Archie The Wonder Dog

I haven't looked to see how I've done on my winter stitching list since I wrote my half term report but I'm desperately hoping I've made progress!  Let's face it, I could hardly have got worse...at least I hope I haven't!  I'm linking up with the lovely Sarah@Fairyface Designs so after you've read my report please go and see what other (more successful) people have done.  1 & 2 .  Add backs (cord?  Velvet?) to my knitted and crocheted squares to turn them into cushion   covers. I haven't done this as I changed my mind about making them into cushions.  I'd also forgotten that I would be getting cushions from the Brit Pillow Fight and my swap with Nicky (as well as winning a cushion from Fiona !) so I don't really need any new cushions now.  (Which is a good job as I've used the fabric I bought to back the crochet square in my hexies!) 3 .  Finish sorting my scraps.    Sorted! 4 .  Make my  B...

I've been absent from blogland for the past few weeks - it wasn't intentional but I got lost in hexyland and I've prepared and stitched a fair few hexies since I last blogged.  (I haven't finished all the preparing though as I ran out of energy partway through so I have a line of templates and little stacks of pieces along the mantelpiece - it's beginning to look like an art installation!)  I'm really enjoying seeing each hexy take shape but some of them have needed rescuing so I've been doing the equivalent of dangling out of a helicopter on the end of a rope to rescue a hexy stuck on a ledge, abseiling down cliffs to scoop up a distressed hexy, talking one off the edge of a bridge, etc.  A hexy in distress is really very demanding!  If you listen carefully enough you can hear them crying in the night because they're so ugly...(I think this is what's known as an over-active imagination!!) I'll show you a couple of the rescued hexies in a momen...

I've been tigged (tagged?!) a couple of times this week so I thought I'd pick 11 out of the 22 questions Rachel and Susan have asked me... If you could live in any country in the world, which would you choose, and why? To be perfectly honest I love living in the UK so wouldn't change it!  Of course some things could be improved (no, not the weather, I'm not one to spend time in the sun.  In fact, it frequently gets far too hot for me here on the NE coast, the last thing I would want to do is live somewhere warmer!  I was mainly thinking of fabric and petrol prices!) but I have my family and many of my friends here on Teesside and I love living at the seaside! What started you sewing? My mam used to sew when I was little and I used to long to stay when we dropped her off at dressmaking/tailoring classes.  (She made my First Holy Communion dress and I was the only one with a hand made dress.  I was really proud as I thought, and still think(!), it was...

...or you might end up feeling a bit odd.  At least I did after failing to realise that the cooking instructions for my tea on Friday night (a fish cake) were for when you were cooking from fresh and that a frozen fish cake requires an extra ten minutes in the oven!  Oops!  I spent yesterday in my jamas huddled under four quilts watching repeats of NCIS.  I feel considerably better today but if my post is lacking a bit of oomph and sparkle then please forgive me!!  And don't worry, I haven't got food poisoning, just a slightly sore tummy and no appetite!  I'll be reading instructions twice from now on!! Anyway, let's move onto more pleasant things - how about a biscornu?  (An eight-sided cushion, often used as a pincushion or scissor fob.)  There's a lovely selection of them on this site .  I'd not made one of these before so when my friend, the very talented and lovely Beryl at Knot, advertised a one day biscornu workshop at her studio I ...

Sorry it's taken me a few days to post this (thanks for all the entries, I can't believe how many I had!) - Archie and I have been locked in negotiations about his fee for this draw.  Let me tell you, he drives a hard bargain!  In the end we agreed on a dozen bits of puppy food (free sample from the vet - they're about the size of a pea...) which would be used in the draw and then a mini marrow bone type biscuit afterwards.  He wanted a big one.  I said no - it was a small one or nothing and he agreed.  He even agreed to get out of bed to perform his task! Here's the plan...(sorry about the dark photos, the clouds are out and the sun is hiding!) Negotiate with Archie about payment for the task and persuade him out of bed... I'm not sure it's worth getting out of bed for, it's lovely and cosy in here... You promise I'll get that biscuit afterwards?  Any chance you'll super size it? Cut out and fold all the entries... This takes far...