The therapy of the creation of teddy bears

Every so often I have a group of people ask me if I'll teach them how to make teddy bears. If I can possibly make it happen, the answer is always an enthudiastic "YES!". I love to share the joy of creating a bear from scratch. It is so easy and so rewarding. For some it is theaputic and for others it fulfills thier sensory seeking tactile cravings. In the last two lessons when the creator's bear starts to come to life the smiles are immovable and the joy is contagious. There is so much self-satisfaction in taking a fat 1/8th of mohair fur fabric and turning it into something that almost lives.

Anyway, to my absolute joy and satisfaction, a group of friends has asked me to teach them the art of teddy bear making. We are getting together this week to make some decisions, choose patterns, choose fabric, and basically get prepared to launch into it next term. The aim is to have them done by Christmas. I usually teach an 8 week, one lesson a week term, so I think that we can do it!!! I will post photos of our progress.

Above are a couple of the patterns that I designed... From right to left they are Jamie, Bop and Taku. Though you can't really see it, Jamie has wings. Her brother, Bumbly, is a bee in gold and black, with gold wire wings.I usually teach bear making on James, a cousin of Jamie. He is a great size to begin on and to cuddle and hold. Also economical.

The beginning of a brand new week!

OK, so last week I managed one out of seven early morning wake-ups. Shameful, I know. This week I am aiming much higher! I will begin Tuesday morning, which means early to bed tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is Monday and Monday is sewing day! This week I am going to embark on the happy task of creating hip protectors for my precious Nan. I am going to make the first pair out of plain white so that we can test my pattern out. If it works, I am going to make them in some brights as well. I am also hoping to do a bit more work on the space quilt / wall-hanging, but it all depends on how long it takes me to get that hip protector pattern to work! It will be rather un-interesting to all but me, so I'll try not to ramble on too much about them.

Have a happy week!
Nay

The colour book is finished!

Here it is, all finished, and ready for my cute little poppet to play with and practice her colours on. I have to say that I really did enjoy making it!

Following are a couple of pictures of the book open, just to give an idea of what it looks like:

And one more:

Yay! Another finished project! One down, 99 to go...

Early Morning Creative Quiet Times

I did it! This morning I got up at 5:20am - yes, AM! It was so hard to drag myself out of bed in the cool dark of the morning, but I did it. At 7:30am I am still sleepy and can see myself crawling back into bed everytime I blink. Glen tells me that it will take a while for my body to get used to it. He says this as he bounces around this morning as the amazing morning person that he is. I am going to keep it up, but I really do wonder if I will be able to convince my body that getting up before the sun is really a good idea...

Having said all that, I did spend some good time pondering Proverbs 31. One of my first posts related to a book that I began making on the Proverbs 31 woman. I set myself a project to creatively study my way through the verses and learn about what it means to be an 'excellent wife' whose worth is 'far above jewels'. This morning I was working on the first part of verse 10: 'An excellent wife who can find?' Though the question is answered in great detail in the following verses, today I am left with more questions than answers. I know that she is rare, that is part of why she is so valuable. But what is an 'excellent wife' - what does she look like? and, what does it take to be an 'excellent wife'? and, how do I become an 'excellent wife'? These are my questions. I am a little trepidous as I embark upon finding out the answers to these questions, because I know tthat I am just not going to stack up well against this vastly elusive woman.

Space Quilt Wall Hanging for my boy

Monday is sewing day. So this past Monday I sewed. I acheived a lot, too! 

1. I made a pattern for hip protectors - I am going to make them for my Nan so that she doesn't smash her hips if she falls. The ones you buy cost $90 each and she needs to have at least 8. I figure that I can make them for a fraction of that price. I just need to get myself an overlocker!
2. I made a pattern for a child's apron. My big girl is having a sleepover for her birthday - activities will include cooking and craft. She would like to make her friends an apron each with her brand new birthday sewing machine as a thank you gift and to use during the sleepover.
3. A while ago I aquired the following Bernatex fabrics. My boy loves space so I thought that I could make a wall hanging to go with the space quilt that his Grandma made for him for his birthday (I will put up a picture of his quilt soon). Above is a picture of the wall hanging so far...

And here are the fabrics that I used to make it:

The main piece is a panel of lots of different 'spacey' squares, and a starry boarder at top and bottom. On the top right is an orange pattern fabric that I thought looked kind of planet-ey and on the bottom right is more of the star fabric. 

If you are interested in the details, here they are:

I cut the the picture squares out into 7 1/2" squares and the others into 7 1/2 by 3 1/2" rectangles. Then I cut the orange fabric into 3 1/2" sqares. Next I cut some of the starry fabric into a few more 7 1/2 by 3 1/2" rectangles because I didn't quite have enough of the other. After that, I randomly sewed it all back togther into 10" squares. Next I made the 10" squares into 3 rows, added an extra square and rectangle at the end and sewed the rows togther. It still needs boarders, then it will be quilted and bound, but for a couple of hours of work I am really happy! And so is my big space loving boy!!!

OK, so that didn't work!

I had the most interupted and not-deep sleep last night. I think that it was partly because I was conscious of getting up early, but mostly because my brain just would not switch off. Grrrrr! I was still prepared to get up at 5:30 and just start this thing, but it turns out that I fell into some deep some time after 4 and that Glen also had a bad sleep - he is the one in control of the alarm. He turned it off at 5:30 and I didn't even hear it. Oh well! So I will try again tonight...

Creative Quiet Time

Tomorrow I am going to be the supportive wife and try really hard to be a morning person. Hubby dearest does exceptionally well doing the early morning thing, so I am going to do it with him to give him moral support to get started. I am going to use it as my 'Creative Quiet Time' and work on my Aspire book. I am looking forward to it, I just hope that I can convince my brain that I am a morning person too!