The Three Bears

I'm sending three bears to Alabama IF the snow quits and IF Mobile doesn't have six inches of ice on the roads.  The weather is frightful no matter where you live.  

These were made from the  young man's shirts

The collars and the buttons of the shirts were used for collars on these first two.

I used the cuffs to make a collar for this guy.

 

I never used cuffs before but I rather like the looks of it.

Hope these bring smiles and loving memories to the receivers.

IN MEMORY OF

I've been creating Shari bears in memory of my sister who passed away in June.  Her children found her wedding dress and considered throwing it out as the white satin had turned a lovely shade of yellow from being packed away for 50+ years.  But the reuse/recycle  gene that I inherited from either my German grandmother or perhaps further back from the Native culture said, "Wait, I think I can use that."

I soaked the fabric in an equal solution of hot water, OxyClean and Biz for 24 hours and I was pleased with the results.  Tell me what you think.

 This beaded "wing" was a design on one of Shari's sweaters.

Another version

 

And, another

This is a close-up of the head.  Again, the beaded motif was rescued from the sweater.

Making these bears are always a challenge to my creativity as well as being therapeutic.  It is my hope that the story of these bears are told to future generations.   

Another Sister Bear

Another bear finished from my sister's clothing.  The tee shirt had three hot-fix sparkly hearts on the front but only one fit on the bear.  I think this one came out pretty cute with the eyelashes.  Four to go.

 

Saturday Morning Bark

It's been a while since I've posted, which is unlike me.  I've been busy sewing teddy bears for one thing.  With Christmas approaching, I have orders to fulfill and spending hours at the computer reading and writing blogs takes a bite out of the day.  Not that I'm ignoring my blog friends.  You are all important to me.  I visit lurk your sites daily but am not leaving comments as readily.  

These are the three bears that are heading to Omaha to their new home.  They are 15 inches tall with movable legs and head like all my bears.  I used a full-length mink coat and used it all except for the collar.

 Also, I'm keeping up with Barbara Brackman's Grandmothers Choice: Votes for Women Block of the Week.

  Most of the blocks are fairly quick to do so if I clear a couple of hours off my daily schedule, the block is done.  I see the new one is already posted so I'll print it out and tackle it come Tuesday.  Instead of the 8" blocks, I'm making mine 6" with the help of 

 

This is stand-alone software made available by The Electric Quilt Company  There are over 4,000 historic block patterns which can be resized and printed with rotary cutting instructions and/or templates.  You do not need the EQ program to make this work  that's why I like it so well.  I cannot afford  EQ at this point.  BlockBase is very affordable and I highly recommend it.  

Minnie is almost back to her feisty ways.  I wish I could say the same for my back.  Prolong sitting irritates the sciatic nerve and that's another reason for not being at the computer as much.  I guess it's too much sitting at the sewing machine..do you think?

Okay, that's what's happening here.  I have special company coming to my house on Monday, book club is meeting on Tuesday night and quilt guild meeting on Thursday night.  Good Lord, the month is half over by then.  Hope your week is as fulfilling as mine.  I'll be visiting with y'all again, maybe sooner that you think.  

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.  

A Beautiful Morning

I hope it's a beautiful Sunday morning where you are.  I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to start the week.  Last week there was another bump in my road as my sister had emergency surgery resulting in a bypass on her leg.  She lost her left leg due to the MRSA virus and circulation problems over a year ago and it didn't look good for the right leg.  I visited her yesterday, thanks to my BFF Sandy and her offer to drive,  and the prognosis looks good.  She's determined to get to Hawaii in November with her girlfriends.  The heaviness I felt in my heart all last week has lifted.

My other sister from Omaha stopped for a brief visit on her way to northern Minnesota for her annual family gathering.  We haven't seen each other since January so we quickly caught up.  She left me with this

 and this

I will be making three bears from these two minks for a friend of hers.  The total  bear projects has now reached 21.  Be prepared to see a lot of posts on how these projects are going.  

I'm off to church.  Have a great day, everyone.  I know I will.

Bearing Up

When my sister passed away last December, I told her children that I would make teddy bears for anyone who wants them out of her clothing.  The children just got to the closets about a month ago and I was presented with this by my brother-in-law.

 There are 12 bags and a few of them have more than one clothing item.  I think I came up with 14 or 18 bears to make.  Yikes!  After opening all the bags to see what everyone  chose and a lot of head shaking (I told the family to think cuddly bears, no thin satin-like apparel), I decided to randomly select one bag and focus on that.  This is what I'm starting with.

 Two bears for my niece.  The jacket on the left is a very pretty glitzy piece.

 
I hope there's enough fabric for the entire bear.  The waist is elastic which cuts down on usable material.  

The other garment is a fleece pajama top.

This will be easier to work with. 

You can see that I have a challenge ahead of me for the next few weeks months.  Add all the quilting projects, paper crafting, yard upkeep, and a boat load of life issues and responsibilities, I'll never be bored.  Stay tuned for the trials and tribulations of Bearly Wild in the blogs to come.  I think the next phase of my life is going to be interesting and even more challenging than the previous phases.  I also think that Roger, aka No. 38, will be holding my hand the entire way.