Goodness me its December already

Front of chair
Back of chair
Right side of chair
left side of chair

Hewoo one and all


Well its almost Christmas and then all to soon it will be the New Years holiday and we will be into yet another year and as I age they seem to fly so fast.


So what have I been up to the past couple of months- well I was lucky enough to be given a scholarship into Jean Bernard's Fantasy Chair Class (www.jeanbernardart.com ) I had such fun doing the class and in learning so many new techniques and in the process made a passable fantasy chair, I am so surprised as when I was young and doing art at school I couldn't do anything like this - no way- in those days put me in front of a potters wheel and I was a happy person and then glazing it yup that to me was huge fun. But when it came to sculpting well I was a dead loss to the sculpting world. mind you there were several times when the wonderful Jean would have to remind me to "breathe Bear Breathe" and once I did its was like a light bulb would go on and the solution to the problem was there. Mind you there are many things I dislike about my chair BUT I also realise this is the first time I have ever attempted something like this and I can only improve right??

In making this fantasy chair we used products like Aves Apoxie Sculpt (www.aves.com ) and Paverpol (www.paverpol.com) and lots of new colours in paints that I had never even heard of and was so lucky to be given some test pots by Di (www.fabricaddictions.com.au) thank you so very much Di- they were Golden interference paints- woweee do they POP when used and Jean also had us using Decorart paints and also Decorart Sandstones (www.dedcorart.com ) and they were both great products again thanks to Di I tried the paints out and can see why she told me to try them they really are the most beautiful metallic colours I have ever used. I will have to buy some for future use LOL Will I play again oh yes I surely will the class is available through the lovely Lisa's web site (Lisa was also involved in the scholarship and I'd like to say thank you to Lisa also (www.lisasheaven.com )


All in all between the wonderful tutor and the wonderful and crazy classmates- ooh I have made some wonderfully crazy new mates there I believe this whole experience has been Fantastic and would I do it again - oh yeah - in a heartbeat-I gonna save my bikkies Jean I am really!! That wonderful tree woman sings to me she really is singing to me from the moment I saw her I KNEW!! Shes just sings gggg


I suppose you might like to see my chair would ya?? well I will attempt to put it on here as usual its hit and miss but its been a really fun couple of months !! (Yup the fun began when we got our supplies list ggggg Poor Jeannie baby I thought we would send her beresk gg) As usual its above the words- one day I WILL learn how to get it below or even in between that would be good ggggg but lets not push things to far and to fast remember bears getting older by the second hey??


Love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

What your name means this time for me Bear

What Bear Means

B is for Bold E is for Exuberant A is for Ambitious R is for Rebellious

What Does Your Name Mean?

What my name means

What Belinda Means

B is for Brainy E is for Explosive L is for Luxurious I is for Ideal N is for Naughty D is for Darling A is for Alluring

What Does Your Name Mean?

To all Prayers Answers eventually come

Caitlin Skye your Nana loves you big time heres big hugs and kisses on all of your freckles XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXXOOXOXXOXOXOXOXOOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOX

and this good looking young man is Jake big hugs and kisses on your freckles too from me
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO


Hello there one and all
well the heaviness that has filled my heart was lifted today - Bec wrote Colin and I a letter a really lovely letter and sent us photos of Caitlin our beautiful granddaughter and one of Jake ( Becs gorjas little son) hes a dapper lad and Caitlin is oh so pretty as she always was . My how they both have grown over the past 5 years, the last time I saw them Jake was but a baby just one week old and Caitlin was 4
I am so happy I wanted to scream from the rooftops I have heard from Bec and we know whats happening in their lives yippee and yes they are in WA. Isnt that amazing! whooppee
I love you Bec and Caitlin and Jake we will learn to love you as well young fella!!
Big hugs and kisses for them all XOXOXOXOXOXO

oopsa its November

well Octobers been and gone- I did do something in October not a lot but did this outfit for a dear friend of mines granddaughter- I like the way this one sewed together more then I did on the one I made for Scarlett darn it!! LOL
Anyway its the very same pattern as I made for Scarlett G but different type of material
much nicer to handle then the other one oh deary me
Hope Maea like s it and that Alice does as well and of course Granny Joy my dear friend
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxo

Well before August does indeed slip away

this is actually the right hand side of the "bag"I forgot to rotate the pic- sorry gang but am not very clebber with this sort of stuff heck I even took a piccie thats a start normally I shove anything onto the scanne and thats the end of it!!
This is the left side of the bag showing the little "Southern Belle" in her garden of delight. I was a very silly bear I didn't write down who gave me the lovely crocheted Southern Belle - if she's of your work please do let me know so I can give you the well deservedly fabulous naming rights to her. She's so wonderfully made she is just Beautiful. Thank you to who ever did make her and thought enough of me to give her to me.
This piccie shows the beautiful butterfly heading for the flower bed on the right side of the "bag"
so much more to do -I wish I didn't have such a big Bum- then the bag woulda been a lot smaller gggg NEXT time I will go and BUY a pair of jeans and do a small size bag gg ooh well we cant all be size 6's can we??The beautiful butterfly was given to me by the wonderful artist Maria Vialle - thank you Maria she's perfect for this garden bed, and is beautiful!!


