Mr Big Stuff

Wilberforce was invited to his Mummy's 10th birthday party yesterday so we put together this card.  It gave us the chance to try out our new dogs embossing folder on the Sizzix machine.  His paws are very dexterous.

We then made up this piece of Airdale cross stitch into a padded sachet, we already have our own and Wilberforce thought his Mum would like one too.

Then we stamped some paper and a gift tag to wrap it all up in.

Here is the invite we received and the boys enjoying themselves there.  A good time was had by all.

Airedale Terrier in Stitches

 I finally finished my Airedale Terrier cross stitch I started last year.  There were so many colour changes that it took me ages.  I found the perfect frame in my craft room so it just has to be washed, pressed and framed now.  I love his cute expression.  We both think he looks a lot like our darling Archie.

 Wilberforce has been in the wars yet again with an eye infection and has to wear the "cone of shame" yet again.  With the help of eye drops and antibiotics it has healed quite a lot since I took this photo.  He still has to wear the buster collar except when he is eating or we are with him as he keeps trying to scratch the skin off!

 Higgins is in fine fettle, he never seems to get ill (touch wood) I guess the Welsh Border Collie is a pretty hardy breed.  Here he is enjoying a Jumbone type treat.

 I have finally finished my patchwork squares and have started putting them together.  I am not sure if patchwork is my forte though.  When sewing clothes or home furnishings if a seam is 1/4" bigger in some places it doesn't really matter but with patchwork it means the squares don't line up so you have to be super accurate which I find a bit tedious.  I have got to learn how to quilt it next, with the help of another class so it will be quite a while before I finish it.

My cross stitch sampler is coming along faster than I expected probably because it is in one colour so there is no stopping to rethread and join different colours.

The weather has been so warm and sunny this week, hotter than Spain and Greece so we have been in the mood for spring cleaning.  I started with my craft room and have filled three bags of craft stuff (it is amazing how the trends change) for the Wet Nose animal rescue shop and have been going through my hundreds of craft magazines to see if I can reduce them.

The issues I did not want to keep have gone to my local hospital shop and any with ideas I like I have stuck in this hardback book and then recycled those magazines.  I have a lot more shelf space now.

Hard Frost

Where have the last few weeks gone?  Can't say I have done anything in particular, just life, although I am resisting hibernating all day since the weather turned colder.  I just finished this Heritage design (Hard Frost) above but one thing I don't miss about owning horses is those frosty early mornings, mucking out, before making my way to work!

 

While looking through my photos suitable for scrapbooking I found this pic of me when I was younger with one of my horses, I must get around to doing some horsey pages soon.

Sleepy Village

This is another design by Heritage that is based on the village of Finchingfield in Essex.  I used to feed the ducks here when I was small so this bought back a lot of memories while I was stitching it.

Village Lane

John bought me the Village Lane kit for my birthday years ago but I only just got around to working it.  We actually bought this kit on a visit to Finchingfield from a shop called the Needlewoman on the Green, I wonder if it is still there?

 

I bought the frame packs from Heritage Direct and framed them myself.  I just got a local framers to cut the glass for me.

 

I have been using Madeira threads for the first time recently so made this little box which used to hold cosmetics to store them in.  The papers were free with a scrapbooking magazine and I just added some buttons and threads.  The spiral packs of thread fit exactly.

 

After I made this I was in a papercrafting mood so made this storage box for bits and bobs using papers that came free with Simply Homemade magazine. 

Happy Crafting.

Pets Calender

My mother-in-law loves "The Boys", refers to them as her grandsons and never forgets their birthdays and Christmas presents/cards as well as treats when she visits, so I decided to make her this calendar with their photographs. I made all the outfits and bandanas they are wearing in the pictures and the papers came from Papercrafts Inspirations magazine.

I have just started some new stitching after finishing The Village. It is a blackwork design that has been in my stash for years. When I unpacked it the needle had rusted into the Aida and snapped off. That is how old it is. I saw Jazzlyn fabric in dusky pink used on a recent blackwork design in The World of Cross Stitching magazine so decided to stitch it on that. It doesn't look much at the moment but it is easy to guess what it is.

I was having a clear up in one of the outbuildings the other day, dragging things out to take to the local tip, when I found a bag containing cross stitch pictures. I think these were some of the first cross stitch I ever made and I had completely forgotten about them. They are not really to my taste these days and the frames are not very nice but in the interest of recording all my craft work I have taken snaps of them and am including them here for posterity!

More Doggy Projects

Heres another crop of dog-themed makes, I never realised I had so many! I made the scrapbook page for an on-line challenge. I had to stick to a sketch which wasn't my normal style but I was pleased with the different result and got another page for my dogs album.

I have already shown my Pirate Dog scrapbook page and here is the costume from it that I made for Wilberforce. He wore it for the fancy dress competition at a doggy fun day we attended. You can't see it in the photograph but he is also wearing the pirate bandana below which I knitted from a book called Knits for Dogs and Cats.

Below is a doggy bookmark I made for myself using my Airedale and other dog rubber stamps and stickers. The fibres have tiny dog charms added to them. Next a selection of items made for our Airdale Terrier Club to raise funds for The East Anglia Air Ambulance and Wood Green Animals Shelters. I designed the Airedale in Christmas hat cross stitch chart to make the cards.

Finally, I made this dog with bone card yesterday with a template from Papercraft Inspirations magazine. They have lots of templates and papers to download free of charge on their website and are worth checking out.

Bee Happy and Organised

One of my resolutions this year is to work some of the kits I have had for ages including some of the small cover kits that come with stitching magazines. I have managed to do a couple so far including this one which was free with a back issue of Cross Stitcher magazine.

I like to keep a box of handmade greeting cards for last minute occasions and this will be added to the box. I made my card storage box from an old toiletries container my husband put in the bin. It was a good sturdy box with a magnetic closing lid so I rescued it and gave it a make-over.

After

Before
Another resolution is to get my stitching supplies organised. My threads are usually kept in an assortments of bags and boxes spread all over the house so I bought 4 storage boxes with adjustable compartments for 2.99 GBP from QD and organised all my threads onto bobbins and sorted them in the boxes by number and brand. It is brilliant to have everything so organised now, the boxes hold about 50% more than large thread boxes and I won't keep buying doubles, which I seem to have done rather a lot. The picture shows my Airedale Terrier, Archie, admiring my handiwork.