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Posts: 8,574Yeah Judi!!!!! Thank You Thank You
What we have on this site is the Louvre of teddies!
Remember you are putting the pictures up to inspire us therefore it more than fits in with the website purpose....ah who cares; keep them coming all of you!
Dilu
Hey did you guys add spell check just for me? Mostly my problem is this .....patch. I tried it the spell check and had to have it skip almost every word it pulled up- it wanted "daddies" for teddies....I mean, get real!
You can get your own free spell checker for Internet Explorer at www.ieSpell.com. You can add words/names/etc to the dictionary as you go. Just right click the box you are typing in and choose 'check spelling'.
Dale
LuxembearsDale is like the Shell Answer Man! Dale, you're better than the yellow pages. Great to have you here!
Dilu, I think your spelling is right on...at least I have not seen any errors...(I'm a typo queen ).
Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments. If you make any real fur bears please share them with us. I love pictures!
Donna, the mink bear is 18" tall. She is made from a mink stole also...but a fairly good sized one. What I do is lay out the muslin pieces on the back side of the fur to make sure everything fits before cutting.:D
Judi Sugar Babe gal,
Thanks so much for the encouragement! I'll be giving 'er a try soon! And I have to say "WOW!" I've always admired your bears -- you do awesome work!!
Hey Dale,
Did you guys just add the Spell Check button for Dilu? Or was it there all along? I just noticed it! 
Quy, the behind-the-scenes-tech-genius-guy, added the Spell Checker on the sly last weekend. He didn't mention adding it specifically for patchy Dilu, but then, he's a politically correct kind of guy as far as I can tell...!!! :P:P:P
Actually, as we were starting the board up and tossing around ideas about how to make it friendly and fabulous and fun, Dale mentioned that it might be nice to have a spell check feature. So we have both Quy AND Dale to thank...
Winneybears and FriendsI found something that makes a great " fur picker outer " I use a seam ripper...but use the longer prong end the opposite way to pull the fur out with ( not against the sharp slot )...it is avantageous because you have something firm like a handle to grip onto.
Around the foot or paw pad I find if you slide that point under the fur and draw the fur out going in the "opposite" direction instead of popping it up and out.... it comes out better....try it, it works for me...Winney
Posts: 8,574Great Idea Winney!
I have several seam rippers that are too dull for ripping seams. Its hard to believe you can wear out a seam ripper. I'll be tackleing my second of three sable bears tomarrow.
Timely advice too!
Dilu
Winneybears and FriendsI wasn't too sure if I described that well enough for the readers, anyone have any questions ?
Another thing I found out that helps to get that linning out faster is instead of picking each thread out with a seam ripper ,I lay the stole on the patio table outside flat ( fur down ) then I carefully rip open a small section to get started
Lay your open scissor blade flat but UP against the cloth / stitching line ( not the fur ) hold the stole a little taunt and slide that blade against the stitches ...you can really seperate that linening a lot faster.
Sometimes it works and sometimes the fur garment is stitched together in such a way that you can't do this easily, like everything else that has its variables ............Winney
Posts: 8,574Hi everybody- Winney great idea-I do it on the floor- but that's basically because I'm a lazybuttbear. I don't want to have to clean the table first. I vacuume every single morning, without fail- but with 2 cats, 1 parrot, one husband ( they wont let me have more!) and umpteen teds hanging around I have to vacuume or get lost in the furfuzzhair.
And don't forget to consider using the lining, if its in good condition, for pads and inner ears. Some of the linings are absolutely beautiful.
Dilu
You vacuum EVERY DAY???
Winneybears and FriendsGreat toon Shelli, he, he....my daughter in law vacumes everyday too but she is a bit of a fussy housekeeper..Winney
Baird'sBearsMy sentiments exactly Shelli :D
The only person I know who vacuums every day is my sister in Missouri, who has 8 border collies (she runs a rescue service) and 6 horses (not in house, but . . .)
I have to go over the carpets with a wire brush before vacuuming. Maybe if I tried vacuuming more often?
Eileen
Posts: 8,574Shelli, Winney, Eileen.
You guys made me laugh Especially the toon- been taking lessons from Dale?
I have bad allergies and like Winney I have a bit of a lung problem so this helps keep the dander and dust down, and enables me to keep my live fur babies.
Also I have a very small house- less than 1000 square feet. And a good portion of those feet are round since the house is round. 
I call this "choosing your battles" and am willing to pay the price, of oh say 20 min a day, to get the benefit-like breathing...
Dilu
Baird'sBearsWell said, Dilu :)
You're right, of course. I've got an old 3-storey 5 bedroom barn which I love, but it takes all day to vacuum, what with the clutter and emptying the bagless compartment and whacking the stuff out of the hepa filter every few minutes.
Still--now that I know (Judi?) that it's possible to felt fur fluff and doggy/kitty/rabbit hair, I might try harder.
I took a two-day cold turkey break from bearing, just to clean up, and I think I've opened enough space to get the vacuum cleaner through. Maybe 30 minutes of cleaning for 1 hour of bearing? Sounds fair enough. Or two hours of bearing, if I really move! :lol:
Eileen
Posts: 8,574Eileen,
Yikes! your house sounds wonderfully huge.....I don't blame you one little bit.
