I made this bear for a wee grand-nephew born in October. I will meet him this weekend and I can hardly wait. I made the pattern after being inspired by softies on Loobylu and Mollychicken's blogs. He is stuffed lightly to make him soft and squishy.
Have you ever tried a crazy quilt? I sure haven't, but I love this one. I went on a visit to see my aunt a couple of weekends ago and she pulled this family quilt out for us to look at. It was made by Lizzie Colcord in 1894 up in Maine. She was married to a sea captain and passed away, childless, just 6 years after she made this while in her 40's.
Beautiful stitches and lovely fabrics. Each corner has a fan of small pieces set in place. The strip of music is in the very center--does anyone recognize the music?
This is the picture loaded up on my desktop. I have a thing for dreamy castle images. This one is a lookout tower at a park. We walked the rivers edge trail and enjoyed the last of fall. 
We went to a balloon fest more than a month or so ago--you can tell--everyone is wearing shorts still. :-) The colors in the evening sun were so pretty. We followed the balloons for a while--trailing after the "follow vehicles" that had to get to the balloons as they came down to earth again.
We have caught him! In the middle of the night Meg woke me saying she heard rattling metal in the basement. I knew we had successfully caught the chipmunk that thought my art room was a good place to spend the winter. J took him to a local park this morning to release the bugger. Now I have to go and clean up--the chipmunk knocked a bunch of stuff off of shelves and fabric from the open cupboards. EEEeewww!
I went outside this afternoon and fiddled around with some watercolor paint. I really am no good but it took my mind off the chipmunk in my studio. Yes, that's right a chipmunk in and among my art stuff down in the basement. I have no idea how he got in there but I want him out! I used to like the little things but I have firmly changed my mind. Anyone who wants the thing can request a special delivery--tomorrow. We are going to try and live-catch him and release outside--hopefully that works....cause I don't want to share my space with the jumpy, smelly fellow.
I was woken this morning by the owl which has been visiting our curly willow tree for some days now. I haven't found any cool owl pellets underneath the tree but we have heard him just whooting away in the late evenings and very early mornings. It is a comforting sound--a sound of home, the woods.
Don't ya wish you could go to this "scrap" yard? We came upon these sculptural gems being stored on the inside of a covered stone bridge in Strasbourg, France. We had parked in a car park that was quite a ways from the downtown as I remember and we had to cross part of the canal on a covered stone bridge to get downtown. One other memory from this trip are the juicy fresh red raspberries that we bought at a stall in the market and we ate them--the whole box right there and then.
I think I have a theme going here...things that time forgot. I love the colors of this old row boat--the beautiful turquoise it once was with the rust of time adding its patina. My neighbors would rightfully have a fit but I would love to put this boat in my front yard among the shrubs and flowers. It would remind me of happy water, beach, summer, boaty kinds of memories. ;-)
Have you lost a shoe? Maybe the pretty pleated slipper with the elf-like turned up toe? These two shoes have been tacked up here awhile on these fence posts--I have seen them repeatedly over the years--I look for them as a sort of touchstone to reassure myself that this little corner of the world hasn't changed much.
The girls and I are going visiting and will be away for a week or so. We go to see family and feast ourselves on the trees and rocks and home-land. We are sure to be knitting/crocheting, crafting and going for lovely walks in the woods. I am going to pretend it won't be sticky with humidity, too. :-)
Two of my favorite things--polka dots and berries! Last week we visited a pottery painting place and I painted up this curvy bowl. I'm like a kid with a new toy--I've had my cereal in it, fruit with cottage cheese and of course ice cream--even hand washing it so I can use it again right away. :-) The first night I slept with it next to my bed on the table--am I crazy?--made me smile when I awoke. 
For summer camp last week I made each of the girls a rubber stamp --Em the kitty and Meg the owl--made the babushka for me. :-) I put the stamps into little cloth bags stamped with a "blind brownie" stamp I drew and then carved. We had kind of a secret santa type thing--thus the "blind brownie" at the beginning of camp. Each of us had to make a secret present for the other "campers".
I had forgotten how much I like making rubber stamps. I just drew a little doodle in pencil, flipped it over on the pink rubber, rubbed the pencil back and forth all over the back of the drawing to transfer the sketch to the rubber and used linoleum carving tools to cut around my transfered lines.