Now as you can see that although I have been quite as a little bear can be but I haven't been dawdling over my bed all the time or hiding out in my den - oh no I have been sewing my wee claws to a bone.


I have had an old pair of jeans cut off ready to play -make me into a JEANS BAG NOW! for some time now- maybe some 2 years- well slow is the bears way of coming onto a project. I am having some fun with this project as well- I decided that the ordinariness of the jean fabric could do with some outlandish stitching and so have been going at it hammer and tongs for the past couple of weeks creating flowers hither and 'yond and making one side look like it has flowers overflowing off the bag edges- so much so that when I was hunting through some bits and pieces to add something to the other side I found a crochet little southern belle in my favourite colours and decided that she should be standing in a garden of flowers like on the other side. So this is pretty much where I am up to at present- what to do next well there's an awful lot of beading that is waiting to be done- I began that last night and in doing one flower discovered I had placed another flower on back to front- heck I can really stuff a thing up cant I??- So its on the right way now and the other bits that had to come off t correct the glaring mistake are all back on and the beading can continue tonight. Hope you like it- please please do tell me BUT don't forget this is definatly a UFO at present and does have much more to be done before I think of it as completed

love n hugs Bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Has August also slipped away??

hewoo one and all

well it seems that the month of August has also slipped away how could it??- But it has and did- here it is the last day of August (downunder) and its the last day of Winter here as well- tomorrow bring with it not only the 1st day of September but also SPRING - hellallelua!!

I have been doing things I have been nominated by 2 sweeties for the Nice Matters Award- I dont know how to get the pretty picture with the Nice Award on it here but we will make ot it is here- and my thanks to Norma of http://normasneedlez.blogspot.com and also Courtney of http://www.mommasgoodies.blogspot.com.

You are both sweeties and I have to give this award to 7 people I love - out of the many I do love so very much- thats a really hard task cos I can always have so many more then I can write on here darn it!
anyway

Sherry Goshon http://sherrygoshon.blogspot.com/

Linda Fleming . http://thewindowtomylife.blogscom/

Hideko Ishido http://hideko-windfromtheeast.blogspot.com/

Kai Nakoni http://creatingmyway.blogspot.com

Maureen Bond http://crazyqstitcher.wordpress.com/

Jacque Uetz http://www.jacqueuetz.blogspot.com/

and last but definately never least my lovely "other "Linda
Linda Barraclough http://chloesplace.blogspot.com

I have selected obly the seven but so many more are out there whose work I admire or whom I have known and emailed for so long now that they are part of my family, this hard when you are asked to ONLY name 7 I can think of so many more it seems mean to but ONLY name these 7 beautiful people. To those not named- I do love you as well!! U know that I do and will go on forever being part of my online and real family .............
thank you
one and all
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Red Roses for a Blue Lady!!

hewoo one and all
My dear Twin Sister (??) well we were born the same day, same month, same year, and almost to close for comfort time wise as well- and considering My Twinnie is on the other side of the big pond- our "Mums" were doing it hard as well. Anyway Kai has been having a very hard run of late and is now gotten herself a very nasty eye infection, so I thought I would make her up one of my blocks and in case you don't know her Kai likes Red, so her roses had to b e red didnt they Kai??

Anyway me and the pooter have been arguing for a day now cos it for some reason kept scanning this block in MB's instead of a small size so there in lay the problem and it refused to resize so I wound up exporting it out of one program and into another and then another to get the darn piccie to resize. GRRRRRRRRR well a bears allowed to growl every now and then otherwise I wouldn't be a self respecting little old bear now would I??? Anyway finally I have gotten the darn thing to resize and now hopefully Kai can get a look see- this is going to be her burthday pressie from moi- and last night I asked her did she want a surprise or did she wanna see it now?? Being so alike I KNEW Kai would wanna see it straight away- I find it hard not being allowed to not look at something which is suppose to be a surprise - hate it in fact. Ah well here it tis Kai- hopes you likes it, and sorry its taken me so long to get it up but I had nuffin but trouble with this one darling
with much love and biggest bear hugs
your Weela xoxoxoxoxo

While July went past

Hewoo one and all

I did do some other things as well while the July month went missing for me, I completed the last of my gathering blocks and then I also made a block for myself -I have never made a block just for me so I figgered it was time -I am really wanting to make more now and maybe join them and for heavens sake make a CQ Quilt up out of them all- Heavens wot am I saying here?? Me quilting oh nope that's not my scene - well maybe it is I love making these CQ blocks up and they aren't like sane quilting where I HAVE to do this or that and I cant really change things cos as all keep saying with CQ there are NO rules - yup that's me lets face it I am not a lover of too many rules so I can see me doing a few more of these blocks- actually wanting to make some bigger blocks- the 6 and a half inch block doesn't give me a lot of space to play around and I really want to play around and I want to be able to do more seam treatments etc and by the time I do the roses etc there's not a lot of room for anything else to go on- so I can feel me trying out oooooohh lets see may be I will do some 12 inch square blocks. BUT even more worrying is I have been looking at sane quilting with an eye on maybe making at least one sane quilt oh did I say that?? Surely not bears' going quite insane lets not worry to much - that could be just the belt of spring weather we had last week getting into the blood and scaring up some of these silly feelings ggg CQ yup but sane quilting oh Bear You are a worry!!



