Honk the Goose part II

 Last year my daughter requested I make her desk goose named Honk some outfits. As part of her Christmas gift, I made several. See my post Honk the Goose. This year, she asked for more outfits. 

I really enjoyed the creative process of scaling down an idea for a 7" goose. I loved making my own patterns and making things work. This year, I made Honk a bathrobe, a Harry Potter outfit, a Super Honk, a Feathers McGraw (from Nick Park's The Wrong Trousers claymation) a Farmer, and a raincoat. 

Here are my finished outfits. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.  My husband enjoyed helping out too. He made the farmer's hoe, Harry Potter's glasses, the lineup card for Feather's McGraw and the umbrella for the raincoat. He's so very creative and can make anything I come up with!

         The real Feathers Mc Graw. He is a penguin disguised as a chicken. He's a vilian/thief. 

Luke and Emily's baby quilt

 Luke sings in the praise band at our church. He mentioned once that his wife Emily was expecting. I knew I had to make their baby a quilt. 

Emily is due on Christmas, and I was on a time crunch to get it finished and delivered to them. So, I didn't get a picture of the quilt finished. 

Here's a picture of the quilt before it was quilted. Yes, that is me peeking from behind it and my feet! I was going to edit the picture, but I thought it would be fun to just leave it the way it is. 

Bob's Bears

 Bob's wife Linda contacted me to make 8 bears and a pillow back in the fall.

For Bob's bears, I used the Ben Bear pattern from Funky Friends Factory. I enlarged it 125%. When I use this pattern, I like them a bit bigger than how the pattern is originally. Their patterns are so nice to work with and always turn out well.  

The brown and green bear is made from a flannel and Minky shirt. The Minky was the lining of the shirt. The green fabric is fleece.  I used the brown Minky for ears and feet of a couple of the other bears too. 

The purple and brown bear was made from a purple polo shirt and corduroy pair of pants. They worked together so well. I used the corduroy for ears and feet of a couple other bears too. 

These two cuties were made from a black henley type shirt and a red bandana and a blue T-shirt with a nice image that says 'Florida' on it with a boat. Linda asked that I try to utilize the boat and the word Florida. It worked out perfectly. 

These two gentlemen were made from rayon dress shirts. Notice I used the corduroy for the ears and feet of the burgundy bear and the Minky for the peach-colored bear.  

The salmon-colored striped bear is made with a polo shirt. I love how the collar turned out on him.  Notice I used the corduroy for his ears and feet.  The green and burgundy bear was made from a heavy burgundy men's shirt. The type that are super warm and cozy. The green and burgundy are a fleece blanket. They complimented each other so well. 

Bob's class was the first class to graduate from his high school in 1970. Linda thought that someday, she might decide to donate the jacket back to the school. The jacket was too precious to cut up to make into a bear. So, I thought a pillow would work. I measured and made a custom pillow form to fit inside the jacket, and I tacked the neckline and the bottom band with a few stitches. If Linda ever decides she would like to donate the jacket, all she has to do is snip the stitches and it's back to its old self.  The jacket was in such wonderful condition; I just couldn't cut it. 

 I truly hope Bob's bears help his family with their grief.  It was an honor to be asked to make them.

 

Patti's Bears

My friend Patti requested I make her bears for f several family members who have recently passed. She sent some awesome clothing to work with.

I loved how the bowling shirt and rainbow vest turned out. The bear on the right was made from a pair of batik men's slacks. His bowling shirt was made from a bowling shirt.  The bear on the left was a pair of red men's slacks. His vest was seersucker men's slacks also. 

These two below were made from a chenille robe. I had hoped to someday make a bear from a chenille bedspread. I love how they turned out. 

The green and brown bear is made from corduroy. It's another wonderful fabric to work with.  

The striped bear on the right has elbow patches. The shirt I used had elbow patches and my friend asked if I could put them on the bear. I should have taken a picture, because it turned out so nice. 

I feel like I always say the same thing- I am so honored to be asked to make these bears. I hope they give comfort to Patti and her family. 

Patriotic Bears Part 2

 I enjoyed making the first patriotic bear so much I made two more!  

My husband and I rejoined a local car club that we had belonged to many years ago. It's nice to see all the old friends and familiar faces at the meetings. The club hosts a car show/car cruise on July 4th every year and needed donations for prizes. I thought I could stitch up a bear or two this week. I mixed up the coloring a little from my previous patriotic bear. It doesn't look that much different, but it was fun to play around with the fabrics to see which one I liked best. My favorite is the bear on the left.  

 I will definitely make more of these little guys. After all, I bought more little flags.

  

Patriotic Bear

 I truly enjoy making bears to donate. This bear is part of a fundraiser for my two great nephew's scout troop's spaghetti dinner. My sister and niece are leaders with the troop and needed items for people to bid on. My sister and I decided a patriotic bear would be good. 

I loved making him. Finding a small flag was a little bit of a challenge. But we found one! 

Here's my bear. 
 

Jesse's Bear

Sigh... 

 In my bear making career, I expected someday I would be asked to make a bear for a child who has passed.  I had hoped I it would never happen but here I am making one.  Sigh...

 Being a mom who has experienced child loss, this hit hard. As I worked on this sweet bear, I prayed for Jesse's Mom and family and shed a few tears too. My heart goes out to them so much. 

I don't know any of Jesse's story. I only know he was a small child who passed suddenly. 

The contact person said they had a 'blanket' to make Jesse's bear. What I picked up was a well-loved baby quilt with a cute turtle and frog pattern. I don't usually sleep well and sewing relaxes me. One night at 3am, I was preparing to cut out the pattern pieces for Jesse's bear. When to my surprise I found a treasure. At first, I thought I was seeing things because I was too tired.  But I wasn't tired, I was wide awake.

I hope you can see it. Quilted into this baby quilt are the words " From Great Grandma"

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it! Thankfully I hadn't cut anything out yet. I decided to make the bear bigger to accommodate the words from great Grandma. This was also my first bear to make out of a quilt. I had wanted to make a bear from a cutter quilt (an old worn quilt). I hadn't planned on using a beloved baby quilt. At times it was a challenge due to the thickness of the quilt and all the layers. But I powered on. It worked out enlarging the pattern to accommodate the sweet message from Great Grandma. I hope you can see it on the back of the bear's head and back. 

The finished bear is below. I had a little bit of quilt left so I made little heart keychains too. I thought Jesse's family might want to keep a small part of the quilt with them.