While She Naps

A Bunny Prototype

I made this bunny, loosely based on a pattern from this book. Hmmm... Not so cute in my opinion. Her face is too large and too round! And I'd like to see bigger paws with defined thumbs on her hands. I'm going to redraw the pattern to make it better I think. I like the idea of making bunnies for spring. I don't celebrate Easter, but somehow I feel more okay about making Easter-themed crafts than I do about Christmas ornaments and such.

In other news, my belly is so huge that few of my maternity pants fit again. Ugh. One pair of brown cords literally split at the seams - on both sides! But with only eight weeks left, I really can't get excited about buying more pants.

To leave you with some inspiration, I just love the soft toys made by Van Sowerwine who is having a show with Claire and another aritst in Australia right now. The faces are wonderful - simple and expressive - and the fabrics are so natural with just the right amount of color. I especially love the animal dolls. I love their hands, their tails, the antlers, everything really.

Chai

My friend Carla is a patent lawyer, an avid baseball fan, a connoisseur of Bollywood movies, and an all around interesting and sincere person and she makes the most delicious chai. It's so spicy. I made a batch last night and was reminded how wonderful it is. Here is her recipe:

Carla's Chai

8 whole cloves
4-6 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
3 cups water
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c milk (I use whole milk because I have a toddler and always have whole milk around)
1 tsp Tbl. granulated sugar (whoops!)
4 teabags black tea

In a mortar, crush the cloves, cardamom pods and cinnamon. Transfer the crushed spices to a small saucepan, add the water, ginger and pepper and bring to a boil. Remove pan from heat, cover and let steep for 5 minutes.

Add the milk and sugar to the pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the tea. Cover and let steep to desired strength, then strain into a warmed teapot or directly into teacups.

Sewn Cards

My friend Lia and her daughter came over today to keep us company because we are without a car (Charlie's car is being serviced so he took the Subaru to work today). We had a nice time watching the two little ladies meander around the house alternately wearing a fire hat and playing with rubber bands (Roxy's two favorite toys at the moment). Roxanne showed off her Olympic luge skills by laying on her back and sliding around on the wood floors and she acted out Stellaluna by turning herself upside down like a fruit bat.

During nap time I pulled out some pieces from the scrap pile and made these.

They are pretty small, about 2 1/2" X 3 1/2, and done on rag paper. I am loving spray fabric adhesive! Good stuff, albeit a bit pricey. It keeps the pieces down so when I sew them there is no bubbling or moving, but it doesn't show through and get all sticky like fabric glue. The cards will be up in the shop shortly.

A Teddy and a Bookmark

I finished up this teddy bear today. He's made of sherpa fleece and bits of velvet and stuffed with polyfil. You have to understand what an amazing achievement it is that I actually managed to incorporate velvet into something I made. I HATE velvet. Ask anyone who knows me well. The best way to torture me (why I'm revealing this here is beyond me) is to rub your hands or face, or even worse your teeth, over velvet in front of me. Yep, your teeth. I have this terrible irrational fear of velvet. My worst nightmare - velvet gum. It's been this way my whole life. Eating a peach whole? No thanks - that probably means running my teeth down that velvety peel! But, it was worth the sacrifice to incorporate a few scraps of this lovely brown velvet with a blue sheen into this project. Besides, it mostly involved touching and sewing it while it was inside out.

And here is a better view of his matching bookmark. A little bear house for him to hide out in on a snowy day.

I don't think I'm a quilter

I finished another flock of lambs over the long weekend. Some are soft yellow and some a lovely brown. Two are being saved as baby gifts and the other two are up in the shop.

I went over to the fabric store on Saturday morning to pick up some muslin for the quilt binding. Because Charlie had Roxy for the morning I was able to take my time picking through things and found this sherpa fleece. I usually hate fleece because it is so stretchy which makes it hard to sew and lumpy once it's stuffed, but this kind isn't stretchy at all. It is just perfect for a bear like this

which is now underway

and, of course, the quilt is still sitting there with no binding. Ugh.

Baa baa black sheep

This one is made from some of the most delicious wool (is it cashmere?) from Mimi.