The first in this set was made for Rowdy aka as Catherine of the Garden - Catherine gained the nickname of Rowdy from her "noise" factor when the girls attended the Gathering at Sandies' hacienda at Easter. Apparently Catherine is not the quiet demure little sweetie we all assumed she was. I am glad she's not the quiet and demure little sweetheart cos lets face it Bear can be as noisy as the next one and would be in good company with Rowdy. Anyway enough of that nonsense Catherine loves Purple and so I found this little patch I have had forever( another one of my Linda B's generosity to me when I was a beginner CQ'er ) and as the fairy also had little garden bits surrounding her I thought that Catherine might like this, the unfortunate thing is that I couldn't get a clear image of the fairy ---it is very sweet in person and Catherine has told me she liked it so I am happy bout that!



Then this one of Purple on the black background is the one I made for me. I have adored this combination of colours ever since I saw a Block that Julia C made for our Sandie- and Julia made her "Sandie Gathering Block" in these colours but Julia used much brighter purple ribbons then I have and it was so much prettier then this block. I am not so dissapointed that I wont use it but I did learn lots from making up this block and will dye some more ribbons and make sure they are of a brighter purple hues then these are. Sandie sent me the lovely black and white picture and I used some of my pencils to colour in the "pink" roses and green leaves in the girls hair - I am happy with that effect and would use that again.


This pink/ Burgundy block was one I made up for ??. I had these ribons etc left over from the other gathering blocks and I figgered it could be made up nicely and I think it came up a treat. and Hopefully the lass receiving it will think so. I love these little angels I have been using along the way - They came from a competition win and I really have had a lot of fun using them- I also used them along the way with some of my hearts. I don't think I have had one person say they didn't like the little angels. It goes to show we are all quite similar in our tastes sure we might like a few things differently but then there are some things that most enjoy ie angels and fairies and gardens etc. I really have enjoyed making the gathering blocks and when I next post I will put up all of the blocks that the Ladies of the gathering sent me

but

For now Bye all and be careful but enjoy the day for what it is a new day full of promise

lotsa love n big hugs Bear xoxoxoxoxxo

Wot happened to July???

Photo1 is the front of Rhi's dress, the second pic is the back and the third pic shows a close up of the smocked area and the embroidered bullions roses.

This pic is the front of Scarletts dress, the second is the back of her dress and the 3 pic shows the back of her panties and the 4th the front of her panties.

Hewoo one and all

well wot did happen to July ???- mmmmmm I was ill with the current Flu bug doing the rounds of South Australia and laid low- and then Dad was admitted to hospital 3 weeks ago and is still there - he has a very nasty Staph Infection in his knee that he had a replacement knee operation on and its a very nasty and stubborn infection- he is on Intravenous antibiotics and will be even when he is up to coming home for at least 6 weeks so the Dr is saying at this stage. Anyway we will see I guess what the upshot of this will be later on- last week he went down for his second arthroscopy and washout and the orthopaedist is happier then he was after the first one and has said to DOD that its up to the Infection Control Dr now as to when he is happy to let DOD out of the Hospital- Its will be nice to get our lives back to a wee bit of normal living. Sad to say both Colin and I are starting to feel a bit worn out etc but hey he could b e home this week and then we may b e paying for that gggggg

In the meantime I haven't just been sitting here doing nothing - I have completed two little smocked outfits for a dear friends grandbabies. Rhi is now 4 years old and so I made her a sundress no sleeves but it does have a frill around the neckline and lots of backsmocking a wee bit of geometric smocking and then some of my favourite "grub" roses across the bottom of the smocked area. Its in a lovely summer weight poly/cotton and should be okay to wear even on the hottest of summer days - I am also hoping that both outfits fit gg. For the younger baby Scarlett who's about 12months old now - so I made her a dress and panties outfit- the smocking on this was just a geometric pattern - only a few rows on her dress and then there were some bullion daisies in various colours going across it- her panties were in the same material but had 3 rows of frill across the back of them and are (well I think they are) real cute gg Cos she is at the crawling/walking stage I made this up in a poly/cotton seersucker material so that should wash like a rag and shouldnt need to much ironing if any. I remember not wanting to iron much way back when the kids were younger and I am sure Em (the kids Mum) is no different.

well all I can hope for is that they fit the girls and that the girls and their Mum like them etc -I know their Gran does (- Hi ya darling.) I had such fun making them- yeah right bear!!! doesn't something always goes wrong for me - yup no different this time I had picked out this lovely material to make Scarlett's dress in and all went well until I removed the smocking threads and started to block the smocking- that's when bear realised she didn't have the smocking squared and to make matters worse- most times this wouldn't be a big problem) but this time the floral actually formed lines going across the material- oh and nocticeable - it sure was! wot to do wot to do- I was nearly in tears but I explained the problem to my darling man and he quietly asked wot do U want to do and I said begin again --go and get another piece of material and start over - the darling man piled me in the car and 10 minutes later the smiles had returned to my face. BUT sometimes things work out for the best (when all seems dark and gloomy ) I realised after doing the second dress up that I loved the material much more and also it wasn't as heavy (thick) as the first one and for a summer dress the second one would be much more to the liking of the wearer so maybe it was meant to be. Whatever alls well that ends well. Wot am I going to do with the first dress well I have tried to square it up etc and its in some shape and I will at some time in the dim future finish it off if only to show myself that I learnt a lesson that all floral's don't make good choices for smocking if they are not totally squared off in the beginning -seems to me I heard that before- maybe the lass who taught us to smock and showed us her example of what can go wrong gggg so I am not the only one to make this blunder I guess and I learnt a lot!! I hope I remember the lesson well and don't do THAT one again!