Last year the girls and I played on vacation and left a fairy house in a hollow in the roots of a tree near the cabin. This year imagine our surprise to find a fairy ring of mushrooms in the front yard of the very same cabin. Meg said they are supposed to be dangerous places, that if caught inside of a fairy ring one can be snatched by fairies. For me it just added to the enchantment of an already beautiful spot on earth. 
This is Harry Hedgehog sitting among the fairy toadstools. He is dressed in bathrobe and has his hot water bottle under his arm. This is just the outfit I need today and a hot water bottle is just the thing 'cause I feel kinda out of sorts at the moment. 
Here is the newly refurbished fairy house. It was a little weather worn when we first saw it this year so we put together some new accouterments, like a nutshell floor lamp and acorn bowls of red berries, which disappeared during the night (?). Yellow flower tops served up with small pinecones made a splash on a center table of bark.
Also a comfy deer moss bed under a bark shelter. Slightly out of focus beside the bed is an acorn bowl with a snail shell in it. Must be French fairies enjoying escargo in bed. :-)
Here is Bunny getting a little sun on the porch. The millinery flower I attached to Bunny's ear I found while rolling some yarn into a ball--it was tangled in the yarn. A happy find. :-)
We gardened a bit this weekend--well, I gardened and J dug holes and trenches, how about you? It was a beautiful two days here and the coreopsis is in bloom! :-)
Then I started on a hedgehog--it has all these added on "prickles on its back--it is taking so long to finish so I started something new! :-)
I was inspired by the cuteness in Molly Chicken's archives of bears and animals and so I just started crocheting a little bear? in a blue and white striped shirt. No real pattern, just an idea of the amount of each color that I wanted and where I wanted it to narrow down. I'll probably show another picture of it when I've finished--if I'm happy with the face. I think that is the hardest part--getting a good expression.
Have a cooooool weekend! :-)
A good place to spend a chilly day--oh, the torture! On our week-long vacation to Michigan which was pretty chilly and sometimes rainy we managed-ahem-to enjoy ourselves. :-) How could we not with the beautiful beaches and a pretty cabin on a smaller lake to come home to. My Mom coached the girls and I in knitting and croceting and it was a regular yarn camp!
Isn't this wee pup cute? I made her from a kit that is chock full of patterns. You have got to check it out! Each softie has a folded card with a photo and instructions and then a tissue sheet of pattern pieces to cut out.
I have cut out the felt needed for two more of the softies to take on vacation. I have prepared way too many projects for a trip we are taking next week. We always pack the car full of art supplies and only pull out half--we get way too busy talking and eating. :-) I want to try a deli we spotted last year and visit all the farm markets for yummy fresh fruits and vege. 
This pink and white cake is also from the kit--the felt (acrylic) included in the kit is enough to make this. Even the little pink pompom is included.
Switching gears on my love of the small and miniature I made this huge, humongous pincushion for my Mom. I was inspired by a giant pincushion sitting on the desk of Mette on her very cool blog Erleperle. Now, I want to make one for me.......Lately, I keep returning to my artroom in the basement to get something else that I have forgotten as I craft near my kids upstairs--truth be told--to be near the TV, too. :-) I really need all these pockets. I have pulled out some of the fabric that I will use--one with matryoshka all over--to keep them close at hand. :-)
When I was making this--I should have taken pictures because even after trying to make sure that the pocket openings were going to all be on top--I messed it up. I don't even know how I did it, but after carefully sewing the cube up ever so neatly Boom!! I had pockets facing the bottom of the cube! Aaaargh! So, I unpicked and re-attached the offending pockets. All good now and Mom loves it!
A wild and windy day here--we had a storm push thru last night that felt like someone was throwing rain at the house! Both of the girls ended up on the main level to sleep....Em in our bed....she loves it best to put her knees squarely in the middle of an obliging? back to return to sleep. I don't like the big storms anymore than our girls do. I do like all the garden loveliness that the summer has brought tho and would have taken a picture but the wind is blowing all the blooms out of focus. I love the lily pad look to these nasturtium leaves, don't you?By the by, I sent out two of the three matryoshka today--Alexis, let me know your contact info. :-)
