Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I will definately check the tension then, sounds like that might be it... I wouldn't say that I use mine quite as much as you do yours though, Jenny!

Hopefully things will sort themselvs out....

Thanks Eileen I will change the needle- haven't had to do that for a bit so hopefully thats it.... the websites say a lot about the thread tension, but I've not changed it, so I don't know if that could be it?  I'll check the bobbin to- I know you can adjus the tension there too but I've never had to do it before Guess I'll have to learn!

Help!!!

I was sewing a bear yesterday, when my machine made this weird churring noise and the needle stopped, and it's not worked properly since.  When I take the material out there is always a collection of massive loops of what I think is the bobbin thread, but I'm not certain- does anyone have any ideas how to cure this?  I've got loads of critters that need sewing up, including my pieces for the Teddy Bear International christmas carol theme, and really I need to have those finished within a week! Ulp!

Has anyone got any ideas? The book yields no answers, and to get the sellers to fix it will take more than a week....

Judi, my mums bear looks a bit like these guys, only all white and a bit less fluffy... I know he was bought for her in America in the late 60's, if that is of any use?

;D:D  Thanks a lot, Bobbie!   My mum will be very pleased by your comment, the dress took us a lot of time but the petticoat took even longer! (ruddy thing...)

In that photo I am the only one with a hand made dress- the others are all clever adaptations of shop bought ones. I was originally going to buy a 'Vivien of Holloway' dress, but I was scared someone else would have the same one- I e-mailed to ask these people (who brag about the small scale, british manufacture of their dresses) if they could make one in a fabric of my choice if I paid for it and the answer was no, so I bought a Simplicity pattern... which my friend Charlie later bought and began making before I had the chance :(

If you see the girl in the green dress next to me in this one and the one above, thats the pattern I was originally making-

http://www.phoenixphotography.org/easte … b_0159.htm

So I bought myself a vintage 1958 'answer dress' (what does that mean?!?) pattern on Ebay to make up myself, and then my mum said 'you know, I need a new sewing machine....' Two days later a brand new Pfaff arrives, and it's better than mine!  The thing practically makes coffee!

Here's the official photo of me- I asked them for a shot to replace he school photo of  my my mum has :P

http://www.phoenixphotography.org/easte … b_0164.htm

Thanks for asking Bobbie, I wish I was a '50s child, everything you hear and see about that era makes it sound so vibrant... I'll give the guys a smack for not joining in- I was trying to take up their trousers and get them in tie-matching socks a la Grease, but they weren't having it XD

Thanks everyone   I have to admit not all of the last photos are mine, including the delicious sunset shot, but the whole place was that beautiful... Could I choose between a safe, constant country like England, or the dangerous beauty of Africa? I really envy those who live there, although I know I will have had a gold-tinted view of the country, safe from all the politics and most of the wildlife (it being winter there now) but still...

My mums friend can smell words, Patty   She said my mums name had a nice fragrance- I wish I could remember what it was!

Awww, you're all so welcome   I'm glad you've all let me shae the experience as it's something I don't expect to be able to repeat... Here's one last recording, just for all of you  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:

I'll miss your creations Lisa   

Good Luck, and I hope you'll still come and chat ever now and then!

Hey Louise, I think you can also go if you're not a student?  The website's at the top- you might have to share the site with students or something, but bI think you should be ok?  I'd really recommend it- a brilliant experience, and you get to eat lovely food (Kudu, wildebeest and hartebeest for meat eaters!)- I put on five pounds (oops!) whilst I was there, their food was so yummy!

Lol, tell them Chloe sent you, Louise XD If you want any photos fullsize, let me know.

Lol! I'm going to run out!  A lot of mine need cropping and so on before I can show them really... let see...

Not all of these are mine   Some are photos Lynne took while we were there...

Bee-eater

Kudu- in our test there was a cast Jackal paw print for us to identify- it was brownish, and my friend Hattie mistook in for Kudu poo XD

Grey Lourie- they sing "Go away! Go away!"

Gemsbok - another cracking pronounciation!

Brown Hyaena

Rock Python

Vervet monkey

Ostrich chick hatching

Sunset over the dam...

