Distractions, Snow & Puppy Love

This last week or so has been very full on with tasks that really needed completing yesterday such as the tax return, new designs & write ups and, truth be known,  largely thanks to the arrival of  'Teddie'.....

'Teddie Blu Chase' (to give his full name) is our newest family member - he's a 'Cavachon' pup which is a cross between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Bichon Frise.  For someone like me who has never owned a dog before it's a both a big learning curve and a big (ok.. more like HUGE) distraction. Blame my family for conspiring to convince me it would be a good idea.  Of course, he has got cuteness by the bucket load and is generally just kind of irresistable. I mean, just look at him...

Oh what a distraction he has been with those floppy ears, soft tickly tummy, paws that are still just a little bit too big and classic puppy dog eyes... I am sure you'll see why it's been impossible to do much other than the 'essentials'! I just love him.


Another thing that has been quite distracting is all that white stuff falling from the sky - always exciting and I think its UK law that you go out to play in it because we might not have it for long...  

Of course the other thing that Teddie will no doubt bring is lots of excuses inspiration for making things... the family are already egging me on to crochet him a blanket but the first doggie making project is, in that random light-bulb-kind-of-moment, well, quite kind of...random.  It all started out with a few doodles of said doggie...

And then I began to wonder if I could use them to make something - possibly in felt? Bearing in mind this doodle was only about 2.5cm x 1.5cm it wasn't going to be easy....hmmm.. I could feel a crafting challenge coming on (or maybe I was just a bit insanely tired after a busy week of intensive puppy training!) Anyway, I set about pinning the outlines to felt and cutting them out with sharp embroidery scissors..

In hindsight it would be easier to draw the shape and cut around it!

Next, I used some black embroidery thread to make a couple of french knot eyes and a satin stitch nose...

Then I did some itsy-bitsy blanket stitches around the edge of the back piece...

and stitched the 'face' on with tiny running stitch in a thread that practically matched the felt colour (so less visible) and before I closed the gap in the layers I stuffed in the weeniest amount of toy stuffing. 

 It was looking kinda cute...

But,  then I decided to see if I could make it even cuter... you know, a bit fluffier... so began to lightly 'scratch' my needle across it to lift up the felt...

                                                              ...and it worked just fine! 

My next thought was what could I actually use this miniature feltie for....and for now it has been attached to a phone charm finding but I am thinking there would be many other ways to use it too.

Let's see what Teddie thinks...

I *think* he likes it... do you?

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