Getting Started!

Hiya! Hallöchen!

My name is Ally. I'm a young mother, born in America but living in beautiful (anddensely populated) Nürnberg. I've always been a crafty person and during my extended "maternity leave" I found myself at loose ends and working on this and that until a chance Googling tipped me off to the fact that needle felting can be used in conjunction with sewing. Specifically, it can be used to augment teddy bears and other cuddly plushies. 

Anyone who knew me as a girl would tell you that I had a passion not just for stuffed animals, but for fine stuffed animals. I had a nose for quality and a fierce desire to give all the beautiful creatures a loving home with someone who truly understood them... whatever that means. I probably could have told you them. I had deeply held beliefs about stuffed animals that probably rivaled or beat any I have had before or since.

The knowledge that I could apply my skills at needle felting to the making of such fine stuffed animals led me to do something I always swore I'd never do... I picked up a sewing needle. I don't know why, but during my first encounter with a sewing machine in my early twenties I became convinced that I would never sew competently. I turned to drawing, sculpting, and, eventually, to sculpting wool with the use of needle felting. This was as close as I ever though I'd get to making REAL stuffed animals. 

With my 30th birthday looming, I asked my beloved Grandmother for a bear making kit and the adventure began! I have but one finished bear to my name (who will be introduced in another post,) but from the first second her facial features took shape under my needle, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. FOREVER. 

So, here I am. I have a name (for the bears, I mean, I always had a name.) I have a Blog, apparently, and I have a pretty decent amount of fabric coming my way. Let the game begin!