Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Doxie Necklace

It's Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday again, where I am making one project a week from Hillary Lang's "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love. This week is the Doxie Necklace.

How cute is that? A little dachshund you can wear. I thought dots would be fun.

This project is completely hand sewn, and you backstich on the pattern lines before you cut.

The most difficult part was turning the body and the ears. It took a lot of fiddling and patience to coax all those little parts out. I used my handy-dandy pointed dowel that I got free in a bag of fiberfil.

Little embroidered eyes and nose.

And a ric rac collar. A necklace you can play with!

Don't you want one? :)

"Life's a Hoot!" Baby Quilt Finished!

The owl baby quilt is done and done!  It's a good thing, too, since I started this before my nephew was born, and he is 4 months old now :)  Actually, it works out quite well since he is working on turning over and I made this to be used as a play mat.

I used flannel for the main part of the quilt. It's very soft, but I'm a little disappointed in how it fuzzed up after just one wash. Oh, well - it just adds to the charm, right?

I added a few free-motion stars in the window panes.

I gave him a little vest, too.

Now to wrap it up and send it off! A birthday present for my niece will accompany it- I had to make something for her, too, of course. I'll save that for the next post, though.

Wee Wonderfuls Wednesdays!

Welcome to Wee Wonderfuls Wednesdays! For the next 24 Wednesdays I plan to share with you a project that I have made from the very fun book "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love" by Hillary Lang. I realized the first time that I flipped through the pages that I would need to sew every one of these super cute toys.

Zoe's Olive doll

I found Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls site when I was looking for a cloth doll to make Zoe for her birthday. I found "Olive & Archie: A Make-a-Long Story" and I immediately purchased and downloaded the patterns for 2 dolls, backpacks, felted sweater outwear & professor paws, snowsuits, knitted jumper & kercheif, knitted sweater vest, sleeping bags, and overalls & jumper! Cuteness overload! When her book came out, I knew I had to have it.

So here is the first project, the Ellie bag- a cuddly elephant you can wear as a purse!

I decided to use some super-soft pink minky that I bought when Zoe was born (!) and reproduction fabric for the inner ears and lining. It was fun to sew and see it all come together. It did take a little longer than I thought it would because there was quite a bit of hand sewing involved.

I used a belt from an upcycled felted sweater for the strap.

Zoe loves peeking inside to see what I've put in there.

Just her size!

Life's a Hoot! Baby Quilt

My sister just had a baby boy and she chose owls for the nursery- so cute! I wanted to make a play quilt for him, and I couldn't believe it when I saw this pattern on the front of the Spring issue of Quilts and More. The quilt even used the exact same fabric (Hooty Hoot for Riley Blake designs) that my sister had chosen for her curtains and crib bedding!

I wanted this to be a quilt that he could play on, so I decided to add some texture with different types of fabrics. The background is flannel, the moon is satin, the owl body is velvet with ribbon loops for the feet, and the branch is corduroy.

This was my first attempt at applique on a quilt, and I was really nervous about how it would turn out, especially using the different types of fabric. But I was surprised by how smoothly it went.

Now I *just* have to quilt and bind it!

I made the backing a little too short, and now I need to add fabric somewhere to lengthen it. I'm not sure what would look good- any suggestions?