It was amazing Maria      I'd live in South Africa in a second if I could get a job there, all those beautiful animals still just wandering freely - nothing like the cow, sheep, pig, sheep journeys of England!

|Your wish is my command

Lilac Breasted Roller-

"lessons"

The FREEZING night drive (please excuse my general face and appearance )- we saw jackal, small spotted cat, african wild cat, bush babies, scrub hare, spring hare (HILARIOUS to watch) and lots of half asleep antelope!

Baby crocodile

...waterbuck I think? easier to tell from behin as they have toilet-seat shaped marks on their bums

Pied Kingfisher

Springbok

Zebra

And finally another herd of Impala

Now I miss it so much! Went walking for an hour today- two days ago I'd have seen so much life, but today just the commonest Ape of all

... sorry about the madness of the sizing- I meant for them all to be tiny on Photobucket *sigh*

Ah well, here's a few more!  I have more photos not on here, if anyone would like to see a specific animal :)

Two female Impala- I ended up buying a skin from the unfortunate annual cull- in Makwe they sell as many live animals as possible, but they also cull any they can't sell (esp. Males) and eat the meat and tan the hides to sell- they're buying Nyala next.

White Rhino- at one point I was standing next ot a pile of fresh Rhino poo, and Dougal the owner ponited out that it was less than twenty minutes old before telling us that he had to check on the others, so not to go into the woods 10m away!  scary!

Warthog- they have to kneel like this to eat They also smell like candyfloss, according to Lynne the site manager!

Wildebeest, very close to our truck. Lol, the locals accent was so rich, hearing the way they said 'wildebeest' (VILD-eh-beest) 'blesbok' (bl-EEs-bok) and 'hyaena' (a-hEE-nah) was so nice!

Finally, here's a photo of my fifties pattern dress at out fifties ball he night before we set off- I got in at 5am and then had to go to the airport at 10am XD  It hurt.... ball and petticoat were equally good tho, despite getting blanked by an ex Maybe he couldn't see me past all that skirt volume!! I'm in the blue dress with the white sash... I want to wear it forever :)

Well, I hope you like the photos! I do have more if anyone wants them for a project- I'm thinking about a few new luglys myself!

Tami - Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but yes there was still a very good chace of my dying there-still I'd rather risk that and get to sleep surrounded by all that life than live in a hotel, even with the promise of a hot shower!  You know, you've just not lived until you've had to check under the rim of your toilet for poisonous spiders before using it

Hello everyone! 

Well, I flew back into Newcastle yesterday after spending a whole day traveling, and now I have finally recovered enough to show you all photos!  I went to Mankwe Reserve in South Africa ( http://www.mankwewildlifereserve.net/about_mankwe.htm ) for 10 days, and it was sooo much fun, despite the almost constant threat of a painful death   I thought I'd show you all some of my photos :)

This is the view of the lake on the first morning... it's about 3 degrees C there at night, so I was absolutely freezing, but the mist over the lake was awe inspiring :)

Tent sweet tent!

The first night we woke up to hear Zebra outside our tent!

We went out to Pilansberg National Park to see a lot of animals because Mankwe only has the less dangerous species so we could sleep in the open... still had White Rhino, Leopard, Honey Badger, Spitting Cobras, Rock Python and the dreaded Black Mamba to think about though! We saw Hippo in Pilansberg...

We saw this TEENY elephant baby, only a month old!  He tried to nick milk from a different cow, and she just booting him in the face XD

And Vervet Monkeys, which nicked pasta from a bunch of Americans in Pilansberg whilst we were watching

In Mankwe we lived with Giraffe, Rhino, Zebra, Kudu, Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Impala... the list goes on and on! Here's a few shots...

We did small mammal trapping- this is a Multi-mammate Mouse

African Painted Wolves, these guys were hilarious, whinging around until they got their chickens!

Cheetah.... yes that is a cat food trap in the background.... a lot of my group thought it was terrible that the predators a the cheetah sanctuary were fed dog and cat food as well as chickens and meat, but I couldn't really see their problem- the sanctuary had been researching it for four years to give them their vitamins, so....

More to follow?

WOAH Practically everyone has put 'socks' in answer to what they're not wearing, even those (like me )in their jammies! Weird!

