A Labor Of Love

My dear friend Rhonda and I were shopping in our favorite bookstore a while back and found "The Complete Brambly Hedge" book by Jill Barklem, a British author who created a delightful little world of country mice more than thirty years ago.  We both fell in love with the stories and characters.  Not long after we found the book Rhonda found "The Brambly Hedge Pattern Book" and gave it to me as a gift.  Armed with instructions and patterns, I immediately wanted to make one of the characters for her.  Fast forward about two years and I'm delighted to announce that I finally did it. 

Long gone are the days when I made things like this on a regular basis.  I'm not as adept at handwork as I used to be.  My daughter has an entire household of mice that I made for her many, many years ago.  I've always loved to do things like this but I must admit that age, arthritis and slightly marginalized eyesight have put a slightly different spin on the endeavor.  There were quite a few off-color words, needle pricks, mistakes and do-overs involved.

And for all my friends in England who know this is not Mrs. Apple, please be kind.  I had no end of trouble trying to find the proper fur and fabric that would fit the pattern so I had to take some artistic license. I'm still working on the basked she's supposed to be carrying.

The Extra picture is the original family I made for my daughter 40 years ago (Marvin Mouse and his wife, Ethel, and their daughter Melissa)  Most of the things in the picture are handmade, including the potatoes, vegetables, eggs, etc.