Houdini’s bear

I have now finished the tweed patchwork bear for my darling friend Al. It started off when this lot arrived in the post:

I made it into this:

Which then became this:

Sorry for the “not so great” photos, but I live in a very dark cottage and it’s a very dark day! I would wait for better light tomorrow but Al will be waiting in for the postman so I have to get “Reuben” into the post tonight. Now you know I don’t usually post photos until the bear has arrived at it’s new home, but Al already had a sneaky peek as, after countless times of him asking, I finally gave in and emailed him a photo!!The man is SO impatient, he’s worse than my kids

Positive Thoughts Needed Here

My best friends brother James is in Intensive Care. He has Cystic Fibrosis and has pneumonia. He is only 34. He is unable to breathe unaided at the moment and is very very poorly. The doctors are saying he has a 50-50 chance right now. He has a new baby son who desperately needs his Daddy to be well again. Please send some positive thoughts, prayers or whatever works for you, his way. Thank you all. xx

Ernest’s last day

Today was another choir day for the biggest Mutterer (like the day when I posted this) so I had four hours to kill while waiting for her to finish. Today they were going to be practising songs for a big Somerset Choir Spectacular, where they will join other childrens choirs from around the county and sing songs on an African theme. Each choir will take their turn to sing a song, and then they will all sing together…around 400 children! If the biggest Mutterer’s choir is anything to go by, it’s going to sound amazing!

Anyway, I digress. I decided that me and Ernest would get some exercise seeing as it wasn’t raining this time. So I parked the car and we walked to our destination:

Ernest looked a little concerned when I told him we would be walking right to the top of Glastonbury Tor. It’s hard to get an idea of scale when you are right up close to the tor, so I have borrowed this photo from the internet to show all of those who aren’t familiar with the tor, just what it looks like (I hope the owners of the photo don’t mind):

So we set off. Ernest can be quite a grumbler when he wants to be:

“Have I got to walk up ALL those steps?”

“Yes Ernest, and the others that are over the brow of the hill.”

“Are we nearly there yet?”

“Not far now Ernest. See? There’s the tower in the distance.”

“But I’m tired.”

“Well rest just for a minute, but it’s really not much further.”

“I can see it! I can see it!”

“I made it!!”

We spent about 15 minutes wandering around the top, and looking at the view.

Even Ernest had to agree it was worth the 300 steps we had climbed up. It’s very peaceful once you reach the top (apart from the noise of the main road which drifts up to you). Many people come up here to meditate and soak up the spiritual atmosphere. Others come to appreciate the beauty of our county as you can see for miles all around, even on a grey day like today.

Ernest was a little peckish so we sat by the tower while he had his elevenses.

There were a few other people milling around. Some hikers and their dogs, a few lone people, and two men in white robes (possibly Hari Krishnas judging by the painted symbol on their foreheads) and wellies…I guess it was too muddy for bare feet! The mood was tranquil and friendly. That was until the LOUD family arrived. Two boys with toy machine guns – complete with computerised sound effects – started charging up the steps and around the tower, oblivious to any one else who was there. They were eventually followed by the parents, obviously used to having to talk in such decibels as to hear themselves above the noise of the machine guns.

Ernest looked at me, I looked at him, and we agreed…it was time to go. The ambience had been shattered. He wasn’t sure he could tackle the 300 steps again, so I took pity, and gave him a lift in my bag:

And so, we come to the moment you have all been waiting for…where will Ernest’s travels take him next? When we got home, I put the names in my hat and let the biggest Mutterer do the draw…

And the winner is….drumroll please…..

Magic Mummy at The Frugal Family!!! So, Magic Mummy, please email me abby@bubsbears.com with your address and I will try and get Ernest in the post on Monday (but if not, it will be Tuesday!!).

All is calm in the Mutterers house…

I was asked yesterday how the birds were getting on now that the geese have gone, and I realised I hadn’t even mentioned them since Ernest got here! Well, all is quiet now outside. No honking and screeching every time I step out of the back door, just some gentle clucking and a couple of quacks. Even the little call ducks who are usually so noisy, have been a lot quieter. Maybe because they have no need to stick up for themselves now. In fact, they have relaxed so much, that one of them has laid her first egg! Look:

It’s smaller than the other duck eggs, although not that much so it’s still quite a large egg to have come out of such a small duck, and it’s a lovely bluey-green! I’m not sure who laid it, Dilly or Liz, as all the ducks lay in their house before I let them out in the morning, so we never know who has done what.