Roxy and I spent the morning doing errands. Mostly we are gathering everything we need for the arrival of her sister, the baby currently known as "S-Dawg" (although we've had to stop calling her that in front of Roxanne because she was starting to think we were really getting a dog soon). Yep - I am now confronting the reality that I'm going to have two in diapers. We bought size 5 Cruisers today and size N Swaddlers. Oh my.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and things seem to be perking along. This baby is so active. She kicks really vigorously - it seems like more so than Roxanne did.

Plans are underway for Roxy's post office birthday party in March. These came in the mail today

and these are on their way and I've been collecting boxes to wrap up in brown paper and string for the centerpiece. I know I tend to do things in advance, but knowing that I'm going to be 9 months pregnant at her birthday party makes me think perhaps this is a good idea.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy some fabric to bind Emerson's baby quilt, plus I need more polyfil. Charlie has suggested a polyfil silo out back. Might be wise. Have a good weekend. Happy crafting.

Have you any wool?

Between the moms in our Mother's Forum playgroup, the moms in my synagogue playgroup, and my relatives, it seems like a lot of people have had babies babies in the last few weeks. So I'm making a few more lambs to give as baby gifts. This one was finished last night while we watched some women's downhill skiing. I love the Olympics.

I ordered some wool trimmings recently and they came in last week. I have two full bags like this.

It makes great stuffing as long as I pick out the light colored pieces if I'm stuffing light colored fabric (otherwise it tends to show through a bit) and, as I mentioned earlier, it smells terrific. But, I also like the way it looks on its own. It reminds me of the hair on Sarah's peeps. I'm thinking it might make a great beard on a goat - perhaps a variation on the lamb pattern.

Mayweed

Here she is - a little lion made of linen and stuffed with wool. I used a different marker for the drawing on her belly and I like how it didn't run as much and I tried the watered down acrylics for filling it in and the colors came out nice and bright - almost too bright. I like her little face and her mane.

I'm so happy today because my brother, Matt, and his wife, Jen, had a baby last night (on Valentine's Day)! Her name is Emerson Rose and she was 8 lbs. 1 ounce! What a big girl. Matt says her hair is already down past her ears. I really need to finish up the Plain Spoken quilt I pieced for her months ago if it's going to be a baby present and not a Bat Mitzvah present as Charlie is currently predicting. I quilted it yesterday in straight lines and I think it came out alright, but now I need to bind it.

Saguaro

A little bear, about 7" from top to bottom, made from linen and suiting. I transfered a saguaro cactus from my sketchbook (originally drawn during a trip to Tuscon two years ago) onto some muslin and painted it with watercolors. Cut it out and appliqued it to her little belly. Her arms, legs and ears are stuffed with polyfil, but her body and head are stuffed with wool. This was my first time using wool stuffing and I really love it - so soft and yet firm at the same time, and it even smells lovely.

Charlie's birthday party was a lot of fun. We had a house full of friends and babies, tasty food and a homemade cake. Both Roxy and her father were wearing green and with their red party hats looked a bit like gnomes.

In other good news, I'm going to be have some pieces in the Plush You II show at Schnmancy in Seattle. The show runs from October to November, and my pieces have to be done by September. With this new baby coming I'm feeling like maybe I should get started now.

They're listening

All ready for her bath last night, Roxanne is standing there naked in her room trying to stall her inevitable tubby. She picks up a little magic wand I made her from a dowel and a piece of satin and says, "Magic wand. Mommy made dat." I said that yes, Mommy did make that for her. Then she turns to me and says, "It sold!" Oh boy. Turns out she's listening to every word I say, huh. Guess she picks up on my excitement about how well the shops is doing.

I finished the penguin prototype last night and I'm pretty happy with him. He's made of flannel backed by interfacing so his seams stay together nicely. His belly is attached with a tight zigzag stitch and I'm so happy with how nice it looks. At first he had some embroidered eyes, but I think these felt ones look better. I've determined that it's all in the eyes - if the creature has appealing eyes, he looks great and if not you might as well quit. The only thing I do want to change is the shape of his body - Charlie pointed out that it might be better if his bottom flared out a bit. He'd sit better and have a cuter, rounder look.

And, of course, his matching greeting card. The printed fabric behind the penguin is a piece of the most lovely vintage necktie I've been saving for some time. It's nice to find a good use for it.