So 6 months later

This blog has definitely been neglected, so thought it was high time I added something.
Since November of last year, I have not done a lot of stitching, but have been on a knitting kick. I was going through the cupboard whereI keep all my wool, etc; and discovered that I had more than I remembered. I had bought some cheap yarn a few years ago and it was still sitting there waiting for me to do something with it. I decided that perhaps I should knit myself a couple of jumpers for when I go dog training at the weekends, to replace the tatty sweatshirts that I currently wear.


My first jumper was this lilac one:




I had bought 600 grams of yarn at the time, but as I did not even use 400 grams for the jumper, I decided to knit a pair of "Fetching" to go with them.





Once they were completed, I thought I had better go back and finish the Jacquard jumper I had been knitting. The front, back & neck had been completed, but the sleeves were missing, this is the finished product.






Next I made another "dog training" jumper, with the same type of yarn that I had made the lilac one. I used more yarn for this one, but I still have plenty left to make a pair of matching "Fetchings". I love matching accessories, even when I am out in a muddy field with the dogs.

My next project was one I had been wanting to do for a while now and I am quite chuffed with myself for having completed them - a pair of "Broad Street Mittens".

When I show my finished articles to my son, he is always very polite in his complimentary remarks, however for these mittens, first of all he wanted to try them on & then he asked if I could make him a pair in black, so I guess he was impressed. So it is back to the DPN again.

Trimming & framing

Before I embark on today's post, first let me apologise to those kind folks who left such encouraging comments & also asked questions, which have until now gone unanswered.
There are 3 more cows to go before the cushion front is finished, though I am still deciding which ones I should add to complete it.

I have just finished framing a couple of pictures that I have recently made in my framing class. Both use the same techniques, I simply did 2 because I rather liked the idea. As I am sure you can see, the coffe pot one has coffee beans in the middle and the tea pot has green tea inside.

I rather enjoyed doing these & if I can come up with some other similar ideas, I will definitely do another.

Also something new on these two, is that I also made the frames. They are made entirely out of cardboard (the thick kind) and then painted & decorated. Unfortunately it does not show up on the photo, but the coffee pot framed has "crackled" purple paint with gold coloured dust in the cracks.

I gave one of my dogs a trim today, it came very close to being a short back & sides. No, I am not at all an expert in this field, this is the first time in my life that I have ever attempted to trim a dog. Unfortunately, his undercoat had become rather matted, and no amount of brushing, combing or teasing could get these out, and as I was concerned that his skin would suffer if there was no air circulation (particularly in all this heat) I went for the drastic solution.

So out came the scissors and away I went. He was such a patient thing, just quietly lying on his back while I chopped out the mats and trimmed it all down. His legs and tummy are really short, but I left a fair amount still on his back to protect him from sunburn. He then got a bath, and then another thorough brushing.

He does look decidedly odd, I am considering only taking him out when it is dark, poor thing. Anyway, he now has a really super soft coat, with not a single mat or knot in it.

More Cows

Well, I certainly haven't been writing here very much, over a month since the last post, oh well, such is life.

I have not been entirely idle, I have managed to add another 3 cows to my "Crazy Cow" cushion cover.

The first one is "Butterflies", the second one is "Artist" & the third one is "Bears".

Patting myself on the back

There have been a couple of things that I felt have gone quite well this past week while I was on vacation, so I have given myself a little pat on the back. I know, bragging, etc. is not really the correct thing to do, but as there is no one else to do this for me, I am just going to have to do it myself. Well, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

First of all about my little dog, Rene. The last 2 Sundays we have participated in 2 agility competitions. On the 14th May, it was a rather disastrous day, we were eliminated 3 times and got numerous faults on the 4th course. We had fun, but certainly had some practice to do. So during the week, we managed to get in some additional training, to try & rectify some of the problems that occured.
Sunday 21st May, we went to another competition, we were only eliminated in 2 of the courses, so a slight improvement there, however, in the other 2 courses we succeeded in getting a first place in both, so I was just delighted. It seems it is all or nothing with Rene, but we have a good time no matter what happens.

