Tag: Soft Dolls and Art Toys

Posted on by

“Huggy Kitty” New Original Cat Doll by Elizabeth Ruffing

“Huggy Bunny” has a new friend, “Huggy Kitty”.

Huggy Kitty has a lavender onesie with burnt orange and white flowers, yellow polka dot buttons, and a red polka dot heart.

She has gold “fur” and a curly tail. She is made from 100% cotton quilting fabrics that have been fused to a layer of cotton sheeting for added durability.

Her eyes and mouth are hand embroidered, and the edges of her onesie, her tail, her nose, and the pink parts of her ears are machine appliquéd.

Huggy Kitty has no loose parts, and she is stuffed with Poly-fil polyester stuffing.

To see my available original, one-of-a-kind soft dolls and toys please click here.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Stuffed

“Huggy Bunny” is stitched and stuffed. I did some hand quilting on his ears and at his arm and leg joints.

His little tail, and the edges of his clothes, and his pink parts are machine stitched with a zig zag over the raw edge appliqué.

I took a shot at doing a twisted chain hand embroidery stitch on the booties. I don’t think mine came out the way it was supposed to, but I liked it anyway. So, I kept going with it. I’ll have to try it the right way later. My book, Judith Baker Montano’s Elegant Stitches, arrived today, and it is very nice, with lots of pretty, inspirational pictures. I am still on the lookout for The Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden, which I think has even more photos of the stitches. I need all the visual aids I can get.

Mister Bunny seems like an agreeable sort, cheerful, ready for anything. I think I will try raising the arms just a bit when I make his friend/sister/brother, and I think I’ll make a simpler outfit next time. This one is adorable, but it took such a long time to make. I’ll have to get him posted on Etsy so I can make the Etsy for Animals January challenge deadline. I was lucky to get him done and photographed before it starts raining again.

Later…Ah ha! I was looking through Elegant Stitches and I discovered that my mutated twisted chain stitch is really a coral stitch. I learned something after all!
Posted on by

Embroidery Beginnings

I used a zig zag stitch to finish some of the raw edges on my “Huggy Bunny” doll, and then I put my newly acquired hoop to use and tried a couple of hand embroidery stitches. I chose a chain stitch for the mouth, and a satin stitch for the eyes, because they seemed simple and appropriate for the task of stitching the face. I only sewed the whole thing to my pants once. So, so far so good. I’m going to try something decorative as soon as my new-to-me book, Elegant Stitches: An Illustrated Stitch Guide and Source Book of Inspiration by Judith Baker Montano, arrives. I bought a copy on eBay last week.

I’ll try to get some close-up photos of how to do a chain stitch and a satin stitch, to post on this site, when it brightens up around here. It is finally raining, really raining. NC has had a very bad drought this year. So this is good news, just not good for photographing.

Posted on by

“Huggy Bunny” Doll and Quilt in Progress

I’ve got my new doll patterns ready for a test run. This is my “Huggy Bunny” ready for some machine appliquéing. I am also going to try my hand at hand embroidery, a new craft for me, partly in honor of the Etsy for Animals January challenge, “New Year, New Craft” (although I’m not sure I can meet the January 1st deadline), and partly to tie in with a new idea I have for some embroidery designs. I was thinking a sort of “stitch-along” might be fun. I’m working on an original design to post on my website so that anyone who wants to join in, can learn along with me.

My “Huggy Bunny” is part of a series of designs I’ve been working on since this past summer. This is the quilt variation. I had taken step-by-step photos of the whole machine appliqué process, and even the basic assembly of the quilt top, meaning to put together a tutorial, but, unfortunately, I got distracted by other things. This year I hope to get more organized and fill out this site a bit more. I’ve got plenty of ideas for new projects that I think will be lots of fun.
Happy Christmas Eve!