Gerry Giraffe Comes to Life

I took another workshop at my local quilt shop. This one was to make a stuffed animal with fabric, polyester stuffing and wire to add sculpture and shape. Sharon, the instructor, was also the designer of the patterns we had to choose from. She has created animal and doll patterns for a couple of decades. Her work is very creative!

I learned a lot while taking this class. Cutting and sewing the body was pretty much as for any clothing sewing, but adding wire and stuffing to create the body was all new. Lots of great tricks to make the animal balanced and posable.

While I was finishing up my giraffe, Madonna, the owner of the quilt and sewing store, was selecting fabric from a fabric dealer. I think Madonna could see that I was interested is seeing the new fabrics, so she invited me to join her. It was interesting to see the new lines of fabric coming out this spring and fall. Some fabric was only at the mock up stages with a coloured photograph and a small 4" square of fabric, others were completed lines so the fabric was laid out in corresponding bundles. I was amazed to see how quickly Madonna made her choices. You can see she knows exactly what she wants for fabric in her shop.