Piscari Cattus

      

A New Creative card. Cute but useless as is my wont.

So the burning questions are:

Do we have one or two cats on the cover ? and without any pussy jokes what will we call it?

You know, fat little felt animals  are good for what ails you.

Getting stuff wrong

I am a firm believer that getting stuff wrong is part of the long and winding and often diverting path to getting stuff right. That’s not to say I enjoy getting stuff wrong but I am getting better at accepting (through gritted teeth) that my ideas of wrong often make little or no sense and they may add days or weeks or months to certain projects but they will not be ignored. It’s just better to go with it.

Before I went to Portland I was working on a project but simply ran out of time to get it off to the testers and finalised.

and that's a good thing because when I got home it just didn’t look right. This girls eyes were too big (This is her second head transplant by the way).

She needed new hair, but her body was alright so off to the transplant clinic for her…

but her friend looked funny…so it was of with her head as well.

I remade them both and dressed them and accessorised them and………………blah.

They are fine but I can’t show them here because you will all tell me they are fine or you might even tell me they are great. But ‘fine” is just not quite right enough is it? This morning I am starting again from scratch. I have thrown all the pattern pieces away, I have a cake in the oven and I’m thinking it will end up OK.

I’ll keep you posted.

A long time between drinks

I know that it must seem like nothing new is brewing hereabouts but I have been working. A new bag has just been released, a Creative Card is ready for printing ….

and my newest friend, full of beans and red cordial and backyard circuses is running wild.

He is being tested and tweaked as we speak, and has evolved quite a lot since his very first introduction.

and you know what? When he smiles at me like that, I can’t help but smile back and agree to just ten more minutes on the swing.

(and a name ? Is he still Seamus or is he someone new entirely? Any suggestions?)

He’s back

Not that he really went anywhere, but Arthur Cabbage, My sweet little friend is back from the pattern testers and ready .You know, it is the things that I make and really love that I find hardest to share, maybe because I love it so much I worry that other people won’t.

(or maybe I am just a bit mental)

Your local shop can get him in for you, just ask and if you get stuck there are lots of places online – check out my stockists page.

 

I just realised, if it wasn’t for pattern-writing-avoidance, my house would never get cleaned.

People power and no I am not styling these photos

After quite a bit of faffing about in the land of bookface, asking for opinions, I was able to move forward with the bear guy that sprang up just before Christmas.   

You know, I think the thing about toys is trying to make something that looks like the real shape of animal , but also looks appealing… a kind of compromise between a really truly representation of an animal and our idea of the animal.

(and of course the limitations of the person doing the actual making) I also think I think way too much.

    

So the Polar Brothers are born and I do really like them. Kind of real, and kind of cute and the best thing? that crazy Minky fabric makes them all touchable and rub-on-your-cheek lovely.

 

Please do ignore the gargantuanly headed deer who appears to have collapsed under the bears….

He just can’t stand on his own two feet.

Elsie Demented or why it takes so long to make a new friend

 

I have had some deadlines to meet in the last few days and someone who shall remain nameless has been tapping her little softie foot and drumming her little softie fingers from the sewing table. (Hey do you think she should have little lines sewn into her hand to look like fingers?)

While I was happy-ish with these final limbs, that wrist is so teeny tiny, it was a bugger to turn (even for me who loves itsy-bitsy sewing)

So Elsie went on a weight gain diet and got slightly chunkier limbs. The thicker leg, changes the appearance of her derriere No? I think this is a more child-like shape but I could just be talking out of my own derriere.

Time for a start-over to do something  more with that hair.

I changed to a creamier coloured linen, and of course introduced the new hair colour (she was always going to have red hair in my mind). That smile is all kinds of too-wide but it is only pinned so it doesn’t matter.

I wish I had thought of the ear before the remake though…No point in making a matching one as I have to make another Elsie with the ears inserted.

She’s an impatient cartwheeling, lopsided piggy-tail kind of girl who tells me to hurry up so I can meet her little brother.

Ballast

The lazy-arse designer is stuck once again on just the right name for this little creative card pattern.

Who are they? What are they celebrating? Have they joined the circus?

Of course I have a back-up name that I like but don’t love. Why is this so hard  ? because I am Jodie,  gold medallist in over-thinking. Anyway if you want to toss an idea into the ring ,please do. The best name will win a little hog of their very own and I'll post it to wherever you live .

(I’ll give you a clue…I’m not a great fan of alliteration)

So while you guys get to work, I’m going to go and sit on my aforementioned lazy-arse and have a cup of tea.

Falling out of love.

I started a project a very long time ago – at least a year or more, and I fiddled and farted with it until I fell completely out of love with it. I had samples half made, instructions half written but it just wasn’t going anywhere. Do you do that? Do you hide them and forget about them, or leave them out to taunt you? This was a taunter….

But last week when Emma gave me a gift of some Ed Emberly fabrics ,  I felt that little spark and it was time to start over. I tossed all but one of the previous 11 attempts and started again.

I saw this fabric at the quilt market last November and fell in love with it. I may have suggested strongly that Emma get it in to her shop so I could make toys with it. It was just perfect.

These two aren’t quite finished in the photo, they now have little collars and tags. I thought I’d name them after the Ricrac cats. I explained to Eloise and Jude, that whilst they don’t look exactly like them, the do represent them in a hobby-filled  kind of way.

