On the heels of welcoming in 2011, this blog has come up on one year old (celebratory post to come). I’ve got many exciting plans for the blog and for my crafting in general during the coming year, but for a moment I’d like to reflect on how much can be learned in 12 months of experiments and constant Google searches. How many glue stains old carpet can hide, how many fabric scraps one attic can contain, how much sawdust can be made in the living room without the boyfriend flipping out.

This is all a poetic and hand-on-heart way of explaining that this bonus post is an excuse for me to gleefully show off a project I’ve been working on for about a week. It’s something I couldn’t possibly have done a year ago, and thus a great milestone marker of how much I’ve learned in 12 months. And it reminds me how many stitches I’ve pulled out over those months. Probably enough to reach across a province or two, at least.

I’ve recently started making plushies. Some turn out better than others, but it’s always a joy to create cuddly and adorable objects. Unrelated (mostly, but I’m working on that) to crafting, I’ve also been playing a lot of Magic in the last few months. Naturally, I’ve been thinking up ways to bring these two interests together.

Plushies are cute and cuddly. Most creatures in MtG are not (much to my dismay, since I very much want to play a deck full of badgers and water voles and rabbits, and anyone who’s read the Redwall books knows full well that they would kick ass). But Myr… they’re pretty cute. Perilous Myr especially, with their inquisitive faces and little round bodies pumping pollutants into a hazy green atmosphere. Thus:

Introducing the plush Perilous Myr. His stats are as follows:

• Height when standing: 13 inches
• Height when sitting: 10 inches
• Length from nose tip to back of head: 6 inches
• Length (across) of body (round part, not including arms & legs): 6 inches
• Materials: felt, wool, polyfil, thread, wire
• Time required for construction: a lot*

*This took so many days because I kept having to re-do things as I worked out the pattern. I drafted the pattern for his legs 5 separate times, actually made 3 of them before finding one that worked and took two apart with a seam ripper trying to reconfigure them along the way. On the other hand, this made the arms much simpler.

I also had the body sewn and stuffed before realizing I’d forgotten to add the green details on the front. So out came the seam ripper again.

His legs and arms are ball jointed (a technique I learned for this project), but with needle felted wool balls instead of wood or plastic ones. This makes him lighter, as well as softer and more cuddly/squishy.

His fingers are felt wrapped around wire, meaning that they’re bendable, poseable and can actually hold on to things. Like, for example, Magic cards. He plays a Myr deck, naturally.

His back was a bit of a pain since it’s hard to see much of it from the card, or tell exactly what the heck is back there. I basically attached several “pipes” and a halo-like arch, both of which are in evidence on the card. I may add to this in my next Perilous Myr iteration, as I do think it needs to come up a bit higher and look like more of a load.

The next guy will also have green around the base of his neck, something I forgot until I’d already sewn the head on this time round. I may alter the head shape slightly as well, making it a bit more oblong.

All in all, I frankly think he turned out pretty well. I learned a bunch of new stuff about plushie-making from this guy, which I’ll carry forward to my next project. For now, though, he’s pretty anxious to play some Magic.

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Note: I am pleased beyond measure to report that WotC has posted about this little guy on the Daily MtG!