I’ve been busy on yet another bear! This time it’s for Al over at Thoughts of Houdini who sent me some wonderful tweeds. He is having this bear as his birthday present from me as we have been friends for nearly 17 years now. I can’t show you the bear yet as it’s not quite finished, but here’s the patchwork I made before I cut the teddy’s body parts out!!

Ernest has been busy getting an education. Counting in tens and units was the homework this week, and the littlest Mutterer did very well, while Ernest supervised:

I can’t believe tomorrow is his last day with us. Be sure to let me know if you want your name putting in the hat, and I will choose the lucky blogger tomorrow. So far there are 14 of you who would like to see Ernest arriving at their house next week…some as far afield as USA and South Africa!! I wonder where he’ll go?

Kelly’s Wedding Dress Bears

When Kelly’s dress arrived in the post my first thought was “Oh my goodness, I can’t possibly cut this up!!” It was made by her friend, and you only had to glance at it to see how many hours it must have taken to make it. It was beautiful. Handmade satin flowers were sewn on the bodice, and around the train at the back. Then layers and layers of fabric, and petticoat, all painstakingly put together and I was about to chop into it with my scissors! The only way to deal with it was to forget about what it was, and treat it like any other fabric. Here’s the results, I hope I did the dress justice:

Kelly emailed me saying she had remembered there was a little blue penguin charm stitched to the petticoat and could I please use it. It took me about ten minutes to find it (there was a LOT of layers of fabric, but I got there in the end!)

I don’t normally bother to photograph the back of the bears, but just look at the beautiful handmade flower from her dress:

Another detail Kelly wanted me to use was this pretty button which was inside the dress so she could hook up her train while she was dancing!

And when I’d finished that bear, I had to make another for her friend:

…and as if by magic!

This lot arrived in the post this morning!!

Thanks so much to Amber and Julie for taking the time to send these selvedges to me. I think I definitely have enough to start the first bear now! Now don’t hold your breath though…it’s going to take me some time!!

Getting there….

I’ve just laid out all the selvedges I have received so far from you lovely bloggers out there…and look!!

That’s almost enough for one bear. Of course I have to iron them and sew them together first before we can even think about a bear! Laying them out like this took about half an hour, and now I have to pick them all up and put them away again as they’re in the middle of the dining room floor!! Goodness knows how long it will take to sew them all!

But anyway…I still need more selvedges, so please keep sending them my way. And don’t forget, when I finally have two finished bears, one of them will be up for grabs as a thank you for all your input.

what’s for dessert?

PS…don’t worry Penny…we haven’t tattooed his wings, it’s just stickers and he did it himself this morning when I was out. Honest.

Eggs for Ernest

Ernest ventured outside today to meet the “girls”. He was a little worried about getting his feet muddy…

…can’t say I blame him…I should get some pigs, they’d love all this mud!!

He soon found something else to do while I collected the eggs:

I swear he’s going to himself some serious damage before he leaves here!

Talking of eggs though…Penny are you absolutely certain Ernest is a boy? I caught him looking rather broody earlier:

But the promise of Jaffa cakes had him leaping off those eggs before you could say Omelette…

A Belated Thank You

In all the excitement of Ernest arriving, I had completely forgotten the post I had planned to write. I’d had a very productive and creative feeling day on Saturday, and meant to blog about it on Sunday….but then spent all day curled up in a chair snoozing and full of a cold. And then along came a little Rooster, and here we are on Wednesday already. So, better late than never, I firstly must say thank you to Mummy Mad from The Mad House for sending me this wonderful selection of selvedges:

They arrived in the post on Saturday morning, along with this beautiful button heart:

Such a lovely thought! And if anyone is wondering why on earth she was sending me selvedges, look at this:

http://mutteringsfromthemoor.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/save-your-selvages/

I’m still in need of more before I can start my project so please, if you have any fabric, chop off the selvedges and send them this way!!

My second parcel in the post on Saturday was from my dear friend Al at Houdini’s blog. It contained all this beautiful tweed to make him a teddy bear:

I can’t wait to get started!

And then I had an email from a new friend of mine, Trishia who lives in the USA, saying her present had arrived. Some of you may remember that Trishia fell in love with our little lamb Annie, and very kindly sent me money towards her vets bills. I felt that saying thank you wasn’t quite enough so, knowing how passionate she is about all things French, I found some French design fabric and made her a present:

I think she may be having a “Name the Bear” contest sometime soon over at her blog, so keep an eye out!

