Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

My brother left South Africa 6 years ago and now lives in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales Australia. They bought a Horse Riding Scool called Valery Trails, and have about 50 horses. They used to own a safari game park next to the famous Kruger National park in South Africa.
They work hard, as my brother says horses do not take time off and getting help is not that easy.  Although I have been to Sydney on numerous occasions,before getting involved with teddy bears, I have yet to pay him a visit,  oz girls I am waiting for a teddy bear show !!!!!!!!!!!!!!so that I can visit.The farm looks lovely and they have lots of dogs as all the stay dogs seem to land up on the farm.

Lynette

 
reading some of these comments and I just had to have a good chuckle

DebbieD
I have made very few centre seam bears but here are some things you can try

1. Use a spray bottle with water, spray area, then brush hair in direction you want, dry with hair dryer, (suggest you always test  a piece of mohair first- some mohairs can matter if its a cheap mohair) Do this before applying nose wax, paint features.
2. Travel steam cleaner (Rowenta make one) If you want to do the above and be fancy.
3.Before cutting out, place your template onto the right side of the mohair to see exactly how the pile is lying, that is if you are using a clear plastic template. Most quilting shops will sell clear plastic templates.
4. Cut out your head, tack it together, then see what it looks like, if it is horrid, then rather use those pieces for the ears, and start again, as your head is the first thing people are going to see, that is if you have enough mohair for another head piece.

Hula hoops !!!!!!!!!!! boy were they just fun, and good for the figure,
Jenny I did not know you fitted into the golden oldie group ?
Trampolines- I can still do a sumersault ? (spelling) much to the amusent of my nieces and older sister
Lynette

:hug: for you Julia and all those people who need prayer in their time of need.

Lynette

We wrote at school using a pen with a nib using ink, and each day or week you would stand in a line and get the ink well filled.
The Beatles, with Elivs Presley, Cliff Richard, were the latest rock and rollers.
It was safe to accept sweets from a stranger.
A penny bought you lots of things.
We were given fresh fruit and milk every day at school.
And South Africa was still 50 years behind the rest of the world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lynette

I am sitting in the corner sulking, no one wants to visit me, now I am pulling a tongue at all of you, so I will not share my part of Africa with you or show you my new grand child when he/she arrives.

I will thou when a teddy bear show takes me to that part of the world plan to make a detour and pop in and visit whoever lives nearby. I also have my brother living in Australia and a very good friend in New Zealand.

Lynette

Here are some pictures of what I have found in my house , also what I received from Cape Mohair Spinning mills,(South Africa) which I have not tried to felt.
Perhaps someone can also help identify as it looks like every country has its own name.
Thanks

Lynette.

Top Picture tag on wool/roving- what do you call it? wool or roving, reads- Mohair Tops Composition 100% Mohair Count: 37/8 micron Shade Ecru
next picture , tag reads Mohair Sconed or could be Scored(bad writing) Composition 100% Mohair Count: 37/8 micron Shade Ecru, Both these are from South Africa, the second piece has lots of curly  bits in, almost like locks for  dolls hair, this is very soft to the touch, both also very silky it  touch.

Next picture is wool I bought in Germany, Label on packets reads "Schafwolle Sudamerika"- this could be more like the batt. was bought in a 500 gramm packets for 4.25 euros.

Next picture  Pink- typical looking rope/roving - must be a dyed wool- silky to touch.

Last picture- was supplied in a kit, more rough and is what I am using in Judi's class at the moment for my needle sculturing. Seems to be ok, not sure how it will hold the paint when we have to add paint hi lighs.

Lynette

Thanks for all the lovely comments.

Judi Lauren is 13 weeks now, with the baby due in July (23rd) latest due date. Lynette

My daughter says the baby is going to be a girl, heartbeat is very high, and baby is very active, Lauren is having bad bouts of morning sickness, hence her saying its a girl. We think the next scan will tell us the sex. !!!!
I like the name Emily, everyone say erggggg. So hence the bear being called Emily.
This was a last minute decision to enter for the Toby, and she is a plain bear, no fancy frills.

Lynette.

testing 1,2,3,

saw a stunning entry and learnt something new

Lynette

Time to enjoy a cup of tea and read this joke, thought most of us would could relate to it.
Lynette

Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I would taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store it was less a walk than a lumber.
I remembered the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rare,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "None for me, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt---
I said to myself, as only I can
"You can't spend another winter disguised as a man!"
So -- away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie -- not even a lick.
I'll chew only on long celery sticks.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, life's no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

My wool/roving arrived back with "grumpy" hubby today, so over the weekend I am going to poke it and see how it works. (Hubby decides that January is his get slim trim month, so he does not have his usual beer to drink, also he is a keen mountain bike rider and marathon runner so hence him being a Mr GRUMPY) The mohair piece looks stunning, very silky in appearance.
I even went as far as taking a few darker pieces of wool, felted that and added it onto the paw pads of an Alpaca bear that I am getting ready to take to Japan, so Judi and TT Chatters you have already got my fingers poking away, thank you for sharing and giving me the encouragement to try out a new venture.