The patterns for both outfits came from the "Smocking and Embroidery" magazines published by Country Bumpkin right here in good old Adelaide, South Australia

lotsa love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxox

this block is for Norma H

Hewoo one and all

This block is for Norma H


Norma said she didn't have a theme but loved all flowers. As this year has been such an unhappy year for my dear friend I thought she needed a fairy to be taking care of her woes and to lift all the unhappiness from her mind even if only for a short while . I have had this print (and another one) for many years and when it came time to make Norma's block up I immediately knew that this one was for her.

So Norma I hope this fufills' your "no theme" and that you like it. I will try and get it into the post tomorrow afternoon it should then be with you within a week - that's always supposing our 2 countries postal and customs people allow it to pass through their hands quickly

Fly away little fairy from my heart to yours Norma this block brings my love to you

Lotsa love n huge bear hugs to you

Bear xooxoxoxoxox

Gathering block for Maria V

Hewoo there all of you in cyberspace,

I have been a wee bit quiet - having a bad week but we all have them dont we so I thought maybe a piccie of another of my gathering blocks might cheer someone up. Hope you like this Maria V, this block is all bout love for roses and flutterbyes- well there heaps a of them both so I figgered it could only be that - love for.......

Maria in case you havent worked out loves Purple- yowee so do I Maria and this block did get me into a hole for a while but I hope you liked the way it eventually came out- from my heart to yours
love n hugs
Bear xoxoxoxo

Finally Viv

Hewoo all and dear Viv

Well I had one more area annoying me and I had collected the bits and pieces together to sort out this problem area and would you believe one other lass (Hi Sandra from dolls) picked the one thing out that bothered me- so now I had confirmation that it was not just my wanky eyes but also someone could see wot I was seeing - Wot a load of waffle- I have sorted it and this is now the block that will begin winging its way to WA and into Viv's hands.
love to one and all thank you to everyone who commented on my blog or on my CQfriends or Dolls lists- ladies you're all worth having ya blood bottling you are fabulouse in your support for me and I feel so blessed to have so many kind and lovely friends
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxoxxo

Not happy Viv

Hewoo there one and all

well I uploaded Vivs' "gathering block" late last night but I was so unhappy with it- to me the gold beads next to the piccie of the lady screamed at me when I looked at the block.- So I showed it to DOD(dear old Dad) and said honest opinion and I could see he was struggling to say something so I said wots the first thing your eyes were drawn to and guess wot- the bludy gold beads got him first as well. So off came the wee gold beads and the small amount of gold thread I had put on radiating out from those bludy gold beads and out came the beads again. Yup I had had them off once before and put them back on again Talk about wandering around not knowing if I like or not, so I tried several things and this is wot I finally decided was the finished block-

I left the old version up and put the new version is above this dribble. Which one do you prefer??

I hope Viv likes the new version - I prefer it so much to the old version that I am now happy to post it over to the one, the only, the West Australian ---Vivienne

much love to you Viv

love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxox

Viv's gathering block finished

Hewoo world and my dear friends

well yet another gathering block is finished- with the completion of this one, I now move onto my territory- the remaining blocks are purples of some sort. I have been such a good girl bear- by forcing myself to do the ones outta my comfort zone first I now have the blocks I can really love doing- well a girls gotta love doing some you know its not all beer and skittles doing the purples one but ooooooh my mind flows when working with a purple background simply flows I am going to do some machine sewing in the next few days and just work on the blocks at night mmmmmmmmmmm ! I have promised and promised to make these little outfits for friends babies and I have gotten involved with the blocks and not with the sewing up of the outfits so the time has come to do some serious sewing!! Do you get the impression that bear prefers to do hand stitching to machine work- yup you would be right with that! gggg I adore smocking and Silk Ribbon embroidery which to some degree the little outfits all have soooooooo....... why oh why does it take me forever to wind myself up into a sewing frenzie! which is what it becomes- and then Col yells at me cos I will be sore for days after and will suffer with swollen arms and hands -- he just doesn't understand though that when the bug finally bites its gotta be finished first before I give into his nagging gggg

Well my dearest Viv do you like your block- yours for some reason was the only block so far to have a piece of patterned material in it and that really threw the old bear for a bit- what to do what to do?? In the end I put some thread around the top leaves tried all sorts of ways to do the bottom leaves and flowers in the end I outline the flowers and then began filling in with different coloured beads I went overboard didntI?? 0h Viv I am so sorry if I did go overboard- does the beading areas look like a flower????? Hope so cos that is what they are girl.

And I have a bone to pick with you Vivienne- gggggg( the long full name crankie bear speech and spelling ) What oh wot is sludgy pink girl?? Please tell I needs to know wot a sludgy pink colour looks like- did I manage to get any of this colour you wrote in your spiel of whats to do / whats not to do!!

