King of the Terriers

As the Airedale is the largest of the terriers group they are known as The King of the Terriers. So last year, at a doggy fun day, I made a King outfit for Archie to enter the fancy dress competition. I bought some crushed velvet from my local fabric shop to make his cape and raided my card making supplies for the crown. He was lucky enough to win first prize.

I also stitched this King of the Terriers picture from a chart by Stephanie Seabrook Hedgepath. My other half and I attended a framing course a while back and I took this piece and framed it during the course.

Coastal Inspired Posters

These coastal inspired posters are free to download from the Ideal Home magazine website here. They have framed them in cheap A4 frames painted white (I have seen similar frames in Poundland), dont they look fab? I also thought they would work well printed onto fabric sheets and made into bags for the beach or shopping.

Shaun the Sheep DS Case

I have always loved Wallace, Gromit and Shaun the Sheep and have all of their adventures on video and dvd. So, when I saw this DS case pattern on the front cover of the January 2010 issue of Simply Knitting, I had to buy a copy. I took a break from my cross stitch over the weekend and knitted it up in two nights using oddments from my stash. I lined it with some pink check fabric and it is now ready to go.

Victorian Sewing Room

Although I finished this a while ago, it was sitting in a cupboard with various UFOs so last week I gave it a wash and press and took it to the framers. It is a Paula Vaughan design from her book, The Best of, which is full of other lovely designs I would like to try in future.

Time for Tea (destash)

One of my simple pleasures is a nice pot of tea. I like to buy small containers of different flavour loose teas to try, wherever I visit. So, in order to keep my pot and its contents nice and warm I rustled up this crochet cosy. It only took two evening to make and the free pattern can be found here. As I used oddments of double knitting wool I already had it is an ideal de-stash project too.

Union Jack Pincushion

I wanted a Union Jack pincushion but didn't have a chart so I decided to make my own - here is the result. I first stitched it on 14 count Aida using Designs for the Needle Thread and for the pincushion I used 10 count canvas with some Anchor tapisserie wool from my stash. I am very pleased with the result and thought I would share the chart.

I have reproduced it quite large here so if you right click and then on Save Picture as, you should be able to save a copy to your own computer. Happy stitching.

Victorian and Edwardian

I am in the process of photographing and creating a record of all my finished work so, although I made this Victorian sampler a while ago, it is still one of my favourite projects. I ordered it as a kit from The Royal School of Needlework and the frame came from a company in Kent (can't remember the name) that advertised in the stitching magazines.

I also have a large collection of family photographs, some over 100 years old, that I am slowly (very slowly) scrapbooking. This photograph, from the Edwardian era, was torn and had one corner missing so after repairing it in photoshop, I created this page. I have journalled what I know about this photo inside the envelope but have left space to add more facts if and when I find out.

Easter Bunny

Here is one of my Airedale Terriers, Wilberforce, wearing the Easter Bunny outfit I made for him. I am not in the habit of dressing my dogs up regularly but this was for the fancy dress competition at a doggy fun day we attended. Below is the scrapbook page I made to commemorate the occasion. Happy Easter.