Lynette

Yea Nancy, I entered, last minute desicion, after seeing all the comments from here. I entered into the dressed , large bear. Nothing fancy thou, just a bear, and seeing Shelli's stunning ballerina, ermmmmm

Dance Ballerina Dance
Lynette

Not too sure about the picture taking for the competitions, I took the photo's using my digital camera, then took the  thingy inside , well the camera and that down to the local picture place.I asked him why he could print out the pictures and they would be accepted and why my pictures printed at home would not be. My one question being, did the judges think that I would , use the programs available to touch up the photograph.
Anyway he looked at me and said , well first of all our machines costs $1.5 million,whereas your machine costs $500, also its a laser printer.
I must say I was impressed with the quality of the print, I did think that my pictures looked stunning printed out on my printer , but these did look good, and it was easy. Took an hour to get developed and was not that expensive.
Last year I ran around looking for a photographer, pictures were OK, but colours looked flat, I also had to take the whole spool, and waited about 10 days to get them and it was expensive.
And thats my picture story .
Lynette.

My dear Judi,
My heart goes out to you,and you have to put on a brave face for your children.Its makes one so maddddddd, when we have to say goodbye to a loved one for whatever reason.
From my side of the world I send you a big HUG :hug:
Lynette

If I promise to do it quietly, may I boast - just a little please?   

WEY HEY!!!!!!    quoted by Paula

Now Paula, you made so much noise I had to come and see what was happening  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paula you one very talented bear artist
Well done on the feature.

lynette

Paula and Dilu,
I also like Paula logged on and got the pattern and the notes for the class, and got as far as tracing off the pattern. This afternoon I want to cut out the mohair.
Most of the morning was spent trying to find out if we have the "raw " wool in South Africa. I have learnt  about microns- thickness of fibre,  we buy all of our wool from Australia, but we produce all of the mohair in the Eastern Cape, but no alpaca. I will have to go to the Wool Mills for the wool roving and lucky for me my husband is in Port Elizabeth for a meeting and I spoke to a Jared Shear- now how can a Mr Shear work at a Wool Mill, I ask you, anyway he will kindly put some samples into a bag and hopefully hubby will find time to go and collect them for me. This way I will be able to see if it is the same that I have bought when overseas.He will give me mohair, wool and a blend of the two. Needles I will still purchase overseas, and will look at the address you mention Dilu.
The one person I spoke to knew all about wet wool felting, but nothing about needle felting, and has asked me to send her a picture- I do have some small bears that I did when sitting at shows and that was as far as I ever got with it, so have a kind of idea , or should I say I know all about bleeding fingers.

Another day to live and learn.
Lynette.

Thanks for the info, never knew that, live and learn everyday.
Lynette

this is the one me, the one who did not eat what she should have eaten , who drank fruit juice and more fruit juice, ( its was just so yummy) who did not bother with eating the right portions ( was too lazy)( too stressed)
result: weight stayed exactly the same

this is the other me, I did run/walk for 5 days, ( I had to do something) I did only weigh myself once.

I am tackling some needle felting and joining in Judi's class, so TT is getting me onto the right track, and  its the 9th of January, thank you gals and guys (are their guys????) I am enjoying myself, learning, and most of all getting so much more encouragement in my bear making.
  Lynette

I am doing the teddy bear dance  :dance:  :dance:  :dance: because I am finally unsquished, Quy, I called my service provider, and they suggested that instead of me clicking on the link I had created on my desk top for TT, that I type in the address and go connect that way, the first time it did not work.
so I deleted everything connected to TT on my pc, links, it all, and started once again, deleted my squishy picture, added the new one Jane did for me, and then created a new TT address, and at first the old picture came up, then I sat here , cleared out the cookies, history under my tools, then hit shift/refresh, still old picture popped up, repeated, the clear out of cookies, history, shift/refresh twice more, and VOILA the new picture popped up.  was determined that I would get this right, it has been bugging me, not that I was concerned about seeing me, but the fact that it was something that was not working, now I can get on with things that matter BEAR things, thank you all that have had your imput here, and a BIG hug for Jane who has put up with me , I am sure Jane must have thought- silly batt everyone can see the right thing, what is wrong with her , she must need a new pair of glasses.
Lynette

Well I am all still squished up on my pc. As Jane says what a word "squished" so we must be in a time bubble floating somewhere under the sea or in outer space. I cannot understand this, as when I upload pictures , it loads immediately, but somehow, when a picture already exists on the sytem, and it has to be changed it seems to lagg behind from my side. The same happened when I changed my avatar, it took ages before I could get the new picture uploaded and the old one deleted.
My son-in-law checked my pc settings and that is right, I have cleared out all my temp internet files, so unless my service provider has not cleared out their cache, I will have to wait.

Lynette

Judi, I climbed into my cupboard yesterday as I thought along my travels I had bought something that I think could be  batt,  its called " Schafwolle ". Placed an order for more needles,  not sure what I actually have and how to tell the difference as they are not marked except for the 40S, so being a good girl and getting ready for the BIG class.Getting all excited now and looking forward to it all.

Lynette

Fran which overlockers do you have ? If you give me the model I will try and tell you a bit more as to how to thread them.

Often when re threading , what can happen is that you do not pull the threads through the top tensions, they look like they are passing through but they are not, so I suggest when you thread,  take all  3/4/5/ threads , threaded through the needles, in your left hand, and then all the threads from the  cotton reels  in your right hand and give a gentle tug in both directions, this will make sure that the threads have passed through the tension disks.

When you have also re threaded, always turn the flywheel by hand for the first few stitches, before using the foot pedal, if everything is working then you can feed through  the material and sew.

Fran- tension will also differ with the different types of fabric you stitch on, sometimes you will have to move your cutting blade- people often adjust tension when it is a matter of moving the blade.

Also  watch the thread you are using- normally on an overlocker you will be using a polycotton, which will have stretch in it, but watch out for old thread- as it will snap. Also if using 100% cotton thread, cotton looses moisture and will snap, spay a little water onto the thread and this will  give it a bit of stretch.

Lynette