Bear evolution?

In one of my crafting fits and starts (and perhaps because of a new class at the local craft show if I am honest with myself) I started to think about making a bear.

Lots of patchwork bears have been making an appearance on quilting groups on Facebook.  I have not tried to make a toy from scratch since school.  So I expect it may have stayed a passing thought except I came across some red fleece in my stash.  I have had it a goodly while, it was a "do you want some scraps of material" offer from a lady at work about eight or nine years ago.  Left overs from a summer play scheme her daughter had worked on.  No idea what I would do with the whatever it was, still it was free material, in such circumstances I'm just a girl who can't say no.  

Anyway materials origin aside I though it would make a nice bear, off to the library for a book with hopefully an easy pattern.  Back I came with this. 

You may be able to make out the blue bear clutched in the little boy's arms on the cover. Red, blue that should be an easy change over one for the other.

Here is a better picture (from the book) of the bear.

The starting point

Now the eagle eyed among you will have noticed that the seams on this blue bear are on the outside and blanket stitched. This is because the pattern is for a felt bear.  Not undaunted I decided it shouldn't be too much of a change to sew it up with the seams turned to the inside.  Ah? but what about the ears, a single piece of fabric on the original I would need to double up on mine.  Scraps of pink fabric from a quilting project and destined to be leaders for future sewing projects became the inner ear.  The same fabric was also sufficient to make the pads for the feet.   

Arms and legs (even with inserting the feet) went OK, well one leg did end up a bit longer than the other but a bit of uniqueness did not bother me so much.  Time for the body and the head gusset, at this point the evolution from the blue bear took rather a more drastic shift than colour or seam.  I decided to put the ears on at the same time, sewing them into the seams on the head.  I had not considered how much that would change the aspect of the ears which on the original sat across the seam not in line with it.

Seams sewn it was time to turn the main part of my bear so I could see the outside and get a feel for the character of my creation.  

Mouse ears!

It looked like  a mouse, pinching the ears into the seam had turned my bear ears into those of a mouse.

What to do, unpick them and re-think how to attach them?  Too logical and not very me, anyway those seams would be a pain to unpick with the red thread I used sinking into the fleece. 

Give up on the project altogether as a bad idea, no, I had come to far for that.  Well then that left only one other option.  Yes, make a tail, a mouse tail to go with the mouse ears.  Of course there was no pattern for a tail, after all the pattern was for a bear.  Back to the scraps, sew a tail and realise as it was impossible to get it turned more than halfway out  that I had made it too skinny.  Second try and I gave turning out some thought before I started.  I put a length of thread anchored at the skinny end of the tail down the middle as I sewed.  Between pushing with a knitting needle and tugging the thread, tail number two turned out OK.

Mouse tail

On to the stuffing, now my parsimonious nature comes to the fore and out with the bag of wadding trimmings.  Never a bit too small to save I have plenty to fill my mouse.  Oh and on the theme of waste not, that very stiff tube of half turned fleece that was meant to be a tail, well I put that into the neck to give it extra support as it is quite a long neck. Time to sort through my button tin for eyes and for shoulder and hip joints.  I found some bonny buttons for eyes but rethought them as they were slightly faceted and a mouse with insect eyes would be evolution gone mad.  Mind I had already been told my creation looked more like a kangaroo at this point!

Some simpler black buttons for the eyes and black embroidery thread and on went the nose and a small  if somewhat wry smile.

The jointed limbs had to be sewn through the buttons the limb, the body the other limb and the button on the other side. 

My needle was not as long as I would have liked for this job but I managed.  With the added satisfaction of getting some use out of  a needle I had not used before. (you know those sets of needles you get for the little ones and end up with huge , or curved or spear pointed needles you wonder what you will do with).

And hey it worked, a jointed mouse (not a kangaroo, a mouse I am going to be firm about that).

