Jessica's blog

The Toy Society is a wonderful new project that spreads plush love through the streets of Australian cities through random toy drops. A toy is bagged and tagged and left in a public space for discovery. The person who finds the toy is instructed to take it home and let the Toy Society know where the toy ended up.

An international drop is in the works; until then, we've decided to get involved by sending these two cuties off to Australia:

We can't wait to find out who adopts them!

This week, Kim of True Up challenged her readers to blog about their favorite contemporary fabric. It was really hard to choose just one, but at this particular moment in time, my favorite fabric is Lecien's Forest Wonderland from the My Folklore line:

This fabric combines several of my favorite fabric themes—trees, mushrooms, birds, and squirrels—with a fairy tale sensibility and retro feel, without looking dated or overly kitschy.

I always covet Lecien's designs, which are very hard to come by in Minneapolis, so I was overjoyed to find this gem at Crafty Planet. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it—it's almost too pretty to cut into!

This cute chihuahua is my latest canine creation. A petite little gal, she stands about 7 inches tall (9 inches at the very tip of her tail) and is about 8 inches long snout to tail. She's made of 100 percent wool with faux microsuede ear interiors and feet, and acrylic safety eyes and nose. Her white patches were needle felted on by hand.

Making this gal was especially fun because the request was so open-ended. So far, all of the custom dogs I've made have been plush versions of someone's pet. But not this one; the request was just "make me a chihuahua. Any color, any size."

My next canine custom is a whippet, so stay tuned!

To celebrate the grand reopening of our Web site and Web store, we're hosting a giveaway of this adorable alpaca family! Just leave a comment anywhere on our blog by July 20 to be entered in the drawing. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on July 21.

I recently completed a custom order camel for a woman finishing her dissertation. It seems she's been laboring at it a rather long time, and to entice her to finish, her parents told her they'd take the family to Egypt once her dissertation is complete. How cool is that?! Anyway, the woman wanted a physical, visible reminder of the pyramid-shaped carrot her parents are dangling in front of her, so I made her this cutie:

His blankets are made in the recipient's university colors. She plans to place the camel on her desk , and move him closer to the pyramid (and farther away from the university) as she progresses with her dissertation. Best of luck to her!

Edited to add:

I received this kind note from the camel's recipient: "just wanted to say that I received my very own custom made camel last week and he's GORGEOUS. Thank you so much for your artistry and skill. I've named him Lawrence and he's been a big inspiration already."

Notes like this really touch me. To hear that I inspire others with my creations is the best compliment any artist could ask for. A big thank you to Lawrence's owner, and to all who support Crabtree Studio's work. You guys rock!

While at Shepherd's Harvest this year, a young man stopped by the booth and mused that one of my monsters reminded him of Sigmund from the 70s TV show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. The show was on-air a few years before I was born, so I never watched the show myself. And, after having watched a few clips on YouTube, I can't say I feel I missed anything. :) Anyway, a few days after the show, the young man asked me to create a plush version of Sigmund for him.

To make this strange creature, I adapted my monster pattern, making the body a bit wider and longer. Then, I added eight tentacles and a smattering of wool felt leaves, tacked together one by one. The suckers on the tentacles were added by hand also, with a French knot in the center.

I wasn't sure when I started that I could pull off the tentacles, but they came out even better than I had planned. I'm very proud of Sigmund, and even though he's probably the most time-consuming plushie I've made to date, I had so much fun making him that I can't wait to adapt the pattern for various other sea creatures.