~:: All the Stuffed Little Horses ::~

I was writing, yesterday, about how I can’t seem to sit down and write anything. I think about things and I want to put words to them, but I dance around the ideas, unable to hold still long enough to put ink to paper – umm – so to speak. So these little last coupla blogs are kind of a warm up.

And maybe, in the next couple of days, would y’all mind if I finally sat down and talked about some things? Real things?

This particular piece is about the seemingly life-long yearning I’ve had to make – how you say – stuffed animals. Soft animals. Which have always been a little magical to me. I suppose this is just a small dream—not like being a doctor or making a bunch of money or saving the world. Just a thing I always felt like I should be able to do.  Except, every time I’ve tried, I’ve made a super mess of it.

Here is a picture of my sensitive sister. This was taken way back – 1979 – before I had any kids. But she did and pursuant to another dream-now-in-flames, the I-wanna-be-the-best-aunt-ever dream, I tried to make my wee nephew a stuffed horse. Or dog. However it came out—that’s what I wanted to make for him.

Her response wasn’t unexpected. Just kind of—bite your trembling lip for me. I mean, the poor thing was ugly, but I’d gotten kind of fond of him. I’m pretty sure he didn’t survive long.

I suppose there were—no, I KNOW there have been patterns for this kind of thing foever.  But, and please excuse me, designers of the thirties through seventies, the animals people made then weren’t like the ones we have now – they were kinda stiff and sharp faced and not very winning. I actually have quite a few of those patterns now (ever hoping to find the magic one), and there’s a lot to learn from them (if you have time for learning).  But it’s the animals you can buy – the whateverKins and beanie guys and the German kind—that’s what I wanna make. Charm, charm, charm.  Soft and squishy and sweet and winning.  How cool would it be to be able to make something like that and give it to somebody you care about?

So when I found this very simple little horse in a gift shop a couple of years ago, I was determined to make one like him.  I came home and bravely bought a commercial pattern (Vogue doesn’t cut it—but there are some Etsy designers that are really, really good) and you may remember years ago when I produced this guy:

A horse only a mother could love.

So in the middle of all this year’s learning software and figuring out how to trick it, and editing and doctoring manuscripts and working with POD services, of course I decided that now was the time I was going to do this soft-horse trick and do it right. And then a really sad thing happened lately that motivated me to actually pick up scissors and attack the muslin I’d bought last year for this very purpose, so I could make a guy who’d be easy to love and sweet to hug for someone I love.