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Collecting fabrics and honing my duck-catching skills

This photo reminds me of “The Princess and the Pea” with her pile of mattresses, but it’s really an assortment of new fat quarters and half yards of quilting cottons that I collected on Friday. I’ve got them all prewashed, and now I need to iron them all. I found out that you can buy “soleplate cleaner“, something I never knew existed. I had in mind to buy a new iron with a non-stick soleplate because I was certain I’d melt something onto the bottom in no time. It seems inevitable that, sooner or later, I will lay my fusible interfacing down, with the fusible side up, which, of course, I’ve already done. For good measure, I melted some synthetic trim as well, while I had my iron set to “cotton”. It happens.

I’ve been thinking about trying a name-your-own slug option for my art toys, since people often seem to want toys named after a child or a loved one. I thought it might be a fun idea. I’ve listed a few in my Etsy shop. So far, the listings allow you to give a color preference or two for your “Hug Me! Slug” and a name you’d like on the hang tag. Then I’d coordinate the fabrics for a one-of-a-kind creation. I’m not sure about the idea…but I’ll give it a try. I know about myself that I like to do my own thing, and so I don’t want to get overly involved in the customizing end of things. Plus, there is no way I can photograph all my fabric! 😉

That joke our vet made about giving me medicine to give to the duck each day…would you believe it came true? Mr Duck needs an antiobiotic pill each day, for ten days to two weeks maybe. The avian vet relayed the how-to-give-a-duck-a-pill procedure and said it was easy. We all laughed incredulously, but the funny thing has been, so far, that it has been relatively easy. Each day I fret that I will be unable to catch the duck. My knees have gotten sore, and we’ve gotten a few minor scratches. Yet, amazingly, we’ve managed to catch him and put a pill in his beak each day. Each night I say, several times, “I can’t believe we caught that duck today.” Some days he doesn’t seem to care, and other days, he’s not so willing. He’s been a good patient though. He may still need to visit the avian vet, but the first thing is to give him the antibiotics.

His friends and family have been funny. They don’t even run away anymore. They let out a big hoopla when I pick him up sometimes, but then they just hang around, taking advantage of the fact that I have to drop my cup of cracked corn that I use as a lure. I try not to move around too much, until he is close enough to reach. My dad has been joking that, when this medication is finished, the duck will come ask me to pick him up.

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Lovely Melissa

This is “Lovely Melissa”. I made her from my Lucy doll pattern. Like Lucy, she is decorated with ribbon trims, Rick Rack, and machine appliquéd fabric over 100% prewashed quilting cottons that have been fused to a layer of cotton sheeting.

Melissa is very ladylike. She sits nicely on our green chair.

She has pretty light blue eyes that look off the side.

She bends at the hip, knees, and shoulders.

Her ponytails are hand quilted.

Her boots have appliquéd fabric buttons.

Melissa’s sweet features are entirely hand painted with acrylic paints.

Lovely Linda and Lovely Lucy have been talking about her all day, saying only the very nicest of things, of course. These dolls, made from my Lovely Lucy design, can be found in my Etsy toy shop.

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Animal love

My “Barbara the Hug Me! Sock Zebra” is featured in this Etsy for Animals: Artists Helping Animals treasury on Etsy. Thanks, Michele! Etsy for Animals, also known a EFA, is an Etsy team that my mom and I joined. They are a group of artists, craftspeople, vintage suppliers, and art and craft suppliers who combine their efforts to help animals in need. Many of the members donate a portion of their Etsy sales to animal charities. To find EFA members on Etsy, you can search the words “team efa“. You can also click here to visit the EFA website where you can read more about the group.

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Some hang tag variety

I was printing up hang tags for my original art toys yesterday, and I realized not all my characters had tag designs that went with them. I decided I should add to my hang tag assortment. So I sketched a sock doll, scanned my drawing, and then played around with the color on the computer until it matched my previous hang tags. I think it came out pretty cute.

Once I print this out on some card stock, I’ll glue it, using an acid-free glue stick, to some heavyweight scrapbook paper, punch a hole through the top, and thread ribbon through the hole. I use a little Fray Check on the ends of the ribbon. I’ve done a pile of these so far!