Anyway.... With four little girls in my life from my darling Grandaughter, Victoria, and her best friend, Sophia, to my very good friends just turned 1 year old, Kaelyn, to my cutest niece ever living in the Netherlands, Roxie, I have tons of opportunity to sew some very fun stuff!
When my daughter was pregnant I purchased a soft toy book, Flip Dolls & Other Toys that zip, stack,hide, grab & go by Laura Wilson. It is a great book full of soft toys that 'do' something. There are so many cute things to make!! One that really caught my eye was 'Peekaboo Turtle' "your little turtle comes out of her she'll to say hello! Make a few extra shells for your turtle -- even reptiles need options." Now, with a description like that how could I not make a slew of these little turtles for the little ladies in my life.
So after thinking about it a bit, I figured I would make 3 turtles and 6 shells for each little one. <<Sigh>> what was I actually thinking???? I claim temporary insanity!!
The templates in the book are quite nice and easily laid out all with needing enlarged by 200%. The directions are written quite clearly with only one major issue that I have found.... I can't seam to find ANYWHERE in the book that states what seam allowance to use!! I just went with an assumed 1/4inch but only after wasting a lot of time looking for the information. Other than that I really like this book filled with fun little projects!
On to the turtles... This meant that I committed to making 12 turtles and 24 shells. I spent an afternoon going through my stash picking out fabrics for the wee turtles and the shells. I used all stash fabrics and batting pieces for all of them! I then spent an ETERNITY cutting out all these wonderfully detailed turtles and marking 4 darts on each of the 48 top shell pieces. See.... Insanity started setting in after several hours....
I then spent quite a few hours over several days getting those little buggers all sewed together. Sewing with such tiny precision required lots of concentration and patience and of course a quarter inch foot! I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief after the 12 turtle emerged from under my sewing machine!!
Until.... I realized they all needed to be clipped, trimmed, turned inside out, stuffed and slip stitched shut.... That part actually required some fortification of good scotch.
Well, as of today, the first set of turtles (pictured here) went out the door to Kaelyn's first birthday party! The last 9 turtles are in various phases of final finishing.
Here is the greatest part of all.... I LOVE these little turtles!!! I hope all the little ladies enjoy them as well :) see??? Aren't they the cutest little things????
October has been a nice month! My brother, Gene, and his significant other, Jackie' we're in Chicago to run the Chicago Marathon. We went and spent a beautiful afternoon with them the day before. They both ran great and Jackie qualified for Boston! Maybe we have to start planning a road trip to cheer her on at the Boston Marathon!
The weather has been beautiful here! And, of course, my fall allergies have been in full swing. :( my siuses hate me....
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