The rest of my Saturday was spent browsing around a Crafters Fair in Exeter. I got chatting with a lady who was selling fat quarters of fabric for patchworking. When I asked her what she did with all the selvedges she cut off the fabric she said she had them all saved in a huge bag at home and she would gladly let me have them! I have emailed her my details, so fingers crossed they might arrive some time soon!! There were lots of stalls for paper crafts and scrapbooking, which aren’t really my thing, but then I turned a corner and was suddenly in heaven…a ribbon stall! I got slightly carried away:

Hello. My name is Mrs Mutterer, and I’m a  ribbon addict

Oh dear…

It seems that sewing isn’t one of Ernest’s talents. He struggled to pass me the pins:

He got his wing stuck under the foot of the sewing machine:

And then he fell off the table and nearly drowned in the scrap tub:

But don’t worry, he survived the experience, slightly shaken, but unharmed and is now snuggled up in bed with the littlest Mutterer.

Let’s hope the rain stops tomorrow and I can take him outside to meet the flock…

A Quiet Night…

The littlest Mutterer spotted Ernest the minute she got home from school. Luckily for her, the biggest Mutterer wasn’t around so she had a few hours to play with him before we had to pick up her sister. But of course, within seconds of the biggest Mutterer seeing him, there were arguments about who could cuddle Ernest in bed that night. Well, poor Ernest looked terrified!! So…I told him he could enjoy the peaceful sanctuary which is my bedroom instead!

So I tucked him up, went to the bathroom, and when I came back I saw that he’d found himself a bit of bedtime reading:

Judging by the startled expression on his face, he obviously had no idea that some chickens are bred to be eaten, so I quickly took the book away before he gave himself nightmares, assured him that he was quite safe, and turned out the light. Thankfully a peaceful nights sleep was had by all.

I had to leave him at home this morning as I had yoga class, and I wasn’t sure how well behaved he would be if I took him. But now I’m home, we’re going to do a bit of sewing. I’ll let you know how we get on later…

We have a house guest…

Not another little lamb this time, but equally as cute…The Mutterers are happy to be welcoming Ernest who has come to stay for a week!

Penny at The Hen House blog has sent Ernest off for his gap year, so he is making his way around blogland and seeing what fun he can have along the way. His first week away from home was spent with Sue from Smiffy’s blog, where he ate rather a lot of chocolate and needed to do a bit of exercise to burn off some of those nasty calories! This is just his second stop of the year, with many more to come before he goes home in time for Christmas.

So he’s here with us for the week. I can’t promise him thrills and excitement as I have a lot of bear making to be getting on with, so I’m hoping he might lend a hand. And then on Monday I will send him off on his travels to the next bloggers home. If you want to be that blogger, then all you need to do is comment on this post (or any of the Ernest related posts I do this week) and I will put your names in a hat and choose the winner at the weekend.

Free…to a good home?

Can anyone out there make use of these?

Due to Mr Mutterer’s need for daily antibiotics, we have an ever increasing pile of tiny glass jars! It seems a shame just to stick them in the recycling as I’m sure they could be of use to someone out there. They are about 2 inches tall, and each one has a little red rubber stopper in the top. All have been washed thoroughly and had their sticky labels removed. I think they would be ideal for any “crafty” people, for storing little beads or jewellery findings, or maybe glitter or sequins. Or maybe lined up along a windowsill with different coloured liquids in as a pretty art installation! If you would like them, or know anyone who might, please do comment. We have over 130 at the moment, and as I said, the pile is ever increasing. I don’t want anything for them, just a few pennies to cover the postage.

Fast approaching 60!

I have just completed Bubs Bear number 57! Here she is:

She is for sale in my Misi shop…just click on the link to your right to take a look.

I have just received a beautiful wedding dress in the post from Kelly and am about to make her two bears from it. One for herself, and one for her friend who made the dress. So that will be bears 58 and 59. And then I have to make a sample wedding bear which will be going to live in a new bridal shop that has opened down the road…so that will be bear number 60!

I can’t quite believe I’ve made that many! And it all started almost 5 years ago when I made the littlest Mutterer a big fat teddy bear for her first birthday.

Where’s Alan Titchmarsh when you need him?

My garden is a mess!! Months of wet weather, hens scratching, ducks digging and geese grazing have finally taken their toll. Look:

I remember the days when we used to have grass….

Ohhh (*sighs wistfully)…look how green it was 6 months ago.

But I am fighting back! I have reclaimed half my garden to give the grass a chance to grow…

…and maybe it might look like this again one day:

…the birds weren’t happy for the first couple of days and paced up and down the fence like caged tigers. But they seem to have forgotten about it now and are happily trashing what garden they have left.

The geese are due to go at the weekend, so with no-one actually eating the grass, you never know, it may just start to recover (that’s if the ducks haven’t uprooted it all first!)

