The Whimsy Patch

Because Birds are Fun to Sew!

I had a blast with these next two lovelies!  I absolutely adore birds and love sewing them.  I attribute this to being raised partially by my Great-Great Aunt Judy who also loved both.  She had this awesome screened in porch where we would breakfast on summer mornings before the southern heat kicked in too hard and heavy and play card games, Scrabble and Yatzee as the sun began to creep behind the trees and the humidity became bearable.  I treasured my time on that porch with Aunt Judy and my Nanny and making these two dollies allowed me some time to think back on those good days.  I miss them so!

Sweet Cera and Spunky Zella come from the Aviary Farms where Lou Lou and Josette used to find there home.  Unlike Lou Lou and Josette, Cera and Zella do not find their expertise in bird song but instead they both run the Aviary Lofts, a home to thousands of birds that doubles as a Bed & Breakfast.  Cera and Zella train the birds to be resident friendly.  When residents visit the B&B, they are able to breakfast with the birds, walk the grounds with birds perched on their shoulders, and sleep to the sound of birds singing lullabies in their rooms.  When residents go home, they are each given a lovely, handcrafted bird cage and a new birdie friend.  Cera and Zella, aside from fixing a breakfast banquet each morning, also spend their time making the handcrafted cages, sewing cute birdie purses, and making other handmade gifts to sell in the Aviary Lofts Boutique.  People who don't stay the night can still go there to purchase a cage and make a new birdie friend.

Cera loves finches of all kinds.  She thinks they are just "so chubby and cute."

 

And Zella prefers hummingbirds and has dozens of feeders on her balcony to attract new friends. 

 

Stop on by the Aviary Lofts and stay for a night!   Cera and Zella would love to have you.

Two Dragon Tamers + One Flower Princess = One Cute Bunch

Adair, Alistaire and Bree were on my sewing table a few weeks back.  They were a custom order placed by a great customer who wanted to bless her own little one and two of a sis's little ones with some of my plush creations.  This customer definitely has a creative streak herself and she had a lot of fun ideas of how she wanted these dollies to turn out.  I had fun creating my first two capes with dragon appliques and cute sword appliques to go on the Dragon Tamers' hilts.  I was asked to make celtic knot broaches for the boys and a hairpin for the girl.  I tell you--these were a challenge--more challenging than they look on the computer screen.  I thank my visual processing skills for being able to figure out how to embroider and applique these correctly!  I was also able to try my hand again at a detailed, layered applique--this time of a rose.  I'm so detailed oriented that this was one of my favorite parts of the project.  Now, roughly three weeks later, I get to their stories. 

Adair and Alistaire, Dragon Tamers from the Land of Whimsy Hill, a royal region of the Whimsy Patch dotted with castles and royal estates and populated by princes, princesses and fairies of all sorts, have been capturing and taming dragons for as long as they can remember.   Prince Dragon Tamers are raised from infancy being trained in the ways of dragon speak, learning how to communicate with and soothe these fiery creatures almost as early as they are learning to crawl.  Adair has a special talent of training dragons to turn their flames into amazing art in the sky.  Whimsy Patch residents from all around gather every year for the Dragon Festival in the Land of Whimsy Hill just to see Adair's dragons perform.  Alistaire's talents are practical but very important and brave.  He has a knack for capturing the most dangerous of dragons and taming them to pull the famous sky chariots of the Patch.  Not many Dragon Tamers are as brave as Alistaire.

 

Below you can take a peak at Adair's and Alistaire's capes.  Dragon Tamers receive the special dragon insignias on their capes after their very first tame.

 

Bree, Adair's sister, is a Land of Whimsy Hill Flower Princess.  Flower Princesses like Bree are born in flower gardens in the Patch and have an amazing gift of cultivation almost from birth.  They are said to have the ability to speak the language of flora and thus can nurture any kind of plant to beautiful maturity.  Bree's special gift is in gardening roses and she has acres and acres dotting the Hill with dazzling roses of all sorts--tea roses, climbing roses, English roses a precious minatures.  The very best Valentine's gift a Whimsy Patch beau can give to his love is a bouquet of Bree's roses.

On Complications and Catching Up

Creativity is complicated.  Being a stay-at-home-working-mom is complicated. In order to maintain a full creative tank, I have to have the perfect balance of freedom and pressure.  This complicates my work.  When I began the Whimsy Patch, I wanted nothing more than tons of custom orders and steady demand for my dollies.  I began not knowing what to expect regarding the various stages I would go through with my precious son--clueless that I would hit phases like the current one that would be very demanding even though rewarding as ever.  I had no idea that this last holiday season would bring a business boom starting in October and leading all the way into January.  I didn't do the math that would have shown me this would leave me very little time to spend with my husband at night after the little guy hits the sheets.  All of this led to near burnout and questions about where I would take the business next.  For those of you who have been waiting to see their dollies blogged, this is why I have been slow to post.  I wanted to place my best efforts and creativity into the dollies and this left me a little on the writer's block side of things when it came to the dollies stories.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I really hate to do something when I cannot make my best effort.  So I have waited.

Fortunately, I am coming out on the other side now.  I slowed the custom order stream so that I could finish the last orders on my list without distraction and so that I might also find time to rest and spend with my family.  I am still not opening up shop for custom orders as usual, but I am slowly taking on new responsibilities.  I look forward to participating in an upcoming gallery auction and fundraiser.  I hope to prepare new pieces for a magazine submission in the summer.  I am also preparing to release patterns for sale in the near future.

So for those of you waiting for stories, I first ask for your forgiveness and thank you for your patience.  Your dollies friends will be facing blog front page shortly!