New England Teddy Bear Gathering - April 17 & 18

My gosh the month has almost flown by again! I know you haven't seen many bears from me lately. I've been getting ready for the New England Teddy Bear Gathering! It's going to be a wonderful show in New Hampshire. I'll be teaching a workshop on Saturday (the 17th) and the show is on Sunday the 18th. There are still some seats left in the workshop if you are interested :)

Hopefully I'll be able to take some photos of the bears I'll be bringing to the show. At the moment, however, I have lots of them drawn out or cut out... but not many finished. I'd better stop getting more bears "ready to cut out" and finish the ones I have LOL!

Right now I'm trying to finish a lovely lavender bear for the challenge. Daphne Blau (the promoter and my friend) has sent a pattern to the artists who want to participate. We are all making bears from the same pattern. It's going to be so much fun to see how they all turn out!

The New Puppy ;)

I just love our Basset Hound puppy Stella (we got her the Sunday before Christmas) but boy I obviously had forgotten how much work puppies are!

We got our first puppy (Cleo our whippet) 10 years ago. Athena (another whippet) we got 9 years ago. Both of them were almost 3 months old when they came to us. The 3 dogs since then (Isis, Pandora - both whippets and our Chihuahua Sequoia) all came to us as adults.

So you can see... it's been a while since puppies LOL! That and we got Stella at around 7 weeks old instead of 11 or 12 weeks old ;)

I have a show and workshop to get ready for in New Hampshire this April. So.... what can I say.. all the Girls are in "their room" till this afternoon today... and we'll probably be doing it that way for most of the weekdays if I'm to get everything done in time LOL!!

So Much Has Gone On!!!

Oh my goodness, I had no idea how long it has been since I've posted anything!! I think I'll write backwards in time... ;)

Yesterday I finished that mint chocolate chip panda bear. He's 14" tall and I've named him Pistachio. He's currently available for adoption on my website: www.TeddiesbyLauraLynn.com



If you subscribe to Teddy Bear Review, you may see a familiar bear on the cover. Sweetheart was created last year as a pattern that I was going to have available for sale. TBR emailed to ask if I had any patterns they could include in their February issue, so I sent them Sweetheart. They later decided to use her for their cover as well!


As some of you know, we lost our whippet Isis last summer to heart disease. We knew it was coming for a couple of years, but it was hard none the less. We still had 4 dogs, so you'd think that would be enough. But her loss left such a big hole in our hearts.... that Christmas week we got a new puppy!




Nope, this does not look like either a Whippet or Chihuahua puppy... she's a Basset Hound! Hubby grew up with a Basset, and circumstances brought us to a wonderful local breeder. Her name is Stella and she's such a cutie (slightly biased opinion here!) Needless to say, she is taking up a bit of my time, but we are working out a work/play schedule ;)

Here's a video of her playing with our Chihuahua Sequoya




Teddy Bear Shows!! I still need to update my website, but I will be exhibiting at 2 shows this year. I'll be in New Hampshire in April and Chicago in October.

New England Teddy Bear Gathering - April 17 & 18th (Workshops Sat, Show Sun.) www.TeddyBearGathering.com
I will also be teaching a bear making workshop at this event. I'll post a photo of the sample bear as soon as he's done!

Chicagoland Teddy Bear Show - October 22 & 23 - Schaumburg, IL (Workshops & Dessert Reception on Fri, Show on Sat) www.ChicagolandTeddyBearShow.com

Bear Making Classes

I've had many requests for me to finally start my classes :)

I've decided for my first class bear to use one of my patterns that are currently in production. The class will include pre-sewn bear parts, but as I am currently using this pattern for my own bears, the pattern will not be included with the class. You WILL however be able to go home with a finished bear you made yourself, with my help :) The prototype bear for the class will be ready next week!

New Show Added! October 20th - Elgin, IL

Saturday, October 20th from 8:30am - 2:30pm. Epworth United Methodist Church in Elgin, IL. NW corner of Randall Rd. & Highland Ave.

It's not a bear show... but a church bazaar. One of my neighbors helps out at her church and they were looking for artists for their show. This church happens to be just down the street about 1 1/2 miles from me, so I said yes.

The big Schaumburg ABC OctoBear Faire is the following weekend. Since I've been busy getting ready for that... I'll have enough for the bazaar without going crazy (I think LOL!)

I realize that there may not be many artist bear collectors - and that's OK! My main purpose is to get artist bears "out there". I plan on having fliers explaining about artist bears... and I have a large stack of both US magazines: Teddy Bear & Friends and Teddy Bear Review that I'll be giving away too.

Oh, I forgot to mention!!!! I'm going to start giving teddy bear making classes in my home! The bazaar will be a great way to start to advertise this to the neighborhood as well :)