One of my partner's friends is expecting a baby this summer, so I made her a little fox toy for the new human.
I tend not to get excited about babies so much, but my partner's friend is going to be a fantastic mom, so I'm excited about this one.
I took a little break from the Big Commissions I'm currently working on to make this in time and I'm quite happy I did.

I tried a different technique for this - my usual M.O. is wire armature and attempting to recreate an animal pretty realistically, but for a baby toy I wanted to try something different. So I made this by making a few bundles of poly-fil, felting around them with an under-layer of coarser wool batting, sewing the appendages onto the main body, and then felting it so the shapes were a bit more defined. Then I wrapped everything with this lovely hand-dyed roving I got for Christmas (that's where the gold-to-pink gradient comes from). So all in all quite different from what I'm used to!
As a result the fox is floppy and squishy and more huggable than my usual work, and very soft, since the wool used on the surface is all angora or silk blend. It's about 24" long from nose to tail-tip, so it'll be a big friend when the baby is still small.

I definitely want to try making more with this kind of technique.