Now all he needed was a scarf, it needed to be a bright colour to go with the primary bright red.  Now as you will hear about in more detail (should you visit my blog again) I am not much of a knitter, but as with material I have accumulated some oddments of wool one way and another. 

Wool chosen, with eight stitches a row on size 11 needles I set off to make a scarf.  Happily with so few stitches, although a lot of rows, that went quite swiftly even for me.  I don't have a name for my mouse, suggestions will be considered.  Oh and as for the show, it is at this point in the future.  I will let you know how that goes.  But till then, here is the once but not future bear who became a mouse in all his glory.

Red Mouse, side view seated

Red mouse, side view, standing

Red mouse, front view, seated

Red mouse, front view standing

A small update, after Facebook suggestions, a quick check on meanings and associations and the Mouse who was to be a Bear has a name.  Mr Giles Gentlemouse.

CLICK HERE to see how he did in the show.

Love it or hate it...backstitch

I guess I feel both emotions about it depending on how much there is of it, how complicated and whether I am just about to start it, in the middle and wondering if I should have started it or out the other side with the item finished.

I have been thinking about this conundrum again recently due to a birth sampler I have been working on.

You may recall my mentioning I had offered to do one and the only parameters the mother set were, pink and yellow. 

My BFF brought over her collection of patterns from magazines and I found one I was drawn to.  Another Forever Friends design (I have used one twice before) but to meet the parameters it needed some colour swapping.

The recommended material 16 count, I chose to do it on 14 as I had 14 to hand (I had contemplated 18 and I am so glad I did not, I will come back to that) and anchor threads.

I figured as I was changing blue to pink (and a pink bit to purple) anyway, and did not have a full range of the anchor threads I would colour match as best I could. 

With just the cross stitching finished it does not look particularly  prepossessing. 

Particularly the flowers, insipid is more the word that springs to mind.  However the design gave me hope that once the backstitch goes on then things will improve.

You can see the original with blue flowers here.

I had a bout of selective amnesia when looking at this design and recalling the previous successful Forever Friends (twice),  I forgot that the designs have that most beloved of backstitch styles (not), they don't follow the x-stitches.  They go between stitches, half way, in the middle, small stitches a third of a square!  They require a needle with a point. Not too bad on the bear, but on the flowers, oh my so glad I was not trying this on 18 count.

I did the bouquet first and encouraged by the marked improvement moved on to the bear.  Then the flowers in the border. It felt like there were more than twelve.  Now initially I was not sure how much thread this was going to take and to ensure all the flowers were the same I decided to do them first, then the ribbon if there was enough dark pink left, if not I would change colour. I was already thinking the purple might be OK as was.

However, the more I looked at it like this, the more I liked all the ribbons without any backstitching.  I even left it over night just to be sure it was a choice of taste rather than an avoidance of more maniacal backstitch.  I even did one section along the bottom, contemplated it and unpicked it. 

I like it like this, honest I do. I still have the name (more backstitch) and details to add and the frame to go.  I will update with that later, at the moment I have run out of steam (but I do like it like this, it is not the lack of very hot water that is putting a halt ot the ribbon backstitching..hmm am I protesting too much perhaps? Nah this is good ) 

Before and during, not liking the backstitching at all, done it works and most of it was indeed needed.

Perversely, considering my comments about backstitch I like blackwork!

Congratulations Karen !

My friend, a student nurse recently graduated.  I made this to celebrate and commemorate the occasion.

Nurse bear cross stitch

I spotted the toy bear just days before she graduated and thought it made the perfect companion piece to the cross stitch.

A crafted item does not have to be large to mark a memory.

Patternicity

Do you occasionally look at clouds and see pictures in the shapes, at knots in wood or the swirls in a carpet and see a face or a sleeping dragon.

Carpet dragon

Don't worry its is not being crazy it is a trait most of us have, our brains trying to find meaning in patterns. the familiar amongst the disordered.  There is even a word for it.

