Hitting the Success Button On the Nose!

The quiet book is coming along.

Five pages completed and stitched into the book, five pages in various stages of completion, and two where I have no clue how to proceed. The ideas for them are just not translating into patterns and pieces yet.

Having said all that, I am in good shape to hit the July 4th deadline. Why the 4th of July? It's a day when we always gather in Indianapolis at my sister Jenny's house for our annual family bocce tournament. (People are practicing already. Yup.) And this year the JCs^2 are going to be with us!

Aside from being stumped for a couple of ideas, there is another problem. My eyes.

I discovered that I could not read this dial on my sewing machine when I needed to make an adjustment for putting in a zipper. Not even with two lights over it and my phone flashlight centered on it. Work came to a crashing halt as I considered my options.

A visit to my optometrist resulted in coming home with a second pair of glasses. They were to be used when I was doing close or tiny work while sewing.

I was amazed at the difference they made. I was also sobered by how much my eyes seemed to be deteriorating.

Regardless, the work is continuing. Saturday I put together a page that I designed and drew myself. Feeding the Pony.

I first made it for Melissa's quiet book during the pandemic. 

I even tucked in a candy cane so a little bit of Abby was in the book.

Pleased with how it turned out, I decided to make it again for the JCs^2.

This page takes far more work than you might think.

The top and bottom mouth pieces are three different pieces of fabric as are the ears, all needing to be stitched together with numerous thread changes in between each step. 

The carrots (oh, they look sad!) and apple needed to be stitched down to felt and then carefully cut out, and the feed bag needed an interfacing backing to be attached and then zigzagging along the raw edges to make it sturdy.

Jessica is a dental hygienist and she sent the healthy horse treats and the toothbrush. Love it!

As the pony progressed, I was not happy with color of the yarn I'd bought for the forelock. So, Lisa and I went to the craft shop where Lisa found the perfect color and the perfect fiber of yarn.

It makes me think of a very sassy pony's mane blowing in the wind!

Thinking I was done, I carefully stitched it all down into the book.

Only to realize that I'd forgotten the nostrils. 

It was too late to machine sew them down at this point, and any hand stitching would show inside the mouth. 

I considered leaving the nostrils off, but I placed them on the face to see how they looked, and they absolutely were needed to visually break up that long nose.

As I considered my options, I remembered that I had some double sided fabric binding and could simply bind the nostrils to the nose with heat from my iron. While not as strong a bind as stitching the nostrils down, it should work for what I needed.

Success! I think the pony looks so much better now.

Now, to find some candy cane patches or appliqués. 

Stay 'tooned!

Historic Saddles: Part 3

First Post of the Day

Today we are continuing to look at historic saddles. And Tim's tackroom is a gold mine of them.

Tim's Mexican Saddle, early 1900s

Shortly before Abby died, Leslie found this beautiful Mexican saddle at a flea market. She bought it to get it into the hands of someone who would value and preserve it. Who better than Tim?

Tim loves antique tack and bought it from her. Now it is on display in the barn lounge.

I have done some research trying to identify it but it doesn't fit the more common types of Mexican saddles (Charro, Montura, Vaquero/Vaquera). It partially fits the description of several different saddles, including a vintage bear trap saddle. It may not be a Mexican saddle as originally thought. (If you can help me identify it, please email me at horsiemama8 @ gmail. com)

Tim's Western Pony Saddle, 1940s/1950s

This little beauty is kept in Tim's barn office. When his grands were little, he had a pony that they would ride. 

Thunderbolt was a sassy little boy and liked to boss around the other horses. 

I didn't get to know him well; at the time Tim had seven horses and I'd just gotten Abby and was getting to know her and not spending much time with the other horses. 

Tim's Western Pony Saddle, 1960s/1970s

A much, much younger Cowpoke Lukie trying out Tim's other pony saddle. Judging by the tooling and the red seat, I'm dating this to the 1960s/1970s. (I got Amy, my first horse in 1970 and was perusing Horse & Rider, Western Horseman, and other magazines constantly. Many western saddles at that time had seats that were colored leather.)

The McClellan Cavalry Saddle, late 19th/early 20th Century

This saddle was actually mine and, along with O'Boy's bridle, was on display in the family room of our Illinois home back in the 1990s. 

I don't remember where I got it (most likely from another horsey friend) and I gifted it to Tim for Christmas in 2017. 

He has displayed it on an old saddle tree in the barn lounge ever since.

There are other saddles in the tackroom that are vintage and worth a look.

This is just one corner of the room!

Leslie's western saddle. Tim bought it when she stopped riding and he uses it on Easy. It's from the late 20th century. (Which is vintage to some and not to others, depending on how vintage you yourself are! LOL)

Speaking of vintage, here is a photo of Leslie going for a ride in her first saddle and on her first horse.

By coincidence, she sent it to me two days ago, and I couldn't resist sharing it! 

Another wall of saddles. (Love that Australian saddle!)

I'm still not finished sharing historic and vintage saddles. More to come tomorrow. 

Stay 'tooned! 

A Pony Pal Meltdown

This is the face

 of a girl who loves horses (and unicorns)

 when she discovers that there is a pony being ridden around her neighborhood

and she is not able to run over and hop onto it.

 It was quite a meltdown

but her Grammy understood

because she wanted to ride, too!

Horseplay

I spent Saturday morning watching Ian and Mila while their parents painted an upstairs bedroom. Ian owns a large stuffed pony...

... and he started a game of "get bucked off, bump your head, and get a kiss from Grammy" that he repeated over and over.

 I was able to get a quick film on my phone - we must've played this fifteen times before he tired of it!

I need to get that boy a helmet.

Krazy Kritters Ponies

While reading the Hagen Renaker book that I got in December, I was surprised to discover that The Little Shoppe, a place where I buy my HRs, had done some mini animals in unusual colors, targeting children. They were called Krazy Kritters, and apparently there was a kids' club of some sort with lots of the HR minis in funky colors.

Intrigued, I did a search online and found them. I've been all over that web site and never seen them, and it's not got a search button so even when I knew they had been sold there, I could not check that out.

They are teeny tiny, and not an HR mold I usually buy. But, I know enough about collecting to strike when there's an unusual opportunity, and these are SO odd, I'd never heard of them and never seen them on any saleslists!

Krazy Kritters Ponies in pink with blue and yellow with orange are now in my mini china hutch.