1. Where is your cell phone? Bag
2. Your significant other?   Non-existant
3. Your hair? BED
4. Your mother? strong
5. Your father? stray
6. Your favorite thing?   space
7. Your dream last night?   none
8. Your favorite drink?   cocktails!
9. Your dream/goal? hidden
10. The room you're in? rented
11. Your hobby?   expensive!
12. Your fear?   failure
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?   elsewhere
14. Where were you last night? next-door
15. What you're not? irresponsible
16. Muffins? BLUEBERRY
17. One of your wish list items?   Mulberry
18. Where you grew up? Grantham
19. The last thing you did? Sleep
20. What are you wearing? Pyjamas
21. Your TV?   Bens
22. Your pets?   MAD
23. Your computer? Over-worked
24. Your life?   Random
25. Your mood? Optimistic
26. Missing someone? Always
27. Your car? none
28. Something you're not wearing? Socks
29. Favorite store? "Chocolate Utopia"
30. Your summer?   Hot
31. Like someone? Sometimes
32. Your favorite color? Blues
33. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday 
34. Last time you cried?  Painful

It looks like the show was amazing I wish I'd been there!

xx

W00t! Gooo Jackie!  We shall have to swap links- mine's a freewebs site too :P

I love Miss Sunshine... how come I've not seen her before? did she not make it to TT?

Hiya Cat, congrats!  I was just about to make a post asking if anyone knew where you'd disappeared off to   Mary is very cute- you'll have to make her a teeny lobster costume and show us photos

I love reading all these stories!

Most of you will probably know the reason why I started, seeing as it was only just over a year ago!  I wanted to make a personal gift for my Mum for Mothers day, as I'd done all her favourites (Chocolate Utopia chocs, jewelery, bags...) for her birthday and Christmas, which sadly all fall in the early year- not much time to thing for a picky mother! 

I've always loved bears, (although my childhood toy was in fact a retro '80s Popple) and bought my first artist bear Tang (an Issy's bear) at the ago of 15 from the bear shop in Lincoln, although I didn't know what an artist bear was!  I really wanted this deans bear with an open mouth complete with clay jaw, teeth and tongue but he was £200... I wish I could track one down now!  Tang remains my only artist bar, but we did buy another from the lady who made him on ebay for a friends birthday.

So, back to the story at hand- I googled A LOT and found Bear Basics, and bought their 'Thomas' kit, which I sewed fairly poorly (MASSIVE stitches! Little stuffing!) but he remains one of my favourites because I cannot for he life of me replicate his face, no matter how hard I try! Grrr!  I changed the stitching lines as I made him, so I don't kno what it is that made him so cub-like and simple.... one day I will know!

Here's a few photos- one of Tedward, that first bear from Match 07, and one from may 08   It really is thanks to Teddy Talkthat I've come so far...

Yeah, I have a lovely Zombie facial expression when I do anything artistic- slack mouth, twitching eyebrows, blank stare, the lot (very attractive).  My fried Chris takes the mick but i can't sew without it!  Lol, I also sometimes dictate what I'm doing and explain it to an invisible audience- I like to thik it cements in my mind hwy I do certain things, but it's probably just another healthy dose of "Bear Makers Crazy"  :crackup:

OMG I was in Paris for Bastille Day last year!  It's really good, we could see the parade with all the horses from our hotel room. Even better though was the vehicles following the parade to clean up the horses 'leavings'- so funny watching it all being blasted away!  In England it'd still be there, weeks later...

I'd say to do the boat tour up and down the river... the Bateau Rouge I think it's called?  Also the Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame, and the Louvre if you have time :)

Make sure you eat the food and attempt to speak the language in Paris, it makes the trip so much more fun- I can't speak French to save my life but my mum and I had a great time speaking Fren-glish: "Du billet please" being our best I think XD

Hey Gladys, I just looked this up:

So its not Daniel Radcliffe, but someone else... still sad though I wish people would stop stabbing each other, its so pointless...

You're welcome Tami, I really do feel that way   I get so confused when I look at work on this site because I see so many bears that I want MY designs to look like, and really a lot of the time a combination of all those styles really would be horrible!  But yours are just 'ye olde' enough to satisfy my cravings, and contemporary enough that it feels as though I could one day make a bear that is as well put together as Edward :P

I love the idea of the ATBs though!  I'd love to think myself worthy of suggesting rades to people on here, but I'm a long way off from that level of confidence yet!

I forgot to ask, is he mohair? Its very lush looking!

(sorry for the essay XD)

Aww, I really love him Tami, he looks so soft!  To my he embodies the word 'bear' I wish I wasn't poor... XD