The next few questions about the art/inspiration side of your work:
What inspires you to make clothing? The designing of new pieces, and the day to day cutting and sewing is such a creative process. The custom cutting is a real finesse thing. I enjoy tailoring each design to fit the particular customer’s needs. My customers are what inspire me. I have made clothes for so many different types of people from all around the world. Not only are they different in body type, but also in lifestyles, age and ethnicity. I have mother / daughter customers. The fact that my clothing can resonate with different generations is so rewarding. I have had women who ride Harleys and like to pack my clothing in their side bags. There are roller derby teams, professors, artists, teenagers, moms, and grandmothers.
How often do you create new designs? What sort of process do you go through before you put out a new style. It is random, depending on my schedule and how loaded it is. I have two children that keep me busy in addition to running a full time business. I feel lucky that I don't have deadlines. I would sink.
Do you do any other art or craft?
Photography is a serious passion of mine. I absolutely love creating the imagery. I shoot all my pieces on self timer, with me behind the camera as well. It really is a one man operation. Complete control. Complete creative freedom.
And, no, she's not the queen of the Pirate Treasure, Carolyn of lilbabythangs creates adorable booties and patterns for even the beginning sewer. And she's a true Montana Momma!
Camping on a mountain-top for 5 months with 6 boys, ages 2 to 19, and keeping your sanity would definitely rank as a ‘most memorable experience’ . . . and it certainly is one of Carolyn's. As she says, it is all worth it, as long as she is home in Montana.
Carolyn calls much of western Montana home and says, “I need green, the woods, the sound of the breeze through the trees, the streams babbling, the animal and bird sounds to soothe my soul, my nerves and allow me to hear myself think.”
Carolyn has lived around the United States, including Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Pennsylvania - she finds her best inspiration in Montana. And she must be very inspired! Carolyn makes the sweetest baby booties and wonderful patterns. Carolyn has even had several patterns put in the Clotilde catalog! Congratulations to Carolyn on her amazing work.
Carolyn puts a great amount of effort and joy into crafting her patterns. She says, “I enjoy the pattern drafting and getting it perfected on the computer so it will print up nice, the most, [of her creative process].”
Lilbabythangs are created by Carolyn when she has peace and quiet, order and no interruptions! She says, “I have things in order, so I clean up and clean off - I just don’t put away well, till I have to. And I really hate interruptions.”
I think the lack of interruptions are paying off, even though Carolyn has recently moved - don't worry, she's still in Montana :-), lilbabythangs recently made a new high-flying bootie pattern called Soft Landings, complete with wings to glide in on!
Thank you, Carolyn, for sharing your creativity and yourself with BSMET and Etsy!
Crafting is not new to me. I have been sewing for a long time. It wasn’t until I recently heard about Etsy on the Martha Stewart show, signed on, and was welcomed into the wonderful Big Sky Montana Etsy team. The rest, as they say, is h-i-s-t-o-r-y!
My history is one that mirrors the history of just about everyone else here in Northern Montana. But just like every other artist, my art reflects my surroundings, and my little sheep on Etsy have a long story behind them.
I designed my first sheep pattern in 1984 and obtained a design patent, copy rights, etc. Some of my first items were sold through the Montana and National Woolgrowers Associations. In fact, I helped raise money for the National Wool Growers by loaning them my "Where's Ewe" design for clothing. I later designed a 100% wool ewe for the Montana Wool Growers which appeared in the State Capitol promoting sheep and wool. My work was featured in an article in the National Wool Growers magazine in, maybe, 1987. I subsequently went to their conventions in Reno and San Diego to sell my little lambs, as well as to Billings for the Montana Wool Growers conventions. I had a lot of fun in those years – no matter what!
I started with sheep because I raised some here on our ranch in Northern Montana. However, I’ve had to give them up because the grizzly bears are too much of a nuisance and like to snack on my babies. I miss them, though. It broke my heart to give away the last of my ewes when I finally gave up on raising sheep. The last attack on my sheep was a grizzly attack that killed my "Jena the Gentle Ewe" (see below) and her daughter out in the garden area one night. So, I gave what was left of my sheep to a really sweet little girl over by Cut Bank for her 4-H projects. The grizzly was caught and relocated. But that's like catching a tick on a ewe and relocating it. We have so many bears that a single bear relocation does not dent the population all that much. It never used to be this way. I used to be able to walk to the river right out back of our home and corrals, but now I am very careful because there are so many bears right out my back door. Having the guard dogs certainly helps, but is no real security. In fact, I was charged by a grizzly and her cub on Mother's Day this year.
Jena the Gentle Ewe
What had happened was the guys (my husband and son) had decided to bring a dead cow home from up north because there were 13 grizzlies up there prowling around looking for a meal. We calve up north and they wanted to keep the bears away from the calving grounds. Ho! So, despite my objections, they brought the dead cow home. When Mother’s Day came around, it was raining and the ground was muddy. One of my old Anatolian Shepherds was barking and really upset about something out by the farming machinery, which is close to our home. I thought, “For goodness sakes, what is the matter now?” I Slipped on my shoes and jacket and went out to see. As I got close to the machinery, up popped this grizzly bear. After we started at each other for a moment, she started charging at me! I was slippin' and slidin' in the mud trying to run like crazy. I had to open a darn gate, and run to the house. I made it to the house, grabbed my .357, and ran back out to shoot some warning shots to see if that would chase the bears away. At that point, I was very concerned about my old guard dogs. The shot in the air did not scare the bear, but it sure made my guard dogs head for home! I phoned the game wardens and they came and removed the dead cow. The bear and her cub came back about three times and before finally going on their merry way.
