from Marian to Reuben

Miss Marian made a nice gray linen hippo for Reuben's Christmas gift. It was a collaborative effort: she chose the animal & size she wanted to make, then...okay, I heavily influenced the gray linen choice. Marian can be very stubborn about her artistic vision, though, so I like to think she was of a like mind. The green striped inner ears were her choice. She traced and cut out the pattern pieces, and I cut the fabric and machine-stitched the seams. She turned the creature's skin. Marian wanted to use safety eyes and I attached those & the ears so they would all be extra-secure for the hippo-eating baby.Marian firmly stuffed the beast (we chose to use polyester filling so Mr. H will be machine-washable), and stitched up his bum. I love her stitches:
(Marian also gave Reuben the small tin mentioned in the last post, which I fill with various wee bits of the baby-safe variety (Kix are popular) and he loves to open and close and open and spill. It's the biggest hit of his Christmas, even if all of her glue-stick decorations only lasted 23 seconds.)

I badly want Reuben to cuddle this guy to sleep, and he usually will condescend to give him a fat kiss/bite (sometimes I get that sort, too; he's working on those canines!) at night time, but his preferred cuddly is a remote. Or phone. Either is fine, but the buttons are essential, and it's nice if they respond with lights or beeps. Such a techno boy already.
I'm trying to kick 2010 me in the p'toosh and do more house work. I need to do both kinds, of course, but here I mean the sewing and decorating sort. I finally finished the throw pillows for the couch, which I made far too complicated (each one has a different zipper approach, and I should have followed Sally's advice on all of them and used hidden zippers, because she's right, they are by far the easiest and prettiest, but I also rather adore using 10 cent zippers from the local factory outlet. Anyway, you can see 'em on the couch above. The fabric looks hodge-podgy, but was actually very carefully curated, and bought piece-by-piece from etsy sellers. I love them. Next up: getting these off the floor and onto the walls.