Archie The Wonder Dog

Alfie: 2002 - 2016 Last night Mam and I took Alfie to the vet for the final time.  He'd been diagnosed with kidney disease late last year but this week he took a turn for the worse and, a couple of days ago, he stopped eating.  He had a brief hurrah yesterday afternoon when he ran through the house after the sound of the doorbell signalled my arrival to pick him up and bring him to my house for a bit while Mam went out, but he was never going to get better and was going downhill fast.  Within two minutes of going in the consulting room, the vet told us that it was time and he was right: Mam and I looked at each other and nodded our agreement, she signed the forms, said goodbye and took Archie out to the waiting room (we'd left my house in a hurry and so had to bring Archie with us), while I waited with Alfie and kept him company while he left us. Alfie, you were a right s*d when you first came into our lives: around nine months in the rescue centre combined wit...

For some reason, I decided that I wanted to finish (hand) quilting the giant star in this quilt by the end of January.  Perhaps it's because that's the latest I felt I could be working on a Christmas project which doesn't necessarily shout Christmas from across the room and, like my penguin cushion, it would have to go away at the end of January.  Or perhaps it's because I like to think that there's a slim possibility of having this finished by the end of the year (oh, to sit binding it while watching a film on Christmas Eve - that would be wonderful!).  Anyway, no matter my reason, I decided to see if I could make a decent fist of it and set to with lots of telly to catch up on and an increasingly bent needle. It's been a while since I last showed this quilt in its entirety as it's hard to photograph due to its size (78" x 110.5", I think) and it's a bulky and heavy quilt, particularly when you add in the brushed cotton backing so I struggl...

This series of posts is my attempt to catch up with myself - I embroidered all the blocks for this project over a couple of years (I finished the final one at the back end of last year) but haven't really blogged about them.  The other blocks and more information about this project (which will be a quilt, eventually) can be found in these posts:  1 ,  2 ,  3 , and 4 Block 17: Blanket stitch round the inside of the wheel, chain stitch for everything else. Block 18: Satin stitch for the doors and windows, back stitch for everything else. Block 19: Split stitch Block 20: Split stitch This morning, Archie tested out the temperature in the conservatory.  He didn't last long! I don't understand: the sun is shining but it's far from warm in here.  In fact, my favourite wall is freezing! I then tried to persuade him to curl up in a cosy bed and go to sleep (or at least stop whinging for me to make the conservatory warmer) but he...

This series of posts is my attempt to catch up with myself - I embroidered all the blocks for this project over a couple of years (I finished the final one at the back end of last year) but haven't really blogged about them.  The other blocks and more information about this project (which will be a quilt, eventually) can be found in these posts:  1 , 2 , and 3 . Block 13: Split stitch for the name on the lorry, colonial knots for the tree tops, back stitch for everything else. I embroidered this square in May 2014 (when I said I'd been rubbish at blogging about this project I really meant it!) and thought it was finished, but once all the blocks had been embroidered I went back over them all and this one stood out as needing more work.  This is how it now looks after some more back stitch: Much better, I hope you'll agree! Block 14: Satin stitch (outlined with back stitch) for the chimneys, cross stitch (dark red) over back stitch (mid grey) for th...

In an attempt to catch up with blogging about my embroidered Summersville squares without having one immensely long er than usual post, I'm blogging four blocks/squares a week in the order in which I embroidered them.  If you're interested, you can find out more about the project here . Block nine: Chain stitch for  the roof on the far right and the house, roof, chimney and smoke of the house fourth from the left; satin stitch for the orange windows (second from the right); cross stitches in some of the windows, whipped back stitch for the house third from the left; back stitch for everything else. Block ten: Seed stitch for the foliage and blossom on the tree, back stitch for everything else. Block eleven: Coral stitch for the walls, roof and base of the houses, colonial knots for the door handles, back stitch for everything else. Block twelve: Coral stitch for the walls and roof of the 'bay tree' cottage, satin stitch for the bay trees a...