And the winner is....

Congratulations to Mecki for winning Maisie.!  Please email me with your address, Mecki, and I will post her to you.  I hope she will bring you much joy.

Many thanks to everyone who entered the draw!

Turning Girly

I can't remember my Mum ever buying me a pretty dress.  In fact, my childhood memories consist mainly of falling out of trees a lot, horse riding and fighting with my brother.  My Mum tried sending me to ballet classes, in hope that I would acquire some poise, but no...I'm still clumsy!


Don't get me wrong.  I've always loved colour.  Back in the 1980's I knitted three or four of Kaffe Fassett's lovely colourful jackets and jumpers.  

I should have seen the signs.  Suddenly my bears started appearing in girly colours.  I have developed a penchant for ribbons.  Now I've retired from teaching in boys schools, I've started wearing skirts again.  Where all this will end, I have no idea.  I just hope I don'ty end up like Dicken's Miss Haversham - batty and head to toe in old lace!

I digress - back to ribbons!  I love antique ribbonwork and French ombre ribbons.  Until now, I haven't had time to explore this engaging aspect of embroidery.  Now Hugglets has passed and I have two months before my next bear show, I thought I would 'have a go' at creating a ribbonwork  pansy.  The ribbons were so lovely, and I enjoyed looking at them so much, it took a lot of willpower to cut them.  Imagine Gollam looking at 'my precious' and you won't go far wrong.

To cut a long story short, the result is pictured above.  How I love those jewel-like colours!   I purchased a small kit from Helen Gibb's website to get me started.  I could not believe how easy they are to make.  If you can thread a needle and do a running stitch, you can make these.  I used a French Knot in the middle of each flower - wow, that took me back 30 years!  Now I think I have the bug and will have to try some different flowers.  I particularly like the fact that the flowers are sewn without the use of glue.

I am waiting for a book about Ribbonwork to arrive from Amazon. There will be no stopping me once that arrives!

There is still plenty of time to sign up for the teddy giveaway in the last post!

Hugs to all

Teddy Giveaway

To belatedly celebrate two years of Teddybuys blogging and over 21,000 pageviews I am giving away little Maisie.  She is the prototype of my new style of bear.  All you need to do is leave a comment below and you will be entered into the draw which will take place on Sunday, 30th September.  For two chances to win her, link to my blog using the image below.  If you link to my blog, please mention this in your post!  I will post worldwide free of charge.  Good luck!!!

1. Iako
2. Iako
3. Birgitte
4. Peter
5. Ulf
6. Sandra
7. Katy
8. Elena M
9. Elena M
10. Dina
11. Pauline
12. Linda B
13. Conni 
14. Conni 
15. Laura
16. Tatiana
17. Tatiana
18. Gemma 
19. Cheryl
20. Cheryl
21. Lulu 
22. Larissa
23. Larissa 
24. Nataliya
25. Nataliya 
26. Joanne
27. Joanne 
28. Linda H
29. Linda H
30. Galina
31. Galina
32. Debora
33. Natalia
34. Natalia 
35. Mecki
36. Mecki
37.  Alya
38. Alya
39. Elena R
40. Elena R
41. Elena (Minsk)
42. Elena (Minsk) 
43. Wendi 
44. Юлюша
45. Юлюша
46.   Manda
47. Елена (Helen)
48. Dana
49. Dana 
50. Laura S 
51. Nikitina Natalia
52. Nikitina Natalia
53. Marina
54. Marina
55. Gerda
56. Gerda
57. Helen
58. Helen 
59. Natalya (Tasej)
60. Natalya (Tasej)
61. Brenda
62. Ira
63. Ira
64. Anna
65. Anna 
66. Ded
67. Debbie
68. Tori
69. Alice
70. Alice
71. Алла
72.  Аллa 
73. Tammy 
74. Natasha
75. Eva
76. Eva 
77. Elena
78. (Rusalena)
79. Elena Pevzeva
80. Elena Pevzeva
81. Galina
82. Galina
83. Natasha (xrundel)
84. Natasha (xrundel)
85. Иринка Rodionova
86. Иринка Rodionova 
87. Laura
88. Laura
89. Deimantė 
90. Deimantė
91. Ingrida 
92. Valentina
93. Valentina 
94. Michael

The day after...

Wow, am I tired today!  I had a great day at Hugglets yesterday. 

Thankyou to all the lovely collectors that took my bears home with them.  Please excuse the quality of the photo of my table, but all our photos were out of focus! 

It was a very warm day with lots of other events happening in London, but the halls were crowded. 

I finally got to meet the lovely Peter Masscharis.  He was one of the first collectors who adopted my bears when I first started out.  He is even nicer in person.  It felt like meeting an old friend.  Just brilliant!

Hugglets Preview

I have taken a few snaps of some of the bears that will be coming to Hugglets with me tomorrow.  Please come and say hello if you get the chance.  I will be in Hall 2 on the second floor.

I will have my new range of vintage nursery toys with me as well as a very few realistic style bears.

Vintage-style nursery bears

These have been designed and created to look as though they have been loved for a long time.  They have been made from quality German mohair with matt or shiny black glass English eyes.  They have been weighted and understuffed so they 'slump' nicely.  They are loosely cotter pin jointed - again, for that slumpy look.  They have been extensively aged using a variety of techniques to make them appear vintage without affecting the strength or longevity of the fabric. Their noses and mouths have been sparsely stitched and aged.  Most are finished with aged taffeta ribbon or lace.

 Peaches

 Kiwi

 Peony

 Plum

 Sage

Sky

Blue Ellie

Old Ellie

 Bunnies

Realistic Bears

Unfortunately, I don't have many realistic bears on offer this time. 

Charlie

Haemish

Sasha

Hugglets Prep 3

This week has been incredibly busy.  I have been continuing to make bears for Hugglets this weekend.  My favourites is Mae.  (Should I have favourites or should I love them all the same?  Now there's a hole with no bottom. :)

She has a cheeky face and is made using blonde, German mohair. 

I don't know where time goes.  The deadline for the Hugglets Annual is today.  I managed to get my copy done on Monday.

This year I thought I would feature my Vintage Style Nursery Toys instead of my realistic bears.  I have really enjoyed making this very different style.  In fact, I'm surprised this much fun is legal!