A Little Boaring...

Last week my son showed me a picture of a cute stuffed toy, a wild boar piglet.  It was being sold by an unknown company somewhere overseas and he didn't want to chance it.  So I said 'I bet I could make one of those'.

So I did.  I adapted a pattern I found in a magazine for an ordinary pink piglet - had to change the head, alter the tail, put the trotters on the right way round(!) and add the stripes.

 I used some remnants of a velvety fur fabric that I bought a couple of years ago, not knowing what I would do with them.  The whole thing is hand sewn because this fabric is a nightmare to sew on the machine - it slips and slides all over the place.

This is a one off for my baby granddaughter - I am not planning on making any more, too time consuming and fiddly and besides, I don't have any more of the fabric to spare!

Finished!

After weeks, nay months, of work in the evenings, this crochet blanket/throw is finally complete.  It has turned out beautifully!  I knew when I bought the yarn cakes that I wanted a stitch to show off the fabulous colour mix and luckily a simple zig-zag did just that.

I wasn't sure about putting tassels on the points, but decided to give it a go, using the brighter colours in the same order as the stripes, and it was the right decision.  This is such a lovely blanket, even though I say so myself.  It will be for sale in my Etsy shop soon - I am having difficulty getting decent photos of it due to bad weather and the sheer size of the thing!  If you'd like to nip in and get it before I list it, just give me a shout!
 

In other news, I have been sewing yet more Otises - these three are already spoken for and I have further orders to complete.  What started off as a silly experiment really snowballed and I have lost count of how many stuffed bears I have made over the past 3 years.  Thankfully I still enjoy doing them!

On the drawing board - I am now booked up until about Christmas.  I am currently painting a couple more Otis trinket boxes that have been commissioned and I have three bear paintings to do.  The first 2 are for the winner of the American Travel Guide magazine's summer competition - the lady couldn't decide which bear she wanted me to paint so has commissioned me to paint a second one so that she can have both!

It is great to be busy once again - the summer was dismal, both weather-wise and mentally and my creativity almost disappeared.  Being 'forced' to paint and make things to a deadline has kicked my backside back into action, haha!

Bear Cubs & Boxes...

I completed this last week - bear 435 Holly and her cub, using a photograph that Ranger Naomi at Katmai National Park took last year.  This cub is now ten times the size!  This was painted in watercolour on paper. It was snapped up within minutes of me posting it online and is now winging it's way to Spain.

I've also been working on another painted trinket box - this one is a prize in the American magazine Travel Guide summer competition.  The painting on the lid is of Otis, winner of this year's Fat Bear contest.  I assembled it yesterday after lining it.

I think you will agree, I found the perfect fabric to put inside - loads of fish for Otis to snack on!

 This box is already spoken for but I will be making a couple more at some point between now and Christmas.  I can't say when - they are very labour intensive and I have to fit them in around other work.