Felting kitty fur? Are you serious? When we brush these little guys 
we get handfulls-I've been throwing it away! What was I thinking?!?!?!:rolleyes:
Dilu
Baird'sBearsI've never actually needle-felted, but I've got some needles and wool roving. I need to learn more, though. I take it that guard hairs don't work, but I need to find out how short the usable bits can be. :/
Yes, it's a big house, built in 1911--we bought big 26 years ago, when the house needed a LOT of work and the neighborhood was very, very unfashionable--full of Eastern European immigrants who, in those days, scared the good citizens of uptight Toronto. But we loved the house, and the 400-acre park less than a block away and, for that matter, the neighbors! I've been renovating/restoring inch by inch ever since. Now we have 3 grown children, including one son-in-law at home, plus all their furniture, cats, etc. They couldn't afford apartments AND full-time school. The one daughter living downtown left all her old furniture behind and bought new!! (Anybody need furniture?) 
I work in a fixed-up corner of the basement with my plant nursery and my bear stuff and my computer and my currently gridlocked woodworking shop. I did have the laundry room, but my youngest couldn't study in her room, which is full of noisy animals, so . . . she learned to study and do laundry at the same time! I've got a cold room for furs and all sorts of random storage. Emphasis on the random--an ancient sideboard, assorted chests of drawers, plastic boxes, baskets. My plant nursery sits on an old cast iron Bi-Oven that came with the house--gas burners and a woodburning oven. Bizarro-Shop!
I'm working up to spring cleaning, though. I have an audiobook called "Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean". I think it counts to listen to that!!
Eileen
LuxembearsI HATE HOUSE CLEANING. I have a cleaning lady who comes every other week to clean my bathrooms and do all our floors....we recently added a 900 sq ft to our house.....but I do do the laundry, and the vaccuuming and take care of three kids, one who is 2 1/2, and help with our cows when needed(cows!!!! now that is work..eeehhhh)...having someone come in to clean was my hubby's idea so I could have more time to work on my art/bears. But I find myself cleaning ..a lot... just before she comes ....LOL LOL LOL! Well, at least it gets our house cleaned.
I can't beleive how much cats can shed!!!!! Our 9 pound dog does not shed at all but the cats!!!!! We have a short haired and a long haired cat, two of them. They each are bigger than our dog. I have not tried felting thier fur but I think I may give it go just to see what happens.
Eileen , you don't need to cut up the fur fibers. If youknow how to 'card' , that would remove the guard hairs. I don't know how to do carding and don't even want to try. What I would do is just have at it....just needle felt the brushings from my cat and if any guard hairs are sticking out , then cut them off flush with your work. I have needle felted arctic fox fur and is was quite slippery to work with , unlike most wool. It worked okay but I like wool more.
Baird'sBearsThanks, Judi, I'll try 'er. Fortunately for my lacerated fingers, I've got lots of foam chunks left over from reupholstering. And the hubs asked why I didn't throw it away. Hahahaha. Vindication!!! I guess it came as rather a shock to a reasonable man, when his wife announced out of the blue that she'd decided to become a bear artist, and started buying fur coats and glass eyes. He's doing pretty well, all considered.
I've been experimenting with carding, using 2 old dog brushes (vindication again!!). It seems to work. I'd like to be able to add accents to bears, not necessarily to make whole animals.
Judi, I think that if you're caring for 3 kids plus dog, cats, cows (love cows) and husband, PLUS making those glorious bears, you ought to get FREE housekeeping from somebody. I had a housekeeper for a time in another life (married to Mr. Wrong in Houston), but she wasn't altogether right in the head (played hide the can opener, etc.). 
Unfortunately, she was the only one I could find who would put up with a rather cranky German Shepherd.
Great advice about the guard hairs!! I'd hate to have to pick them out. Whiskers ditto?
Rabbits are the worst shedders, but long-haired cats are supershedders--they have the best-developed undercoats. I have one that's long-haired in the winter and short-haired in the summer. Two other long-hairs and two short-hairs. You can imagine the mess. At this season I dump enough hair from my vacuum cleaner to make a whole new cat . . . had to get a hardbody vac because the Jack Russell Terrorist kept attacking the fabric-bodied one.
Eileen
Posts: 8,574You guys are too funny. I bought a needle felting kit but haven't opened it yet. I guess I could at least read the instructions....now let me see, we do the needle felting after the fur is off the cats?:lol:
Here kitty... kitty... kitty
Dilu
Relax PETA People....I was joking....;)
Baird'sBears:lol: Dilu, you are a riot, girl--made me drop my glass eye!!! :lol:
Actually, it's hard enough to brush my collie/g. shepherd (cats are ok), much less needlefelt her. She's very touchy about her fur (wonder why?). Her tail hasn't been properly brushed in 14 years! We just do a sort of combover to hide the tangles. This summer, however, she's going to a groomer for a serious trim, and I want the leavings.
Come to think of it, has anyone thought of asking a groomer for the shorn fur? I might even pick up a broom for that.
Eileen