Sludgy pink mmmmmmmmmmmm oh Vivienne I was at a loss to do a sludgy pink for ya so that requirement may not be in this block and if it isnt could you enlighten the old bear by showing her a piece of material that looks sludgy kiddo!! Sorry Viv (thats the apology in advance ggg)
love n hugs (and soon to be loud snores - the boys tell me I snore- maybe I dont they do and its repulsive can hear them down the other end of the house with the TV going and they hate being picked on so they tell me I snore- I prolly does but dont like the pair of them ganging up and talking as a double duo of trouble-- that they really and truly are!!

Well Viv and my darling friends big loves and hugs and all that catch ya on the morning and I hope you all have a fabulous day over the big pond in both directions and all
loves and biggie hugs
Bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

another gathering block is finished

Well 2 posts in one night as I live and breath this is amazing isnt it??

This is yet another "gathering" heart all finished and packed up ready to go to its new home
Some time ago I was talking to Sandie and she had just received a black background and purple features block from our dear friend Julia, and Sandie told me she was becoming more purple minded then she had been and I suggested I do her gathering block in purples instead of her normal pinks. I hope that she is still thinking this way as knowing she likes bees I also embroidered some bullion bees onto this block etc. Sandie I hope and pray you are still wanting another purple block cos girl this is yours from my heart to you
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxxo

Normas' tatted heart

Helllo
many moons ago I told of a delightful tatted bear heart I received from Norma from Chain Of Hearts list. We make and swap hearts with other members on that list anyway I was absolutely delighted with this particular heart as Norma had gone to the trouble to tat me a bear and then I couldnt get the photo to load up.
Well months later I have finally gotten the heart rescanned and here it is for your looking delight- I think its a special heart from a very very special lady Thank you Norma darling
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxo

I have been tagged

oh deary me.............

I have been tagged by 3 different people and to be honest I think everyone I would like to tag has been tagged and most more then once - so unless someone would like me to tag them I may just do my 7 random facts that no-one knows about me and call it quits- I hope all like that idea-as I said you wanna be tagged give me a "hoy" and I will do the honour for you!! Thank you for tagging the bear goes to Hideko who got me first, Sherry who tagged me next and Fran who was my last tagger but not the least by all means I does so loves you all BUT.................... read on......

7 unknown facts about bear
1/ I LOVE to sleep in especially in winter when its cold and raining my bed is my den and I snuggle down as far as I can and resist all of Colins yelling at me to get up as long as I can!!
2/. I adore Farmers Union brand of Ice Coffee - drinking it by the litre- as any good self respecting South Aussie does- ITS THE ice coffee drink and leaves all others in its wake- Thank you Farmers Union I will accept all the litres you can send me for this advertisement!!
3 /I love the smell of hot coffee- but hate the drink(although I do like cappuchino coffee its something to do with the froth and chocolate I think but as for the rest can leave it happily!
4/ Since buying my first computer and connecting to the www have discovered life again and have delighted in finding some of the most adorable people I regard as fabulous friends through this wonderful medium.
5/I spend way to much time on the www. and not enough doing my sewing, embroidery etc noighty bear!!
6/ I hate my height and would give anything to be small like my dear maternal grandmother was- she was a dainty 4ft 9 inch me- well I am 5ft12 in. (yes that is 6 foot and it was not fun when I was young!
7/ I prayed I wouldn't get tagged- its so hard to think of things that people wouldn't know about me. Thank you dear darling Hideko , Sherry and Fran for doing the tagging of poor old bear. I feel like I am an open book and most know me fairly well.

Added to those above this is an extra one and those of you who know me will know this one about me BUT most of all if there was a wish to be attached to these 7 things not known about me then this is the one wish I would have ---I WISH that I could see and hear and speak to and cuddle and kiss a certain little granddaughter of mine whose name is Caitlin Skye Sweeney, Caitlin you are 9 and a half now and its been nearly 5 years since we last cuddled and kissed BUT I want you to know there has never been one day or one minute or one hour in each day and night that I am awake or asleep that I have not wanted to hold you tight and tell you how beautiful you are and how much I love you. Maybe this is the one thing waiting for me to happen- that you will be back in my life before you or I are any older.

Caitlin Skye Sweeney - I love you!!

So there you go ladies I hope I have answered these Tags rightly and as I said earlier if you would like to be tagged- please feel free to let me know I will send you a tag real quick.
Thank you and Bless all my lovely friends ----I love you all

love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

julia's gathering block

here I am again
I finished my little inchie charms and sent them off to America even ontiome I was- how unusual for me??
I did forget to take a picture of them so have asked my swap momma to do that for me and I will scan the picture of my inchie's in when Sherry has sent me the picture- they turned out okay- thank goodness for the arrival of Cloth Paper Scissors as it had the edging I wanted to do and the explanation so simple and just wanted I wanted to make perfect- how many times does that happen- none to many around this place believe me.

Anyway of that topic and back onto my evenings work- each evening I am working on at least one of the gathering blocks at present have 3 on the go- I get so bored playing around with one ggg that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!! VBG!!

