Willa's Winter Coat

Even though my little westie Willa has a double coat to keep her warm I thought a handmade fleece would help on the coldest of days. This red plaid fleece is over ten years old. I first tried to crochet a sweater type coat for her but my putting her front legs through the holes every time annoyed her (biting). So plan B, I bought some fleece at $15 a yard and got to work. Because the fleece does not unravel when you cut it, it was easy to measure the piece of fleece on her body and mark the shape I would cut. I hemmed the edges just to make it look neater and used two snaps for closer under the belly. I could have done the same for the neck area but instead I made it like a turtleneck. I completely forgot that Willa wears a harness so I made a hole where the ring is for the leash. When I bring it out for walks you can imagine the excitement, she hardly stands long enough for me to snap it on.

Custom Cat

My Auntie Kathleen asked me to make a sewing project of her cat Thomas. I combined parts from different cross stitch patterns to make this collage. The original color in the pattern for the cat was gray so I changed it to match his orange coat. I remember I enjoyed working on this project and I'm glad I took a photo of the pillow before sending it around the world to Scotland.

Silk Ribbon Embroidery...Easy Elegance

I fell in love with silk ribbon embroidery in 1997 after watching a sewing program. I didn't know how difficult it was going to be but I wanted to give it a try. At a quilt store I bought the book "Learn To Do Ribbon Embroidery In Just One Day" by De Selby and some beautiful silk ribbon. After intensely studying the book I began to stitch and found it surprisingly easy.

How It All Began

I recently heard that a families creative interests sometimes skip a generation like cooking, art or sewing. For me that thankfully was not the case. My mother Carole made this needlepoint collage.

Cost Effective

I always have enough in my sewing stash to put together a little present. Floss and aida cloth are very inexpensive considering how much use you can get out of them for small projects. I made these for my mother, I found frames at the "Dollar" store to give them a finishing touch.