Rupert

Rupert is my latest Artist Bear and he’s all ready for the snow and cold weather we’re having at the moment with that lovely thick scarf around his neck! I knitted the scarf using a beautiful variegated double-knit wool called ‘Drops Big Delight’ - the scarf has a tiny passport charm pinned to it with a rusty style pin and has rusty style bells at the ends and the finishing touch is his rusty old lantern so that he can see where he’s going in the dark!

Rupert is made from Steiff Schulte cotton fabric with faux leather for his paw pads. He has black glass eyes and is filled with the usual firm fibre fill and steel shot for a good bit of weight. He has then been aged with oil pastels. Rupert is 5-way cotter jointed and measures 12¼ inches/31cms top to toe and 9½ inches/24cms sitting.

On his back you can see the fabric ‘Handmade at Bilberry Lane’ label and a unique antique style ‘BL’ pin.

I do hope you like him!

Rupert can be adopted for £60, plus shipping and packaging

UK - £8 Special Delivery

Europe - £15, tracked and signed for

Worldwide - £20, tracked and signed for

If you would like any further information, please email me at:-

bilberrylane@hotmail.co.uk

EDIT: Rupert has now been adopted - thank you!

Thanks for looking

xxxx

Meryl's bears

That's the best title I can come up with I'm afraid! These two are a pair of commissioned bears for; yes you've guessed, a lady by the name of Meryl.

The story is that a few of my bears were spotted by 'the bride' earlier in the year in a posh Tearoom near to me. They’ve been taking a few of the bears and selling them amongst a small line of gifts they sell – the Afternoon Teas are sublime by the way!! I've only been about ten times so far LOL

Anyway, as I say they were spotted; and I don't know how it came about, but Meryl became aware and somehow discovered my email address and then contacted me ......... the bears were to be a surprise! No pressure there then!!! Thankfully, I had about 3 months to compete them, which was just as well and I managed it just before I moved house recently ......... that gave me enough headaches in itself :0(
…….. talk about living a stressful life!!! Anyway, the wedding took place recently so now I can show them. I've also since had a message from Meryl to say they were very much loved by the bride ....... phew!!!!

In all the stress of moving and getting the bears in the post, I forgot to measure them, but they were from a regularly used pattern so are approximately 9 - 10 inches top to toe and made from one of my favourite viscose fabrics in a lovely pale gold colour. I then had to source some very fine netting for the veil, which I also used for the skirt part of the dress so that you can still see the beauty of the bear fabric. The little headdress was incredibly tricky to wire up, but looked fine in the end. 'His' waistcoat is made from a lovely blue piece of fabric from my woolly stash - blue was the theme apparently.

I’ve just remembered; I do actually know their initials V & P, as Meryl asked me to embroider them somewhere on the bears – this is NOT a terribly good shot of the initialed paw pads!!

So, there you go - two bears in one! I hope you like them.

Ella

Yes, I know it’s been a while (again!!), but I have a good reason. I’ve recently moved house, so enough said – anyone who has been through the process will understand. I’m still dealing with paperwork, but I’m getting there!

Anyway, just before the move, I almost managed to get this little lady finished; and now she is complete. Her name is Ella and she’s a gift for a special lady who I’ve worked closely with for about the last 8 – 9 years and she has just retired …… and since I first started making them, she’s always taken a keen interest in my bears, so it was a natural choice.

I haven’t actually given Ella yet (I hope to very soon), but I think I’m safe, as I don’t think said lady reads my blog.

Anyway, Ella is my second bear using the beautifully soft curly Steiff Schulte Mohair fabric, although a different colour, plus faux nubuck fabric for the paw pads. Again, I have made her a lovely pair of dungarees, except this time I’ve used a genuine vintage fabric (a lovely pale blue with a pretty pink floral pattern) which I picked up several years ago at a vintage fair and has been in my stash ever since. They may be dungarees, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be trimmed with a bit of bling does it .......... aren't they sweet!

Around the back, you can see the bag I’ve made for her, which holds her latest canvas, because she is an ‘Artist’ bear in the true sense of the word! There is a theme you see, as said lady took up painting some years ago, so Ella is an artist; hence also the art palette charm around her neck.

Ella stands 13½ inches / 35cms top to toe and 9½ inches / 24cms sitting and has the fabric ‘Handmade at Bilberry Lane’ label and the metal ‘BL’ pin at the back. She is filled with the usual firm fibre fill and steel shot for weight. She has black glass eyes, with white felt behind them and is slightly aged a little with oil pastel.

I hope you like her!

Month 8 - Log Cabins

I'm back again! I'm considering these 4 Log Cabin blocks as the last ones really, as the only other blocks are the 4 corner pieces, which are just plain pieces of fabric (no sewing together tiny bits of fabric!). I do love Log Cabins - one day I shall do a quilt entirely made up of them ....... one day!! LOL

So which way around do you like log cabin blocks? Not that there's a choice: I have to lay them out according to the pattern.

So, apart from the 4 corner blocks, there will just be sewing all the blocks together(ONLY!!!) and then add the borders.

It's looking good!

Crossing Ohio!

No, I’m not crossing Ohio, that’s the name of block 7 of my Summertime Delight BOM by Totally Patched! LOL

I wonder where they get the names from for these blocks?? Last month’s was called ‘Meadow Star’.

And just in case you were wondering; I have been bear making too, however, I’m working on two commission bears, which will be a surprise for the recipient and I have no idea whether she looks at my blog, so I won’t be able to show them until later on.

