Friday, July 24, 2009

True Love

Hello again,

It has been raining all day today, so I had some time to make another LO.

As soon as I saw the challenge over at Kiddie Lit, I knew I wanted to make a LO of my daughter Chloë and her stuffed doggie "Woefie". She's had it since the day she was born, and she loves him to death. Were Chloë goes, Woefie goes.

The challenge was to create a LO based on the children's book
The Velveteen Rabbit
by Margery Williams:
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."


Isn't this a wonderful story?? I so love this, and this passage screams "Woefie" ... he's lost most of his stuffing, has been "operated on" more times than I can count, his eyes turned completely white after I put him in the washing machine one time ... he looks terrible, but to Chloë he's the most beautiful doggie of all times.

Here's my take on the challenge:


The title reads: "True Love" and the journaling reads: To Chloë Woefie is as real as the love she feels for him.

We had to incorporate some soft texture onto our LO to reflect the texture of the rabbit in the story, so I used Chloë's old T-shirt to make the heart balloons.

I will also be submitting this LO for the stitching challenge over at "The Next Step". Since the lovely ladies at "The Next Step" started their challenge site, I've tried to incorporate their monthly techniques in at least one of my LO's of that month. And boy was this a challenge for me. I don't ever use my sewing machine. My grandmother left me her sewing machine after she died more than 7 years ago, but I haven't used it since. Well, that's not exactly true, I did try stitching on a 8x8 LO once, and though it looked okay, it wasn't a huge success. But it really looks gorgeous on this page, and I think I have to thank Lucy for this, thank you so much for your awesome tips on machine stitching, it worked like a charm!



I started out by stitching the threads for the balloons, and added the hearts later on. What do you think, not bad for a first time sewing machine stitcher huh!! I'm feeling mighty proud of myself today LOL. Mind you, I haven't looked at the other entries yet, so it's quite possible mine looks totally worthless next to the others, but I so love the look of it. After the hearts I stitched the frame. If you look closely, you'll see that the first time I went around the edges, I stitched an almost perfectly straight line ... I really had to force myself to make some swirls the second time around ... I'm still having a hard time "making some sort of a mess... ". But I did it, and again ... feeling mighty proud of myself for that LOL.

I know this is a really simple LO, and I tried adding a few things, but I kept putting them away. I love it the way it is, not every LO has to be filled completely, right?

Okay, enough chatting for one day. Let me know what you think!

Love xxx Peggy

27 comments:

  1. Peggy, this is absolutely gorgeous!!! I am so in love with that yellow girl...and your stitching is simply amazing. You SHOULD be proud! I just adore everything about it. :)
    - April

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  2. Oh Sweet Peggy....this LO is above Stunning!!!! I adore it and your stitching is just PERFECT!!!! I love the use of your daughter's shirt for the hearts!!!! This is no doubt top notch chickie and yay for using your grandmother's sewing machine!!!! This is funny....my bobbin fell apart and I can't find the manual to the machine to put it back together again....kinda like the house right now!!! My Evan has a bunny that he has had since he was born and he calls it his Old Bunny....we tried to replace it with new bunnies...but none fit the bill!!! So our Old Bunny is quite a mess also....but he sleeps with it every night!!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful talent with us....have a great evening!!! :)

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  3. Peggy, this LO is fabulous!! Not only is the stitching great, but I looove that you made the heart balloons out of a t-shirt! My son has two animals like that, too, and I just recently printed those photos to scrap them myself! I love that passage from the book!

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  4. This is simply gorgeous Peggy, LOVE IT! Those little balloons are so sweet and what a beautiful thing for your daughter to remember...

    xxJodie

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  5. Wat een prachtig werk Peggy!

    En je dochter met haar knuffel... zo lief hé!!

    Groetjes,
    Saskia :)

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  6. Wow Missy P these are just great. So love the stitching looks fabbo.

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  7. Een prachtige layout vind ik dit !!! Heel mooi met de genaaide stukjes en hij is heel teder.

    Het doet me denken aan mijn eigen "aap" die ik nog altijd heb, en ondertussen 38 jaar oud is. Mijn moeder heeft hem ook ontelbare keren "geopereerd" en hij heeft zelfs een facelift ondergaan, want zowel zijn gezicht als poten moesten met nieuw vilt worden overtrokken, want het stro kwam al uit mijn muiltje ;-))

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  8. what a beautiful story to be scrapped :) and the stitching looks awesome hey!

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  9. i love your new layout!!
    I used to love the velveteen rabbit when i was little. :)

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  10. fabulous for a first go at machine stitching ! I hope you do it more often ! lol

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  11. Wat een schitterende layout! Je hebt met weinig materiaal iets heel moois gemaakt.

    Groetjes,
    Loes

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  12. Prachtige layout!!
    Mooi door z'n eenvoud en details. En wat een lieve foto's!
    Ja, scrappen als het regent. Zo heeft ieder nadeel ook weer een voordeel. Toch?
    XXXJenneke

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  13. this is adorable!!!!!! i love the balloons!! :)

    hugs,
    sarah.

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  14. Hi Peggy!

    Your layouts are devine :)

    Have an 'Andy Warhol' inspired piece of art work for Jul/August if you would like to have a go and submit a layout!

    cheers
    Shazza

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  15. Hey Peggy, love this layout! Your daughter is gorgeous. Thanks for coming over my way. I have been missing everyone but I needed to have some time off bc I was exhausted. I have my breath back now. XX

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  16. I'm not sure how i ended up here, but am glad I did! Great layouts and I can't believe you haven't been scrappin but about a year! Hope you don't mind that you are one of my "picks of the week" on my blog!

    kate
    http://kateblue.blogspot.com/

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  17. peg, this is an amazing kreation!!! i was shocked when i scrolled down because it's so different for you...i love your versatility!!!

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  18. This is a wonderful layout Peggy! I love the story behind it and how you put the fabric from her shirt in it! I loovvee The Next Step challenges too!!

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  19. Ik kwam toelvallig op je blog terecht maar wat een prachtige Lay-Out. Ik heb me gelijk aangemeld als volgster. Ik vind je bloemen helemaal geweldig.


    Groetjes Ilonka

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  20. Those balloons are adorable!! I love that you made them from her old t-shirt! And kudos to you for being brave with the sewing machine!!!

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  21. Drat! I just lost my comment! Wellllll, what I tried to say it this is such a wonderful LO! It is one of my favorites of all your LO's! I love the T-shirt balloons, the journaling and the stitching! You look like a pro! No one would ever guess this was your first time stitching. I'm looking forward to your next stitched project! xoxo L.

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  22. This is a stunning lo! Love the colors and contrasts;)

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  23. Peggy, long time no chat.. =) I love this layout.. very unique and I like the stitching and how you used the tshirt.. heck I like it all.. =) great job..

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  24. Ik doe mijn uiterste best om zo snel mogelijk aan mijn foto's van Kreta te beginnen, maar heb vorige week zo een 270 andere foto's laten afdrukken dus veel werk voor de boeg..
    Gr Charlot

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  25. Peggy!!! I LOVE this! You have so inspired me with your storybook inspired layouts again!

    Your stitching is excellent - you couldn't have picked all of that up from my tips, you are being too modest! lol Thanks so much for your support of our blog!

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