So this is one that I finished- where have I heard THAT line before- this gathering block is for the one the only lovely Julia from Western Australia- Julia is a published fabric artist and does the most amazing embroidery and I always get the jitters whenever I am doing something for her - will it come up okay her embroidery is so beautiful so exact so well so PERFECT and I am just a little bear playing at doing my own little versions of embroidery, I am so very unsure of this little piece of work- I asked Dad for his opinion - he says its beautiful- but then I thought oh heck that's Dads opinion heavens what is he going to say- girl that's horrid- he might be thinking to himself this girls here taking care of me I have to watch what I say ggggg, she might stick me with pins or stitch my mouth together with glue - anyway going on Dads very very biased opinion I offer Julias' block- I so hope you like it Julia I really do and if you don't please send it back and I will redo it I mean that word for word if you don't like it the return mail addie is on the envelope.
so till next time love n hugs all Bear xoxoxo

more on Gathering blocks

Hello again-

Thank you to Sherry and Fran who have also tagged me- theirs is a different tagging to the one that darling Hideko tagged me with- hang in there all And I will get around to doing my 3 dears of the tagging world! I love you three BUT oh deary me LOL!!

At present I am fighting a viral infection that Dear Old Dad brought back from his trip to Tasmania he went for a Naval Reunion and also to catch up with his mates etc who live way downunder the Aussie mainland. Both Colin and I have caught this darn bug and its left us feeling very tired etc- anyway I will try and do all my tags next week- this weekend has been set aside to do my "Inchies" -" inchies" can be made of anything ie clay or composite materials or paper or fabric- or wotever- so long as they are about one inch square hence the name. I have an idea to incorporate my favourite playthings- material - but not to give the game away yet - more on this later.

I have made another 2 of my gathering blocks-these being for Margaret and Mary. Someone asked what we do with these- well the ones I am making will be sent to the ladies named who will also receive 12 others from the group of ladies involved in this swap- what we do with them- well some are making wall hangings - mine that I made for Maureen will one day go into her crazy Quilt yippee I tried my hardest to make her one that would do this, I can think of no other way of being remembered fondly by her family then to have my block somewhere in her quilt. Me -- well I am not sure yet- I have several blocks put aside and I really change my mind daily almost as to wot I will use them for- the latest is making a throw rug. I need to make many more though so I have plenty of time to change my mind before I set it into the final blanket quilt wall hanging wotever its going to be!!

Next week I will put up all of the "gathering" blocks I received from the girls who made them. I should explain that the Gathering" blocks- were a swap decided on by the ladies who were going to attend the "gathering at Sandies' and Chris" hacienda over the last Easter break. Several of us weren't able to go but those who did had a fabulous time. When we were talking about arrangements it was brought up that it would be a terrific idea to have something tangible from each of the gathering participants and so the idea of a 6 inch square block was formed- we all filled out a list of our likes and dislikes and colours and in the end there were 13 of us who were in this swap of blocks. With the upheaval in our lives around Xmas and through to Easter my block making was sidelined and this is why mine are all happening now! I hope that explains the Gathering blocks to you all!

Anyway the first of these two was made for darling Margaret, who like me was unable to come to the gathering and Margaret loves all things blue so I made her block all things blue- in the beginning I was even going to make the leaves blue but as time went by I changed that idea and made them green- (how boring Bear) but if you look closely you will find one flower and its leaves are blue, I had to leave that piece of nonsense on there!! I hope you like your blue blue block Margaret I had fun making this one!!

The second block is for Mary L, another who couldn't make it to the gathering either. When I looked at what Mary liked she had written cream and all colours but no brights- eek all dusty colours double eek!!! Way outta left field again and that comfort zone is nowhere to be seen again- anyway I added sage green don't know why but it looked okay I thought and then I played again a lot of the ribbons were home dyed and again they were all of a cream nature well kinda anyway as I wanted to add the gold dragonflies I needed to bring gold in somewhere else and so this is why the window frame has golden beads around it. Mary I hope you like this again this is one outta the box for me- I love all things bright and purple but I hope this is enough cream and not to bright for you. It will be in the post on Tuesday next week and then hopefully in your hands before to much time has past gggg.

I will have a tiny break from the blocks now and do my "Inchies" and a couple of other projects I have to finish off.

So I will catch up next week with my Tagging friends and I hope all have a fabulous weekend Love n hugs Bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Another Gathering block completed

Its been a while since I said hello and since then I have been "tagged" by my dear friend Hideko, and I am in the process of doing a post in which I will be "tagging" 5 blogs I go to when I need inspiration etc. That post is in draft form- I am not very computer savvie and in saying that I also have to admit that I am also definately not Blog savvie and that's no understatement - I have been to trying to work out how to do links etc and my friend Sandie must be just about pulling her lovely long blonde hair out with my daily litany of questions- and of course the questions are almost double dutch by the time I send them to her- I hope others feel this way and its not just me out here in the netherworld of computer and blogs feeling so useless and incapable of sane thoughts when it comes to this!

So in despiration I thought I would do the one thing I do know how to do and thats display another finished "gathering Block" - this one is for Andrea who lives way down on the wee Island off the mainland of Australia- its also known as Tasmania- hi ya Andrea big waves across the big sea to you!! Andrea likes pink and burgundy colours and so this is why her block is in these colours I hope you like it Andrea I will be posting it tomorrow with my love to you!!

