So what about the hobby horses?

Remember the 30 stick ponies and the dollies I spent way too much time cutting and sewing together?  And then I followed it up by getting sick and missing the event?  Yeah.  Well, I've been wanting to get some pictures of a complete stick pony from the event.  Unfortunately, every picture taken seems to have someone's child in it (go figure.)  Which is why this one was impossible to resist.  His Royal Majesty Khan Timmur IV of Artemisia with his stick pony and the paper dolls made in HRM's image in commemoration of his attendance at Toys for Tots by Lord Yamanuchi Eidou. Seems like the hobby horses were a hit.

Photo taken by Katie Fullmer

 

 

 

 

Making stick horses and poppets

Anton Moller, Portrait of a Boy via

I'm currently assembly line sewing a bunch of fabric horse heads and dolls for children's activities at my Province's annual Toys for Tots event. Since we're short a youth officer right now, I decided to make the arts and science activities appropriate for all ages. So, we're decorating and stuffing hobby horse heads, customizing little dolls, making pinwheels, and stick horse jousting.

I really love making toys.  I used to have a business doing needlefelted and wet felted toys as well as soft sewn animals from wool felt, so this feels really familiar.

It always makes me smile to realize children of today, while they do have all the electronic choices and hunks of plastic, still enjoy playing with the very same toys our ancestors did.  Larsdatter has a collection of links to dolls and hobby horses and pinwheels and loads more that is a fun browse.

And just to show what I used to do, here's a few of my (rather old) creations.  A needlefelted Ent of Grandfather tree with cardinal and squirrel to play on his branches.  A selection of fall pincushions, and a hedgehog and his house under the leaves.