New old fabric comes my way

Right before leaving town I received this wonderful package in the mail from Katey at One Good Bumblebee full of terrific fabric

and vintage buttons and charms,

a few handmade owl-themed goodies, this awesome Zakka book that I poured over all weekend

and one of her Piles of Paper

which included some envelopes and letters from 1929! (The paper pack has already been cut up and made into paper dolls to be posted at a later date). I was so busy when it arrived (why do we always have people over for dinner the night before leaving town?), so it was like a little treat for me mid-way through the day.

We had a nice weekend in New London. Roxy got to visit the Mystic Aquarium and play in the sand at Ocean Beach.

On Sunday I was chatting with my mother-in-law, Judi, about sewing. I mentioned that I often use thrifted wool scarves to make stuffied toys. She remembered that she had an orange alpaca scarf in the basement and ran downstairs to get it for me. When she came back up she brought with her a HUGE amount of fabrics – wool, lace, felt, satin, vinyl, plus the orange scarf. Charlie’s grandmother, Ruthe (one of Roxy’s namesakes), used to sew quite a bit, and some of the fabrics were hers. I am already working on a new project with some brown wool from this stash. Thank you, Judi.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about this weekend is developing a single pattern for a softie that can become my signature creature. Rosa has made 282 of these

and they are totally beautiful and cute. Each one is unique enough to be interesting, and I’m sure it would be so hard to choose which one to buy if they were all out in a basket at a shop. I’ve been fooling with my mod doll pattern in an effort to develop a pattern that will come together well, will leave room for creativity so I won’t lose interest in it, and will be appealing to look at.

I hope to have something to show tomorrow.