A Creative Gathering

After the sadness of losing our Kristy, I was so happy to look forward to an "Artsy Craftsy Extravaganza" with my friends Elaine and Karen this past Monday and Tuesday! We met at Elaine's house, had a fun lunch with Karen, her mom Elaine, aunt Margretta and and sister-in-lawSarah, swapped ATCs, shared our artwork and handwork done since our last meeting in November, and perused and shared wonderful books around the dining room table. Much chatting, many laughs, an overnight leading to a delicious breakfast at "Amber Cafe" and a visit to a great fabric store all added up to a wonderful time! How lucky am I to be a part of this group and we're planning to get together again in the fall!
I knew that Karen's birthday was coming up (it's today!) so I made her a portrait of her beautiful cat, Henry, taken from one of her own photos which you can see here.

Karen seemed to like it and it was a joy to spend time with this wonderful family! Just what I needed!

Tomorrow I'll share some of the ATCs we exchanged.

Hope everyone is having a great day!!

Happy Birthday, Karen!!

Pet Portrait Completed!

Today I completed and shipped the dog portrait I've been working on. A big sigh of relief always accompanies a completed order!! This is a beautiful Malamute and she is resting on some snow, so I decided to carry the blue-gray color into the border, with a white inner border.

Here are some closer shots:

Stitching definitely lends itself to pet portraits!!

This piece is entirely stitched by machine.

Hope the owner likes it!!

Pet Portrait in Progress

I'm working on a custom fabric portrait of a beautiful Malamute.

I've just set it up and have much stitching to do!

Here's what I have so far...

And here is an ATC by my friend Janice for the 11th day of December. Several readers have commented on what a good idea it is to do one for each day of Advent, and how wonderful Janice's work is. I agree!

Cat Tale #2

Our Kristy is a good little cat. She weighs around 8 lbs. and looks like a young cat, although she is actually nearly 14 years old. Part of her tail had to be amputated, due to an infection, when she was a 'teenager', so that only adds to her petite image! When our family moved from Long Island, NY to Massachusetts, she traveled like a good little sailor on the ferry to Connecticut. This fabric picture shows her looking suspiciously like she just pulled a flower from the vase. (It could happen!)
She is a real 'talker', and always greets me with a little chirp when I come into the room. She's our 3rd cat. We've had a Frisky, another gray tabby, a Whisky (Whiskers), a calico, and now Kristy. The fact that all the names sound similar has definitely been confusing!