Friday, October 30, 2009

Meet Ted
Ted was created last Friday when I was in a grumpy mood. I had dreamed up the idea of Ted quite some time ago and took the opportunity of this dreary Friday to get going on the little guy. I had the blue plaid fabric on hand from back in the day when the Swain's downtown carried a really random assortment of cut-ends of fabric. This particular blue made a couple of sassy "comfy pants" (hand-sewn pull-on pants with an elastic waist) for the boys when that is the only type of pants they wanted to wear.

Ted's fringe of a hairdo is from a silly little acrylic boucle that also graces the bottom of a nifty A-line skirt I made for myself out of black...polar fleece! Ted's grimace is a scrap of truly lovely bark cloth I zig-zagged on. Now, after a week of tough-love, Ted's grimace has frayed quite a bit-- it's a mere shadow of a grimace.

I'm totally satisfied with Ted's dimensions, he seems just puffy enough-- with a totally huggable, throw-able body that the boys' enjoyed. The next day i started in on Sylvia,* a girl doll with a red plaid skirt and curly red hair. Alas, I ran out of stuffing part-way through and she remains unfinished. I'm afraid her dimensions, face, hair and everything else will not please, she may truly end up as One Fugly Stuffy.

I'm somewhat chagrined that I now live in a town which carries no 'utility' fabric, and no Stuffy stuffing! It's an outrage I tell you!

*Both Ted and Sylvia's name's were picked out by Hayden, who, as he is only in second grade, did NOT name them after Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, or for that matter, after a dear friend's spouse who is also named Ted.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Important Lessons Learned

Big doings here at Naptime HQ. Went to Target this week. Mecca of stuff. Place you go to buy the things you'll ultimately curse and rue the minute you have to pack up and go somewhere else. Stuff accretion HQ. Anyway, got a groovy new ironing board cover. They actually had upwards of 6 different options. Michael Graves personally designed a couple of them.

Lying on top of said new ironing board cover is part of a "square" for the current quilt. The Important Lesson I've Learned this week is to press, rather than iron, these curvy pieces. Makes everything the much better. And also, the going slowly and using lots of pins is also good for the curvy pieces.