I knew that!

Ball dolls: Beaver

Meet Buck! He gave me a little trouble, but in the end I won. I had teeth like that before orthodontia.

The piece de resistance, I think, is his corduroy tail. Irresistable.

My friend Kathy and I spent a snowy but very enjoyable afternoon on the West Suburban Shop Hop. It’s a kind of scavenger hunt in 9 area quilt shops trying to locate a little embroidered symbol at each stop and getting our passports stamped along the way. Kathy’s a pretty new crafter and hadn’t ever been in a fabric shop except Jo-Ann before. It was fun watching her reaction to all the beautiful fabrics and patterns available at the shops.

I showed the whale to some of the shop staff and owners, and they were all very enthusiastic about the design. They all encouraged me to write up and print the whale pattern (and the others) and many offered to sell it in their shops. Wow! I was flattered by their reaction. I’d better get to work on those write-ups soon.

Ball dolls: Another whale

The gestation period for real baleen whales can be over a year (!), but I couldn’t wait that long to make another of these. They’re way too much fun!

I lucked out with the stripes matching up again. Those two pieces are cut on the bias this time, so the outcome is much more spherical, which makes me happy.

I think I’ll name him Waylon.

Don’t worry, I’m not stuck on whales now; I’ll be posting new ball doll designs soon. Thank y’all soooo much for the many nice things you’ve said about the menagerie thus far.  I am considering selling patterns or even the little dolls themselves. I’ll decide what and how a little later. For now, I’ll just keep sewing!

Ball-een Whale

“Baleen” is another term for whalebone, a structure kind of like a strainer, which some whales use to scoop up food from the sea.

Meet the latest ball doll: Mario the Whale. Since Madeline gave me the idea for the whale, I named it after her cute little son! (Hi, Madeline! Hi, Mario!)

Do you SEE how the pinstripes matched up on his tum? I admit that I’d cut them with the hopes that they’d be close, but I didn’t for a minute entertain the thought that I might be able to pull it off. That’s the great thing about low expectations: it’s always a pleasant surprise when things do go your way.

It took a long time and a lot of figuring and rooting through my craft supplies before I came up with his “spout.” But once I had a plan, I think it only took about 3 minutes to actually make it out of teeny, tiny rickrack. The base is wrapped in perle cotton thread to make it stand up.

Stay tuned for more ball dolls!

Heart yo-yo

Penny Sanford posted some lovely photos of heart yo-yos on her blog a couple of weeks back. I’d tried making hearts from regular, old round yo-yos, with so-so results. Nothin’ sadder than so-so yo-yos!

Penny also very generously shared a pattern and hints for making these little cuties. While the directions are very clear and detailed, and the result is admittedly quite a looker, I really struggled with the process! This isn’t a reflection on the pattern; she couldn’t have been more specific and helpful. Perhaps it was because I chose to “whip it up” right at bedtime, but I felt like I was all thumbs, and got pretty frustrated before I finished. In particular, having to sew in two different directions was a real challenge for me. Kinda like trying to brush your teeth with the other hand – felt really odd! I think I’ll try another one sometime and see if I wasn’t just being a silly goose and missing something in her instructions. More than likely, I was just getting tired and cranky.

Okay, I’m off now to make something easier (for me, anyway!) more ball dolls :o)

(Wow, since I took the photo above, the fog’s really rolled in here in Chicagoland. Looks kinda spooky outside).

Wardrobe refashion: Sweater into Hat

Hi there! I’ve been absent for longer than I thought! No real reason, no big news to report, either.

Ryan has a snow day today! Yay. He’s making us waffles right now. Double yay! We’re expecting upwards of a foot of snow here in Chicagoland today. We’ve shoveled/snowblown once already today and expect to be out there again a time or two today. It’s not bad at all: just a hazard of living in this area.

I washed my winter hat recently and it had a blowout in the dryer. Oops. It’s hard for me to find hats for my big old pumpkin head, so I thought I would try making one. I’d picked up a couple of sweaters for 50 cents each at the resale shop, one of which was a lambswool cowlneck. I love seeing items made of recycled sweaters and wanted to try it out for myself.

I thought I’d cut up the body and use that to make a hat, but….hey……I pulled the cowl over my head and realized that it fit beautifully. (I wasn’t kidding. My head’s really that big!) I cut off the back and sleeves of the sweater, leaving the cowl attached to a big square of the sweater in the front. I sewed darts into the corners, then sewed the cowl to the raw edges. I used French seams for everything so there wouldn’t be raw sweater edges to leave purple fuzzies in my hair. Oh, and I used a stretch stitch on my machine so the seam around my head would give instead of break when I pulled the hat on and off.

I zoomed out a little so you can see our snow. I’m off to enjoy the waffles and my husband’s unexpected company!