OK bear with me this does have something to do with crafts, on several levels.  On this occasion however, it is to do with an evolving cross stitch.  Quite often I see in the initial stitches, as a pattern evolves, an image the designer never intended.  Generally this alternate image is subtle, add a few stitches and away it goes and I am the only one that saw the horses head or the bear in the middle of an owls feathers.

This design however was so very uncannily other than its final intent I was not the only one to see it, so I took pictures of its evolution. Not something I have done with a cross stitch before.

Dancing E.T ?

Dancing E.T with fox

Still the look of E.T but add the deer

a touch of red

an E.T begins to morph

hat and all

in to a snowman

For anyone interested in making their own morphing E.T Christmas cross stitch, the design is Midnight Snowman by Dimensions, the gold collection petite and is 7 by 5 inches.  I had it as a kit which included the little bit of blending filament in with the white to make the snow glisten. 

BFF RAL 2

 As noted last week we are having a hiatus from the SAL whilst we find something suitable for us both.

My BFF was contemplating quilting this week so I prepared a bit of quilting for myself.

A  panel that was given to me in amongst a bag of bits .

Just a nice size for a cushion.

So I have made a start, I intend to hand quilt the bear and doll house and then stipple stitch on the machine around the bear and house.

It has been quite some time since I did any hand quilting and it was rather soothing.

CLICK HERE to see how my BFF's quilting went..or perhaps...

Oh I also spent quite a bit of time binge watching The Sword and the Brocade , all 45 episodes. It is a Chinees drama with English subtitles.  Making it good for the person with a cough but can't stitch to it, but then at times the cough makes stitching to it difficult.

It has a back story of embroidery in the Ming dynasty and at one point (I think episode 24) the leading lady mid embroidery runs out of black silk and is about to stop working for the evening..letting down her hair she suddenly thinks oh! and starts to sew with her hair!

CLICK HERE or indeed HERE to see why that amused me, perhaps I should update from it being Victorian to much much earlier!

My ORTS project.

Some people put the bits of left over embroidery thread in a jar.  Some put them inside clear plastic ornaments and use then as Christmas decorations.  Some, throw them out!

I have had a different approach, for many, many and I do mean many years.  Much longer than the Thread bag even before the Thread Ball there was 

 THE BAG

Also on occasion known as the everlasting project (wrong as it is finished but I am getting ahead of myself) there is of course a story behind the existence of

THE BAG

A brochure popped through the letter box, landed on the mat.  A brochure from a charity selling things to raise funds to save endangered species and their habitats. So I looked through the W.W.F brochure and I bought a stationary set and a 100 % cotton bag with a design on each side in green.  A picture of the world surrounded by  some of the creatures the charity aimed to support.  I rather liked the bag and I had been using it just as it was.

Then it went to London with me on a trip, and I put some fruit in it (in its own bag, but that split and I ended up with squashed fruit on my bag.

That's OK it would wash and it did and it did again but this time I noticed a bit of fading in the green.  That was this projects moment of birth, I wanted to keep the design, so I would sew over it.  If you have visited my blog before you will know it could not be just that simple, and it wasn't, I would just use bits too small to use for anything else. 

And so it began , about twenty five years ago, it began.  

For the first side I just wanted to use earth tones, the greens and browns and subtle yellows.  They did tend to be the colours I was working with the most.  My brighter toned threads went on the other side.

That is not to say it stopped being used as a bag whilst its pattern preservation commenced. It became the project bag for holidays, the stuff a jumper in it and it becomes a pillow bag for camping trips and it was still getting washed and still fading.   

The green side was finished first.

W.W.F Caring for our world.

I did bend my rules for the blue lettering and the leaves, but only in so far as these leftovers could  have been used for other small projects

(The dark green in the body of the whale, elephant and the continents is the original print, I settled on outlines for those rather than trying to fill them in.

The second side took longer, it felt longer, for there to be the thread to fill in all the little dashes of the pattern.  I guess there were less bright colours in the other projects I was doing to produce bright ORTS.

The coloured side

Having finally finished the sewing I felt the bag needed a lining to give it a bit of extra strength.

Here it is finished

WWF shopping bag

WWF shopping bag

oh and a few close up shots just for fun and to mark all those years.  With my sewing thread (thread bag) and my embroidery thread scrap projects completed, I wonder what I will do with them next.

W.W.F Panda

The classic black and Gold Panda on the green side.

W.W.F Panda

And one in a green that is very close to the original stamped pattern colour.

Tree with French Knot fruit.

Penguin and Polar Bear

Brights penguin and Polar bear

Elephant and Kangaroo

Trees

Bird and giraffe

close up of the dashes on the tones side

and on the bright side

And its first job as a fully finished lined bag, to carry my parents large print scriptures to Church for the 2018 Carol Service as we all had readings to do.

Ballerina and Bear

 a design by Coats Craft UK.

This was in June 2004 Cross Stitcher, It caught my eye as something a bit different and I saved the pattern and added to my mental to do list (as apposed to my actual to do list). It has waited in a plastic wallet and then moved a bit closer to getting done on several occasions, then been relegated  again to a one day soon. Although I had not realised I had been thinking about it since 2014)

I bought some random pieces of material from a Facebook group and there happened to be a piece of 16 count of a suitable size.  As suggested by the designer name this pattern is intended to be sewn in Anchor thread and my go to is DMC although I have some anchor threads (bought here and there for no particular reason and currently living with my Hark the Herald Angels Project) but not these colours so I turned to the delights of the on line conversion chart. Only to find that I did not have all the colours in DMC either, they are all shades of grey which have taken quilt a hit for Millennium so I thought it would have to wait till I had enough threads required to bother with buying new.

Oh then I remembered Mrs Jackson, the mother-in-law of a friend of mine, I was gifted her crafting bits and pieces some years ago when she was having to downsize and relocate. Most of the items were quilting related but there were also three boxes of bobinated thread stored by colour group not numerical order (that's the way I do it) and I had just put them away with the thought they were spare.  So I pulled them out thinking there might be a DMC 415 in there.

There was not, the reason being that it is a set of Anchor! and all four of the Anchor greys I needed were in there.

The day after sorting out the threads I made a start. All the cross stitches before starting the backstitch of course.

I can already see the characters, but that is probably because I know what I am looking at.

On to the backstitching, there were three shades used in the cross stitch, all four will make an appearance in the backstitching.

The instructions for the pattern recommend that  the needle used for the backstitching has a sharp point as there is a lot of coming up (or down) in the muddle of the stitches already done and not just in the holes set in the aida for sewing.

This makes the characters much clearer and took me less time than I had anticipated given the fiddley nature of the backstitch placement.

The next shade was restricted to the ballerina's hair.

Surprising how much difference defining the hair made.

Day one working on this came to an end with the hair, although I wanted to keep going. Even thought this is not my preferred style of  backstitching I have enjoyed the result.

And now for the penultimate shade.

Hello Mr Bear. Only one more shade to go, and not a lot of that.

Here it is with all the stitching finished, well it is for me so far, it should have "Take your partners Please" at the bottom but I am leaving that off. This is going to sit now in my finished pile till I have any inspiration to do so, and maybe it would make a nice birth sampler for a little girl sometime in the future. The space at the bottom would be fine for adding a name ect. I will see what happens

You could almost play spot the difference looking for the last bits added here.

So after years of waiting, it took just one evening (well make that an episode of Midsomer Murders) and one day (two WWII films watched with my dad) for it to be all sewn up.

It may be years before it is final finished, regardless I am rather delighted to have something move from the to do to the done portion of my mental list.

