a wardrobe change for the owls...

Aside from making up a few for my last craft show, I really haven't been sewing many owls lately.  And the owls I had been sewing were really out of the same 4 or 5 fabrics.  I decided to give the owls a little shopping spree for new summer clothes.  

I'm big into bright colors and bold patterns when it comes to making soft toys.  So I knew I wanted the owls to pop a little more than they have in the past.  The results:

Exactly what I was going for.  Eye catching, fun, and attractive.  The back of all the owls feature a wonderfully soft and cozy brown fleece.  I love these owls so much and am thinking of keeping a few for myself.....seriously, pick one up and feel the soft fleece on the back and you're see why.  

I love this fabric so much!  Kinsey got it for me for Christmas this past year and I have been saving it.  For what, I'm not sure.  But I figured that I shouldn't let it just sit around forever.  It's by Julia Rothman and is 100%  organic cotton.

Another fabric favorite!  Not sure of the specifics of this fabric, but I purchased it at Jo-Ann.  The yellow flowers on the gray background are so beautiful!

Look for these owl guys (and owl girls!) in the shop over the next few days.  Some are there now!

off they go to stuffed!

I don't think I've ever mentioned before on the blog about Stuffed Magazine.  If you're not familiar with Stuffed and you're a fan of soft toys, you really should check it out.  

I found it (well, actually Kinsey found it) at my local Jo-Anns in the late summer of 2011.  I was just getting into making more soft toys and it seemed interesting, although I wasn't sure at first.  It was $14.99 which I usually feel is a little high for a magazine and I wasn't a fan of everything featured, but Kinsey persuaded me to get it anyway.   It wasn't a cheaply, thin made magazine, but had some volume to its size.  Once getting the issue home and looking through it, I immediately was very inspired to try all kinds of soft toys.  The photography in the magazine is wonderful and they list websites for the artists included in the magazine.  I spent a lot of time looking at the work of new plush artists I discovered through Stuffed.  

This past week, I did two major things revolving around this magazine.  The first thing was I purchased the last remaining issue I didn't own through Ebay.  So in just about 6 months since discovering it, I own all 7 issues of Stuffed (they publish twice a year).  

The second thing was I submitted some of my own plush toys for possible publication in the next issue! They take open submissions and the deadline for the summer 2012 was just a few days ago.  I have no idea if my plush toys will get chosen to be in the magazine, but I'm so excited to see what happens!  It will be while until I know anything, but I'm happy I gave it a shot.  This was my box of plush I sent:

As you can see, I sent 2 elephants, 1 rocket ship, and 2 boys.  The boy plush are my newest design and I'm really excited about how they turned out.  The only bad part was that these were my first two I made and I had to ship them out right after I finished making them!  Here's a closer shot of them:

The good news is, I just listed a new plush boy in my shop!  Meet Ethan here!