Jubilee Jack ...........

I do not make many 'themed' bears but we are in the midst of the diamond jubilee celebrations and one of our special collectors asked if I had made a bear for the occasion.      Some years back I made a very tiny 'patriotic' bear and have used a similar idea for this one-of-a-kind creation.
 

Jubilee Jack is made from long pile fabric with a body made from a Union Jack.    I printed the tiny flags on linen fabric and changed the body pattern design so that there is no centre seam. I think he is quite a cute little bear and it was a great opportunity to use up scraps of really special vintage long pile.   Jack is holding his own string of  'bunting'.    One of those ideas which made me doubt my sanity as cutting and gluing tiny triangular flags was not easy.   I have great admiration for creators of miniatures, my hands seem too big and clumsy to work with such tiny things.

The starlings have hatched out a new 'horde' of babies.    Loud and bad mannered they descend on our bird feeders en masse, chasing the other birds away and fighting over the food.   We have decided to buy some low priced bread to feed them and perhaps the other birds just might get some of the seed.   Three suet balls which usually last for several days disappear in less than an hour.   New visitors to the garden are a pair of magpies as well as a shy jay.

We have had good heavy rain over the past few days and my vegetable garden is looking good.   This year I am once again planting my own herb supply, so much nicer than the dried bottled variety.

Back to work, enjoy the rest of the week.   The weekend beckons and we have an extra long bank holiday with a boot market to visit on Monday.

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. ~Mark Twain