I don’t think Jude took it as a compliment.

It's not often I break out the pom-poms

I'm in a new-toy making frenzy at the moment - mind you it is a long drawn out old-sick-lady paced frenzy but a frenzy nonetheless. This coming weekend I am heading over to Daylesford with Kristen and Melly. Saturday is all sold out but I think Merrilyn can squeeze a few more people in on Sunday if you want to come along. After the weekend I will have two new patterns to share, a sensible grown-up one and a not-so-sensible one...no prizes for guessing my favourite!

and the new toys? Well part of me hopes they might just piss people off !

Reuben

Its no secret that I loathe actual garment sewing,

But tiny jackets and satchels for small bilingual donkeys....

Love it !!!

Izzy & Archie

Today because Jodie was only half-grumpy, she took us to the park.

Archie was very excited to see all the water in the pond , but I thought it looked a bit yucky. Did you know ducks go to the toilet in that pond?

Jodie said he could only do pretend fishing and she made him sit a long way from the edge.

After fishing, we did sliding and we slided together a bit and we slided on our own and Archie slided on his belly.

Jodie said she thought that belly slides were a bit dangerous for boys who are only three, even if they think they are super-heroes. Archie didn't listen , because little brothers who are only three never ever want to listen to grown-ups.

I was catching Archie at the bottom and he crashed right over the top of me and I got all pushed in the dirt. Then I cried a little bit because I was a bit muddy. Jodie said don't worry because mud doesn't count if it is just on the back.

Then Jodie said that we had ten more minutes so we should do some swinging. I like swinging the best but I don't like it best when Archie kicks his legs all everyway and makes the swing go

sideways. I like it best when he is not swinging at all!

Jodie made us have a very best smiley photo on the swing and you can't even see the mud which is just on the back of me and not on the front- then it was all over and finished and time to go home already.

Just because you can......

Doesn't always mean you should.
I spent a HUGE amount of time yesterday working on little baby turtles, step by step photos -the whole bit.
But you know what? As cute as they are, I just don't think they are replicable - and no its not because I think I am some freaky genius and no-one else can do it, its because something that is only 2 1/2 inches long should not be made up of 12 separate pieces....

I was absolutely ramming layers of wool felt through my machine...and I just don't think it will translate that well into a sewing instruction

Step 7. Squash the hell out of the whole project so it fits under your sewing machine foot. Hold your breath, keep your fingers out of the way and ram the fabric through......

Back to the drawing board on that one.

Of course Milligan may have preferred that I spent that time looking through my 70 kersquillion buttons to find some to hold his wings in place
(is it wrong to admit that it would be quicker to drive to a shop and buy two buttons than it would be to sift through my huge unsorted tubs of buttons?)

So here he is, still with pin eyes, and cottons hanging from his feet, but steadfastly loyal and happy in his own duck world.

When he is totally finished and accessorized he will be heading off on an adventure and not back here for quite a while.

and even though I know that he is just Doctors flannel and hobby fill and cotton.........

I'll miss him.

Fascination

Fixation

Celebration

Hesitation

Population

Devastation

I know you guys will get it....

Boxes are being packed, things are getting ticked off the list and it is all starting to get a wee bit exciting. A week from tomorrow I'll be setting up my stall...

I can't help but think back to last year , I had no idea what I was in for at all.

(pocket -bot kits complete with little windows so you can choose your own colour- I love packaging)

You know, it occurred to me that there is one big change this year - I feel less like a "fraud" than I did last year. It was the invitation to join Stitches and Craft last year that set me off on this whole pattern-writing thing.......and now, even though writing patterns is not my favourite thing in the world to do, I feel like I am getting OK at it...like no-one is going to point and laugh and say "OMG what are you doing here?" - "what is this crap?"
Does that make sense?

At this point it about 50/50 excitement and stress (good stress) but as time moves on the excitement will take over for sure. And of course, because I am so busy , the old brain is once again having trouble shutting off and I am being haunted by a new softie and fun tutorial...and of course Milligan is still waiting patiently...

and after the show......yes I'm sure you guys are getting sick of all this show talk - well, there's Sew- it-Together, followed by a weekend at Sewjourn.....

Beware exploding heads!!

Experiments in softies

Can I tell you about Grocer.

Grocer is an experiment, kind of like a little detour on the way to another softie.

I made Grocer on Sunday after shopping for necessary white goods, and he came together in just an afternoon and an evening. I did not measure a single thing, I simply tipped out the wool tub , picked up an old country road skirt and got started. (but I have worked on that gusseted head shape before ).

This is sooooo not me...... I am anal. No, really apart from the whole Librarian thing , I am seriously anal, I am not good at winging it. I draw, and sew , then redraw and sew, then start again and redraw some more - Remember the 13 elephant heads for Parsley and Beet?
I blame Sooz really, she is off there being all organic and creative and making spectacularly beautiful things as she strives and experiments and learns - she blows me away.

So, Grocer was meant to be an experiment...... and experiment in leg / bum joiny bits, and experiment in neck / head joins hidden by collars and an experiment in turny up feet fold bits - really just a set of disjointed parts,

But somehow along the way Grocer became more than the sum of his experimental parts and he became himself.

Thanks Sooz !

it helps that he some of that roguish charm that we, more mature ladies, like in our softies!