like a Flat-coated retriever to water

I haven’t done a Tali update in a while.  Here she is, looking like a true Flat-coated retriever, sopping wet and with a stick in her mouth.  She turned 7 months old on 17th May, and has done lots of growing since she came to live with us as a 4kg, 8 week old pup.  Now, she tips the scales at 20kg.

Flat-coats love swimming, and Tali is no exception.  On our daily walks to the (private) dog park with agility course,  where we have a subscription, she now systemmatically goes for a swim in the lake before we head around the park towards the agility circuit.

Sadly, there will be no swimming for her over the coming days.  We took her to be spayed on Friday and she’s wearing a very fetching body-suit while stitches are in.  Stitches come out on 6th June, so in the meantime, she’s having to make do with gentle walks on the leash.

She can still be quite a handful, and we’ve had two incidents of naughtiness:  Tali has stolen and eaten a kitchen sponge (the ones for doing the washing up) TWICE.  We’re having to make sure the kitchen door is shut when we’re not in there, because she’s tall enough, when standing on her hind legs) to steal anything she likes from the kitchen table or counters.  On a happier note, she’s learning to leave the cats alone.

Speaking of which . . . a photo taken by Mr Lindashee, when they came to visit early May, of Abby (and Le Bleu enjoying some down-time) looking totally chilled out.

 

SAL “my day off” #12

I’ve been making the most of daylight hours, to sit out in the new veranda, and make some progress on my current xstitch project: “My Day Off”.

Last time I showed this photo.

Things have progressed nicely since, to this.

I’m mainly concentrating on the lower half of the chart, but have also added a few details here and there, namely the black cat.

Let’s see what other SAL members have been up to.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy,

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Cindy, MaryMargaret

bring in the unicorns

I’m having another crochet happy dance – the pair of unicorn slippers for my little neighbour, Mona, are finished. And I have one very happy little girl dancing about with pretty pastel unicorns on her feet.  I didn’t crochet any stars but apart from that, they look very much like the pattern said they would.

I didn’t have any aran in suitable colours for the horns or mane, so I made do with DK and altered stitch count to make it work.  These slippers really are lots of fun to make.  I’m already wondering which pair to make next, and for whom.

 

 

 

scraphappy # May

I’m linking up with fellow Scrapsters

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy,
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn,  Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo, Alissa, Lynn , Tierney and Hannah.

with photos of my scrappy crafting this month.

For me, it was another patchwork project using 2.5″ squares.  I like to prep these squares from scraps each time I’ve got small pieces of leftover fabric, so no matter how many projects I make, the 2.5″ square box keeps on filling up.  Anyway, this is just a simple zippy pouch because I found myself in need of a zippy pouch for Miss Viking.  The husband and I had been busy painting.  I had bought in a packet of Baker Ross wooden bugs, that the husband painted and we turned them into “games tiles”.

There were 100 bugs in 10 different designs, so the husband painted in 5 different colour-ways so that bugs can be used for different games:  memory game; spot the difference; odd one out; or simply counting.  The wooden bugs were a bit fragile so the scraphappy part here was me cutting cardboard tiles from a couple of old shoe boxes.

Anyway, they all fitted nicely in the zippy pouch with a bit of room left over.  So . . . I added a “Tic Tac Toe” board (OXO to some) and 10 of my hand-painted insects.  Remember the voile curtains I had to shorten & hem recently? Well, I kept the bits I chopped off and bees’ wings are made from those.  I varnished a piece, giving it several coats of varnish, let it dry and cut out the wings before gluing them onto the bees.

a crochet reveal

I’ve been doing some crocheting, and since recipients have now received, I can reveal what I made.

Slippers!  Following patterns from this lovely book.

I treated myself to this book a few months ago and sent photos of some of the designs to Miss Viking asking what she fancied in the way of slippers. Originally she asked for unicorns, but before I actually got started, she changed her mind and asked for llamas instead.

In the book, they’re made in a sort of beige/cream but I made do with what I had in my stash, which was a Stylecraft Special aran in “parchment”.

I crocheted the soles using leftovers of a King Cole Comfort aran in “jade”, and added some very bright tassels.

Miss Viking is 4 years old (will be 5 in August) and parents measured her feet for me beforehand, so I knew the kiddie’s size S would be perfect.  They have a fair amount of stretch to them anyway, because of the crochet stitch pattern, so they should be a comfy fit.

After the fun of making those, and with daughter Lindashee about to visit, I asked Lindashee if she fancied a pair of slippers. Showed her some of the projects in the book and she chose llamas too lol.  Still on a stash bust, we agreed that Stylecraft aran “copper” would look good.  Feet were measured and I set to work on a pair in adult size “S” . . . worrying the entire time that the looked so small.  I ended up asking several neighbours to play at being Cinderella for me.

Anyway . . . Lindashee and Mr Lindashee came to visit last week. I had only finished the basic slipper, waiting to make sure they fit (they did) before I added facial detail.

And voilà a second pair of llamas.

They actually look much better on than they do sitting on the table.

I’ve already started crocheting another pair . . . for my little friend, Mona.  She’s asked for unicorns.

SAL “my day off” # 11

Time to link up with our lovely group of SAL members,

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy,

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

and share photos of progress with our chosen stitchy projects.  My current project is “My Day Off”, which looked like this 3 weeks ago.

