Story of a Bear

A friend gave me this bear kit a couple of weeks ago and I gave it a go on Sunday afternoon. His nose is a little wonky and I think his ears are sitting too high, and I still need to finish his little vest, but I guess he is not a bad first attempt!

There must be secrets to bear making that I am not privy to. Like how to cut and sew the fabric without getting fluff over every possible conceivable surface of the house, and self (causing itchiness), and up own nose causing sneezing fits etc. And how to tighten the bolts on the joints without trying to fit a full sized wrench and a power drill in the tiny seam openings I had left, with only two hands, when four or five would have been better. I guess smaller tools would be in order.

Anyway, when I've finished Blue Bear's vest I'll post another pic to let you know how he is going.

Some little things

I've been enjoying playing with some of the variegated DMC threads this week. I started this little cross stitch but I was getting annoyed with myself because I kept forgetting which way my crosses were going! And with the variegations it was really obvious where my threads started and finished.

So I started experimenting with a star stitch (don't know it's name) that I normally associate with canvas work, and made this bookmark:

I love these two threads together, the subtle colour changes in the thread give it so much vibrancy.

I also made this little sachet which I plan to fill with lavender:

And Sug has been enjoying her new mat. She does kind of fit on it, but was stretching in the direction of the heater here. Poor thing, she had a sore tum the day this was taken so spent all day asleep in front of the heater and didn't eat at all. But she is much better now.

Recycling old jeans

I haven't accomplished much the last few days but one thing I have been doing is going through bags of old clothes to sort out what to give away and what can be re-used.

I've chopped up some old jeans and started making a new mat for the dogs. I've made the top:

And haven't decided if I will make the back patchwork denim as well or use another hard-wearing fabric. And whether to stuff it, make a pad out of several layers of thick wadding, or to fill it with bean bag beans.

I've also been playing with another jelly roll, making these blocks:

But they aren't going terribly well. None of the blocks have all the seams and points matching up in the centre so I'm getting frustrated.

Bit chuffed with myself

My good friend Lyle gave me some early birthday pressies last week, including a marble scrap bag, a print scrap bag and a New York Beauty pattern which came with lots of great templates and quilting stencils.


It's a difficult block (for me!) so I thought I'd give a test block a go before deciding to make the full quilt, and while it is not perfect, I am pretty chuffed with myself!

Attacking UFOs

I was looking for something easy to work on yesterday and found these half finished blocks, made from charm squares and a jelly roll, in a bag in my sewing room. I can barely remember even starting this, and don't know why I put it away unfinished.

So I finished off the easy blocks and put them together without sashings.

And today I should finish off the borders.

Update: borders now finished. Here is another pic: