Remember I was telling you about designing a new softie for a book that was planned to be published by Penguin Australia back here? Well finally I'm able to reveil what kind of softie I've designed because the book arrived today. The request was to design a softie that could be handsewn by children so meet my "fred the cat". He can be found on page 45 of SIMPLE SOFTIES for the whole family.

Weet je nog dat ik een tijdje geleden schreef over het feit dat ik wederom een knuffel mocht ontwerpen voor een nieuw boek van Penguin Australië. Nou vandaag kan ik eindelijk laten zien wat ik ontworpen heb, want het boek lag vanochtend op mijn deurmat. Het verzoek was om een knuffel te ontwerpen die met de hand gemaakt kon worden door kinderen en dus maak kennis met Fred de kat. Hij staat op pagina 45 van dit engelstalige patronenboek: SIMPLE SOFTIES for the whole family.

Back in 2008 I've designed a softiepattern for "More Softies" a pattern book published by Penquin Books Australia... Mister Rooster. Today I received a message from Antje who's living in Havixbeck, Germany with a picture of the Roosterfamily she made with the pattern. I love the bright colours she used and also the fact she altered the pattern a bit to also make a mrs Rooster as well.

In 2008 heb ik voor "More Softies" een uitgave van Penquin Books Australia het patroon mr. Rooster gemaakt. Vandaag kreeg ik van Antje uit Havixbeck, Duitsland een foto gemaild van de familie Rooster die zij met dit patroon gemaakt heeft. De kleuren die ze gebruikt heeft vind ik al fantastisch, maar wat ik nog leuker vind is dat ze zelf ook het patroon nog iets aangepast heeft om er ook nog een mevrouwtje Rooster bij te maken.

She really did a wonderful job don't you think?

Prachtig vind je ook niet?

Last year I participated in a softie-pattern book by designing a softie called Mister Rooster. The book is called More Softies and is published by Penquin Books Australia.

Vorige jaar heb ik meegewerkt aan een (engelstalig) knuffelpatronen-boek door een knuffel te ontwerpen genaamd Mister Rooster. Het boek heet More Softies en wordt uitgegeven door Penquin Books Australia.

This year I got the call again if I wanted to participate in a new book ... Softies simple. This time it's going to be a book with patterns for especially for children. As the name already implies the pattern was supposed to be not too complicated and designed to be sewn by hand. So last week, I worked on my final design, the pattern and the instructions in English. The pattern and instructions already have been sent by e-mail, the softie itself will start it's journey to Australia today.

Ook dit jaar kreeg ik het verzoek of ik weer mee wilde werken aan een nieuw boekje... Simple Softies. Dit keer wordt het een boekje met patronen bestemd voor kinderen. Zoals de naam al doet vermoeden moest het patroon niet al te ingewikkeld zijn en met de hand in elkaar genaaid kunnen worden. En dus heb ik afgelopen week gewerkt aan een ontwerp en het patroon en instructies in het Engels. Het patroon en de beschrijving zijn inmiddels via de digitale post verstuurd, de echte knuffel gaat vandaag aan zijn reis naar Australië beginnen.

Link:
More Softies

Remember I had some exciting news back in februari?

Well today a parcel arrived from "down under" containing the book which is named More softies.
I already was thrilled to be in there, but now I discovered my softie also made it to the cover which makes it even more wonderful ;) The book looks really well and contains lots of beautiful softiepatterns. Since the release-date officially is the 29th of september and they haven't placed a picture of the cover on their website yet, you will have to do with a little sneakpeak of what my finished softie looks like.

Last year I send some of my Olmies to a show in Australia. As a result of that show Penquin Australia asked the participators if they would like to participate in a softie-pattern book by designing one or more patterns.

Unfortunately due to the fact I was first overwhelmed with work designing and teaching webdesigning-courses at the adult learning centre, followed by recovering from my bike accident, I had to decide I could not be parth this book.

But guess what... Sandra (from herzensart) send me a message a couple of months back, telling me they were planning to make a new book and were looking for new participators as well and so I decided this time I would love to be parth of it.

So I send them an e-mail have been accepted and so I'm excited to be able to announce that for the first time in my life my work will be published and somewhere in October this year the book will be released. Ofcourse they don't want me to spoil the fun by giving a sneakpeak of my softie so you have to wait until october for that!

Normally I hate cleaning the house, most of the time I feel it's a waste of my precious time, especially with kids in the house. In times like the present I'm glad I did start to do some cleaning because I found these materials and had to combine them into a fun little project :0)

Needless to say most of the house is still a mess but I don't mind and luckely the rest of my family doesn't care less also :0)

These 2 cat-softies and a windmill softie are for sale in my Etsy-shop along with some other softies.

And I'm also proud to announce that two of my Olmie-dolls are adopted :0)

Max is on a journey to the USA and Kareltje already arrived in France.

As you can see all olmies gathered around Kareltje to give him a bit of comford because of the fact he wasn't chosen to be a possible winner for The Softie Awards

At least not for the compitition place he was entered in...if he was a bunny or a bear, he would have been one of the finalists but since he's not....he's not :(

Needles to say he needed a groupsession because first he though he would be in the finals, and since he's a real party-pooper he already started to do a bit of celebrating...

Het al in december gekochte schilderslinnen is eindelijk gebruikt waarvoor ik het bedoeld had. Een artdoll van geschilderd linnen. De vleugels zijn gemaakt van een combinatie van geschilderd linnen, katoen en vitrage. De vogel zelf is versierd met kralen en pailletten.

I bought some gesso'd canvas in december. This saturday I used some for a project I had in mind a long time and artdoll made from painted canvas. The wings are a combination of painted-canvas, cotton and lace curtain. The body is decorated with paillettes and beads.

Sinterklaas is in het land maar zonder kleine kinderen in huis en vanwege het feit dat we dit jaar voor het eerst het surprise-gebeuren ook aan ons voorbij laten gaan is de sint-stemming ver te zoeken. En dat terwijl ik toch altijd zo'n voorstander ben om deze traditie in leven te houden.

Als compensatie ben ik me dan toch maar vast met de kerst gaan bezig houden, met de kerstversieringen danwel te verstaan. Ik heb besloten dat onze boom dit jaar versierd gaat worden met eigengemaakte "ballen". Met als resultaat dat mijn handen de laatste dagen bij tijd en wijle reuze glibberig zijn van wege de papiermaché.

English readers...

Mijn franse kalebas heeft sinds dit weekend een heel ander uiterlijk, stond hij al sinds vorig jaar gewoon kalebas te zijn nu gaat hij voortaan verder als Jaap.

As of last weekend my french courd has totally different looks. Formally known just as courd he now listens to the name Jaap.

Yesterday I started to make another olmie.

I wanted to try out another nose and somehow when embroidering the face it was like the doll already spoke to me... ok you changed my nose, you can do that but let me tell you I don't want to be an olmie I want to be something completely different!

And therefore she is...

Because I already collected some pieces of cloth and some other accessories which I would like to use and due to the way it looked both Marjolein (my daughter) and me have a strong feeling she's turning into a Baroness...

If there's a party going on Kareltje sure will be the one hanging around trying to get in because he's a real party-animal ;0)
He love's to make his own buntings and paper chains so if ever you need one, he's your guy! Kareltje loves to discover things and therefore he's ready to leave the forrest to go see more of the world!

Latest news:
On april 12, 2007 Kareltje moved to France to live with a lovely girl named Lucie.

Trijntje
is a sweet granny-olmie. She loves to take care of the little olmies. Whenever someone needs a sitter she’s the first one to be asked and she hardly never says no!

She also bakes the most tastefull cookies in the whole forrest and everytime she starts baking them the forrest smells delicious!

Obvious whe will be missed when she leaves te forrest but she agreed to leave her recipies behind so they can bake their own Trijntje-cookies....

Price: 59 Euro + shipping.
Size: 35-40 cm.

All my Olmies are send out with a signed adoption certificate with a bit more information about the Olmie-folk and the specific character itself.

Click here to tell me you're ready to take him into your home and to ask for more details.

Trijntje is currently reserved.

