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)

My girl- and Santa of course

Hello all

well its been a long while since I blogged but between Colins' health and Dads health and wow yup I was a bit under the weather as well this blog became a lost soul all on its own- I have been doing some of my pictures and putting them in frames- like I have had the frames for years- yup years but there ya go Bears a slacko at times ggggg but I have finished most now and as I came across this photo I thought you might like a look see of the little girl who stole my heart from the moment her Mum and Dad told me they were pregnant.
The outfit she is wearing is one I made - fully smocked top with loads of silk embroidery over the smocking and long pants with a ruffle around the hemline. It was for her trip to see the Store Santa- he is the one who passes on little girls requests for her Xmas day loot! My Caitlin loved her smocked outfits her Nana makes for her and has told me enough in the old books she and I pored over before her Mummy decided that she wouldnt allow Cailtin to visit her Daddy,Nana Grandad, Uncle Kieron and Great Grandparents. I am still making the ones that Caitlin decided she wanted but also some of the new ones that have been published in the magazine called "Smocking and Embroidery published by Country Bumpkin . Thats such a wonderful magazineand it comes out quarterly!

ooh and do you see Bears finally worked out wot she had been doing wrong all this time when I kept saying I couldnt get piccies to load up- well I couldnt and I noticed that theres been a lot of my piccies being saved in TIF format and I notice Blogger wont support TIF format- I dont care cos I can easily change the formats now I know what I was doing wrong yippee!!
well its almost New Years Eve here in Australia
So to one and all Happy New Years and I hope that it will be a better year for all of my dear dear friends!
love n hugs Bear xoxoxoxoxoxo

Normas beawdiful Bear heart

this wonderful heart was sent to me by Norma on Chain Of Hearts!
Norma has tatted the bear herself isnt it absolutely bewdiful??- Thank you so very much Norma and for your wonderful letter and the extras you added in with this heart!
I pray we meet next year its not easy for you I realise what with your ill husband but if we dont meet I will always have this treasured heart by me to remind me of your generosity . Thank you friend
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxox

I am improving- I think!!

Hewoo all

I guess I have been MIA for a while- this bug really had me by the throat and I was feeling miserable and I just couldnt get myself up and moving- anyway whether its been the past 2 days of beautiful delightful sunshine and warm weather or its (the bug) finally run its course I am feeling better- touch wood- yup the bear is superstitious and how!!

Anyway here we are the first day of September and its the first day of Spring- the season of reawakening dowunder!! and I feel the same- reawakening- well I am a bear after all and I do as all bears do - I hibernate in winter and big time!! So I have poked my nose out the door and saw the sun was up and beaming down and so I figger I would come out and play.

I have been working on the Tutorial- not on the pooter but at least I have made a start of the writing it all down. This is going to be an exercise in can the bear make something simple sound simple and be simple for one and all to follow and make their roses the way I make mine!!- ((well those that want to do them this way anyhow!!)) In the process of looking at what I do and dont do I have discovered that yup I do do a couple of things slightly differently when I do the spider web rose-(( hate THAT name- why call something this pretty something awful with THAT name- yup spiders and bear are not a good thing- oh well I will just have to grin and do it wont I??)) I hope to begin work on the pooter on Sunday- we are still housesitting- Dad will be back from his mini holiday spent visiting friends and old mates in Nowra NSW- he is one of the very first Air Craft Handlers in the Royal Australian Navy- and was sent to England to learn how to be a Air Craft handler from the Royal Navy - they (the Aussies) then returned to Australia and were posted to Australias' first Air Craft Carrier. Thats something to be very proud of and I am very proud of my dear old Dad believe me!! Back then - if not nopw also - it was a very dangerous job and how they survived the accidents that happened on the Carrier is beyond me but they did.

Dad and one of his mates (who was also sent to England ) started with an idea to celebrate this fact and as a result Dad has made a Shield celebrating all of the chaps who were on this course, they have their names listed on the shield and it also includes the English sailors who transferred to the RAN and came back with them! A friend of my Colins did all of the gold leafing of the names and also the pictures of the Air Craft Carrier and the 2 planes the Australian Navy flew way back then! The shield was presented to the Naval Museum at Nowra today by Dad and his friend Ambrose in front of many of their shipmates (who were on the same course) and some of the Naval Dignities etc. They then were to have a luncheon and after all of the Official duties were over the old fellows were adjourning to the Nowra RSL- for some many hours of remembering the old times. I hope they all are having a great time ..... I wish I was a fly on the wall no doubt many stories have "GROWN" over the years but..............

Anyway on Sunday-- Dad and Ambrose will be home- sometime mid afternoon I am expecting them back and with them home Col and I will be back home to our own little home. and my Pooter and the Tutorial!! I promise!!!

I do really!! Kathleen do U hear me??- I promise!!!

love n hugs bear xoxoxoxoxoxo

Wots Bear up ta??

Well I have been laid up low with this silly "bug" Virus", cold" wotever one likes to call it!!

But I have been doing the previous heart in between and seeing in my own eye what I do that creates the different style of "Bears Spider-Web Rose". I think I have worked it out and its really such a small thing, well really its a couple of small things- BUT all will be revealed in the Tutorial- so no secrets will be given out here-(although a certain special friend has been told hasnt ya Mom Maureen??) I have been taking scans as I made the rose and I wondered how to approach it- would I begin at the beginning and bore to tears those who know how to make a spider-web rose or just where I do "my thingie" or......?? I have decided that I will begin at the beginning and hope that those of you who are reading this will "bear" with me as there may be some very new stitchers who havent read up on how to do a spider-web rose anywhere. There are many fantastic sites out there on how to make a spider web rose- so please do look for others and how they make the same rose. Lets face it- as with many things there is no right or wrong way to making them I have just over time evolved a couple of steps and they have made the difference in the appearance of my spider web roses.

I hope you will all enjoy reading and trying out making of Bears version of the spider web rose- and I hope you will all let me see how you go at making the rose yourself- I think that this will be the best part for me- seeing how everyone else makes the rose- I dont think anyone really does anyything EXACTLY the same- so we may find we have some more roses that will evolve in an altogethr different way- and wouldnt that be fabulous??

So please pop back in a couple of days time and I will hopefully have the Tutorial up and running pictures and all- Thank you one and all for asking me to do this- and I hope the wait will be worth it

much love n hugs Bear xoxoxoxoxxoxo