While She Naps

Something Fierce

Thanks Whip Up for featuring my Less Cowardly Lion today. Seeing the link there inspired me to finish the second exposed seams softie I had started - this alligator.

He reminds me of an alligator sculpture I made in college. I went to Johns Hopkins which, at the time, had very few art classes and the ones they did have were only for one credit each. I took all of them - I think I was the only person ever to take them all because the "art program" gave me a special award my senior year. My favorite class was a sculpture class. The teacher had us make sculptures out of all sorts of random materials. One assignment was to make something from a cardboard box. I made this:

He is spray painted green and held together with a glue gun. I also made a chicken entirely out of wooden skewers and I made several other sculptures, but "the corrugator" as Charlie calls him was my favorite.

That was in 1996. He's a bit dusty and a little banged up now. My new alligator is softer and certainly cleaner, but is still something fierce.

New Pincushions

I walked by this fabric last night on my way to the bathroom (I make rather frequent bathroom stops at this point, as you can imagine), and was finally struck with what to do with it. Make pincushions!

I originally found this fabric on ebay many months ago. It is a Michael Miller print called "ABC Blocks" and I just thought it was wonderful. It has been sitting in my stash untouched all this time because I wasn't sure what to do. The print is large, out of scale for any doll project, and I'm not much of a tote maker or quilter. I've been thinking about making some pincushions lately, though, because they are nice small projects that I can make start to finish during nap time and also get a nap in myself. Of course I am making eleven of them so now it is a big project again. I'm a little bit crazy.

I've finished five today:

-"Fair little fanny wrote to her granny."
-"Careless Corinne lost her gold pin." (highly appropriate)
-"Dear little Davy liked chicken gravy."
-"Lovable Lenny lost his new penny."
-"Elegant Ed had a new sled."

Still waiting to be stuffed are:

-"Gutsy Guy thought he gould fly" (is that a typo on the fabric?)
-"Jaunty young Jack stepped on a tack" (again, appropriate)
-"Kind little Kay gave things away"
-"Hellen and Hugh called the sky blue" (yep, that's Hellen with two l's)
-"Ignorant Ike fell off his bike"
-and "Boisterous Ben shot at a hen"

How fun. They are going up in the shop momentarily.

The Garden

It's a beautiful day here. I'm longing to go to the garden center and buy perrenials for my garden. Do I risk it, though? I would need to wait another week and a half or so before putting them in the ground or they might freeze, but by then I might be in labor or recovering from childbirth or, at the very least, really really big and not happy to bend over. But my garden looks so bare!

Last year my flowers were all shades of orange (see some pictures of everything in bloom in the Growing Things album over on the side). Red is really my favorite color, though, and I can't resist adding some in. Bee balm will be a definite addition this year, I know that. It attracts the most beautiful humming birds. I must have beautiful humming birds.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes for Roxy. She is mostly back to her old self again, but with several red patches on her face from constantly wiping her nose with her sleeve (gross) and an awfully throaty voice for a two-year-old.

I finished up this little doll today. Another punk rock haircut, but with striped tights. Her dress is green silk and a black kitchen print fabric.

I got my teeth cleaned yesterday, one of the last things on my "to do" list before this new little one arrives. I'm feeling good. Big, but good.

Comfy

I'm feeling so much better this week. I'm not entirely sure why. Whatever bony part of the baby that was pressing down and putting so much pressure on my cervix must have moved now. I can walk around, not fast, but hey I am 9 months pregnant after all, and I just feel better overall. Unfortunately, little Roxy has been sick with some kind of virus since Thursday. She is coughing and has a terribly runny nose and she just weeps all day long. It's been tough. At least the weather is getting nicer.

Over the weekend I made a batch of sweater bears. I made one to start with, but every time I went to start a new project I just kept going back to making more sweater bears. Maybe I wanted to sew something soft and comforting. These are up in the shop now.

I've been thinking a lot about trying to use up some of the materials that I already have around the studio. I have really run out of storage and sometimes I feel like my shelves are overflowing with fabric, but I only use the smallest pieces for each softie.

Yard sale season is almost here. I need to use things up, though, before anything new can enter the house.

punk rock haircut

I made a friend for the red head. Here she is basking in the sun on our lawn. It is so lovely out right now. Could it finally be getting warm? I even saw two little purple crocuses blooming in our neighbor's yard.

So you can see her punk rock haircut a bit better.

Last October I know I planted an assortment of bulbs in my front garden, but I was so deliriuosly sick with morning sickness then that I really don't remember what I planted or where exactly. Hopefully something will come up. Whatever it is it will be a nice springtime surprise.

Charlie is haranging me about the bumper again. "I hope this doll cheers up our baby after she bruises herself bumping into the crib rail." etc. etc. etc. Blah.

