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Some of you may have seen my two cute squirrels in the Playful Things exhibit at the Wausau Center for the Visual Arts. I started making squirrels when a coworker requested  an "evil Loring Park" squirrel. For those not in Minneapolis, Loring Park squirrels seem mangier and crazier than the citywide population as a whole. But I couldn't bring myself to make this guy mangy; he was just too cute.

This squirrel was a hit with my coworker, and he immediately requested an albino squirrel and a zombie squirrel. That was months ago—before Halloween, I'm afraid—but they're finally finished after a long hunt for zombie-colored fur and some tweaks to make the pattern more squirrelish:

(I apologize for the poorer quality of this one. Night time and white fur do not mix!)

Thank goodness the zombie squirrel has a taste for acorn brains only! This one was really fun to make. I was disappointed I couldn't find maribou in the right color for his tail, but I'm pleased with the outcome nonetheless. I had no qualms about making this guy mangy, but you should see the number cutting patches out of his fur did to my craft room floor! It was well worth it, though, as the recipient of both these pieces is ecstatic about them. I think he's already scheming on future crazy squirrel commissions and other zombie animals as well. In the meantime, I think I'll craft some regular old grey, red, and brown squirrels!

The best for last:

The idea for this pattern popped into my head about a week ago, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. This adorable pair is the final result of one of my most productive weeks ever. The most exciting part, for me, was completing a new pattern in under 3 hours from drawing table to finished product. Woot! I can already tell I have a new favorite. I hope you all agree as well!

As promised, here's another peek at what I've been doing these last few weeks:

I've reinvented my giraffe pattern!

My giraffe has been a fan favorite since Crabtree first started, but making so many of them started to get a little boring. Don't get me wrong, I think my original giraffes are adorable. But when you craft as often as Amy and I do, your creative energies itch to try new things, solve new problems, and just plain play. I had ideas about tweaking the pattern almost since the beginning— the neck needed to be longer, the body plumper, and the limbs needed to be fully poseable.

It took almost a full year, but a few weeks ago I was finally fully inspired to begin the redesign. It took a few slight tweaks to get the giraffe I had envisioned, and I'm still getting used to using plastic doll joints (what makes the limbs poseable), but I'm extremely pleased with the end result.

Okay, so maybe it's not that big, but there has been a lot going on behind the scenes here at Crabtree that I'd like to share with you. Namely, pattern revisions and new pattern development. I'll save that last exciting bit for, well, last, but in the meantime, I give you

Puppy 2.0

This started with a custom order for my wolf, but smaller:

Isn't he cute? He's about 30 percent smaller than my standard wolf. Turning the sewn pup right side out again sure was a pain with this super thick fur, but I'm very pleased with the end result.

With the smaller puppy pattern, I decided to branch out into fabric other than fur. Not only because the smaller the pattern, the harder the fur is to work with, but because I had some Dalmatian-print flannel that just begged to be used!

And finally, there's this petite cutie, also a custom order:

Once I had my template for the smaller puppy size, it was easy to tweak it slightly to accommodate the dachshund's long body and short legs. The recipient of this little guy has also requested an even more petite version to use as an ornament. I'll post a picture of that when it's complete.

Stay tuned over the next week for some more exciting pattern unveilings!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been so busy! My niece turned three, and I really wanted to make her something special and girly. After four nephews (plus my son), she's our first and only girl in the family right now. And since she was three, I knew I could make something a bit nicer and not worry about her eating it.

I pored over all my knitting patterns, looked at all my animal patterns, but decided what I really wanted to make was a doll. And so I made the Maisy doll! It's inspired by a '40s cloth doll pattern, but I made quite a few changes to make it more like what I had in mind. Here she is:

She has a hand embroidered face with hand sewn wool yarn hair that's styled in a cute little bob. She's made of heavy cotton fabric with safety jointed arms and legs. This is her purple outfit, complete with cotton blouse, heavy wool jumper, and wool shoes. Of course, she needed more outfits than that, so I sewed more:

A white blouse with a red cotton dress and a soft camel-colored wool coat with hand knit red scarf (seed stitch pattern). I also gave Maisy her own dolly with bead eyes and embroidery thread hair sewed into braids, and I sewed up a little pink striped dress for it. So cute!

I have to say, as much as I like the doll, I equally, if not more, love the case I made for her. I found a vintage-looking suitcase, added a strap to hold the doll in, a peg for hanging up the clothes, and a small box with a latch at the bottom for holding all the doll's accessories. Everything is really secure in it too. I loaded it up, then shook it really good, and everything stayed in the right spots! It really makes the whole kit and caboodle feel like an heirloom, passed down from a grandmother. Maybe it will become one!

When I create a custom order purse or bag completely from scratch, I often will send along sketches or possible fabric choices to the recipient. This way, they can see what I'm working on and also can be involved in the process. It is after all, their custom bag.

When I was working on the Star Purse (I showed everyone a few weeks ago), I worked up several different shapes and styles:

In the end, we went with the top left shape with the above all over star design. But the bottom design has stuck with me, and I think I may have to make it:

I've even worked out a possible color scheme that I like:

or this:

I can't decide if I like white or yellow stars and moon. I'll play around with it, and I'm sure one or the other will jump out at me. So far, this is just using paper for the trees and stars, just to get a rough idea. I'm thinking this would be a fabulous design on the flap of a small messenger style bag. Since I need a black utilitarian bag (for knitting projects and what not), I may end up keeping this bag for myself! We'll see. I'm tossing around the idea of a robot messenger bag for myself as well, so I may have a difficult decision to make in the future.