Elizabeth Ruffing, Author at Ruffing’s Artist Dolls and Toys

Posted on February 10, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Valentine’s Day slugs, a bunny sketch, and a workshop

The last one of this year’s Valentine’s Day Hug Me Slugs left on his way today. I’m assuming he’s the last anyway, unless someone asks for one of the ready-made slugs before the holiday arrives. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop.

I’ve been juggling a bunch of toys at once for the past two weeks. I have one sock kitty to finish up as well, for a very nice lady who has been very patient. I never know how many people will ask for toys at once, and sometimes I’ll think I have only one to make, and then, suddenly, I’ll have a rush. I try to get them all started, and work on them each, a little at a time.

I keep waking up with pictures in my head this week, and so I sketched one when I woke up in the morning. and another the other day. This bunny is still roughly drawn, as I drew her before I even had breakfast today. Maybe I’ll fiddle some more and see where this goes. I’ve been thinking of trying digital drawing, or at least digital coloring. Not sure yet.

On Monday night, I went to see Feral Cheryl at her new job as a Demo Cat. She and Princess Marie did a great job, showing how to trap feral cats to be spayed/neutered and returned to their outdoor homes. I may tag along later this month for a real feral cat trapping.

This is Cheryl sitting on a Tomahawk Live Trap, one of the kinds of safety traps the rescue uses. Some also use Havahart and Tru-Catch Live Animal Traps. I learned in the workshop that the kind of trap you use is important, for your own safety too, because poorly-made traps aren’t secure.

Food is put under the trap, on a paper plate, and squished through the bottom grate, or a little is put inside, to entice feral cats to come inside, and once they are in and step on the trip plate, the door closes behind them. They are then left in the trap, with a blanket to cover them, while they wait for their vet clinic appointment. They can’t eat the night before their spay/neuter surgery, and so no food is left inside.

Please spay and neuter your pets. Princess Marie made the association between having several unneutered cats in your neighborhood to having a time bomb, because within just 63 days, they can each have a litter of kittens, which is a situation that can quickly become out of control. Please contact local rescue groups in your area for options available to you, and please spay and neuter any pets you may have.

Posted on February 4, 2011January 8, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Ah-choo!

I got today’s shipment of Valentine’s Day Hug Me Slugs ready for a trip to the Post Office, and grabbed the camera to take a quick photo of them before they began their individual journeys. About mid-sneeze, I realized I was recording, not photographing! Here they are, with a well-enunciated “Ah-choo!” from me.

Posted on February 1, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Another gift-wrapped slug

I just sent another Hug Me Slug on his way, gift wrapped with a card. I’m trying to decide on how to make gift-wrapping an add-on purchase, because the difference in postage varies with the destination. I may have to come up with an average or just set a fee for it as a service. I think it’s a nice option to have. I have a small collection of gift bags and note cards, and they’d have to vary based on which ones I happen to have. That gives me an extra thing to coordinate. I enjoy picking out colors and patterns.

This royal blue guy went on his way this afternoon too. He’s a Valentine’s Day slug. I really wish I could wave a wand and restock all my toys. As it is, I keep finishing nearly-finished toys, or making toys, as inquiries come in asking what I might have available, and I still haven’t gotten my shop restocked. I will have to make a concerted effort to set aside time for replenishing the ready-made toys. I know people don’t always want to wait, especially with gifts, and it would be good to have more to choose from. I do have many, miscellaneous toys partly made. If you haven’t yet, please “like” us on Facebook. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop

I was going to demonstrate with this photo how my workroom looks like a victim of whirlwind, and yet, it looks surprisingly neat in this photo, compared to how it looks upon entering. That may be because the cascades of fabric and toys are off to either side, hiding from my camera lens. I was having trouble moving my chair around to pack boxes in there this afternoon. The boxes fall off in an avalanche to the side as well. I will dive in anyway, and attempt to surface with new treasure soon.

Posted on January 26, 2011April 30, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Love Stamp Quilt Block

I was looking at Facebook this morning and I saw a familiar postage stamp go by on my feed. Erika, of Miss Sews-It-All, had featured Michael Osborne’s 2002 Love Stamp from the U.S. Post Office, on her blog, suggesting it would make a great quilt block. I immediately remembered that I had thought the same thing, and had made one, back in 2003. I went rummaging and found it. I thought it would be nice to share for Valentine’s Day.

My original pattern was more difficult to find, but at last it reappeared. I can’t even remember where now, but there were a bunch of quilt patterns I had drawn up with it. I put them all together for safe keeping. I will have to check the rest of them out another time. I saw a cute kitty quilt block in there too, which was based on a quilt my parents had.

Michael Osborne’s Love Stamp design was more oblong than perfectly square, as I recall, and so I fiddled to make quilt blocks that would imitate the look of the stamp “letters”. This afternoon, I traced my pattern onto 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheets of paper, with one “letter” on each page, and made a PDF of my Love Stamp Quilt Block pattern that you can find and download here. Obviously, this pattern, or set of four patterns, is based on Michael Osborne’s copyrighted design, and so it is for personal, home use only. No selling it or anything made from it. Just open it, save it, and print it on 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. You’ll need four sheets of paper. The final quilt block is 12 by 12 inches square, once it is in a quilt.

The measurements listed in my instructions include a 1/4 inch seam allowance for all the square and rectangular pieces you’ll need to cut.

I used freezer paper for the appliqué shapes, the heart and the circle. I cut those two shapes to size, out of the freezer paper. I used an iron to temporarily attach the freezer paper shapes to the back of my fabric, and then cut them out adding a 1/4 of fabric all the way around, to turn under. Then I turned under the edges, and sewed them to my backgrounds by hand. Marcia from Quilter’s Cache, a wonderful resource for quilt blocks and directions, has a tutorial here on hand appliqué.

Alternately, you can cut the appliqué shapes to size, if you’d rather use machine raw-edge appliqué, fuse them to your background with WonderUnder, and then machine zig zag, blanket stitch, or satin stitch around the shapes. There are a lot of options for appliqué techniques out there. I have a tutorial for machine, raw-edge appliqué on fleece here. With cotton quilting fabric, you can use the cotton setting on your iron, and you don’t need a press cloth. No matter which technique you use, I find it is best to cut those background squares a little larger than necessary, and then trim them down to size after sewing the appliqués.

The rest is pretty standard piecing, which can be done by hand or by machine, and goes together easily.