Going back to the blocks, there are just 4 more of the Log cabin blocks to put together – I have received them and have made a start, so perhaps they’ll be finished soon too! Here's a photo of the blocks so far. Try to imagine the other four Log Cabins and that will just leave four plain blocks for the corners and it'll be done!

And if your imagination isn't so good, here is Totally Patched's picture of the finished quilt!

Next installment - Summertime Delight BOM

I forget which month I'm on now - month six I think!

It was a bit tricky with so many smallish squares - but the measurements are correct! Mind you, if I thought these were small, I'm not looking forward to the next one (Totally Patched sent two Blocks together this time) ............. just look at all of those little 1½ inch squares :0( 

How lucky am I?

This fabulous Kim Diehl complete quilt kit arrived today, costing me not a penny! A lady (a lovely generous lady) who I follow on Instagram last week decided she really needed a clear out of her fabric stash (it was very big!). She had offered the kit to somebody else who was after reproduction fabrics; and I asked that if the other person didn't want the kit, would she tell me how much she wanted for it, as I was interested. Well, how surprised was I when she got back to me saying she would send it to me (at no charge). I can't tell you how grateful I am; but of course now I need to do justice to such a fabulous addition to my fabric stash!! That'll be in between working full-time, making teddy bears etc. etc...............

I won't give the lady's name on here, as I don't know whether that's okay, but isn't she super kind?

A pressie for me!!

Just a quikkie before I head off to bed!

Simone over at Linden Grove didn't waste any time in getting these lovely paper craft gifts off to me! Aren't they lovely? Three lovely gift tags and a very amusing frog bookmark. The cat and owl tags have some really nice detail on them such as the stamps and the butterfly. I can see what will happen of course ...... I won't use them, because I'll consider them too nice to give away LOL. This was a little 'thank you' from Simone having reached her 1000th blog post and I, together with a couple of other blog friends have followed her blog almost from the outset in 2008 - 9 years as 'bloggie' friends!!

Thanks again Simone!

I also thought you might like to see two more of the sally Shopper bags I made - my sister-in-law asked me to make four for her to give as Christmas presents to friends. The other two are the same as the original one I made for myself - do you remember it in the lovely marina fabric?

Here's the original 'marina' one again - which one do you like best?

Delia

Here’s a cute little girl – Delia! She’s a bit larger than my usual bears standing top to toe at 13¼inches / 34cms and 9¼inches / 23cms sitting.

Delia has been made from the most beautifully soft curly Steiff Schulte Mohair fabric, with faux nubuck fabric for the paw pads. Her dungarees are made from a vintage shade of pink 100% cotton fabric. They have old gold style buckles and a front pocket. The bottom of the dungaree legs are trimmed with pink flower lace and around her pretty head is a deep wine colour raw silk ribbon and she is finished with a bottle of pink pearls around her neck. I’ve also added the fabric ‘Handmade at Bilberry Lane’ label and the metal ‘BL’ pin to her dungarees.

Delia is filled with the usual firm fibre fill and steel shot for a good bit of weight. She has black glass eyes, with white felt behind them. Lastly, she is slightly aged a little with oil pastel.

Delia can be purchased for £70, plus shipping and packing:

UK - £10 Special Delivery

Europe - £15, tracked and signed for

Worldwide - £22, tracked and insured

If you would like any further information, please email me at:-

bilberrylane@hotmail.co.uk 

Thanks for looking

Summertime Delight - month 6

I was getting on so well with my Summertime Delight BOM ………. and then they (they being ‘Totally Patched’) sneakily snook in some EPP (English Paper Piecing) – 88 1½inch hexxies! 

Thank you very much!! First I had to cut out 88 cardboard templates; then tack 88 pieces of fabric on to the 88 pieces of cardboard (at least the fabric was pre-cut!) and then 22 darling little hexxies stitched together into heart shapes x 4 …….. AND then the 4 hearts appliquéd on to background fabrics. Okay, normally I love hand-stitching and appliqué, but part of the joy of this BOM quilt was that I could crack on with it quickly each month as it popped through the letterbox with my sewing machine ..... not with my hands!! Still, here it is; all done and back on track. 

There’s not too much more to go now. Four more log cabins, four plain corners and two fancier blocks, plus the borders. It’s looking good!!!!

And just in case you’re thinking I’ve gone of bear making, here’s a sneaky peak at my current creation – approximately half done. Still loving my bears - absolutely!!

I hope to have it completed by the end of the week because (joy of joys) I have a week off work!

A nearly finished quilt!

Well, I've been a bit slow on the bears lately you may or may not have noticed. That's because 11 weeks ago I set myself the task of completing a quilt for my dear sister-in-law's birthday, which was today. Ruth was celebrating her 60th birthday, which I have had great pleasure in teasing her about, seeing she is 3 years older than me LOL ......... although I know full well she'll get me back when I reach the same age!! Anyway, I amazed myself at how well I've done, even though it's not quite finished. Bear in mind the applique (and there's quite a lot of it) and the quilting is all done by hand - yes, I'm a glutton for punishment!!

Anyway, even though not finished, I handed it over to Ruth; and after much admiration of it by everyone, I took it back from her so that I can finish the quilting. It was a secret up until today, but now that she's seen it, I can 'show & tell'!!

The sunflowers are in memory of my wonderful brother who we tragically lost 6 years ago, because those were his favourite flower; and the inclusion of them meant a lot to Ruth.

And labelled of course!

And to finish off, a few 'birthday tea' photos, including Charlie (Ruth's pup) who just couldn't get close enough to that beautiful cake - isn't he sooooo cute? I'm not going to put a picture of Ruth on, as I don't have her permission and she may not wish to appear on my blog, but Charlie won't mind!!