Gathering blocks

Well its been such a long time since I did anything on my blog- unfortunately life has this habit of pushing its way in front of you and your best laid plans get messed up. Anyway I have begun my gathering blocks finally. I was supposed to attend The Gathering being held at Sandies' and Chris' home over the Easter long Weekend break but due to life-ie Dad and not being able to leave him at that stage - and other problems that came up I was unable to do so! In the planning stages it was decided that if we wanted to participate in making a CQ block for each of the attendees we could do so- So a lot of backwards and forwards - discussing all our likes and dislikes it was decided that this would go ahead- each of 12 people attending would do one CQ bblock for each of the other attendees- a smallish size of 6 inch square was decided upon and most of the ladies began to do their blocks straight away- except for Bear and a couple of others most had all 12 blocks completed and they were swapped at Sandies place that weekend- I have all but one of the blocks that were made for me and will over time upload them so all can see wot wonderful embroidery etc was done on these amazing blocks./

Anyway I have finished one and this one is for Maureen Bond - Maureen wanted her blocks to be in Creams etc so they could be added to her quilt she is making- well Maureen I hope you like this block- It certainly was a long way out of my comfort zone- one tone blocks are not my like but its come up a treat as you will see mostly its in creams and beige colours - the ribbons etc were dyed in tea the framing piece of Lace was dyed in a bath of Dilmah Rosehip and Hibiscus Infusion. - ie Tea- and the things done so came out this lovely pale shade of pinky beige its so pretty I may do some more in my dying days ahead. There is way more beading then I have ever done in my life and the spider web roses are made with 7mm ilk ribbon dyed by me in plain ordinary tea. Not my normal wider ribbons! all threads were either Rajmahal or various sizes of silk and rayon threads
Maureen I pray and hope you like this block.
much love n hugs to all especially my Maureen xoxoxoxoxoxox

now heres a tale of derbears big mouth getting her into trouble

Hewoo all

well I am back on air- and am so happy to be so- I had all sorts of dramas mainly to do wiv technicians who didnt know their job and so bear brung home her pooter and backed up and reinstalled and well here I am- aint I a clebber bear??- well if I dont say so who will - I ask ya!!

Anyway onto my tale- Back last year my Chemist(drug store to my American friends- I dont know wot its called in Japan Hideko sorry!!) Anyway way back the chemists ladies did a wonderful display for Xmas- and the main part was these wonderful (to me anyway!!) Santa trucks. But - aint it always the way - that BUT!!- they were expensive being priced at $124.95 being that I live in and around an area not known for having big sums of money I figgered these lovely Santa trucks would not sell. and Lo and behold they didnt-so after Xmas the trucks were still there and with a new pricetag of $99.95 (thats Au dollars BTW), so I began a campaign of getting the girls onside and giving them a price tag of $50. bucks that I was prepared to pay for one of these wonderful Santa Trucks and each and every time I would go in there I would say I will take one home now for 50 bucks ggggg, anyway came early February this year the 2 trucks disappeared from the display windows- I was MOST upset until the girls told me that they hadnt sold and were being stored out the back.- I told Peter the owner and phamacist that I would -take one of your hands for- 50 bucks- he said absolutely nuffin ,mmmmmm - the next time I was talking anyone at the shop was to the manageress and told her of the conversation with my lovely Peter and how he hadnt said anything and the manageress lady said thats cos I am the one who works that side of it- give me a second and I will go see if we can possible do it for you- comes back and nope I am sorry it wont cover our costs etc- oh well thinks I - maybe next year!

Anyway yesterday I was yet again in the Chemists shop and the manageress is talking and I suddenly realised she was talking to me- and the Manageress lady is saying we have reduced the Santa trucks down to- wait for it- to $49.95 do U want one- gggggg well yes I says - (after all I was going to give them 5 cents more) - so now I am thinking to myself- I never ever thought that they would reduce them THAT far down - oooh deary me now I have to explain this to COLIN - who was waiting out in the car- But as the lovely shop assistant and I came out of the main doors I could see him looking at the shop assistants arms and wot she was carrying and I could then see the faintest of smiles- I knew I was ok!

I really never thought they would drop the price and it had become a real game and many the times Colin was with me while it was going on -the bartering - I mean gg so it wasnt as if he didnt know wot was happening. BUT gang wot do I do now- wot bill wont I be paying this week- me and my BIG MOUTH! that'll teach me- BUT I really DID want this Santa truck gggggggg I do get myself into some predicaments dont I?? anyway I will hopefully have pretty piccies here as well so you can see the wonderful Santa truck I spent months bartering to get at MY price and then got it!! whooppee! LOL

One of the things I have probs with is the printer/scanner thingie- anytime its taken off I have to play around so that is why I wasnt sure if it would cooperate and get the piccies onto the blog etc- or even into the pooter- I have to play again and will be doing so this arvo- as I have my very very bootifulls Paper dollies back home and for some silly reason the pooter and the scanner is not talking at present- mmmmmmmm I will give them not talking I will give them a kick in the --- Nope I will be nice wont I - after all I fixed the non talking pooter will I now let a non communicating scanner and pooter get away with that grbabge I should say NOT!!- its supposed to be simple after all its an all in one- copier, scanner fax and printer etc maybe I better be a good girl and re hook up the blasted fax line thingies!! Thats usually the reason for non talking to each other - oh deary me- we are slaves to the techno world of machines is we not! Anyway as soon as I get the scanner and the pooter talking to each othr I will upload my very very bootifulls paper dollies that I had arrive home from the USA this week Sherry G, Kai, MaryC, and Camille I really love them to pieces you all did such lovely lovely paper dollies! Now to make a journal to fit their beautiful girls into! -I didnt make a journal to accompany them but did include some pretty cardboards for the ladies to write their thoughts on- and then I will make the jou8rnal for all - it saved the overseas lady from paying to much in postage and we all know how expensive that can be!

