Sister Monkey and baby owl were born...:)

There is always something new when I making a group of dolls. It made me enjoying making dolls. Slight improvisation every time. Is it kaizen? Maybe...Two weeks a go I made monkey doll. It was the boy monkey. Suddenly I have an idea that I have  younger daughter, why not I make smaller and in pink ( her fav color).

Sister Monkey and Brother Monkey

It will be easier to change sizes of dolls using different kind of yarn. But I am fan of 8 ply yarn. So it is more challenging to change the pattern than repeating the same pattern with skinnier yarn. Oh..my experience so far is with the owls. As far as I documented the pictures, I have made 4 sizes of owls. last week I came to the tinies owl that I consider still looking cute. It's height is 7cm.

Owl with wing ( small blue: 9cm and baby green : 7cm)

Owl without wing ( big purple:16cm  and medium pink : 12cm)

Hurstbridge in Yellow..:)

Wattle festival was so fun this year. Eventhough it was cloudy, it was not raining. There were horse and cart riding, double decker...and of course the steam engine..:). Uppssss I forgot to take picture of steam engine...

The Queen of wattle in the horse cart

Doble Decker on the Go

Performance...there was yarn bombard in the tree.. Yellow pom-pom 

Cool, right?

Lots of entainment 

I was in the front garden of Allwood community house:

Stalls in allwood house

It was great because I met my friends, my customers...:). I met Ms K, my loyal customer...I asked her to have picture with me...:). Then I met Ms N that was a year a go we met in early learning conference.
Then met my friends Ms L, Ms A, Ms Al and Ms W. Even a new customer that came from Frankston, Ms C...:). And lot of people that came to visit my stalls before entering the allwood house.

Prepare the stall with my daughter

Ready...

There was a fairy in the allwood house garden..:)

Met friends

Met customer

1 hours before I  closed my stall. What shall I do next after wattle festival?

My dolls were sold well at that time. Then 2 month after the festival I have another appointment to make a stall in Sunday Spring Market for Children Protection Society in front of Op-Shop CPS in Rosanna on October, 21nd. I was making dolls until today the first day of school holiday I should slow down. I should entertain my children....:) I should submit the photo this Friday...There are still no faces...:).

Kitchen Scale saved the day..:)

Still couple days to wattle festival...still windy and rain outside....:(
What can be done better than making doll?
I just finished make this 'rattle' pea pod.

Yes this one has been favourite...:). I made with 2 peas...with rattle inside..:)
This time I made the pod with different yarn...finally I get the replacement yarn for the pod cover. I used to make it with Moda Vera Cupcake from Spotlight, but it has been discontinued. Searching in my stash yarn...I found Coton-A from Sullivan that I bought form Lincraft can substitute it. I was not sure about the need of the yarn so that I decided making 2 peas in case not sufficient. But then I had leftover yarn...I was thingking make another one....then I was in doubt again...:(. How can I measure the lenght?

From the band of yarn we get the information of the weight ( in gram) and the legth ( in meter).
Sooo...I went to kitchen...I took my kitchen scale...
I weight the pouch and the left over...

Yessss It wasn't enough.. I just have only  a half that is needed. It is much easier than guessing the length.

Im happy that I didnt start to make another one...:). That's another use of kitchen scale that I found today...

Wattle Festival in Hurstbridge

During winter, I am making dolls to recover the ones that sold in 2 indoor venues that I joined before. Then one day on July when I visited Melbourne Visitor center in Federation Square I found about Wattle Festival.

http://www.wattlefestival.org.au/

This is my preparation for wattle festival. This morning I arranged my dolls like below:

Hope I can see you in wattle festival this SUNDAY. I will set up my stall on the surrounding of  AllWood Neighbourhood House 901 Main road Hurstbridge ( Melway 185 K8). Hoping there will be nice weather like last year that we can enjoy outdoor entertainment tooo...:)

During hibernation

On 16th May 2012, my friend asked me to join the ladies night fundraising. By selling my dolls on that night I was able to make a donation to Norparrin ( Early Learning centre for children with special needs) in Mill Park. I was so happy that many ladies were in love with my creations. This is the picture when I just finished setting up my table.

Then  2 days after that I had to join pillow challenge competition that was held by Spotlight. It was a great opportunity to donate the pillow. Furthermore It was a competition so that my creation was being judged. I made on Friday night. Ta..da...

Early on Saturday morning I submitted to Spotlight Preston. Following were other people creations:

I had to wait until Monday for the result. They didn't contact me 2 weeks later, the store rang me and I was the winner...:). I was so happy I got sewing machine and my pillow case donated to the children that have to be stayed long in hospital because of their critical illness.

The last thing that I done was trying another market in Preston baby market with my friend Ani and Allesandra to set up a table. It was called Bumble Bee Market. It was raining on that day, so that the sales was very slow.

  

Hibernation on Winter

Tomorrow will be my last time before winter in market. I decided to 'hibernate' in winter. I want to design and create more dolls for that period of time. Hoping I can get fresh idea during next winter! Thanks you for all supports to my crafttivity!

Rattle Insert

Last months I made amigurumi with rattle inside it. These how I did to make it safe for under 3YO.


Various rattle insert with different sounds



Put inside the calico pouch ( I have double stiched the pouches)

Closing the opening with double stiched.

Then these the new rattle dolls that will appear tomorrow on community market. Suddenly I like nautical color theme...:).

I changed the design of these owls from the previous one with attaching wing on the dolls. This time my head was on 'baby' mood...:).  I use 'no seam' to attach the wing. It is so neat and safe! The attaching wings to give the babies chance to chew them and easily hold the owls. Dont worry you can always wash the rattle dolls!