One and a bit completed creations

OK, so it won't set the world on fire, but I've FINISHED a bear!
She was made as a belated birthday gift for a dear friend who always wanted to be choir leader.
So what better bear to make?
The birthday had come and gone unbeknownst to me (she is a new friend, but it's like we are twins...)...so in the need for speed I admit to cutting corners.
SO... I omitted paw pads on the arms.
I used a head I had already made (no ears though....).
and because i couldn't find the piece of material I used for the head (I save all my tiny pieces, which works well - until one needs to re-find a piece) ..I used Ultrasuede for the ears.
The medal was a tiny jewellery finding I had in my stash.

The head is jointed using the traditional cotter pin joint, and the limbs are jointed using small quilting buttons.


Isn't it just so annoying when you look at photos you take and see things you missed when you just looked with you eyes ....I see a sneaky bit of the stuffing sneaking out through an arm...and I am sure I could have sewn the "medal" on more invisibly...but in my usual inimitable way (*grin*) I was finishing this at the last minute..

This will give an indication of the size of the bear...(and of the state of my hands!!)


As I said, she won't set the world on fire, but she makes me smile (you can see, if you look closely, that she is grinning - I try to have all my bears with a smile!), and it does feel good to actually FINISH something!

I may EVEN finish something else this week (wow!!)...
I've been doing a sampler beaded art doll on one of my Yahoo groups - Beaded Art Dolls.
This has been a HUGE learning curve - not least in discovering that maybe I am not cut out to be a beader!!
This was my initial idea...

Then I did the face - in size 15 TINY beads!!! And strangely, I discovered that, although I was dreading this part, I actually quite enjoyed the exercise! My colour choice was a bit odd though...*grin*

Each "stripe" is a different technique for adding beads...
One at a time; small on large; "moss" stitch, small tubular beads (? the brain has gone...!!!..BUGLE BEADS !! blame it on my age!!) with a seed bead at each end ..
Then there is cross stitch, and the bottom one will be back stitch, 5 beads at a time.
I'm enjoying being taken outside my "comfort zone", but I will never abandon the bears!!