This (added later in 2024 once I discovered the delights of Forestella is done so on the basis of the ballerina in the animated video rather than the song title or indeed the lyrics, )

Like calls to like

And my little sewing machine janome-120  has a new friend, also a charity shop purchase. A small folding table, so now if I want to and am on my own I can sew whilst watching the TV.

In this instance I was watching a repeat of The Great British Sewing Bee whilst adding backs to some cross stitch projects (more on that later) and working on the back for Teddy Bear cushion.

I think it will be back to the big machine for inserting the zip (now that I have remembered where I put the zips after I finished my tree cushions hopefully I will remember how to do that.

local show 2014

Today is the local craft show, it is not a grand big show but still it is judged and that is always interesting.  There was a lot of changes to the classifications for entries this year.  A new quilting class, when before quilts were grouped into best sewn item, a class that has vanished.

I entered Roses for Helen and the quilt made from the yellow flowers and the bits left over from my uncles quilt, Little yellow flowers.

Roses for Helen

Little yellow flowers

A new class of , crafted animal in any medium was part of the reason Mr Giles Gentlemouse came into being and he also made the trip to the show ground yesterday.

Profile of Mr Giles Gentlemouse

It is always an odd moment handing in entries. My BBF and I have started a tradition, we go together to hand in our entries (this year that was a quilted bag and a small blue/grey camouflage quilt with FMQ) then we head off for a meal out after sneaking a glance at the other entries.

Over dinner we talk about the competition and what we might choose were we to judge, all the time knowing there will be other entries arriving after ours.  We try not to think of the safety of all that work and time as it spends the night under canvas even when we make delivery in the rain or like last night high winds.

Then the following morning (this morning) off to the showground into the tent, eyes peeled to see the results as soon as within distance...and there are cards, what colour means what this year, which item is it on?  All braced to act gracefully in defeat or victory (and make Rudyard Kipling proud IF he was watching).  Last year for me was all the former as nothing placed.

Mr Giles Gentlemouse winner and proud of it

This year, Mr Giles Gentlemouse did me proud and won his class.  Here he is with his winning notice tucked under his arm, looking rather pleased with himself.  Sorry it is a bit blurry I took it from a distance.

No snazzy trophy this year (cut backs) still a certificate from the Mayor and £10 prize money to follow in the post.

As for the quilted item, I could see from a distance that my friends bag and one of my quilts had cards , sadly neither were red.

Green for the bag, and yellow for the quilt.  A closer look and yellow is second and green third this year.

Quilted bag

Yellow trumps pink

So much, once again for my take on my quilts, I would have picked the pink over the yellow. The judges had a different opinion.

The winning quilt, I can almost hear you wondering, so here it is.  The purple one on the left.  I did better with second guessing the judges on this one.  This quilt was already there when we dropped of our entries and it caught my eye then.

Winning quilt

I had no cross stitch finish this year which was suitable to enter.  Perhaps next year .In an interesting twist there was a stall in the "selling" part of the craft tent with four different colour felt bears, three of which had sold by the time the competition prizes were given out.

Take a peek as my post Bear Evolution to see what they looked like and why it was amusing to see them today.

BFF SAL 24 we begin

 on different material but I think the same count this time. (or perhaps not , see her comment below)

I have gone with 14 count white.

Started in the middle and this is my work for the evening.

There was a point it looked a bit like an elephant, then a cat, then maybe a kiwi. Roni thought it had a moment of being a bear cub but now I think it looks like what it is.

There is a phrase from my childhood that my brain offers up in an Australian accent, that the actions of the person to whom the phrase is associated makes its use feel uncomfortable. Yet still when referring to guessing what something might become from scanty visual information that is what my brain offers up as being the thing to say.

as usual we are not saying at the moment what we are working on as some visitors like to guess as we go. Using both my and my BFF's images as a clue as we tend, totally without discussion to stich different bits even when we start at the same point.

CLICK HERE to visit her blog or use the link under my blog list on the right to see her evenings progress.

It was nice to have some thing that was normal routine in this week.