Shirley's Order - & Other Completions

 Greetings lovely friends & readers

My flowers this post are two of my orchids that are currently flowering happily - my indoor moth orchid & my outdoor plant, both in full bloom. 

My dear friend Shirley has just returned from a wonderful 6 week trip to Europe with her son & family.  Before she left she asked me if I could please finish some items for her while she was away.  

First up was Miss Maggie Rabbit.  I'd made my own version of Miss Maggie in * this post * back in 2019.   Shirley had sewn her rabbit & dressed her, but needed me to knit the cape, embroider the face, stitch the felt boots & add some embellishments.  

Shirley had sewn the rabbit's whiskers but wasn't happy with how the fine Perle thread was "flopping", so Miss Maggie underwent some cosmetic surgery whereby I applied watered down PVA glue to her whiskers & let them dry really well.  This made them stand out & gave her more character.

The felt boots were all handstitched & I added stuffing to the toes to make them sit well.  The pattern was included to knit her cape & Shirley had chosen a gorgeous yarn for this.  

I finished her a couple of weeks into Shirley's trip & she was able to sit on a shelf in my sewing room where I could enjoy her until Shirley arrived home.  I added ribbons & crochet flowers to her cape & ears.  I really love this pattern & I especially loved the Liberty fabric that Shirley used for her rabbits dress. 

The second item Shirley asked me to complete was this Angel.  You may remember back in * this post * last November where I made my own Christmas Angel.  Shirley & I had been shopping together & both chose the same fabrics for our Angels.  This one had only been cut out so needed quite a bit more work than Miss Maggie Rabbit.  Shirley was delighted with both her items & can now enjoy them in her Home.  

I am still trying to work my way through my kitsets & get a few more done.  This cross stitch kitset was purchased at the Quilt Symposium last October & I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to cross-stitch the small tree sampler.  How wrong I was !!   I had such difficulty seeing the tiny linen squares & after 3 attempts & 3 unpicks I gave up, as I was damaging the Linen.  

I still really wanted to make up the tree so I decided to hand draw a simple alphabet sampler onto the linen with Frixion Pen & then embroider this. 

Once I was happy with it I cut out a triangle shape & stuffed it really well.  I cut a piece off my gnarly old Plum tree branch for the tree trunk, glued this in & then poked my tree into a vintage cotton spool.   

I have a good stash of these vintage spools & I loved that this one still had the label on top & it was red/green colours.  I was going to wind some green thread around it but decided to use some vintage music paper instead.  

I realise it's far too soon to be thinking about Christmas but it was just a case of the next easy kitset to get completed.  This has been tucked away with other decorations for now. 

Another simple kitset that I thought would not be too labour intensive was this scissor keep from Sew Sweet Violet.  This was purchased when she closed her online store & she no longer does YouTube videos (sadly) but does do the paid Patreon Channel.  This was in Liberty fabrics & came complete with the Merchant & Mills scissors. 

I planted out my sweet pea seedling pots this week so thought I'd better get on & make some more as I have other seeds I wish to grow next month.  As I've mentioned before, the cutting out takes longer than the sewing up - I made another 15 (one is missing!! I blame that littlest cat !!) 

Thank you all for your lovely comments in my last post regarding my crazy-cat-carry-on ... 

I thought I should let you know that Blackie has moved on from the clothes dryer & is now sleeping in the bottom of the craft cupboard, Little One is camped out, right outside the door, waiting for Blackie to exit  .. & Madam Pip is down in the hospital corner, but No - she's not unwell, just living the life-of-luxury catching the sun's rays.  

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend dear friends,

Thank you as always, for your welcome visits here today,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,