Introducing....

Elly the elephant.  I finished her this evening.  I made up the pattern as I went along, so there is no other elephant like her.

She is right at home in my jungle garden.  Here is a close-up.  Cute, eh?

Summer Solstice Stuff

As you may know, my DD is expecting a baby in the fall.  She wants to decorate his room, (yes, it's going to be a boy) in a jungle theme.  I made a quilt many years ago from the book, "How to Make an American Quilt".  She has had that hanging in her quest room for years. Now she wants to hang it in the baby's room and add jungle animals on shelves along with other jungle things.  I am glad to oblige.

This is Leo in my vegetable jungle.  I decided to crochet these wild animals.  I know Leo doesn't look very wild.  He is actually kind of cute.  I think he knows it too!

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I also plan to make an elephant, giraffe, rhino and monkey.  So I have my work cut out for me. Or rather, crocheted out for me.

But speaking of cutting things out.   I decided to make a pentagon ball.  I've been seeing them on the web lately.  Pentagons are five-sided polygons.  I cut out 12 of them from kid fabrics. Then I put the ball together using the English Paper Piecing method.  It turned out great, in my opinion!

Hope you all had a good first day of summer.  It's wonderful, but now the days will be getting shorter.  And I don't know if I like that.

I have linked up with Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

Going to the Dogs

Introducing... (drum roll please) ... Patches, my little dog!  Isn't he cute?

I have neglected my sewing for the past two days in order to put this little guy together.  But it was worth it, I think.  I am very pleased with how he turned out.  But not only was a bit of crocheting going on around here, a lot of growing was going on in my garden.  We had some extreme rain in the past few days and the temperature was very spring-like.   Just look at how my garden has blossomed!

Here is Patches in my Bergenia.

And here he is admiring my Euphorbia.  This is one of my favourite plants in my garden.

But he looks lonely, don't you think?.  I must get busy and make him a brother or sister. 

Bazaar Stuff

I worked on some more bazaar items today. Five star dish cloths, four amigurumi bears and three large, round dish cloths. I have to take them over to the church at 7:00pm tonight. The bazaar is tomorrow.

Here is a better shot of the bears. They are from a Japanese Amigurumi book that my favourite Japanese students brought me when they came to study English here a few years ago. Cute, eh?

I Love My Hippo

Remember that crochet pattern book my sister bought me, "Cute Little Animals"? I wanted to make a couple of cats and maybe a dog. The elephant is also cute. But Mimi wanted me to make her a Hippo! So I did. What can I say? Mimi gets what she wants.

"Meow! Nibble, nibble, YUM, YUM! Thanks Mom! I love my Hippo."

Distracted and Tagged

Perhaps I have ADD. I am very easily distracted. Like when I saw this little amigurumi penguin on the internet. I just had to make him. It is so cold that I figured he would feel right at home here. I had lots of other things to finish, but I couldn't help myself. I just had to make him. And then Eileen from Eileen's Attic tagged me! Well, what could I do but drop everything and get started on that?

It seems I have to tell you eight random facts about me. I think I have done something like this before. I'll try not to repeat myself. Anyone not interested can log out now. Don't say I didn't warn you.

1. I have been married for 42 years! Gosh, is it that long already? It doesn't seem like it.

2. I have a daughter who is 37 years old and a son who is 35.

3. I love gardening. Indoor and outdoor. I can hardly wait for spring to arrive. A couple of my orchids are in bloom right now. They stay inside, of course. It is too cold in our climate, but I still love to grow things.

4. I went back to university when my kids were in school full time. I was a stay-at-home mom until then. I endured York University long enough to earn a BA in psychology with a B+ average.

5. I spend twenty years working with mentally challenged children for the Toronto District School Board. The first 15 years were with kids aged 11 to 14. The last five were with kids aged 15 to 21. I loved my job. I was stressed to the max, but those were the best years of my life. Believe it! It's true. I took an early retirement about four years ago. because.........(see number 6)

6. I planned to do a lot of travelling in my retirement. But so far I have only been to the Caribbean a few times on cruises. I love going down there when it is cold here in Toronto. Unfortunately I was not able to go for the past few years because..........(see number 7)

7. I am recuperating from a rare auto-immune disorder at the moment. My body had destroyed all the nerves in my back and legs. It was horrible. I was not able to walk anymore. I had to depend on others for everything. I could not even use my sewing machine. I had to give up driving and just about every other thing in my life. Not fun! That was until last summer when I had a course of steroid treatment. That seems to have halted the disorder. I would not even have mentioned it, but it seems that I am getting better and that demands to be shouted about! I have been walking around the house, using only a cane. I can't do it for very long, but I am getting better every day. It's kind of like a small miracle! Or maybe a big miracle!

8. I believe in miracles! Is that okay for number 8, or should I come up with something else? I can't think of anything at the moment, Maybe I'll ask Mimi to help me.

Hey Mimi! What else can I tell people about myself?

"Did you tell them that you're easily distracted?"

Oh, yeah, but that wasn't part of my tag. Can't you think of anything else?

"Meow! Okay. You are easily distracted. You have forgotten to buy Fancy Feast for several weeks, you don't pet me enough and you pee in my drinking bowl!"

Okay Mimi, that's enough. No one wants to know any facts about your drinking habits! So there you have it. Eight random facts about me.

I guess I am now supposed to tag eight other people. I don't want anyone to feel as if they have to do this and I don't want anyone to feel left out, so I am going to leave it up to each of you, my fellow bloggers. Take the tag if you want it. Leave it if you don't.

Wilbur's Wonderful Witty Wednesday Words! Wow!

"Oh! Look! These are just like the eggs I came from! Hey Mom! Can you make me a brother?"

A Seahorse Out of Water!

Last Friday, Opal had a couple of adorable little Amigurumi Seahorses on her blog. I couldn't resist! They were calling to me to make one of my own. I went to the pattern which she mentioned, but I soon realized that the pattern was for sale - for a lot more than I can afford to pay. So I sort of crocheted a little seahorse of my own without a pattern. I just made it up as I went along and I don't remember exactly what I did. So, sorry, I can't give you the instructions. I don't think that I will ever make another one exactly like it. He's a one-of-a-kind Amigurumi!
He is 'swimming' on the new fabric I bought last week. It sort of looks like the deep blue sea, doesn't it? I was going to use it for the back of my Disappearing Nine Patch quilt, but I think I will just use some for a border on the quilt top and save the rest for another day. Look, here he is, swimming right towards you! I think I will call him Seabiscuit.
Yes, Seabiscuit it is. He seems to be smiling. I think he likes his new name.

Happy Halloween!

I managed to make a patchwork pumpkin after all. This is from the same pattern that Rachael Rabbit had on her blog as a tutorial last week. I crazy pieced a large square and then cut the pumpkin shapes out of that.

And as if that isn't enough, I also made some little crocheted pumpkins. I used the Amigurumi Pumpkins pattern that Opal had on her blog.

"Oh, my gosh! These are like sooooo fun!"

Those are the words of a former student of mine. It's been years, but I can still hear her enthusiastic voice! When it comes to these little pumpkins I have to borrow her words and her enthusiasm! Because they were easy, fast and fun to make! Also addictive! But then anything Amigurumi is addictive for me! I did them all while watching a movie on television yesterday. Thanks Opal!

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy All Hallows Eve!

My Little Ponies

It was a lovely fall day. The sun was shining brightly. The air was crisp and clear. Nature was at its fall best - warm autumn colours against a beautiful cerulean sky! Breathtaking! The ponies decided to go out for a walk in the park. They love the fall colours! And they love romping around in the grass! Ponies are like that, you know.

Introducing........................(drum roll please)

Wilbur, the newest member of our family.

The pattern came out of a Japanese Amigurumi book. Isn't he cute! Mimi doesn't think so. She wants nothing to do with him. But Oscar thinks he is great!

"Isn't it nice to have a brother, Oscar?"

"Yeah, I guess so, even if he is a dog!"

Happy Friday everyone. It's the start of a long weekend here in Canada. We will celebrate Thanksgiving Day on Monday. Have a great weekend!

"Oh, boy! Turkey Day! Can I share it with my new brother?"

"Yes, Oscar. That would be very nice!"

Clean and Find!

Me: Hey Mimi! Wake up!

Mimi: Whaaaa? What do you want? Oh, jeez! Can't you see I'm napping?

Me: Come and see this! I just finished the bear quilt! Isn't it cute?

Mimi: Yeah, yeah. Great. (Yawn) Can I go back to sleep now?

Me: Okay. You sleep while I do a bit of cleaning up. This is so exciting! I love it when a quilt is finished! It is so satisfying! This quilt is based on the bear quilt that was included in the current Fons and Porter magazine, "Love of Quilting". I used the bear template, but I changed the layout. It went together really quickly and I am very pleased with it. Now I want to work on something else, but this sewing room is such a mess! I can't find anything! So..... Hi Ho, Hi Ho! It's cleaning up I'll go!

Mimi: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Me: Hello? What's this? Look what I found Mimi! A bag full of stuff.

Mimi: Stuff? (Yawn) What kind of stuff?

Me: This stuff. They're body parts.

Mimi: Body parts? What kind of body parts? Are they edible?

Me: No Mimi, unless you want to eat acrylic yarn stuffed with polyester fiberfill.

Mimi: Yuck! No thanks. Then what good are they?

Me: Oh, you'll see! This is great! I'm going to sew them together. Do you want to help me? Hmmmm. I guess not.

Mimi: Zzzzzzzzzzzz!

My New Bear Family

Finally! I would like to present my new Bear Family!

Let me introduce them to you. This is Sunny Bear with his partner, Oni Bear (I think Oni is the word for 'Bear' in Japanese. An aside to my Japanese friends. Please correct me if I am wrong) and their children, Posie and Peewee. I got the pattern from a new Yahoo group which I joined a couple of weeks ago. It is called, threadanimals@yahoogroups.com. I joined it to do the newest bear challenge, but so far I have not received the pattern. Maybe I didn't join the challenge properly. But, in any case, it doesn't matter because they have lots of patterns (for bears and other animals) on their site. I just chose a couple of those and adapted them to my liking. I think they turned out very cute! I will probably make a few more before my interest in bears wears off. I hope to make some clothes for the next ones! Wouldn't a little dress look great on Oni? Or maybe a little sweater for Sunny?
This is a close up of Oni and Peewee. More bears are in the process of being made, as I write this! I already have a bagful of 'bear body parts' that need to be sewn together! I will post them as soon as I have them ready.

For The Birds!

I know I am a little bit late for Easter, but aren't these the cutest? I started making these little birds several months ago. At that time I only got a couple of them done and they still needed eyes and a beak. Last week I started sewing on some buttons for eyes. They looked so cute that I couldn't help myself. I started making more of them! I still can't stop! They are so addictive!

Amigurumi Santas

I can finally post the photo of my Amigurumi Santas! I designed my own pattern for these guys. If I can find my notes, I will post the pattern later. Two of them were shipped to Japan as prizes for entering my blog comment contest. I took a photo of them all together, before I shipped those two out. I didn't want to post the photo until my winners had received their prizes in the mail. I didn't want to ruin the surprise for them.

My Amigurumi Menagerie

Cute, aren't they? I made them from the books Keiko sent me. All the instructions are in Japanese, but I have no trouble 'reading' the graphs. These little critters were a lot of fun to make.