I’ll tell one more. One year we were raising a bum heifer (female) calf and she was so sweet and friendly. She was fed in the barn and grazed in the corrals by the creek outside our backdoor. One night as I was "night walking", I heard this horrible wailing and screaming, (my hair stands up as I recall this). I yelled for my husband and son to get a gun and to go see what was happening in the corral. It was like a horrible human scream and wailing. Turns out a grizzly bear had come into the area where the sweet bum heifer was, grabbed her and was attempting to eat her alive from the heart/stomach area. The guys scared off the bear, and fortunately the calf was still alive, but had a huge tear in her underside.
But here’s the miracle! The bear had torn into her and also pulled her hide from the fat (there were air bubbles when you ran your hand over her hide), but my daughter-in-law was able to put her back together. She lived and grew up to be fine.
That’s just a couple of my encounters with bears. It’s wild up here, but I love it. I have lived here in Babb for 38 years. I came from Northern Illinois (Lake Zurich) which was “country,” but not a farm...just somewhere in the middle. I worked in Chicago in advertising and public relations. I was known as the "country gal". I did a little modeling, and worked in and around the Lake Zurich area.
But the mountains were always calling me, so in 1970 I packed my sewing machine and headed west. I had been to Babb in 1968, so that’s where I headed. I met my husband in Babb. Babb was very wild back then, a very tiny area with no law to speak of. Both of our sons were born in Alberta, Canada since it was the closest hospital. My husband and his dad had raised sheep (and cattle) in the Livingston, Montana area before they moved to Babb from Nebraska.
It has been a "real adventure" living here, a very hard life at times. The weather is totally unpredictable. The winters were horrible throughout the 70's. We lived in an old homestead house built with the remnants of two little log cabins that had been extended to accommodate a kitchen and a bathroom. I had never been to or seen a house this "rustic" in my whole life. By the time we got it, it had been abandoned for years, and since we live in a flood zone, the flood of ‘64 had redone the floors.
We have had winds upwards to 115 mph. I remember the first winter when the real winds came in November and slammed into the little stucco- sided house with cotton batting for insulation. The windows were clacking and rattling so badly that I got physically sick. It was like the roaring freight train sound of the tornado I had been in back in Illinois. I was home alone and went and found some duct tape and taped the windows just like for a tornado.
However, as I have said, I love it here. My saving grace is that I am an optimist and always look for the good and the lesson learned. One of the good things to come out of this ranching life is my little flock of lambs that I know won’t ever be attacked by a grizzly.
Who can really resist a soft, cozy, cuddlable marvel such as a plushie? Looking at Gush4Plush’s collection of adorable plush monsters makes a person really wonder who could. Ask Becky of rschreiner.etsy.com, a member of BSMET.
Becky says, “My older sister (my best friend in the entire world), has six children (yes you read right), and the youngest three are in love with Gush4Plush's Plushie animals and monsters. With their kooky eyes and funny dispositions, my nieces can't get enough of them. They're super fleecey soft and make excellent out of the ordinary stuffed animal gifts.”
Becky also adds the environmentally friendly aspect of the plushies is a big bonus, “Plus they're filled with Ecofill. Go environment!”
Customer service is also one of Gush4Plush’s strong points, concludes Becky; “Shannon, owner and designer, from Gush4Plush, has been super in terms of customer service. She's quick with shipments and excellent with communication.”
So, with that wonderful recommendation how could BSMET not feature Shannon of Gush4Plush as our first Friday night feature? Shannon graciously answered a few questions for BSMET.
She tells us that she was inspired to start making plushies by “some scraps of grey and black fleece I had that were so soft I felt I had to make something from them. I ended up making a robot plushie for my son. When I made the robot I felt so happy and content”
For Shannon, getting “feedback or even a photo of a smiling child just happily squeezing one of my plushies, it is the greatest feeling.”
What a wonderful thing to be able to do, don’t you think? Making soft, super cute creations and seeing the joy and wonder on a child’s face when they are holding their super new toy!
And finally, since those of in BSMET are so completely in awe of the wonder of nature and the beautiful state of Montana, I thought it would be fun to see what people think of where they live. Shannon sure makes me want to visit Alberta.
“I was born in beautiful British Columbia and at an early age my family moved to Alberta. Alberta to me is a province full of possibilities and growth. The city of Edmonton, where I live, seems to have everything you can possibly imagine. The weather here can be very unpredictable, but my favourites are the snowy Christmas-time winters and the cozy indoors.”
Wow Shannon and thank you so much for sharing your handmade story!
Georgia loves finding the perfect material and creating something that someone else will love as much as she loved creating it. She says, “When others love your work that is a feeling that is hard to describe and I love the whole process.”
Many of Georgia’s works are inspired by her surroundings. She has lived in Montana all her life and is “happiest as long as I am anywhere in Montana. I love the lakes, mountains and the great open lands.”
Georgia is very grateful for what she has and where she is. Being in Montana and being able to share her crafts with those who truly enjoy them.
Thank you, Georgia, for sharing your BestDoilies with us and on Etsy!
