Snuggle Time Easter Stories, and plush rabbits

 It’s always good to have a special friend. And so for my friend Glenys Nellist’s brand new book I felt I ought to suggest she had both of the bunnies that feature on every page of the book. 

I made the little patched rabbit first and hand coloured the markings. 

When they were both completed I told them they were off to meet Glenys, in Michigan and as you can see they were very excited. They have big ears, to listen to the author sharing her stories. 

The book is available in all the usual places and of course it’s perfect for sharing now, during lent. 

Both rabbits popped up in Instagram recently, keep an eye out for them. I love making rabbits and these two are really rather special. Hey, I wonder if they met little Mole? 

Want plush for your book events? Just drop me a line … 

Fixing things

During lockdown you can perhaps do some house keeping. This is because it’s not easy to replace everything at this time. So Mary and took apart a toy pirate gun that wouldn’t fire, saw how it worked and promptly fixed it. Bang bang! 

My friend’s daughter tore a very pretty dress while trampolining (PE at home), and I agreed it was just too nice to throw away. It tore right across the front in two places, and stitches were just about holding the other side under the bodice. 

It was fairly easy to rejoin the skirt part to the top, then to repair the long rip in the fine fabric I opted to stitch it to the lining using two lines of zig zag in both pink and green. There’s a visible repair but in use on a child playing doesn’t really stand out. 

The dress dips lower at the back and you can see it in all it’s repaired glory here modelled beautifully by Vienna, who gave me permission to share this happy picture with you. The post wasn’t too bad either, first class only too two days. 

Keep smiling, and see what you can fix! 

Four Memory Pups ....

I was asked to make some very special pups in the style of my flat cats! I love to be asked to try new things so I set about designing some dogs with fold-over ears ...

After sketching and sharing progress wth my friend, I create the patters I will use to cut the fabric pieces with ....

Apart from the white fleece and wool I used for the eyes, each pup is made from pieces of a Daddy's jumper and one of his shirts. This project is so special because the Dad died last year. 

With the ears sewn in this pup looks rather silly! I need a few small stitches to fold over the ears just right! The nose is also needle felted and the mouth will be hand embroidered :-)

Pin the ears before sewing down so you can get the angle right!

Here are all four dogs ready to leave me. Have fun guys and thank you for standing in the gap and helping to celebrate a special person. 

Have you worked with clothing to help preserve memories? 

Bee-cause I wanted to!

I had a real urge to make some bees. I wanted them to be at least based on the

Anatomy of real honey-bees but based around a pair of cool black and yellow socks... 

Using the filled-width of the socks, I made a full sized drawing to help make the patterns. Those lovely knee socks bee-came the abdomen!

I chose a dense-quality fur from my stash. I can get 8 bee abdomens from a single pair of long socks. Amazingly I had exactly enough black fur to complete all of them! Some thing's are just meant to bee. 

A completed torso, with pipe cleaner legs, looks like a tic!

The 21mm solid black eyes are the right size, but needed the yellow border to keep the bee looking friendly!

Now the wings sent me digging in my bag of lace and mesh fabric. This mesh gave a good effect, but the wings were floppy. So I sewed all the mesh to pieces of acetate, and i had just enough sheets of acetate to complete all 8 insects!

but the acetate and mesh creation still bends, so i added three folds - problem solved! And the folds look like veins too!

Finally the wings are attached with buttons, so they can be moved a little too. The first bee admires my prize flowers ... 

Wow, its totally true what they say about rabbits, isn't it?

Then there were four!

Stormy!

Such a wild night, I put on the diving belt to go and let the chickens out this morning, makes sure the shed door was hooked, and laughed to see the Wendy-house in the flower beds again!



So we kept the lamps on a bit longer this morning ... in the kitchen I have my sea glass collection and with my Nan's things I have some lovely shells ...




I made most of two cute grey creatures, and also made up one of Mary's craft kit necklaces with her!



It is a challenge to complete things sometimes, as with three young people around there is always someone wanting something ...



Often, there's a quick fix, and then its dinner time!


Of course I will finish the grey creatures today and share them with you tomorrow!

Guess What We Got for Christmas?

Mary got lots of this for christmas ...



and some new play-doh tools that everyone wanted to try!



wearing some of their sparkly tattoos of course!



Mary isn't sure about some of the creations ...



and daddy isn't doing play-doh, he is playing with his - what is that exactly?



and, oh dear, matty had almost eaten all of daisy ... oops!



What did you play with on Christmas day? Did the sun shine?

an early birthday present ...

a large box arrived on saturday, and i have been having a painful time of late so steve said i should open it rather than wait for my birthday ... that it was kind of a joint present, but i would use it more ....

yippeee a new toy ! it is a sony handycam, cant believe it had a HDD 80 x bigger than the pc i got in 1997! and it takes neat but very large (2mg) still images too, and i am attepting the upload of my first as i type, taken from my feet-up postition on the couch !

i spent the day taking quite a bit of footage in the garden, of steve and the girls, anyone that knows me usually finds me behind the camera, on all occiasions !

feeling very sore as baby's due date aproaches, and my last post found me in a pondering mood ...