Max
is a real funny guy. He can't seem to stop gigglin and loves to tell jokes he himself laughs about the most.

I'm sure you can see he also loves to visit granny Trijntje on a regular basis , because she bakes the most tastefull cookies in the whole forrest and they are his absolute favorite thing to eat!
He loves it when one of the tiny peoples uses his swing.

Latest news:
Although Max will miss Trijntjes cookies terribly he has moved to the USA on april 12 - 2007 to live with a lovely lady called Cynthia.

These three dolls are on the way to Australia to be parth of the Morphe II softdoll exhibition.

They come with a signed certificate of origin, providing their name and birthdate and the story behind the Olmie-folk:

Today I received an email from Carly:

Congratulations
you are a finalist in the Morphe II soft toy exhibition at Nest Studio !

Isn't that wonderful news!!!

Look who's standing in my appletree

Te koop - For sale

Deze vrolijke vogel is gemaakt van katoen en vilt en gevuld met polyester vulmateriaal. Hij is 35cm groot en heeft een vleugelwijdte van 25 cm. Deze vreemde vogel is uitermate geschikt voor kleine kinderen..

This funny bird is made of cotton & feltand stuffed with polyfill. He's about 35cm tall and has a wingwidth of 25cm. This strange bird is very sweet to small children.

Deze lieve blondine is gemaakt van katoen,vilt & kant en gevuld met polyester vulmateriaal. Ze is ongeveer 30 cm lang en met haar paardestaarten van katoen lief voor kleine kinderen. Alleen is het wel iets oppassen geblazen met haar broche vanwege de knoop die daar in verwerkt is.

This sweet blondine is made of cotton,felt & ribbon and stuffed with polyfill. She's about 30cm tall and with her cotton ponytails very sweet to small children. The only risk will be her brooch because of the vintage button.

Deze lollige brunette is gemaakt van katoen en vilt en kant en gevuld met polyester vulmateriaal. Ze is ongeveer 30 cm lang en door haar bruine lokken en broche niet helemaal geschikt voor kleine kinderen.

This happy brunette girl is made of cotton,felt & ribbon and stuffed with polyfill. She's about 30cm tall and although she's fun to be with, a bit of a risk to small children due to her hair and brooch!

Deze lieve zachte knul is gemaakt van katoen,vilt, fleece en zigzagband en gevuld met polyester vulmateriaal. Zijn lengte is 30 cm is en aangezien het een echte softie is, erg lief voor kleine kinderen. De knopen op zijn borst kunnen echter toch enige risico met zich mee brengen.

This nice guy is made of cotton,felt, fleece and vintage ribbon and stuffed with polyfill. He's about 30cm tall and although he's concidered to be a real softy to small children, he can be a bit of risk because of the buttons on his chest!

Dit schattige blonde meisje is gemaakt van katoen en vilt en kant en gevuld met polyester vulmateriaal. Ze is ongeveer 30 cm lang en met haar katoen vlechtjes ook bijzonder geschikt voor kleine kinderen.

This lovely blond girl is made of cotton,felt & ribbon and stuffed with polyfill. She's about 30cm tall and with her cotton braids very sweet to small children!

Deze frisse knul is gemaakt van katoen en vilt en gevuld met polyester vulmateriaal en heeft een lengt van ongeveer 30 cm.

This casual kind of guy is made of cotton & felt, stuffed with polyfill and he's about 30cm tall.

Working on my back-tack softie made me remember how much I always enjoyed sewing. I used to make almost all clothes for Marjolein and Sander myself as well as my own clothing. I even used to design childwear together with my sister Caroline. We made samples from our designs and sold them on homeparties for a while. It was nice and we sold a lot, but it wasn't profitable enough and so after two seasons we decided to stop.

Some years later my kids started preferring to buy their clothes like everyone else and after Caroline died I totally lost interest in making clothes myself, I still don't feel like making them now. But making these art-dolls is something completely different and I must say a lot of fun. So I don't think these will be the last you've seen and if your interested in buying... I still need to enjoy them some more myself but soon they will be up for sale!

Oh and my big inspiration to start playing with fabrics again: Friederike!