Lorchen, that is a beautiful photo - it looks like an advertisement for babies and bears!

thank you all for your great compliments

lorchen: eva is so beautiful - what a sweetie and she has a great pal for life...

rita: yes they do have a habit of biting and defending themselves when those noses are being worked on a few blood spots are not unusual - but if a handy kleenex and a moist towel is in the area these are no problem - bandaids have always been an important part of my sewing kit (also useful when handsewing batiks)
i've come accross the what will we do if this one toy is lost/destroyed/whatever... i very often give cuddly toys as baby presents (generally not my own) because i also love to buy them to be buyable they have to: be so cute they just need to walk home with you - have a special expression / personality - be soft, cuddle and holdable, be fully washable (which my bears are not) - and there have to be two (very very similar in expression - and identical in style/type/color). when i give one away i write a label on the other one to whom it has gone and when - then i tell the new parents that the double is still available and they should let me know as soon as they think this toy is going to be the one that cannot be lived/slept without. the trick is to interchange them when they are still fairly new - when one has his bath the other comes out - that way they age the same and are accepted with little/no problem. i've "had" to place quite a few doubles and it's worked almost every time. we've also gone in search of a double for people who have not told me in time, or early on in my present giving career before i knew about the problem... i keep the unused doubles for a year or two max - then they go into a care package

Lotti, your bears are amazing!!

I don't have any brothers, but I would also have preferred bears to the dolls I got. I can't remember ever having played with them. But my granddaughter has had a Steiff bear from the day she was born. Eva was one week old when this photo was taken.

Lotti all of those bears are simply wonderful. I don't know how you did it. When my daughter was very small she had a bear which she called either Aifric or Brown Bread Ted and she couldn't sleep without it. We were so worried about it that we bought a spare for just in case. Well the day came when the bear was lost somewhere and I produced the spare bear. My daughter who must have been all of two years old said 'That's not Aifric his nose is different'. I had to restyle the nose to make it look the same as the original bear nose which was so hard to stitch. So I don't know how you did a whole pile of bears. That is very hard on the hands. What a treasure they would be for anybody.... even grown ups who like bears.....and quilters who like bears.....

Oh Lotti! All your bears are just too much! I never made a bear, but made many a Cabbage Patch doll! I love the Lottie bears from Lotti in Baar. I don't know how to say it , but it looks like bear to me!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Lotti, all your bears are so cute!! I made bears for a few years and rather prefer to NOT stuff "wittle" arms & legs.

Lotti, your bears are precious! Makes you want to hug one! So glad you posted more--you are very talented. Renata

both george's are very short indeed... they have a bunch of older brothers though
i think i already posted them a while ago... but hey they kind of enjoy getting some extra attention:

the first 5 bears i ever made, these went to my nieces & nephews in canada - and the large fuzzy one with the blacksmith's apron went to my younger brother who's a master bladesmith




as you can see, george has quite a few brothers, this is the lot that was around end 2002...

most have found homes, there are a few i havn't been able to let go, george - obviously, his chocolaty friend albert, and the cat-fan in his cat-costume are all still home - safe and sound

yup some of the bits are rather twiddly - my old brother sewing machine took quite a beating making these bears, the smaller ones and the smaller bits on the medium sized ones were all sewn by hand - much easier than wrestling with the machine

but so much fun seeing them take on a personality - yes they are all real bears and they all enjoy being loved and running the people they live with

Marilyn, I think George II is the one who is 3 1/2" tall.

OMG ! George is only 3 1/2 inces tall ? Wouldn't have known fro the pix ! :shock: :shock: How did you
ever accomplish it ? Marilyn :

Adding myself to the new avatar list.

yup - i love my george - although normally i'm not too fond of the name, but while i was sewing his face, he kept biting... so i told him that if he keeps on doing that - he'll be named george...
in the meantime there's also a "george II" (my niece requested one for herself - she likes little tiny things - and the george's only measure about 3 1/2 inches standing up straight)
great - my bording passes just flew in (e-mail system told me the mails are here) - so i can send those on to my colleagues still in dubai so that they're ready to fly home tomorrow afternoon (easier for me to check in for them from here - the internet system in the hotel and at our exhibition stand is rather useless - at the exhibition hall we had 48 different w-lan systems within our reach - no wonder they all interfered with one another...) - now just pass those bording passes on and i can go home (with my fabulous new flannels and a bunch of non-slip rulers from eQuilter.com that my good and trustry colleague monica from our office in miami (doral) passed on to me with a device shipment - yeah - she shipped it on friday and the box was standing in front of my office door this morning - fab fab fab service.

Lotti, your george is adorable!

no - i'm very proud to say he's a "lotti-bear" mine all mine
actually i've wanted a steiff all my life and since no one gave me a steiff, i ended up making him according to an adapted steiff-like pattern - when we were small my brothers each got a steiff monkey - well the older got a monkey, the younger got an ape, and me - being a girl, received a doll... i did like her i admit, and did my fair share of dressing up and dressing her hair - but actually, that's what younger brothers are for... i'll never forget the day that we played hairdresser: jurg, the oldest, cut my hair, i cut christoph's hair, and he being the youngest cut the doll's hair... - the only one we got in trouble for was the doll !!! well yes - the doll's hair does NOT regrow!
long story short - the first cuddly toy i received, was a big huge rabbit which i was given for my confirmation - and i've been making up for lost time since
a few years ago i started a bout of manufacturing my own steiff type bears - had to stop when my hands gave up on me - but still have some fabulous mohair bear-fur that is waiting to be used - i'll get back to it eventually