When I was a little girl….ok, I must include beyond little, I have relatives here who will blow this cover….I liked to make up stories and adventures; some of them rather mature and even disquieting, starring my stuffed animals. I’ve never really outgrown them, and some I still own and have passed onto the kiddo. The animals, not the stories. Heavens, no.
I never cared much for dolls, though I had just about every “it” doll of the Christmas shopping season. They never really seemed real to me, and I’d lacked a maternal instinct until well into my thirties. I’d just drop in on my sister T. when we played “house” and I’d pretend I had a hot date and needed her to mind “the children” while I went off to park myself in front of the t.v. (or, “the movies”, as I would tell T.). But the expressions on my softies made them more than real and were a viable and sometimes outrageous escape that entertained myself and my siblings well into the night before we went to bed. Our rooms were connected closely, sans a hallway, and the stories would start with some details I’d harvest from the sibs, and off I’d just ad-lib until we fell asleep or until my mother would pass through on her way to get ready for her night shift duty as a nurse. If she heard any of these, she’s never told me so. Let’s hope she did not.
Now I have the kiddo and she, like me, prefers her softies, which she has in abundance, over the few token dollies. Some live in her teepee, others hang out with us on the bed, though she for some reason won’t let them sleep with us, instead tossing them unceremoniously over the foot of it until morning.
I’ve been sewing like mad this week…so relaxing…and one of my projects is the stuffed cat in Denyse Schmidts excellent quilting book. And I have just received notice that the adorable Fofers, whom the kiddo and I are quite fond of, have a blog.
Softies Central is another blog that I have been drooling over for inspiration which is almost completely and entirely dedicated to softies in all shapes and materials.
I’m off to go play with some more fabric and thread.
I use softies, as ye call them, in my webcomic! I have also heard tales of some strategy game that uses softies the way wargames-players use little pewter miniature soldiers, but i have yet to actually PLAY this legendary game. I want to, though.