It hasn’t seen the light of day very often since, but I am steadily covering ground.

I’ve been busy doing other things, including finishing off a couple of projects in my “to be finished” drawer.  Regular followers and other SAL members will recognise the following design.

“Sugar Skull Panda” which is a design by my daughter (Megan to SAL members, aka Lindashee.  She has a little shop on etsy Lindashee’s Stitches). .  I stitched this lovely colourful design for the SAL in 2020 and I finally finished it off properly so I can have it hanging on the wall in my sewing room.

A very simple finish:  some echo quilting around the outline of the head, then a fun stripey fabric for binding, which picks out so many colours of the design.

“Midnight Rendez-Vous” finished off

Another hats off an big thank you to my daughter, aka Lindashee.  Not only did she have the patience to finish stitching “Victorian Charm”, which I showed you the other day, but she also volunteered to stitch on black aida for me.  I’d fallen in love with a design called “Midnight Rendez-Vous”, a kit by Bucilla. Clicked & bought.  Then realised it was black aida, and my eyesight just wasn’t up to it.  I didn’t even try and start this design, but gladly handed it over to my daughter when she offered to stitch it for me. That was back in 2020.

I’m on a bit of a mission to finish off some of those beautiful cross stitched pieces in my drawer, and this design called out “cushion cover” . . . so that’s what it became.

Apologies for the few stray wisps of white cotton on the black. Each time I thought I’d cleaned them all off, another one floated about.  Anyway, you get the idea!  A simple orange dotty border, so as not to detract from the lovely design.

Funny how much this cat looks like Ziva, our youngest!

“Victorian Charm” finally finished off

I’ve been having a look in my “waiting to be finished cross stitch” drawer, where I fold away finished cross stitch pieces as they’re finished, with the intention of turning them into something so I can have them on display.  For today’s finish off, I am thrilled to show you the something that “Victorian Charm” became.

This is a Dimensions kit, gifted to me quite a few years ago by Mr & Mrs Viking.  I started stitching it, but had trouble with the dark navy aida.  My daughter, aka Lindashee, offered to pick up where I’d left off, and finish stitching it for me.   Lindashee took to cross stitch when she was in her early teens, and works on very detailed projects.  And being 30 years younger than yours truly, she has more patience and younger eyes than me!

All I’d got done was this

that photo dates back to July 2017 . . . and is when it officially became an UFO for me. Fast forward a few years, when Lindashee offered to pick up where I’d left off (and correct a few mistakes along the way). She stitched  on it in 2020, as her SAL project.  The finished piece was brought back to France in October of last year where it was folded away in the “waiting a finish” drawer.  Anyway . . .

It’s finally finished!

I used a couple of strips from a jelly roll that I’d had in my stash for more than a decade (“Modern Roses” by Moda) because those picked out the shades of blue & salmon pink in the design.  It’s lightly quilted, with a chocolate brown as backing fabric and for the binding.  And is now hanging in pride of place in my sewing room!

 

“Moderne Roses” growing on me

On Thursday I showed you a patchwork WIP using half a jelly roll of “Modern Roses” by Moda.

I wasn’t much in love with it, but I’ve gone ahead with the next stage which was to add sashing of my background colour (white) and make bands to go around this central panel.

It now looks like this, and I’m starting to like it a bit more.  According to the pattern I’m following, this is as big as it gets, and I could go ahead with quilting & binding.  That will give me a finished size of 50″ x 38″.  However, I’m toying with the idea of adding a second white border so that binding (which will be the same aqua colour as my snowball triangles) pops a little more.

 

“Modern Roses”

Probably more than a decade ago, I treated myself to a “jelly roll”.  I remember, at the time, it was because I wanted to make a simple JR quilt, sewing all the strips together etc . . . but, for the life of me, I can’t remember why I chose the particular fabric I did.  It’s called “Modern Roses”, by Moda.  I tend to work with bright, sun-glasses worthy fabric, and quite a few of the prints in the “Modern Roses” collection are light beige, light grey. Any brighter prints (in yellow, aqua and salmon pink, are very large prints on grey, beige or white backgrounds

Anyway . . . I’m having something of a stash bust at the moment and decided a decade was too long to be keeping a jelly roll in the stash.  I have several quilting books, and decided on a design, to make a quilt using only half a jelly roll. Pattern is called “Snapdragon” and is published in the book: “Two from one jelly roll quilts” by Pam & Nicky Lintott.

Colours on this example are totally different to my fabrics, but I set to work regardless.

Not terribly convinced with how the large prints work together, once sewn into my 9-blocks, made with 2.5″ squares.  I should probably have used the neutral beige & greys to give proper contrast.  And already delving into other stash for a solid aqua in an attempt to bring some unity to this project on the snowball blocks.

This is my inner panel so far.  I’m not convinced I’m going to like it.  Not liking my colour placement either, but at this stage I’m just sewing together and hoping it’ll grow on me.

I’ve got my pieces for the outer border prepped too . . . but will be unpicking all those end white (my background colour) squares and replacing with something else because I really don’t like the way the white squares end up not being symmetrical.

Anyway . . . it’s keeping me out of other mischief, and I’m sure I will feel a sense of achievement once it’s finished.