After some grunting and talking to myself today, the three seats in my car all match, and I have 2 9m+ car seats to release into the local community via freecycle! Matty and Daisy have moved up to back-and-booster seats and Mary is in Daisy's which I shared the recovering of on my blog, sometime ago!



And this little chicken is another thank you gift - quite fond of chickens these days!

It starts with a drawing, which becomes a pattern after some tweaks ... I do get things wrong sometimes - this shape made toes that were too thin!



so after starting again, Jess' feet look like this ...



and they were added to her little legs - later, Jess will get flip-flops to wear!



and, with her head on her shoulders, we can see Jess' bunches and those little star tattoos too!



Off to select her outfit now, Jess gives us a happy wave!

now jess the Muppet doll can twiddle her thumbs!



cute!

I decided to needle-felt his eyes, so that they would look more part of him, more painted ....

some great photos of me in my own lobster costume (created over 2 years ago), taken by mike mccabe ...

its a bit big for me, i make a rather wrinkly lobster, but the true test was when i walked up and down the harbour and people said, oooh look at the lobster!

i had my picture taken a few times, and was even interviewed by some folks heading up the dorset seafood festival!

it WAS hot in there!

once i was asked to make seven magical rats, in fur and fleece, to help tell a story
and here are a selection of them, with their lucky owner ...

i have been commissioned to do many things in my time as the raggy rat lady, and before ...

i am indebted to the wonderful karen, at silver seams, whos dinky cute sun conure pattern i messed with and exploded to create the two perch puppets ....

http://www.silverseams.com/opensource/sun-conure-pattern.html

i printed her pattern on british A4 paper, after converting to black and white, then went over the lines black and started cutting the poor bird up... apart from the amazing feet, which i upped-size on the church photocopier, i sketched the rest of the pieces to facilitate the small changes i made and the speedy enlargement ...

i left off the lower bits of the underbelly behind the legs to enable insertion of hand, i lined perch with grey fleece, and i changed the angle his head would sit at, to make him a bit more upright as he is a hand and arm puppet .....

i forgot to add enough for the head gusset after i changed the angle of his head, and simply made a rectangle of fabric to instert quick ... !

here also are pics of me taking the parrots to meet local preschool age children, its fun to throw experiances at them!

and here is my 30 week baby belly ... and thats not a bad self-timer pic, i always look like i am worried the pic wont come out LOL !!!

after this pic i boxed up the parrots and put the girls in the car to get to the post office ... car started making funny noise, so turned radio off ... kept drivng carefully and noise started to sound rubbery .... made the desition to drive to PO ( and local shops) where i could get help and facilities for me and the girls, and after my call to the RAC, martin turned up just as i stepped out of the post office with the reciept for the parrots in my hand!

still driving round on funny wheel, kwikfit didn't have any in our size ...

sorry, getting too silly - and so much to do !
enjoy these lovely colours while i take my girls out and try to wear them out ... also will use a photocopy machine to enlarge the parrots feet ....
cat xxxx

i plan to finnish PERCH by the end of next week, i am only showing you his beak and colour ideas, not the mess of parrot bits all over the table! my dining room looks great with all the colours spread about, and i have gone for a completely made-up bird rather than try to emulate a well known parrot, as i have been given only the instructions 'as bright as possible' :-)

The Wall of Notes is changing, the old, old wall paper is disapearing ...



Making patterns out of old wallpaper to try and create blenny markings ...
i chose stretchy oatmeal fleece so i can allow for the lateral line seam on the puppet ... did i forget to say it is a puppet?



Poor headless fishy ... looks like a big fabric herring. i have added the first fins.



Fins taking shape, with layers of bias cut scottish woollens and net and organza ...flappy!

Just listed these guys on bid4bears ... later i can make that a hot link for you to click but try over onthe left if you can't wait ...

off to clean bathroom and toilet and then get some work done ....