Donuts, Flowers, Ribbons, and Curls

This past week I have been busy making a stacker toy of stuffed donuts for my granddaughter, Reagan. The sweetest little girl on earth if I may say so myself, and I finished it today. I was inspired by the stacker toys that babies love to play with and also Heather Bailey’s stacker inspired me.   Here is a basic idea of what I did:

First thing I did was cut out a pattern for the donuts out of pattern paper and my fabric and interfacing.

I burned myself frequently with the iron.

I made a lot of little snips.

I sewed together little gussets like this.

And hand-stitched them into my donuts, sticking myself regularly with straight pins.

I decorated outer gussets with pretty ribbon.

and I stitched over pins even though I know I’m not supposed to do that if I want my machine needle to last more than a few hours.

I stitched and folded, clipped and scolded, and then I stuffed it heartily with cotton.

Then I started all over again, but this time the circle is smaller and so is my patience.  But, I decided to have some fun, so I added funny ribbon knots to this circle.

And I embroidered Reagan’s name onto the outer gusset, because Reagan is special and I want her to know that.

When I was done with the first 2 donuts, I was so proud of myself that I wanted to play with them too.

But I had work to do.  So, I cut some ribbon…

Folded them in half and pinned them to the 3rd donut.

I sewed them on, reinforcing them with back and forth stitching so that Reagan won’t be able to pull them out with her teeth.  Kids like to do that you know.

I can now say, with a grand degree of confidence, that I am a pro at making donuts – just not in the kitchen, …

and that nothing makes me bite my bottom lip and stick out my tongue more than this.

And this …

And this.  Do I look like I know what I’m doing?

I suppose so, because I ended up with this …

and this cute little stacker.  Pretty cute ay?

Then I made this little sucker.

Of course, my life and Reagan’s stacker was not yet complete – not without a flower somewhere.  We gotta have a flower!!  So I made these little flower petals, sewed them together and stitched them to the smallest and last little donut …

until I had this little beauty.  My life was now complete.  Well, almost.  I still had a pole to assemble otherwise you can be sure that donuts would be all over Reagan’s nursery.

So I made a pole.

And I stuck it in the large donut and smiled because it reminded me of Pinocchio with a big nose.

Of course, I added all the other donuts I had made and I admired my creation, because …

nothing on earth is more important to me than the little things that make my children and my grandchildren smile and shriek with joy.  Because, well – that’s easy! …

There’s no better feeling in the world than this – that smile – those bright, happy eyes – that button nose, and those pinchable cheeks.

I love you Reagan.

Love, Grandma Susan