Teddy!!

Here is my latest knitted creation. I call him "Teddy". It's a simple name, yet seems to suit him to perfection.  :>) Teddy is a whopping 7" tall when standing. The yarn used to create him is a blend of Shetland, Llama, and Soy Silk.....hand-spun. The Shetland and Llama wool is from my very own fiber flock (compliments of Oreo and Cavi, respectively). The yarn is all natural colors

Teddy was my first attempt at a jointed knitted bear. He is string jointed (or, in this case, yarn jointed). His head and body were knit as one piece. After the pieces were all knit up, they were then lightly stuffed (to help retain their wonderful shape) and then popped in the washer for fulling. This produced a firmer fabric while still maintaining the stitch definition. After everything was dry, a bit more stuffing was added and the pieces were assembled. Teddy has button eyes. His nose is needle-felted alpaca (compliments of Whitkin)....and there is some needle-felting on his face to give his nose area a bit more definition. He sports a simple blue bow. He was tons of fun to make.  :>) I hope to create a larger teddy bear some day. One that uses plastic joints. I even hope to make one that will wear little outfits.  So many possibilities!!!  :>)

On the knitting needles now is the sleeve for a sweater I started way too long ago. I had knitted the back, both front pieces, and a sleeve before it was put aside. Well, this is the year of finishing for me......so out came the sweater. Thankfully I had kept good notes, so it was real easy to see exactly where I left off. I hope to have a completed sweater by the end of the  month.....or very early into next month. Don't want to rush myself with time constraints.  :>)

Onto quilting.....things have been pretty busy in the sewing room lately....which is good.  :>) Anything new that has been started, has also been finished. Pictured below is a lap quilt....which started out as a wall hanging.....which was a kit (someone gave me) that has been sitting on a shelf for way too long. Well, I wasn't real pleased with the way the wall hanging came out so thought I would simply add to it. Wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Somehow in the process of stitching the daffodil down the background got all skewed. I didn't find this out until I was adding the rows of Chinese Coins. Just couldn't figure out why one side was longer than the other......until I put it on the design wall and took a really good look at it. It was definitely a "smack on the forehead" moment for me.  On the cutting mat the whole piece went to be squared up so that I wouldn't have any problems whatsoever when I added the log cabin border.....or so I thought anyway. The log cabin blocks went together beautifully.....unfortunately they didn't go onto the quilt as well. The fit left a bit to be desired.....and I was starting to get frustrated with the whole thing. So instead of doing a lot of ripping and re-sewing, I opted to simply use a bit of starch with a good pressing.....and see how things looked after that. Turns out not too bad. I still don't care for the center daffodil panel....but maybe things will change after it is quilted. I'm planning on doing an all-over pattern of some sort and then binding it with blue. Should make for a nice snuggle quilt.