I need to start digging over the vegetable patch:

…so that by the summer it will hopefully look like this again:

This used to be full of potatoes:

And hopefully will be again one day…

Hmmmm…I need to get digging!! I may be gone some time…

WowThankYou!

I want to tell you about a new website which is being launched soon that I am thrilled to be a part of…but first I want to say a big thank you to Louise at SewScrumptious for her packet of selvedges which arrived this morning. She obviously has great taste in fabric as there were some really pretty looking ones in there. I’m well on my way now to making my selvedge bear, but I still need more, so please all you fabric addicts, save me your selvedges!!

And so, on to this website I mentioned. It’s called WowThankYou and is, in their own words, an online store that showcases and promotes fantastic UK-based handmade crafts . Set to launch on 5th March, it is sure to have a huge selection of beautiful handmade items. Every month they will run a competition to win an item made by one of their sellers, and for the very first competition the prize will be….one of my bears! This one in fact:

So if you want to be in with a chance of winning her, be sure to visit WowThankYou.co.uk after 5th March and answer the multiple choice question on the competition page!

WowThankYou are still looking for new sellers, so if you are based in the UK and can offer a product they might be interested in, please do contact them by emailing tracey@wowthankyou.co.uk or georgena@wowthankyou.co.uk. Anyone who contacts them before 19th February will be eligible to join for free, for life! After that a joining fee will be applicable.

They also have a Facebook group you can join here where you can keep an eye on all the latest news.

Goodbye Geese?

It seems we may have found a new home for Frank and Betty. My neighbour’s mother-in-law has said they can come and live on her land where there is a big pond they can use. I’m just waiting to finalise the details and work out how we transport them there as they have grown so big they can only fit in the cage one at a time!

As it was a fine day and the temperature has finally risen enough that the hosepipe has defrosted, I spent some time outside this afternoon with my birds, topping up the ponds and clearing up a bit. I have reclaimed half the garden from them to give the grass a rest and see if it can start to grow again, it doesn’t get much chance with chickens scratching, ducks digging, and geese grazing!

I dug a new hole for the plastic pond to sit in. The chickens and ducks loved this as I was uncovering the fattest worms I’ve ever seen! They didn’t stand much of a chance and were soon gobbled up! We should have some nice tasty eggs this week! But as soon as the pond was in situ and filled with nice clean water (the first they’ve had since before it snowed), the geese began their domineering behaviour. Betty went in for a wash while Frank stood guard next to the pond as usual, so far so good. Then she got all snappy as she does and shooed him away. While she carried on preening herself, little Liz, one of our call ducks, decided to get in with her…not a good idea:

It was relentless. Poor Liz was held under the water while Betty tried to get on top of her, all the time biting her wings and neck. I tried shouting but it did no good, I also took a swing at Betty with my foot but she just carried on. Liz managed to get out with Betty still hanging on to her back and they started doing laps of the garden. I chased them but still Betty wouldn’t let go! So in the end I grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be an old washing up bowl, and threw it at Betty. Finally she let go and Liz ran to safety.

This is what has been happening every day, and since I came back indoors about ten minutes after this incident, I have heard it happening again. It’s strange as the geese share their house with the little ducks with no problems whatsoever, it’s only when they are outside that the bullying starts. It seems poor Daisy has also been getting hassled, judging by the state of her feathers on her back, see the bald patch?:

So, hopefully within the next few days, Frank and Betty will be off to their new home. It’s so sad as we have loved having them here, and they are so beautiful and comical to watch when they are being nice. But for the sake of the other ducks, they have to go.

Teddies R Us (well…just me actually)

It’s felt a bit like a production line here this week. I’ve been churning out teddy bears like there’s no tomorrow!

Firstly there was a long-overdue teddy for Mr Mutterer made from his cherished Liverpool football shirts. Due to the stretchy nature of the fabric, it has ended up quite plump, so has duly been christened Molby after the football player Jan Molby who was also on the large size!

Then there was another Cath Kidston cowboy bear, made as a commission for my friend’s new baby nephew. I like him a little bit more than the first cowboy bear, I think I got the pattern of the fabric placed better on this one.

I had some fabric leftover from making Grandma’s bag, so along came this one:

And I have three more in various stages of completion to show you very soon!

I’m also getting very impatient to make my “Selvedge Bear”! I had this wonderful pile of selvedges through the post from Amber, she has almost doubled my collection so far!

In case you didn’t see my plea the other day, please save any fabric selvedges for me! I promise I can give them a good home!

Spot the imposter..

I spotted this out of the corner of my eye this morning…

…oh to be a cat!