Thursday, March 8, 2007

Brain on holiday

As the quilt progress does not make exciting reading (another ten squares this week), I thought it might be good to break things up by making something quick and crafty. I stumbled across the Softie Awards 2007, and even though it was Wednesday, and the closing date was Friday, I decided that I could whip up something fun, just for a change.

I saw there was a category of 'Best Holiday Inspired' softie, which appealed to me. I must explain that in Australia, 'Holiday' generally refers to what Americans call 'vacations' - usually involving travel to somewhere more interesting. So I started thinking of soft toys inspired by our holiday travels.



I have a real soft spot for the cats in Turkey who lounge around on the carpets in shops and streets all over Istanbul,



So I had a go at making a Turkish carpet cat, painting a kilim design on a remnant of furnishing fabric.

I was making a pretty bodgy job of sewing him together - that fabric is a bugger to sew. Anyway I was just getting around to his face (I've drawn it in in Photoshop, just so you get the idea of what I was intending), when I thought I'd have a look at some of the other entries.



I looked at the Holiday category, expecting Arabian camels, exotic geishas and softies in Hawaian shirts. Instead I found lots of mice and owls inspired by Valentines day and Christmas, with a few Halloween creatures thrown in.

What on earth do Christmas, Valentines day and Halloween have to do with Holidays? I wondered. Then the penny dropped. Ahaa.. those Holidays, like "Happy Holidays". So a Turkish cat would not be so much what they were looking for...In fact he would look pretty damn silly in that crowd!

Thomas wondered why I was suddenly cracking up with laughter. To be honest it was a bit of a relief, as I wasn't very happy with this effort and it meant no more rushed embroidery today.

In other news, Warren officiated at a triathlon on the weekend, and took Thomas along to help direct the traffic



Nah, just kidding, don't call child protection, this is what he was really doing, lounging around at the picnic afterwards. The boys just thought it would be fun to dress him up.




Well, that's all from me in an exciting and productive week.
Happy Holidays to you all!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gabrielle! I think you should enter the cat under holiday and explain the american faux-pas! Or you could put him in the animal category after all! I think you've given me a brillant idea though, next year we will have a holiday/vacation softie category - i'm always looking for softies on vacation anyway. So thanks for the idea, and I hope you'll enter! Good Luck! Therese/Softie Awards

Anonymous said...

ha! it got me too... lucky you checked before you entered him! amazing isn't it, that we speak the same language but... I think he is super cute BTW

Anonymous said...

What a great theme for your softie and savvy use of photoshop too.

Love your sense of humor...Thomas is just adorable as usual [and a good sport].

Lovely new header picture too and can't wait to see the quilt.

kayla said...

What a funny post! Thanks for making me laugh.

Anonymous said...

hehe thomas looks hilarious with that outfit on! you have a funny hubby.
are you going to finish your kitty? i think you should, he is adorable, and i dont think it matters that it was a "different" holiday. cute cute cute