And I don't feel so bad about my collection of Japanese craft books after seeing this amazing shelf posted on the cool blog Wawaya.com. I'm not sure all of these are craft books, but I do recognize the spines of a few of them as ones I own. Now I don't feel so bad about buying myself an issue of the beautiful magazine Cotton & Paint.

To cheer me up

Thanks to everyone for the nice words yesterday. To lift my spirits a bit I decided to take on a little project just for fun and made this little girl doll. She's a red head. She's got one of my favorite buttons in her hair and a bit of my favorite ribbon on her velvet (ewwww!) dress and she's got text on her tights. She makes me happy, despite the velvet.

And my sister-in-law, Jacquie, received the sweater bears I made for her twin daughters. They quickly named the bears Abby and Charlie and seem to like them quite a bit.

Here is Ellis with Charlie Bear

and Jordan with Abby Bear

Now that really cheers me up.

Slowing Down

I'm slowing down. The baby has dropped and is now lodged rather uncomfortably in my pelvis. I've had three bouts of Braxton Hicks contractions, each lasting several hours and bringing me close to tears. The craft room is a mess - there is fabric strewn everywhere and a half-finished alligator sitting on my desk with no eyes and no lower jaw.

I did manage to get to the library on Saturday morning while Charlie and Roxy were at Tot Time and I found two books, one of which is this one - The Complete Book of Teddy-Bear Making Techniques by Alicia Merrett and Ann Stephens.

It's not that I'm dying to make teddy bears, really, but I find books like these so helpful in making softies generally. This one is super comprehensive and includes sections on designing patterns (especially those ever tricky head gussets),

sewing noses, ear placement, and, best of all, making clothes to dress the finished bear.

Roxy would just go crazy for a softie in a necktie. Oh yes.

I haven't done much with making doll clothes. I always seem to run out of steam on a project before I get a chance to clothe it. And because I never sew actual clothes for real people, I just don't have experience in figuring out how to make clothing patterns, how to sew on sleeves and waist bands and closures. The directions in this book are really great and easy to follow. Now if I could only sit comfortably in a chair long enough to make something...

And just to close with something inspirational, I found this site over the weekend and I think her stuff is so lovely. Be sure to click through the "felt animals" and see the birds and the penguins. Wow.

Another Sweater Bear

This sweater bear is up in the shop now and hopefully I'll be able to make a few more soon (I was told last night that I'm supposed to begin sewing the long sides of that darn bumper this week. Ugh).

What is up with Roxanne's short naps this week? It's killing me! Yesterday I think she maybe slept for 45 minutes and now I'm sitting here listening to her chit chat in her crib after an hour and 15 min. And I had planned to make two lasagnas and this bear during nap time today.

Sweater Bears

Two sweet bears for my sweet neices, Jordan and Ellis. Made from three of my sister-in-law's old wool sweaters that I felted in the washing machine. I hope they like them.

Yesterday I received two packages in the mail. In the first was the manual to my Bernette 330! Wow. Now I can figure out what some of those buttons and knobs on my machine are actually for. I have to play around with everything and see what new things I can learn.

And second was an envelope full of surgical tools from Valerie. Valerie has bought several lambs from my shop and when she saw my post about forceps she offered to set aside a few from her husband's surgical practice for me. Thanks so much, Valerie! In the pacakge were two small sets of forceps, one of which is curved on the end, a pair of super sharp scissors, and a long pair of tweezers with tiny ends. These tools when right into use - I love it when you pull something out of a package and start using it within minutes.

The Birthday Girl

The birthday girl had a great time at her party. She handled having lots of family and some friends over very well and I think she really enjoyed being the star of the show. Her only moment of shyness came out out when we all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday - she just hid behind me and pulled at my earrings and tried to disappear a little bit - but she quickly recovered and thoroughly enjoyed her piece of cake. We've been reenacting it with dolls and toys all day yesterday and today. (No, I didn't make the hat, but it is pretty great).

The table looked lovely.

Hoorah for the post office-themed birthday party.

And this morning I had my 34 week doctor's appointment and an ultrasound to check the baby's growth. She is reportedly about 5 pounds which is bigger than Roxanne was when she was born at 37 1/2 weeks so I'm excited and hoping that this baby will be near the 6 pound range when she's born.

Gotta love the stretch marks.

And, as you can see, we made hamentashen last night for Purim which begins tonight. Some have poppy filling others have almond.

When my in-laws were here on Saturday they brought a big box of old sweaters and linens for me from my sister-in-law in New York. There were some great wool scarves and cashemere sweaters in there that I've felted in the washing machine. I just put Roxy down for a nap so I'm off to cut them up. I'm going to make a few softies for my twin neices who will turn 2 in May when I'll surely be exhausted and overwhelmed by the new baby.