Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Amanda!  He is so cool - I love his big schnozz and I love his stance.  Well done   :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

I've been thinking about that fimo over glass eye thing all day so it's nice to see a bear using that technique.  Good luck with the auction - you so deserve to do well. 

Sorry Daphne...I was checking them at 5:30 am this morning before work and thought I had posted the link.

WOO HOO!!!!! 

The results are up, and my friend Alexis Young won the dressed mini bear section with her bear Peirot.  YAY...how exciting.  Now I just have to wait until she wakes up 

please please please can somebody tell me if they know the toby results

thanks!

Dilu - did someone answer your question about doonas?  It's what aussies call duvets and no, I've never worked out why!!

I absolutely with a passion hate  vaccuming

Love cooking - I am the baking queen and my chocolate cake and louise cake are legendary at my workplace    I even got a proposal after someone tried my homemade icecream  :lol:

I am a messy - and i hate being one - heard a really interesting theory about messies which I totally agree with.  At heart we are perfectionists with incredibly high standards  - but we realise that we'll never attain perfection and give up before trying properly.  Hmm this is true of my approach to a lot of things.  I can't remember the name of the woman who wrote the book and I'm not explaining it well but it is true!

Thank you EVERYBODY for your kind thoughts and wishes.  I am well over my grumpy bad mood and decided that while crappy stuff happens - the good definitely outweighs it and you guys are truly "the good"   :)

Judi - you are so right about not compromising anything.  I am happy with my bears - and while I have ideas of the how I want to improve them - I do not want to change my style or look for anybody.  I'm not going to dwell on the whims and fads of ebay or even try and understand it - and I've started trying some new places with my bears too - thanks for the suggestions.

and that's that for this subject 

gorgeous big bears Sue Ann

your discs are the size of my bears  :lol:

would ya believe me if I told you I once made a 32" bear?  He was made in collaboration with my mum - and I made her stuff him!!

I think the general people who made bears as a hobby have declined a lot.  My mum works in a sewing shop and back when I started to make bears (97/98) there were a lot of people joining the teddy craze, it's when magazines like Australian Bear Creations got started etc,  In the last two or three years they've hardly been able to sell a single piece of fabric.

  Paula...but we LOVE your big bears...

will it be the forum for "real bears" not those titchy things that aspire to the teddy bear throne!!

Daphne - that fabric bow is gorgeous   :)

Paula - I love that bear and I think that the ribbon is very similar to what I used on Alaina...I got an absolute steal when I bought mine - they had thrown a two metre piece into the "dollar" bin by mistake - tee hee - their loss, my gain!!  I had picked up the roll to buy a tiny bit at over $5 per metre.  It's taken me almost two years to find the right bear for it though!

oh that panda is so adorable...but I have to agree with everyone else on the afghan - not the most attractive photo!!

Millie - your dog is so  cute - before my mum's dog got old and arthritic she used to sleep like that all the time...and Penny she does snore, much louder than you'd ever think a foxie could.

Sabine

That roly poly punkin' is so cute!  You are so clever to be able to crochet like that.   :)

and Dilu...that tree is going to be just smothered in bears...way to go!

spooky!!!!   

Oh...they are all disappearing aren't they.  I made it to the Teddy's Bits shop just before they closed to do mail order only and it was fantastic...I'm still using the mohair I bought.

Glad you had a super day!!   

I agree with you Daphne...I would say 4 inches and under.  I know that there is a heck of a lot of difference between my 4 inch bears and the 2 inch ones I occasionally attempt.  The four inch ones are easy peasy and the two inch fiddly diddly and take me twice as long two sew.

I agree with you about the 8 inch minis and the way people also call them "midi minis" - they're either mini or they're small!!  I also hate how people measure the sitting down height so that they appear smaller to the punter.

Having said that, I've snuck some of my 4.5 and 5 inch bears into my "miniature" section on bearpile.   :redface:

Dilu

you are a star...that's exactly who I was thinking of.  Homesew are great and reasonably priced and great postage costs, even down here to the bottom of the world!  From memory they threw in a couple of freebies into my package as well.  Off to check out the website again!

How fantastic!

I love border collies too.

We had a similar show here too Penny (this being the country with more sheep than people    )  It was imaginatively titled "The Dog show" and every NZer  over a certain age could hum the theme song for you!  Ours aired on Sunday night before Walt Disney and I learnt the catch phrase  "she's a toey one", but my favourite sheep chasing phrase??  "rattle your dags!!"

now I'm embarrassed for being a whining cry baby  :redface:

thanks guys...I have given my bears a kiss and a cuddle...big game fisherman kiss every fish before they throw it back in the ocean - maybe that's the secret to sending my bears out in the world 

Thanks for the advice...and I shall be sure to follow up on it!

Hugs,
Melissa

ps.  no Danni, it wasn't anyone from here who was negative...is that even possible?

oh so cute!!

You might all have seen this...my friend sent it to me last year - but it does work at cheering me up!!

Yum he's like a big caramel chocolate flavoured hug!   

please please please....my friend way down here in New Zealand is waiting to hear.

Well, here I must cofess that I have a shameful amount of ribbon....I am sadly addicted   :redface:

Wire edged ribbon is fantastic for getting bows to sit right and as Vicky says, if you don't want the wies in a particular project, just rip 'em out!
I also love the soft silk ribbon which you can get in various widths as you can do so much with it and it makes great ruffles sashes etc.  Some of them have an ombre effect (shaded light to dark) which is also really effective.

I tend not to buy the stuff on rolls as usually I don't want that much and sometimes (but not always) the ribbon isn't as great quality.

I buy my ribbon at lots of different source.  The department stores that have a fabric and haberdashery section often have really nice fancy ribbon sections...with different things than you find everywhere else.
Scrapbooking places have lots of ribbons and you can buy cards with coordinated ribbons on which are great for some things - they also have lots of narrow ribbons and rick racks which are hard to find elsewhere.
Christmas shops!! - for that plaid or star themed ribbon

there are a few ribbon places online...and do you think I can find the one I'm thinking of!!

thanks guys.    :love:
you are more than nice   :P

off to sew up my new design -I think it's going to be just over 2" eek!!!