Don't Forget!

Tomorrow is the day! At 8pm Eastern Australian Daylight Saving Time, the BMV online show begins. I sure hope you can join us at the TBACA site for all the fun.

Another BMV Sneak Peek

Here's another little peek at my BMV offerings. In just a week all will be revealed! I hope you can find the time to pop over to have a look at all the creations the members of TBACA have made for the show. This year the show will run over four days, starting at 8pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time) on Friday the 11th through until Monday 14th at 8pm. This gives you plenty of time to go and take a look, I hope to see you there :o)

Off To Melbourne

I'm off to Melbourne later today, for four days of workshopping. We're making Flynn, a lovely brown, alpaca bear with a gorgeous face and wrist joints.

As usual I will have my work cut out for me, with lots of new techniques covered over the two days of each workshop. I will hopefully have some photos of the completed bears when I get back next week. I had better go get myself packed, I need to take plenty of sewing to do in the evenings with the TBACA Fantasy Ball photo deadline looming large. I have had lots of trouble with the fantasy themeof this show, my feet are just too firmly planted on the ground! Still, it will do me good to get out of my comfort zone and try something a little different, which is Sandi's intention.

Don't Forget!

Tomorrow the TBACA "Be My Valentine" show starts at 8am Eastern Aussie Summe Time, if you pop over to the site you'll find a time converter in the side bar where you can figure out the start time in you own neck of the woods.
I'll definitely need to set my alarm for the morning after a very disturbed night last night, curtesy of my grandson! After leaving him to himself for a while I thought I'd try him in bed with us.....big mistake! It was like trying to sleep with a rooting piglet in the bed! Eventually I had to decamp with Tobias under my arm, so that Chris could get at least a couple of hours sleep before going to work. How can someone so small take up so much room in a Queen size bed?
Here's to a good nights sleep tonight :)
I'd also hoped to have photos of my giveaways before now, but it just hasn't happened. Hopefully sometime tomorrow all will be revealed, so be patient with this poor ol' sleep deprived Nanna.

"Mr. Wonderful"

Sandi emailed me this afternoon after the days postal delivery, and she is delighted with the bear I sent her for the TBACA Christmas swap. I haven't named him yet so Sandi has nicknamed him Mr Wonderful! (Which I think is a pretty good name so perhaps he'll keep it) Here he is in all his "Christmasness" :)

I don't usually dress bears so this is a bit of a departure for me, but I wanted him to have a distinctively festive air. His costume is made from Christmassy green, wool felt with a red cotton trim which has a cute starry print and red star shaped buttons. Mr Wonderful has a matching Christmas stocking which is embroidered with Sandi's name and in the stocking is a mini bear. I think tomorrow will be delivery day for Sandi's bear to me.......I can't wait!

Today was a gorgeous Spring day, and I spent some time in the late afternoon down at the lakeside with Lily. I could have stayed longer but chores were calling me home. I watched a family of black swans out on the water, the cygnets are about half grown and still grey. They were a lovely sight but they moved farther out onto lake when they saw us, rather cautious of Lily's water antics. She was having a heap of fun with a stick, pushing it around in the water with her nose while blowing bubbles! So funny! Lily loves the water and even in the middle of winter she'll jump in after a ball or stick! (Brrrrrr)

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny

I have been making miniatures for the last couple of days, some traditional teddies for a change. I can tell you that embroidering their noses was a real challenge for me, since it is quite some time since I've done one.

Ever since I worked out how to put a realistic leather nose onto a bear's snout, I rarely do embroidered ones and I guess I've lost the knack, being somewhat out of practice. These little fellows are just 2 1/4" tall and fully pin and disc jointed. I've really enjoyed making them, apart from their noses that is (one of which had to be unpicked and resewn it looked so bad!)

It is surprising that I can manage to get my big hands to work these tiny bears and at times I do find them frustrating in the extreme, but I always get a thrill when one is completed. I rather like them without any ribbons or frills, I sometimes feel that miniaturists over accessorise and the poor wee bears become overwhelmed by all the bits that have been added to them. But then, apart from very early on when I dressed my bears in little hand smocked dresses and the like, I have always preferred to leave my bears bare.

I have also completed a bear for Sandi Smith who is my partner in the TBACA Christmas swap. This one was quite a departure for me and it even elicited a very positive response from Chris, who doesn't often comment on my bears. I won't show it to you until I know Sandi has him, as I don't want to spoil her surprise. We will be having a showcase of the Christmas swaps on the TBACA website a little later on, too. I've never made a specifically "Christmas" bear before and until I made a start on him I had so many different ideas I didn't know what I was going to do. In the end I just pottered on with it until a rather charming and very "Christmassy" fellow resulted, I just hope Sandi feels the same about him :)

Matilda

The trouble with Blogging is that it marks the passage of time. I can't believe that over a week has passed since my last entry. I've been busy though, this time with a creature other than a bear. This was my contibution to the TBACA (http://www.teddybearsandcritters.com/) Easter challenge. I decided Australia's answer to the Easter Bunny, the Bilby, was appropriate, as well as being quite a challenge. Matilda is the result, and I'm very pleased with how she turned out. I think I have managed to capture Matilda's "Bilbyness" quite well. She is made in alpaca fur fabric, with stiffened and painted cloth ears (thanks to my sister, Susie McMahon, and her cloth doll expertise for the ears http://www.susiemcmahondolls.blogspot.com/). Matilda's little hands and feet are ultra suede, and her fur has been extensively hand tinted to recreate true Bilby colouring.

Now, it's back to making bears for the Sydney Teddy Bear Fair, in two weeks!(http://www.sydneyteddybearfair.com/)