BTW the Santa truck is 80.5 cms long by 42 cms wide by 48 cms tall. For those in feets and inches world thats 31.5inches long by 161/2 wide by 19inches tall, so its not exactly a tiny weedy thing is it?? I loves it!!

loves n hugs ya bear xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

bears off air

hewoo one and all

its been a while since I said hewoo - and now I am only saying hewoo to say that I am off air- my pooter has gone kaplunk and I am using Kirks pooter to tell yas that I wont be around pooter land for about a week- heavens how will I survive without my pooter friends for a whole week- lets hope the repair man can work it out quick smart and cheaply!!
The latest is that I got a new modem and tried to get out yesterday on the new modem and nope no such luck- then the man from my server says your network card has fritzed itself so we race down and get a new one put it in and no joy yet again. So server man is guessing now and says maybe the modem and the motherboard are not chatting to each other - yup motherboard not talking means big moola- heck!!

So non talking modem and tower are in the repair shop and hopefully they can work out wots really going on and I can get back online without it costing me the arm and the leg I can feel its going to cost me

I loves yas all and will be missing you all

big bear hugs and big bear loves to my darling granddaughter - Caitlin Skye- who turns the big 9 years old today

and big hugs and loves to the ones who love me enuff to read this

Bear XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

other bears and an elephant as well gg

The top picture is the Joan Watters Red Bear way back in time- I am sure I changed her pattern around a bit but not sure- I was at that stage fairly rigidly following a person pattern, and would be so upsset if it didnt look the same !!

The next picture is of the Purple bear- this was the first time I had ever embroidered on felt and its still made using wool embroidery threads - an interesting experiment mmmmmmmmm anyway it didnt put me off as I then did the pink elephant on ehite Felt as well.

Sorry bout the picture quality I was really bad with a camera then as well- not much better now am I?? But I think I am a wee bit better both at embroidery and also holding a camera still - plus with digital cameras you can see straight away if its a clean print or not so thats prolly why I have improved with the camera holding

Hope you enjoyed this little look back in time I cant belie4ve how bad I was back then -!!

some of bears earlier embroidery

Here it is 2007---the new year has finally arrived and my resolutions this year - to keep up with my groups mail, to be more prompt in answering friends mail to me, to catch up on some of my UFO's, to at long last get the tute (on how I do my spider roses)up on my blog now that I have finally worked out wot I was doing wrong with my piccies being uploaded to Blogger,it should be so much easier. Oh and not to whine pitifully when his nibs sits down and puts on his favourite movies - the Carry On gang are on- and he watched the end of Carry on up the Kyber- grrrrrrrr another is on now - and also to add some of my earlier works to Blogger gggg.Nope not quitting smoking - have had that one for more years then I can remember and then I feel horrid when it doesnt happen so now if I quit -- then I quit but its not a resolution -----it will be a health choice wont it??/

Well they are resolutions noone said they ever kept them all did they??? Anyway I was going through my boxes of photos and came across some of the earlier stuff- its interesting to look back and see how far I have gone in improving my embroidering skills- a long way forward- almost embarressed by some of this stuff but hey we all have beginnings dont we- at one stage I was teaching doing Teddy bears and using wool embroidery- such as Joan Watters a famous Wool embroidery teacher from Australia. Some might recognise the earlier pieces have a definate Joan Watters look to them- well thats cos I used her pattern to beginwith (as in when I was learning how to make bears etc --- and before I branched out and devised my own bear for teaching purposes. I admire Joan Watters embroidery and still wish I was as good as she is- her embroidery is beautiful!!!

So this is one of my earlier bears made in pinks- theres also a bear made in my favourite colours of purple and another one in reds- that is straight from a copy of Embroidery and X Stitch pattern that Joan W had published- I think of all the bears the red one is my favourite- but oh boy I have come a long way since those days baby!!

the above bear is obviously the pink bear back and front.I am not very good with Blogger wiosh I could work out how to add the picture following the blurb I wrote not before- any hints I will be most grateful for ............. more to come ......

Happy New Year

Hello one and all
I am here and its nearly 2 hrs into the New Year- welcome to 2007
I really hope that this year will be better for many of us who had such terrible years last year and for those who had good year I hope its even better for you as well
So Happy New Year to my friends and all my family and especially for Caitlin Skye my Missing grandaughter- Happy New Year Catey darling
love Bear XOXOXOXOXOXO
(and Nana and Mum to thiose gorjas kids of mine and especially to my darling man Colin Bruce and all of my dear friends)