll freeze and die. Hmmm...will a pumpkin patch grow indoors?

The Holiday Marketplace

Last Thursday night was the craft fair I had been preparing for these past several weeks. The night before, Charlie helped me arrange all the softies and the cards and the aprons in such a nice, clever presentation (he has a serious knack for displaying stuff like this). Then, on the day of the fair, he came home early from work and picked up the sitter. Then he helped me pack up the car, transport everything over to the Wellesley College Club and set everything up.

There were two big rooms and my table was in the smaller one. After we got everything arranged I went to look at all the other vendors. There were more than I had expected and I was really excited to see that I was the only one selling soft toys! Because we were in the smaller room, it took a little while for people to trickle in, but once they started coming we had a really fun evening.

Several people I know stopped by my table to say hi and I ended up selling quite a bit of stuff. It was really fun to get live feedback on my work from people, something I had never had before. Interestingly, the elephants were a big hit (something I haven't made in so long!) and so was Chad, my sock monkey from MOS.

I was so tired at the end of the evening (9:30 is a late bedtime for me right now!), but it was fun and pretty successful. I have a bunch of things to post on my Etsy shop now, so look out for new bears and owlets there. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement while I was getting ready for the fair!