No real progress on the stitching front, but I did manage to get some framing completed. First off, the “Breeds of Sheep” that I finished last month is now framed. Tried something new, by cutting the top mat in 2 places to indicate gaps in the hedges and using a cream paper underneath that hopefully resembles fencing, perhaps it is not very clear but that was the idea. Once I had cut & papered the mats, I then went to buy the glass & frame. I must have spent a good 20 minutes trying to choose the right frame for this one. I really liked the green one, but putting it right next to the paper, it seemed to get lost; the paler ones didn’t seemed to work either, eventually I put a very thin cream frame inside the green one, making a double frame which seems to work quite well.

Next is the latest technique we learnt in our framing class, measuring out and cutting an oval. This was a right pain, it took me 3 attempts to get it right. I am glad I persevered as I quite like the results, but I somewhat doubt I will be doing many of this style.

Then comes “the bear & the moon” using a technique that I have also recently learnt, but the first time around we only learnt how to do this with square pictures, as our teacher only had instructions for this. Now I really wanted to see if/how it would work with a rectangular picture, I did take a while to figure out the calculations, but it turned out quite well in the end & as I like this technique I will definitely use it again in the future – if I can remember what I did in the first place.

A little stash therapy

On Saturday, I received a little package from Sew & So, just a few things that I had ordered earlier in the week. I really only needed the 2 Kreiniks to be able to complete "Pirate Treasure", but as I pay the same amount of postage for one or multiple items it seemed a little silly not to order of few more things. So I got 3 more DMC threads, a pair of bellpull ends for the "Just Nan" piece, the Kreinik Custom Corder + weight, "Giggles in the Snow" and the beads to go with it.

I have now added a third Crazy Cow to my cushion cover, this time it is the "Puzzle" version. These are really quick stitches, so it should not take too long to complete the 9. But then again, that depends on if I get distracted by some other project.

For the most part, it is quite handy being English, this being the unofficial international language, it seems so much of the information on the internet is in English, even a lot of foreign sites have translations into English. Though being an English person in a foreign country can sometimes be a disadvantage. A number of people will come to me if they need something translated from English to French, as quite often I am the only English person they know. Usually it is only a paragraph or two, so nothing too daunting. Yesterday, when I was at a dog competition, one of the ladies whom I see regularly at competitions, asked if I could translate a couple of pages from a sewing book for her. As she used the word "couture", which more frequently relates to regular sewing or dressing making, I asked her what the book was about. She told me she had recently bought it as it was embroidery with ribbon, and the models were magnificent, but she could not understand the instructions. It sounds very interesting, I am looking forward to seeing a couple of pictures, I think she is sending the pages to me tomorrow.

Projects during my week's vacation

I am now on a week's vacation, it's a great feeling to be able to get up in the morning & just do whatever I feel like doing and not having to get ready for work.

I do have a few projects that I want to get done during the coming week and 2 of them are framing projects. The first is Fairy Moon which I finished recently. I bought the 2 different papers yesterday which I will be using to cover the mats. The light, silvery one will go underneath and the darker one on top. I am hoping to find a way that I can shape & cut the top mat, so that the silver underneath mat shows through like the rays from the moon. We shall see, sometimes my ideas are greater than my ability.

The second framing project is my other recently finished piece, "Breeds of Sheep". Again the lighter paper will go underneath and the dark green one on top. I will probably end up doing this one in a straight forward normal way.

I will leave you here with a couple of photos that I took yesterday of one of my cats, Tuppence, taking advantage of the sun and my duvet which I had hung out to air.

2nd Crazy Cow

This "Crazy Cow" project, quite frankly, just makes me laugh. When I am stitching on it, I am smiling to myself, because who would have honestly thought (certainly not me) that I would be sitting here stitching these strange, bizarre looking cows to make a cushion cover.

For the second one, I decided to to the "Spider man" version: