Saxon Shmerpi (my last available Shmerpi for now) is off to Portugal to a new home. As requested by his new owner, he’ll be taking a cat softie with him instead of the original elephant. In return, one of these cute cats made by the very talented Carina will be making her way across the seas to my home - so looking forward to it!

I also managed to make a little fleece monkey for Carina’s newborn son using the monkey pattern from this Aranzi Aronzo book (with a bit of tweaking here and there). I’ll be sending some fabric pieces that I hope Carina will like plus some delicious Aussie chocolates :-)

I’m itching to make more Shmerpi creatures. I’m currently sketching up ideas for the new Shmerpi creatures for Morphe II - will share them soon!

P.S. This little rabbit is still available for a softie swap if anyone is interested :-)

I’m slowly working my way through my To-Do list. A friend’s daughter recently turned 2 and I was going to try my hand at making one of Aranzi Aronzo’s kitties from this book. However, the little gem that is Hilary Lang’s Wee Wonderful’s Put Together Book No.1 (that’s a mouthful!) arrived in my mail box the other day and I just had to try the kitty pattern.

I cannot emphasize enough how easy it was put this little kitty together - the instructions, diagrams and patterns itself are straight-forward and easy to understand, plus there are some great tips scattered throughout the booklet. The great thing is that there are patterns for 3 softies and there can be endless variationsof each - definitely a good investment!

So here is my first WW-Put-Together Kitty. She’s made of soft suede twill, courduroy and wool felt. She was a lot of fun to make and I’m sure I’ll be going back to the booklet many, many times in the future.

Next on my list is to put togther a swap package for a very talented crafter in Portugal (details to follow soon!) and to make a monkey-softie for a friend’s son. Oh, and to start working on more Shmerpi creatures!

Wow - it seems like ages since I’ve posted anything! Amidst the chaos that is being a Mum to a newborn and a toddler, I’ve managed to do a little crafting. A few months ago I promised my god-daughter a bear softie. I found a great furry/stretchy fabric called feather-something (sorry, can’t rmember the actual name!) last month at the local fabric shop and thought it would be a good base for the bear. I eventually finished the bear a few weeks ago but didn’t have any ideas how I was going to dress her.

My god-daughter loves purple so I had to incorporate that colour into the clothing and this is what I came up with - she still doesn’t have any shoes as I can’t decide whether they should be purple or green (to match the button and ribbon) - I’m so indecisive at the moment!

After I finished the bear, I tried my hand at a rabbit in the same style. I managed to finish her outfit in one sitting and here she is - Rosa the Rabbit:

Her ears are actually really floppy (I had to prop them up in the photo) and I like the way she looks more ‘traditional’.

Rosa is currently up for adoption via a swap if anyone is interested. I’ve still got more of that feather-something fabic so hope to make one more softie in this style for another swap in the future.

Thank you so much for the wonderful comments I received on my last post. We’re all adjusting to being a family of four and, needless to say, very little crafting has been done! I did, however, want to post the Back-Tack 3 package that I received from the very talented Amy B while I was in the hospital.

What a cute little softie! And check-out the outfit and little necklace! :-) She also included some badges, a great chocolate recipe book (how did she know I am a chocoholic??), and some very cute small envelopes. The softie was the first she’s made and I think she’s done a fantastic job - thanks so much Amy!

Another surprise that came via my Inbox is an email from Carly confirming that my Shmerpi creatures will be included in the upcoming Morphe II Soft Toy Exhibition in Adelaide. I was in shock when I read the email - I had submitted an application with no expectation of being accepted as a participant. It’s such a wonderful encouragement for me and will be the first exhibition I’ll be participating in. I’m hoping to make five special Shmerpi creatures for the event - which is a great excuse to do a bit of online fabric shopping :-) You can see all the participants here.