Greg's Bears

  My dear friend asked me to make three bears from her brother Greg's T-shirts. He had recently passed and she wanted to gift her three siblings something to remember him by.  She picked the Ben Bear pattern that I use. Here are her finished bears. 

 I'm so very touched to have been asked to make them for her family. I hope they help give her family comfort.

Pappy Bill's bears

  Bill's sweet wife asked me to make two bears for their granddaughters. The girls each picked out a pair of soft comfy pants that belonged to their Pappy.  I knew that the pants would make nice bears. They are super soft and very huggable. 

Here are their bears:

It is such an honor to make these bears.  

Mary Ellen's bear

  Mary has been my best friend for over 20 years now. Her Mom, Mary Ellen was the sweetest, most kind person. She was a woman of great that faith and had a gentle but fun way about her. She passed away several years ago. Mary asked me to make a bear as a gift for her niece from one of her mom's skirts. It was a beautiful patchwork skirt, and I knew it would make an adorable bear. So here it is:

 

In a picture of Mary Ellen wearing the skirt, she had a pretty yellow top on. Mary and I chose a soft yellow to add a little something extra to her bear. 

I hope Mary Ellen would be pleased with my work. And I hope Mary's niece is happy with her grandma's bear too.

 It is always hard to make a bear for someone I knew. I am always so honored to be asked to make each bear. This one was an especially big honor to make.

My daughter's friends quilts

 My daughter and her husband have really nice friends. They met in college and are still friends today. One of them got married a year ago and I thought it would be nice to make her and her new husband a quilt. Then I thought wouldn't it be nice to make their other friends quilts too?  So, I got to it. Here are the results. It was so much fun to make these quilts. I also made one for my daughter and her husband too. I didn't want to leave them out! But I forgot to take a picture of it. 

                                                                Torre and Andrew

Lydia and Danny

Shiree and Dylan

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 villain/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.