Wrangling with a travelling rabbit

Last week I made a bunny from some vintage chenille pieces for a grand daughter's 6th birthday and it turned out to be a bit of a saga. I used a commercial pattern for a twenty inch bear (that's big) and made up the ears myself. There was fluff spread from one end of the sewing room to the other.
During the stuffing part, there was a bit of an injury to the chest area due to a weak spot in that piece of chenille.

I managed to save the limbs and made a new body and carried on. Oh dear, the ears are way too long for this poor rabbit as you can see.

After sleeping on it, I decided to unstuff the head and try and extract the ears and do them again.
So here is the final result which turned out as good as it was going to get. It's very cute for a stuffed toy bigger than a newborn baby but it is light in weight.

And of course bunny has to have a tail. I wasn't sure how to do that so turned a seam allowance on a circle, gathered it, stuffed it and sewed it in place.

It's all squishy in the middle, I tested it with cuddles.

I just didn't get to the Post Office in time to send it across the ocean so it got packed in a suitcase and flew interstate to Queensland for photographing and posting the next day. It'll be well travelled by the time it gets to it's destination.

 

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We had a wonderful four days away to see the V and A quilt exhibition and have a relaxing break and also catch up with my son. We got to celebrate his birthday and also David's while we were up there.

 What an absolutely wonderful thing it is to see these incredible works up close.  

The embroidery on the quilts was so incredibly fine, the stitching was superb and I was surprised to see the above coverlet had been done by the English paper piecing method. That whole center was stuffed like a pillow. Not sure if that was for display. No photos were allowed so these are off the net. I also loved seeing a very old needlework casket stitched with Stump work, some sewing paraphernalia and other items of interest. It was well worth seeing.

The weather in Queensland was perfect, warm and sunny during the days cooling at night. This is their winter!. 

 

The locals were very friendly where we stayed in Surfer's Paradise.

These ladies dressed in gold sequined bikinis put coins in the meters along the beach front as a courtesy to the public. Not a job I would qualify for ;-)

Even the police were dressed for the weather.

Until next time, Janet